Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski

On playing Wisconsin in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge:This was a really good game for us. Bo is a great friend and their program can match up with anybody as far as class, wins, preparation, their fans and their school. To play against him and the Wisconsin Badgers is a real honor for us, and we approached it that way. We respect the heck out of them, and I think the fact of us playing in Maui against some of the teams we did really prepared us for this level of game. Playing at home obviously helped too. We beat a really good team that is going to get better and better. They’ve got good kids.

On his impressions of Duke’s performance:I’m proud of our guys because this is our fifth game in nine days and that includes a pretty big West Coast trip. We put them through this type of schedule to see if we could improve and we have. I thought our captain was terrific tonight. DeMarcus (Nelson) defensively was great, as was his passing. He had seven assists and I think five of them ended up for threes. When we got a double-digit lead, he hit Greg (Paulus) twice on very unselfish plays and then he hit Kyle (Singler). In the second half we were struggling for some points and he hit Taylor (King) in the corner. I thought just holding our own rebounding was huge against them too. I’m proud of our guys, but now we need to get a day off. We’ll take a day off tomorrow before playing Davidson, because it’s been a long stretch for our guys.

On the strategy of stopping Wisconsin’s offense:We made them play full court, and nobody has made them do that this year. That was a big advantage for us, not that we caused a lot of turnovers, but it just pushed their offense out a little bit more. Hughes is really good. He’s a strong guard and (Wisconsin) is going to be very good. It ended it up being our kind of game tonight, but we’re not that much better than them, if we are better than them. They’re real good, but we had the advantage of playing a little bit more before coming in here.

On Duke’s ability to shoot from beyond the arc:The three should be a huge weapon for us. We practice it and play it. (Wisconsin) plays more of a top-of-the-key defense, so we thought if we could set our screens a little better, we would get some open looks, and we got a couple of those. Just by rebounding, we got some broken plays. Those two for Greg were broken plays where DeMarcus just made a play. It’s not something a coach calls. I told our guys this afternoon at our shoot-around that tonight would be a player’s game. They needed to be instinctive and there wouldn’t be much strategy from the bench.

On the identity of his team this season:We’re trying to personalize a system for this team. We’ve tried to do that every year; it’s just that this team has more weapons. We’re deeper and more experienced than last year. Last year, my kids played great. They played 22 games hurt and young and went to the NCAA Tournament. That experience of doing that and being tough has translated into more maturity along with the three freshmen. That, along with Paulus being healthy. He hasn’t missed a day of practice this year after playing with a bad foot all of last year. I love my guys, and this is a really good group.

Junior Greg Paulus

“We needed to be emotional out there.  The crowd was great today, and we really fed off their energy.  The fact that we got off to a good start really helped us out.”

“We tried to push it.  We’re a little bit smaller than they are, so we tried to use that quickness to our advantage.  But they’re so good at what they do that we just tried to make things difficult for them because of their size and their strength inside.  I didn’t see them [getting frustrated].  I was trying not to think like that because with such a great team that they have and so many guys that can do so many things for them offensively and defensively, the minute you start thinking like that is the minute they start taking advantage of it.”

“I know I’m very confident, but also having teammates pass you the ball to shoot it or when Coach [Mike Krzyzewski is saying, ‘If you’ve got it, let it go,’ just hearing that from everybody, from staff to teammates, gives you more confidence.”

On the upcoming matchup with Davidson:“We’ve played them the last couple of years.  They had a great year last year and they’re having another great year this year.  They’ve got some guys who can score and they’re very talented.  We’re going to need to be ready to go.”

Sophomore Jon Scheyer

On Duke’s rebounding:“That was a big key for us because we really wanted to get out and run, so the only way we could do that was by making stops and getting rebounds.  The guards especially had to get in there because they’re such a big team inside.  We did a good job of that tonight.

On defending Wisconsin’s Trevon Hughes:“For the most part early we let him get too many open looks.  But our gameplan was to make it hard for him the whole time and make him work for everything, because he’s been doing really well early in the season.  We did a pretty good job.  He’s a tough player to control.”
 
On freshman Taylor King’s shooting ability:“It started this summer, when he would shoot shots from halfcourt.  He can really shoot the ball so well.  Some of the shots you think, ‘Oh wow, that’s a bad shot,’ but he can make a lot of those tough shots.  Today, he had one from the corner and I was really pumped when he made that.  He can really shoot it.  I’m used to it now, but it still surprises me sometimes.”

Freshman Taylor King

“I’m just trying to get myself open.  I think definitely the dribble drive and kick has been wide open, especially this game.  And because of that we got wide open shots and we’ve been shooting the ball pretty well from three.  That’s what’s going to happen because we have a very good driving team and if everyone plays us for the drive, we’ll get wide open kicks.”