Quotes: Duke v. Barton College

Coach K and several Blue Devils met the media following Saturday's final exhibition victory

Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski

Opening Statement:
“You can tell they’re championship-level kids, Barton’s team because they play every possession. I like their kids and they’re unconventional for us because they put five guards out there sometimes. Although they turned it over a lot initially, they handled our pressure really well. We just seemed to be ahead of ourselves. We didn’t finish a lot of our plays. One thing about shooting three-pointers is that in the second half of today’s game, we shot them well. We got our feet under us. For the first two games, most of the time when we shot threes, we’ve been moving and part of it we’re playing defense so hard, we get to the other end and we’re running, you just have to pause just a little bit and get your feet under you and we haven’t done that until the second half today. I thought we were unselfish. G[erald Henderson]’s offensive rebounding was huge. Our defense was excellent the last 30 minutes of the game.”

On positives to take from this game:
“Even a negative is a positive in an exhibition game because you find out who you are. In the first half we didn’t take a charge. We’re not going to win if we don’t take some charges. I thought we advanced the ball really well again tonight. Our offensive rebounding in the second half – G[erald Henderson] made three spectacular offensive rebounds. That’s something he’s trying to add to his game. I thought today was a good game for us. They challenged us and never gave up and I thought our kids played hard the whole time. We just have to be smart and disciplined with heart. Those three words would be nice to put them together.”

On Kyle Singler:
“He’s obviously a special player. He’s a two-handed player. He plays every second he’s out on the court. If every kid anywhere, no matter what their abilities, played every second they’re on the court, they’d all be better. He’s got real good talent and he plays every second and he’s 6’9” so that makes him extremely good.”

On playing N.C. Central for the school’s first Division I game:
“We’re very close with Central – with the school, the coach, and the team. In fact, this next week, they’ll practice in Cameron three times. Both programs felt that their entrance into Division I, for our community and to show the great relationship we have between North Carolina Central and Duke, it’s really the only match-up you can have for them. I’m really proud that both of us understand that, understand the history of the relations between the two schools, and within the community.”

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Freshman Kyle Singler

“Most of my shots are coming from the inside, so I just stay focused. You can’t miss those easy ones. You just have to keep running the floor, know where you are, and the team’s getting the ball to me in the right spot, so you have to give credit to the players who are finding me. I would say there is a feel for the game to kind of be in the right spot at the right time.”

“I don’t know if we came out ready to play. We were kind of selfish defensively. We weren’t talking, weren’t getting into the flow of the game, and we were taking bad shots. In the second half we corrected it. We knew the defense was going to translate into offense, so we just focused on that and that’s what happened.”

Freshman Nolan Smith

“I’m having a lot of fun. Playing with so many great players makes it easy out there. We’re out running and just making plays.”

On Kyle Singler:
“He just goes with the flow of the game. He gets good shots, he’s in position to score, he’s in position to get rebounds on every possession. He’s just so smart out there on the court. He’s always in the right spot.”

“[Coach Mike Krzyzewski] sat me down after I checked in in the first half, after like a minute, and he said, ‘You’re walking the ball.’ So when I got back in there I knew he wanted us to run no matter what. And if there’s nothing there, then we slow it down and run a play. So as a team now we’re really grasping what he wants out of us.”

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Senior DeMarcus Nelson

“Defensively we gambled a lot. We tried to play passing lanes to get some easy baskets and we over-ran the ball a lot and gave them some easy buckets. We fouled them a lot – they were in the double bonus with nine minutes left in half. Fortunately for us they missed a lot of free throws in the first half. But they did knock down a lot of shots down, so it was good to win.”

“We just tried to get everybody motivated, whatever it takes. We have a really good team and a lot of guys that can play. We didn’t start off as well as we wanted to. We were a little undisciplined in halfcourt defense. We gambled for a lot of steals and we didn’t get them, which gave them some easy buckets. They knocked down some tough shots also. We didn’t play our style of basketball in the first half--- us moving the ball and seeing the ball swing a lot, forcing a lot of turnovers, getting out in transition and getting some easy buckets. So that’s something that Coach [Mike Krzyzewski] stressed, I stressed and some of the other players stressed that we were going to do in the second half.”