Duke University
Player Quotes
January 10, 2020 – Wake Forest Preview
SENIOR FORWARD JAVIN DeLAURIER On what he’s seen from Wake Forest: “Wake is a really good offensive team. They really do a good job of getting out in transition as well, so we’re going to have to do a good job of trying to take up space, eliminate some driving lanes for those perimeter guys you’re talking about and really point and communicate and make sure we have all of our assignments.”
On what he took away from Wednesday night’s game at Georgia Tech: “Especially for the freshmen, that was a first real road fight where we encountered a lot of opposition. It was great to see the way that they responded in a pretty hostile arena [that was] completely sold out. Their team was playing well and like you said, they have some talented bigs and the way that our young guys responded I think was great and hopefully will continue to grow as the season goes on.”
On if it was beneficial to play in a close game: “You’d always love to win by 30 or whatever it is, but winning in those close games is another dose of reality just to wake guys up and let them know it’s not going to be a cake walk just because we won a couple games in a row by a large margin. It doesn’t mean that teams aren’t good and teams aren’t going to keep trying to give us their best shot. So, it was good to win a tough, contested game for sure, because those are the games we’re going to have to win if we want to achieve what we want to do.”
SOPHOMORE GUARD TRE JONES On how the team benefitted from being in a close game on Wednesday night: “Definitely just getting used to how road games are in the ACC usually. Just how the atmosphere was – crazy atmosphere – but then just going through a battle like that, coming down to the last few possessions and then having to just lock in and make the right plays to get us the win.”
On what has been the biggest improvement in Vernon Carey Jr.’s game: “Probably just how hungry he is to continue to post up inside and continue to dominate inside. I know a lot of people questioned how he was for a center [with his] back to the basket [and] things like that coming into college. Just transitioning from floating around the arc and things like that to being back to the basket, pretty much unstoppable unless you have to double-team him.”
On what kind of challenges Wake Forest presents: “I think we just got to take them out of their transition to start off with. They like to get out in transition and get easy buckets that way, but controlling their guards and perimeter [will be a key].”
On what some of the things are that Javin DeLaurier has been able to teach Carey: “I think just continuing to play hard every single possession. With Javin being able to come in for him and give him minutes, Javin comes in and is always playing hard, always trying to be in the right spots, talking to guys, so just his leadership for sure.”
On if this team’s success is flying under the radar after the media attention that the team received last season: “I would say compared to last year, for sure, it’s different. I think that feeling of being a top team still is there, but the attention that we got last year is something that’s never been there on any team, so definitely – you can’t compare any year to last year as far as the attention goes.”
