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Postgame Quotes
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Jan. 27, 2002
Virginia Head Coach Pete Gillen
“I’m very proud of our team. I thought we played very hard against agreat Duke team. We played with courage in a very tough environment. Ithink a big key to the game was Travis Watson, the leading rebounder inthe ACC, only played seven minutes in the first half. It’s tough for usto win when a great player like that gets in foul trouble. I thoughtthat was a big key to the game. I thought our kids competed. I thoughtwe got a little flustered early in the second half. We took a couple badshots and made some mistakes and they capitalized. We had a chance, butfoul trouble hurt us and they capitalized.”
On the number of fouls called in the game: “We played aggressively andthey called fouls on us. Travis Watson got a couple of tough foul calls.That’s part of the game. It’s tough when a great player gets in foultrouble. It’s tough to win.”
“We tried to defend the three, but they did a good job going off thedribble. I was pleased with our effort. I thought we did a good jobtaking some charges. Considering the environment and our youth anddifferent things, I thought we played very hard and very well. Early inthe second half, they spurted and we kind of got out of sync. They gotan eight- or 10-point lead and we just couldn’t recover.”
Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski
“Virginia is really good. They’re deep and their young kids play great.I don’t know if we were spending so much time concentrating on RogerMason that, in the first half, we couldn’t defend them really well. Theyplayed with a lot of confidence. (Keith) Jenifer has really given them aspark, I think. I thought our kids responded really well in the secondhalf. We rebounded the ball better, Chris (Duhon) started attacking andwe started attacking on the full court.”
“Dahntay’s (Jones) offensive rebounding was huge for us. He had doublefigures in the second half and gave us some big time points. Jason(Williams) also went off a little, but we had some flurries that werestarted from our defense, not so much turnovers as they were defensiverebounds. We did a much better job in the second half rebounding and thedefensive boards led to some transition stuff for us. We didn’t alwayscomplete it, didn’t hit our free throws all the time, but we attackedthe whole time.”
“We feel very fortunate to win and I thought our kids responded verywell in the second half. Virginia made us look bad in the first half. Wewent up just a little bit when (Roger) Mason wasn’t hitting and (Travis)Watson got in foul trouble. (Jason) Clark came in and he got 11 pointsin the first half and (Elton) Brown had two three’s-that’s 17 pointsjust from those two kids. What a spark they’re getting from their team.They’re good and we feel good about the win.”
“Their pressure caused us not to see the guy inside, but we did a greatjob of getting the ball inside, not just to Carlos (Boozer), but to Mike(Dunleavy). People are putting a big guy on Dahntay (Jones) and a littleguy on Mike and we’re trying to take advantage of that.”