Postgame Quotes
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Virginia Coach Dave Leitao:
Opening
“Simply stated, we [played] a team that is obviously very good, very talented, and very experienced and on a bit of a mission whether its what they are trying to do with the season or coming off of the last game that focuses on some very specific things to make their train run smoothly. I thought from the outset, in the first couple of positions, that what we tried to prepare our guys and finding out that by pressuring the ball and denying the wings, we have to counter that with something. [Duke] did a very good job of taking that away. Missed assignments on both offense and defense early really set a bad tone that caused us turnover [the ball] a number of times and caused us to have a number of unforced turnovers that obviously equated to us having 17 at halftime. I said during the first TV timeout that the things we talked about and we were executing and preparing for in practice everyday really didn’t show itself at all at any point in time in the game.”
On the first half performance:
“I don’t have the particular answer. Obviously during these stretch of games, we have gotten down by double figures and have had to climb out of a hole. And you are not going to be able to do that on road very much; you are not going to be able to do that against very good teams very much. You have to combine the physical preparedness and the mental preparation, and somewhere along the line those two things are not coming to together. As we start games we try to address it and try to change our strategy on how we prepare, but it’s hard to put your finger on it.”
On Duke forcing Virginia to commit offensive fouls:
“They do as a good a job as anybody in the country taking charges. We worked on it, pulling up and making decisions much earlier than when you get to the rim. [Duke] steps up really well and they dare you to put the ball on the floor and go at a high rate of speed so you can run into people. Even this morning, during our shootaround, we talked about it and drilled it. I have to sit down and look at it in film and see if some of it is physical or if some of it mental to why we are having a difficult time carrying those over.”
On Duke’s Defense:
“I think this year, more than any other year, they are the best defensive team in this league. I think Wake Forest is the only [ACC] team that has scored over sixty points on them this year, and while doing so [Duke] is still scoring. You get fooled by teams that don’t give up a lot of points because they don’t score a lot. This team scores a lot but yet does not give up a lot. They have a tremendous attention to detail in what they do. They have figured it out, they are athletic, they are quick and fast. Whatever their individual deficiencies may be, you really never get a chance to see them. They made us play faster physically and then made us play faster mentally and that’s what they do to everybody.
Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski
Opening statement:
“I was really pleased with our team’s effort. They played an outstanding game defensively after a real tough loss at Wake Forest. I thought our intensity was excellent. We shared the ball well. Anytime we have 15 assists and nine turnovers… and I think we would have had more assists but we missed some wide open shots today. We got a few guys with some bumps and bruises we played well but we have to get a little bit healthier before going down to Clemson. Any win that we get in-conference is a big win. We did a really good job defensively in the first half and that set the tone. We were able to get good minutes for kids, and get some experience there this afternoon.”
On playing in attack mode, especially defensively:
“We focused on that, and on pushing the ball a little bit more, and we knew Virginia would do that, too. Virginia is dangerous because they push it, and if they get open shots they’re going to take them. They put guys out there, especially when [Jamil] Tucker is at the four, they can have four guys who can hit threes. We just felt it was a dangerous game for us if we didn’t attack and stay in passing lanes. We did that, got some buckets off our defense.”
On the play of Sylven Landesberg:
“He’s a really good player he’s an attacking player, puts you in a position where you can foul him. And we did for those two three-point plays. He’s taller than I thought. For a wing player who can put the ball on the floor, that means he can shoot over people. It’s not like a 6-3 guy who can drive, he has good length, and has an instinctive ability to get closer. He’s a good player, and puts defenses in help-and-recover situations if you’re not careful.”
“He’s a driver. Usually when he drives, he’s going to score. The thing we didn’t want to do is have the guy who was guarding him foul him. I thought we did that in the second half. Trust your help. He’s got to shoot the ball, make a scoring play because he elongates. As long as you don’t foul him, you have a chance to draw a charge, and we did. I thought we had some good charges today.”
On Lance Thomas’ start today:
“Lance played so well up until Xavier, and since the Christmas break he hasn’t played to the same level. We’re trying to get he and Brian [Zoubek] to play at the level they can play at, whether they start or sub in for each other. I thought Lance played well today.”
On the team’s mentality after the Wake Forest loss:
“You have to get them to forget the loss, instead of remembering the loss. You have to get on to a positive thing, but that doesn’t mean they’re not ready a little bit more. You have to figure out what the personality of our team is, and we’re figuring it out. … They’re real together, they want to play, they want to please, and I think they’re developing toughness. We still have so many kids developing as players, so it’s not a bad situation, it’s just a different situation. I think where you can make a mistake is posing a coaching philosophy based on the personality you might want, but might never get. You have to let it happen a little bit more. And with the tough games we have, we’ll be able to see some things. I think this team showed me some things in the last 10 minutes at Wake. We have good heart, and we have to figure out how to put that on the floor for 40 minutes. There were a lot of positives about the Wake Forest game.”
On Virginia’s team:
“They’re not restrictive, I think they play hard. Our defense was really good today, so we didn’t allow as much penetration and did well on switches, but they’re a dangerous team because they have a bunch of guys who can shoot the ball and they play hard. They play hard every game.”