DUKE HEAD COACH JON SCHEYER
Opening Statement: “First of all, real quick, I just saw the news, Coach [Bob] Knight passing away. And I’ve been lucky through Coach K through the years just to get to know Coach Knight and just what he’s meant to the sport, so I’m sorry to see that. My thoughts are with his family, of course, but that was sad to see that. As far as tonight goes, I thought it was great for our team just to get a feel for playing in Cameron. It’s a different feeling. We have four freshmen still. It’s their first time doing it. I think there’s some nerves to shake off. There’s the crowd, it’s a different feeling. So, I thought that was good. I thought we came out really ready to play. I thought our defense faded as the night went on, but also Pembroke just doesn’t stop playing. They played really hard and did a good job. You can see we can have a lot of different lineups. I don’t have all the answers yet. I’m still learning just like you guys are. But I do have confidence in that core group that started the game, the way how hard they’re gonna play. Thought they shared it really well. I think we’re still getting a feel for how to play with each other. But again, a lot to clean up, a lot to work on, but tonight was really good just to get a feel for playing in Cameron.”
On the three-guard lineup he played for much of the game:
“Thought it was great. No matter who it was, Jared [McCain], Tyrese [Proctor], Jeremy [Roach] to start and then Caleb [Foster] coming right off, they’re all just smart basketball players. They’re tough and I mentioned their size and Jeremy’s probably the smallest, but Jeremy’s 22 today; he’s older, he’s tough, he’s strong. And so that’s, I don’t feel like we’re giving a lot up with that. And on offense, we’re really able to space the floor really well. And Flip [Kyle Filipowski] didn’t even have to do a whole lot tonight. He had, I thought it was maybe just me, he had a quiet 17 though. All of a sudden you look up and he’s got 17 points. It just comes easy for him. So again, still figuring it out, it is different, but the mentality and the want to, they want to share it and play well together. We didn’t call a whole lot tonight, just trying to learn how to play together. So, to score 109 points without even really executing is a good thing.”
On what he learned about his freshmen tonight:
“You know, to be honest, nothing too new. These guys, all four of them compete. They all are figuring things out in their own way. But I’ve known these guys for a long time now, so I’m not surprised that they weren’t really phased out here. I thought, a little bit, there’s some nerves to shake off, which is normal. But Jared and Caleb as guards, they bring such a… they don’t play like normal freshmen. They just don’t. And TJ [Power] and Sean [Stewart], they’re in tougher positions because guarding, the spots they’re in is just tougher. So, you have to know multiple spots, you have to defend multiple positions. So, they have a lot to learn, but they’re everyday working at it and attacking and they’ve had great attitudes, which is not surprising knowing those guys.”
SENIOR GUARD JEREMY ROACH
“It felt good, just to get a chance for us to play in front of the crowd for the first time together, not against each other. It’s always good to do that. I’m just excited that we got the win. Everybody played well. We got a lot of free throws today so that’s good. It’s been a big thing, not turning the ball over, just moving the ball from side to side, getting all five guys touching it. I’m happy. We were just excited to play together. Everybody’s seen the starting five – we’ve kind of been playing together for the past couple of weeks. Obviously, we had the scrimmage against Villanova too, so it’s just good to play in front of a home crowd. Obviously, it wasn’t as packed as Cameron usually is, but it was good to get a little taste of what it’s going to be like down the road.”
On Duke’s strong 36-for-43 (83.7%) performance from the free throw line tonight:
“We always do the free throw ladder in practice and shoot 25 against each other, so it’s always a competition trying to make free throws. You’ve got to just trust in your work. Free throws, those are gimme points so we should always knock them down.”
On Duke’s defensive strategy:
“We’re definitely just controlling the ball. We don’t have a big paint presence like we usually have, like D-Live (Dereck Lively II) and Mark Williams, so we’ve got to just keep guys in front, making sure the help side’s where they need to be. We’re going to be a team that’s going to be in a lot of scatter situations and a lot of rotation situations, just because we don’t have that big man presence. That’s definitely been a focal point for our defense this year.”
SOPHOMORE CENTER KYLE FILIPOWSKI
When asked what it was like to be back in action in Cameron against a different opponent:
“It was awesome. I’m so excited for the potential this team has to be really good come the end of the season. There are a lot of good things that we can build off of [from tonight] but obviously a lot of things we need to work on, too.”
On what Duke could take away from a game against an opponent like this:
“I think just seeing all the different types of firepower we have. There could be a lot of things that we just don’t try at, but we’ve got to take things seriously now. We’ve got to start finding our rhythm, finding our identity with the guys we have. I think there’s a lot of good in it, but there’s still a lot of things we could work on.”
On Duke defensive game plan tonight and the strategy going forward:
“I think we’re just going to have to play in tandem with each other, five guys moving on a string, especially because we don’t have that rim protector, which kind of showed tonight. But we’re going to keep working on that as well. We’re going to be really good in the pick-and-roll defense. We emphasize that a lot and just moving in tandem, having five guys playing defense, not leaving it up to one guy at the end of the play.”
