I'm not sure there's a great team out there. But there are a lot of good ones and I think we're one of those. |
I've always been impressed with Herb's teams. He's a terrific coach and person. His kids don't have attitude problems; they have a team attitude and they're very unselfish on both ends of the court. With this team he has all veterans and that's a plus. He has a good thinking team; they think together and they work hard and they can play with anybody. |
I've always believed we should have a governance agency for college basketball, under the NCAA umbrella, that would be focused on it on a day-to-day basis, 365 days a year. It's not to say the NCAA hasn't done a good job with the current structure they have, but our sport is too big to be run by committee. |
I've always said that you want to end the season where you're cutting down the nets or you're crying in your locker room. And our kids were all crying in our locker room. |
I've been waiting four years to needle him about his free throws. What can I say? Tomorrow, I'll get him out and have him shoot a thousand of them. |
I've never had anybody who had so many 30-point games. We're not always looking for him. We're trying to be balanced. He's just an incredible player. |
I've never seen that at Duke where you have 13 shots and get 40 points. It was an incredible performance. |
I've never seen this here at Duke, where with 13 guys you get [one player] with 40 points. He's off the charts with his focus and commitment. Nobody has had more or done it better here. |
I've told him that if you miss and we lose, then we'll walk off arm and arm. Your players win games. As a coach, I try to let my best players be the ones that decide games. |
If we're healthy, then why not? |
If you just focus on J.J. and just watched him, you'd be shocked at the maze of things that he has to get through usually to get a shot. I think he's just evolved each year as a better basketball player, and the last two years he's made a year-round commitment to being in exceptional shape. |
If you just focus on J.J., just watch him, you'd be shocked at the maze of things that he usually has to go through to get a shot. When you are doing that, there are times when you can get distracted or get down or get emotional about it, which would take away from your next play. So, one of the key words for J.J. is maturity. |
In the second half, once we got organized and played better in the half court, our defense was excellent. |
In this environment, with that pressure, he had a great floor game. We needed Greg to be that court leader. It's not easy. I've had (Bobby) Hurley in here turning the ball over 10 times. ... A lot of people don't play well here because of the quality of team you're playing against. |
Instead of just running a team, we need him to look for his offense. He was calling me to call a play for him. I ignored him. But that's good. I love that (enthusiasm). |