Opening Statement
That’s a heck of basketball game if you are a Duke fan, or if you don’t really care who won, but I don’t fit in that category. It hurts right now, extremely. We were empty our last three, maybe even four, possessions on the offensive end. Their defense had to be stronger than our offense. We missed a couple good ones, but we had a turnover inside. As everybody wants you to think that Joel [Berry II] got fouled on that last shot. That’s just sour grapes. You got to make plays instead of trying to get the official to give you something. Brice really was something for a huge portion of the game tonight, and we asked him to do some hard things – playing perimeter guys out on the floor. I thought he really did a nice job defensively on that. At the end, they sort of opened the floor and kept driving, and we did a pretty good job guarding the ball but not enough. But we didn’t get enough help from the other guys. It’s got to be a team thing, and everybody else has got to be involved, and that’s where I think we failed.
It’s tough to swallow because we had a wonderful crowd, great crowd with a great bunch of kids that really wanted something badly. You just have to congratulate Duke, and give them a great deal of credit for playing with five guys and having all five guys do some things that really, really helped them. Matt [Jones] goes down, but Luke [Kennard] comes off the bench and gives them 15 [points], and Brandon [Ingram] and Grayson [Allen] were just awfully hard for us to handle down the stretch. Ingram had it out of bounds. [Duke] had it out of bounds once with five seconds to play, and they threw it into [where] Marcus [Paige] was guarding Brandon and made him take an unbelievably tough shot, but it went in.
The last play, we get the ball and we get the miss on the end, and Coach [Dean] Smith, and I believe, and I’m, not blaming it on Coach Smith by any means, it’s my call, I think you should always attack before the defense gets set. I’ve always believed. It was what I was taught. It’s the way I’ve always played. I told the kids I should have called a timeout. We didn’t get as good of a shot as I thought we would get, but that’s just what I’ve always believed in. Even though I say it’s my fault, if we had to do it tomorrow night, I would probably do the same thing, because I think that’s the best way to play. We didn’t shoot the ball very well in the second half because we didn’t move it quite as well. But their defense got stronger, and our offense got weaker. It’s a wonderful rivalry to be involved in, but I’m getting tired of just involved. We’ve got to play better.
On what hurt team shooting in the second half
It was part of the shot selection. We took a couple of tough shots. But I still go back, it’s more movement than it is just a shot. We lost some of our movement, and then we weren’t getting stops on the other end in the first half. We were getting some stops on that end and every now and then getting a turnover or a run out, and you know we throw it away or we’ve got a guy all the way down the court, and we throw it out of bounds. We didn’t take advantage of the break opportunities when we did get a run out, but we didn’t have nearly as many in the second half as we did in the first.
On what he would rather have seen from the help defense
You're always worried about their three-point shooters, but we've got to do a better job coming off to help and getting back to challenge the three-point shooters. We talked about it in one of the time outs but they'd already done it about 77 times by then. Grayson is hard, Brandon is hard to guard. But their spacing is the best thing that's going on. When Marshall got the fouls they had even better spacing because they didn't have a true post player in there. Had guys that tried awfully hard but didn't quite get there.
On what did you expect on the last play with Joel bringing the ball up
We wanted Brice to come off a screen on the ball to see if we could get some more action. I don't know how many more ways I can say it, we didn't get what we wanted. I think you should always try to drive the ball as far to the basket as you can. We didn't have very good spacing, very good movement!
On what he told the team after the game
I told them I was sorry, that I should have gotten us a better shot at the end.
That’s a heck of basketball game if you are a Duke fan, or if you don’t really care who won, but I don’t fit in that category. It hurts right now, extremely. We were empty our last three, maybe even four, possessions on the offensive end. Their defense had to be stronger than our offense. We missed a couple good ones, but we had a turnover inside. As everybody wants you to think that Joel [Berry II] got fouled on that last shot. That’s just sour grapes. You got to make plays instead of trying to get the official to give you something. Brice really was something for a huge portion of the game tonight, and we asked him to do some hard things – playing perimeter guys out on the floor. I thought he really did a nice job defensively on that. At the end, they sort of opened the floor and kept driving, and we did a pretty good job guarding the ball but not enough. But we didn’t get enough help from the other guys. It’s got to be a team thing, and everybody else has got to be involved, and that’s where I think we failed.
It’s tough to swallow because we had a wonderful crowd, great crowd with a great bunch of kids that really wanted something badly. You just have to congratulate Duke, and give them a great deal of credit for playing with five guys and having all five guys do some things that really, really helped them. Matt [Jones] goes down, but Luke [Kennard] comes off the bench and gives them 15 [points], and Brandon [Ingram] and Grayson [Allen] were just awfully hard for us to handle down the stretch. Ingram had it out of bounds. [Duke] had it out of bounds once with five seconds to play, and they threw it into [where] Marcus [Paige] was guarding Brandon and made him take an unbelievably tough shot, but it went in.
The last play, we get the ball and we get the miss on the end, and Coach [Dean] Smith, and I believe, and I’m, not blaming it on Coach Smith by any means, it’s my call, I think you should always attack before the defense gets set. I’ve always believed. It was what I was taught. It’s the way I’ve always played. I told the kids I should have called a timeout. We didn’t get as good of a shot as I thought we would get, but that’s just what I’ve always believed in. Even though I say it’s my fault, if we had to do it tomorrow night, I would probably do the same thing, because I think that’s the best way to play. We didn’t shoot the ball very well in the second half because we didn’t move it quite as well. But their defense got stronger, and our offense got weaker. It’s a wonderful rivalry to be involved in, but I’m getting tired of just involved. We’ve got to play better.
On what hurt team shooting in the second half
It was part of the shot selection. We took a couple of tough shots. But I still go back, it’s more movement than it is just a shot. We lost some of our movement, and then we weren’t getting stops on the other end in the first half. We were getting some stops on that end and every now and then getting a turnover or a run out, and you know we throw it away or we’ve got a guy all the way down the court, and we throw it out of bounds. We didn’t take advantage of the break opportunities when we did get a run out, but we didn’t have nearly as many in the second half as we did in the first.
On what he would rather have seen from the help defense
You're always worried about their three-point shooters, but we've got to do a better job coming off to help and getting back to challenge the three-point shooters. We talked about it in one of the time outs but they'd already done it about 77 times by then. Grayson is hard, Brandon is hard to guard. But their spacing is the best thing that's going on. When Marshall got the fouls they had even better spacing because they didn't have a true post player in there. Had guys that tried awfully hard but didn't quite get there.
On what did you expect on the last play with Joel bringing the ball up
We wanted Brice to come off a screen on the ball to see if we could get some more action. I don't know how many more ways I can say it, we didn't get what we wanted. I think you should always try to drive the ball as far to the basket as you can. We didn't have very good spacing, very good movement!
On what he told the team after the game
I told them I was sorry, that I should have gotten us a better shot at the end.
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