Duke 80, Miami 76
March 10, 2006
ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament
March 10, 2006
#1 Duke 80, #8 Miami 76
DUKE COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI
Opening remarks
KRZYZEWSKI: We beat a really good team this afternoon. They are so explosive offensively, especially when (Anthony) King and (Raymond) Hicks are contributing inside, they are very difficult to defend.
We came out with energy but missed a lot of good shots. I thought we were playing better than them but it was not translating on the scoreboard and that caused us to lose a little of our energy. The second half, their confidence was up even though we came out and tied it. Then it was back and forth from there.
Down the stretch we hit some big free throws, Josh (McRoberts) got a key defensive rebound, and J.J. (Redick) hit a huge shot in the last minute after our timeout. We had called something that included three options, but they did a good job defensively and he improvised. That was all him.
Right now we’re just fouling too much and have not been doing as well as we should with our defensive rebounding. We’re working on it, but we just can’t keep giving people free shots. It wears you out.
This (the tournament) is not an easy thing to win. Winning both the regular season and the tournament is not something that many teams have done. We look forward to playing again tomorrow.
On the second-half defense of Miami’s Guillermo Diaz
KRZYZEWSKI: I thought that our defense team-wise was much better in the second half. We didn’t extend as much and DeMarcus Nelson did a good job on Diaz. He (Diaz) is a kid who can be silent for a while and then explode. I’m just glad that time ran out before he had that opportunity today.
DUKE SENIOR J.J. REDICK
On the frustration of giving up so many offensive rebounds
REDICK: It’s obviously frustrating because I thought our initial defense was really good, especially in the second half. Then guys just made a lot of hustle plays and got the ball. Anytime that happens, you’re not going to be able to put a team away because they are going to have so many opportunities. And especially a good team like Miami is going to take advantage of those opportunities.
On breaking out of a slump, and if he considers himself in a slump?
REDICK: I don’t really consider it a slump. I really try to just move on to the next play the last few weeks. Certainly there has been a lot written and a lot said and I have fielded a lot of questions about it. I’m just happy that we won. I think for our team, we were coming off two straight losses, this was a big one for us to win.
On improvising on the last shot
REDICK: The play was for me to come off the screen on the baseline and (Raymond) Hicks read it just like he had read it about 10 times earlier in the game. They did a good job of matching up with me when I came baseline. I just went and got the ball from Greg (Paulus). (Guillermo) Diaz came out on me and I felt like I could drive in the middle and either pick up a foul or try to draw some help defense and pass it out. When he cut that off, I just put it behind my back and pulled up.
DUKE SENIOR SHELDEN WILLIAMS
On this game helping Duke’s confidence coming off two losses
WILLIAMS: I think that winning this game, especially playing in a tournament at this time, it’s either win or go home. Our last two games were losses. We haven’t looked at that. We’ve moved on to the next play. We concentrated on playing one game at a time. We know that we need to take every minute, every play, step-by-step and then move on to the next game. I don’t think that was a factor, what we did last week, for today.
On rebounding
WILLIAMS: They’re a team that interchanged two big guys out every few minutes and allowed them to keep fresh and keep banging against us. We kept fighting and kept battling throughout the course of the game. It was very intense for us to do. It was something that especially late in the game when Josh (McRoberts) got that big defensive rebound, when it counted we kind of rose to the challenge and got those rebounds.
MIAMI HEAD COACH Frank Haith
Opening remarks
HAITH: I was proud of our team’s effort. There were a couple of plays that I thought we botched there at the end that could’ve given us a better chance. But, I can’t fault our guys’ effort and how they competed. Duke played well down the stretch when they needed to and J.J. (Redick) made all of the big plays.
On the play following Diaz’s late 3-pointer and putting Redick on the line
HAITH: We didn’t want to foul Redick. Trust me when I tell you that, we really didn’t want to foul Redick. We were trying to deny him the ball and foul anyone else who got the ball.
On Robert Hite’s 3-point attempt with 17 seconds remaining
HAITH: We had a play designed, but they switched out and took that away. We told Rob that if he got clean on the initial screen, to shoot it. If they took it away, which they did, we were going to look to drive it. Rob ended up taking a shot that we didn’t want at that time. We had more time to make a play.
Rob’s made big plays all year and I’m not going to fault Rob for trying to win the game for us on that one play.
On playing zone against Duke
HAITH: The zone enabled us to get to Redick much quicker. We didn’t want to have him coming off of screens. He’s very good at coming off of screen and we felt like he would have an advantage in that regard. For the most part, you look at what they shot for the game, and I think that was a good decision (to go zone).
MIAMI JUNIOR Anthony King
On how he was able to get nine offensive rebounds
KING: I don’t know. I just went to the glass, and the balls were coming my way.
On whether the Duke game is special to him as a Durham native, and if he rooted for Duke as a boy
KING: No, I didn’t root for Duke. Of course playing Duke, that’s a big game, but every ACC game is a big game.
MIAMI SENIOR Robert Hite
On Miami’s ability to dictate the pace of the game, and Duke’s ability to adjust to thatHITE: We just wanted to come out and make them play half-court offense, and just know where J.J. Redick was and try to make other guys score and not turn the ball over and let them thrive off transition baskets like they normally do.
On the guards being able to penetrate and get mid-range jumpers
HITE: We knew we were going to be able to penetrate, and we just had to make plays in there and make the right decisions, and we did. We did that today.
