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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: GREENSBOROMarch 19, 2009Mike KrzyzewskiJon ScheyerNolan SmithGREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA Duke Blue Devils – 86 COACH KRZYZEWSKI: I thought our team played well. They're good. Really quick. You know, very, very quick, and they took the game to us in the first half. I thought they played really hard. I thought we played well in the first half, but in the second half I thought we played extremely well. Especially those first five or six minutes. The key guy for us was Lance. I thought Lance played one of his best games, and there in that stretch of four or five minutes, he made some really big energy plays. On the boards, got a big offensive rebound, kicked it out to Jon, I think that put us up by 14. I may be wrong on that score. But it was a big momentum play. Then on the defensive end, just seeing like Lance had tremendous energy, and our whole team fed off of it. Nolan coming off the bench was outstanding. Elliot made a few really big-time decisions. Good decisions in how he moved the ball, instead of taking the quick shot. It led to three buckets for us. So, overall, I'm really pleased with our performance, and no one was hurt. So it's off to Saturday. Q. Number one, are you back to 100%? And obviously, in the next match-up, Abrams shot the lights out in the game tonight, what problems does that present? COACH KRZYZEWSKI: You know, we don't know. It's better not to ask Texas questions. They don't -- and I don't want them to be making statements that they're not prepared to make. Let's talk about tonight's game. I'll talk a little bit about Texas because I know them. They're going game to game. Just answer the first part. NOLAN SMITH: Yes, I am 100%, and I feel great right now. COACH KRZYZEWSKI: You can answer it longer if you want. I didn't mean to scare you. Or dominate the microphone (laughing). Q. From a Binghamton perspective, their foul trouble there off the start. How much did it look like it kept them kind of rattled and helped you guys kind of get your groove from the line? JON SCHEYER: Well, yeah, that's a big thing for us. I don't know if there were six fouls they got pretty quickly. But for us it was a big thing. We just wanted to drive the ball and get to the free-throw line, obviously. Because when a team gets in foul trouble like that. But it was good to get a good start in the game. And I think Fuller had two fouls maybe early, and he's a really good player for them, and that's big for us. COACH KRZYZEWSKI: I think that was part of their attack though. They're not accustomed to doing. They attacked us with all, they took -- that's what I meant, they took the fight to us. I admire the way they did that. Q. I was just wondering if you could talk about the defensive pressure that Binghamton's guard put on you guys, and maybe compare it to the other guards that you've played against this season? NOLAN SMITH: The Binghamton guards, they played great defense. They really got after us, and they tried to pick up full court through most of the game. So it really forced us to handle the ball better and be sharper with our offensive possessions and take care of the ball. So they played great defense. You know, they have great guards, and we had to really be ready to play on our perimeter side. JON SCHEYER: One thing, they don't have just one guard that's pretty quick, they have a bunch of guards. So no matter who was guarding me, bringing it up Nolan or whoever it was, pretty much anybody could pressure the ball and attack us like Coach said. That was one thing many teams don't have, and they had tonight. PHIL WARSHAUER: We'll continue with questions for Coach Krzyzewski. Q. On a night like tonight where you've got six guys in double figures, and Kyle's the only guy that shot double-digit shots, it seems like it's getting evenly distribute kind of the way you want it right now? COACH KRZYZEWSKI: I don't know how I want it. I want to have more points than them. Tonight though because of -- Binghamton played their hearts out against us. So they continued to put us in a position where we had to make an extra pass. I thought we haven't been put in that position very much. Then our guys did that. I think it's a result it was evenly distributed. I mean Lance, at 14 points, he's 5 for 5, and 5 rebounds. I mean, it's because of making that extra pass and how they were going after us. I think it lends itself more to having balanced scoring tonight. Q. Reflect on that first five minutes in the second half. 17-2 out of the gate. What did you instruct them at halftime? What did they execute well and accomplish other than sending most of the Carolina people home during that first five minutes? COACH KRZYZEWSKI: Well, I thought there were a large portions of the first half where they were -- not that we weren't playing hard, I thought they were playing harder than we were. That's what I meant about taking the fight to us. I'm not sure -- we respect them. We prepared for them just like we prepared for anybody. But coming off the ACC championship, and, you know, you're bigger. I thought they knocked us back a little bit. Then we regained it, got a double digit lead and they came back at the end of the first half. We didn't want to go and have another half like that. We said we need to have the first 4 minutes and come out of the gate not only play tough defense, but really attack the offensive boards. They did that to the highest level for that 5-minute period, and it just broke the game open. Q. Coming in, Rivera their leading scorer averaging 20 points per game. He got the 20 points, but it wasn't in the fashion of 20 points that was really going to hurt you. He got a lot of those not where they were important necessarily in the game. Were you pleased with how your team played defensively on him tonight? COACH KRZYZEWSKI: I thought we played very well defensively in the second half. Rivera is a big emphasis for us, the biggest. He's got a good -- he's a hungry scorer. He has a passion to score. And Mayben does, too. Those two guys are good. That's why they were at higher majors before. They chose an outstanding school, and they're champions. I told our team in preparation for this that this team was a championship team that we're playing. Regular season and tournament. So they were winners. That's what makes this tournament so exciting is that more than half the teams that are participating in the NCAA Tournament are champions. They've won a league or their conference tournament. This team personified that. They have a lot of pride. We did what we did fine against them because we outscored them by 20 or whatever. But that kid's a good player. He's a really good player. Q. I wanted to ask you about facing Texas. You've obviously studied a little bit of them? COACH KRZYZEWSKI: I haven't studied them, but I know just because Jeff played against them. I watch them play a little bit. Q. Just the challenges you're going to face on Saturday? COACH KRZYZEWSKI: Very first thing, Rick is one of the best. They have a tradition of excellence. That was established a little before him, but he's taken it to the highest level. Abrams is just a great shooter. I mean, he -- and from deep. I don't know how many ended up. I was watching a little bit while our kids were getting dressed, and he had like four or five straight to break the game open. I don't know what he finished up with. And Pittman inside is huge. Damian James is that four-man that is so athletic, and can go off. I know against Kansas, at Kansas he had like a 20, 24-point half against them. So it will be, you know, you think of Duke and Texas, you don't think in the round of 32, you know. That's a heck of a match-up. It's an honor for us to advance and to play them. End of FastScripts |
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