Post Game Quotes
1/8/2019 9:56:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski
On Win over Wake Forest...
"I thought it was a really good game. I thought they played us well. I like their group of players. (Jaylen) Hoard is a really good talent, as is (Olivier) Sarr, and of course (Brandon) Childress. I thought they had a good game plan against us. Defensively, we were playing hard for the first 14 minutes, but we weren't communicating. Our defense was not coordinated and we fouled. We let them score layups against us. Then, we tightened up, and at the end of the half, we went on a run. I thought RJ (Barrett) really asserted himself at the beginning of the second half. RJ and Zion (Williamson) were terrific together and I thought Trey was his normal solid self."
On Zion Williamson's Game...
"I have confidence in Zion doing everything. If I don't then there's something wrong with me. He's a complete player, and so efficient to get thirty points on only sixteen shots, and his one miss was a dunk. He's a very special player, and when he and RJ are playing together, they play at a very high level. Overall, he was good, but he has to keep learning, as we are only fourteen games in. I'd say that defense is his next step in growth, even though he's a terrific shot blocker with his athletic ability."
On Cameron Reddish's Confidence...
"I thought Cam (Reddish) played well tonight. When a young kid hasn't played to the level to the level he thinks he can play at, he gets down on himself a little bit. He wanted to do something before he caught the ball, and didn't catch it strongly. When he hit the three to end the first half, it was a big shot, both for him and his confidence and for us as a team."
Wake Forest Head Coach Danny Manning
"I thought the game got off to a decent start for us. I think going into halftime we were doing some good things in terms of competing on the backboard. We came out in the second half, they go out on a big run and really hurt us on the glass, and obviously getting the ball into the paint. I didn't think we did a good enough job of keeping the ball out of the paint – not necessarily their bigs but their perimeters and wings did a great job of getting the ball to the paint. [It wasn't] necessarily off the bounce – I thought they did a lot of it with cuts and we need to do a better job moving once the ball is picked up and guarding our man."
On what needs to change defensively given the early success of ACC opponents shooting the ball…
"We need to stay in front of the ball. Sit down in your stance and moving our feet and staying in front of the ball are the biggest things we talk about. We need to do a better job."
On if Zion Williamson reminds him of any other player he's prepared for before…
"He reminds me of Rodney Rodgers. I think Zion is a terrific talent – I don't think he shoots the ball as well as Rodney right now, but that size, athleticism, makes him a very well put together young man that is extremely athletic. Not only that, he has good savvy feet."
On if he was pleased with Duke settling for threes in the first half…
"We wanted to have them shoot contested jump shots. Zion came out and finished with three [three pointers] and for us, we'd much rather him take long jump shots than get into the paint."
Wake Forest Players
On improvements that need to be made...
"We have to match their energy. Obviously they got up and down the whole court the whole game. I feel like first half we were able to match their energy, but second half we kind of folded while they had their same energy as first half. If we put together 40 minutes, we'd be better off.
"He's different than other prospects because for his size, to be able to move like he does, he's really hard to stop. He's as big as a center but moves like a guard, which is really hard to stop."
On early performance...
"Like you said, we were clicking. Executing, locking in defensive game, things like that . We slipped up at the half. We opened up after half time and you know, they went on a run. We stopped, we just couldn't catch them from there. We can't do that. That hurt us. But like I mentioned before, we'll learn. We'll be fine."
