Michigan State-Duke Postgame Quotes
12/3/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 3, 2003
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Post Game Quotes
Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski
"It was hard for each team to score. Our defense made it difficult for them to get open looks. I thought we were efficient, for the first time, for a whole game on the offensive end of the court. For us, (Chris) Duhon was spectacular in his leadership. We got a really good contribution from Sean Dockery. We had a lot of energy and for the first time, our big guys played like big guys. They gave us 25-30 points and 15 rebounds."
"Obviously, we have not been a good shooting team so far this year. I saw signs of Daniel (Ewing) and J.J. (Redick). Daniel is still recovering from an injury and J.J., his stroke is right there."
"The crowd here was great. It was an honor to play here. You don't do this by doing something for one season. What Michigan State has done is establish a tradition of excellence. The atmosphere for this game was great. We're pleased that we won. We understand that they are a very good basketball team. We feel fortunate to have won tonight."
Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo
"Well, I guess you better watch what you wish for. There is no question that I owe an apology to all of you because that was a disgusting display of basketball. You have to give Duke credit for changing their lineup, for shaking things up and for getting guys to play hard. We played scared. When the game was 13-13, with 10 or 12 minutes remaining, we already had 10 turnovers. It just got to a point where it didn't seem like we wanted to play and this is my responsibility, so I owe an apology to 15,000 people. Today was a big day for me, a big day for our program and we got kicked. There are no excuses when a team is so inept, because the coach should be blamed and it is my job. As I said, I don't think that I have ever been more disappointed in the team's performance in the nine years that I have been a coach here. We had a couple of players who played awfully hard, but there are a couple of guys where, there is no sense kidding anymore, you better start playing. We are definitely going to change our starting lineup for Saturday and we are going to try not to embarrass our fans or this institution again, because that is what we did today."
"The buck stops here and I have to find a way to way to change the mentality of this team, because right now we are a soft team. We just played scared. I couldn't believe the first 10 minutes of that game. I have never seen anything like that, not at Kansas, not against anybody, not on TV. We didn't give ourselves a chance to win. You can't turn it over 17 times in a half against an average team and we did that against a great team."
"This is what I live for and there had better be some players who are living for it too. There may be distractions, but for me, this is it. This was a big night for me. I wasn't putting all of our eggs in one game, but I was expecting an effort beyond belief and the fans deserve that. We didn't give them that and I guess that is what I feel the worst about."
On What Duke was doing defensively
"You've got to give them credit. They pushed the ball well, they got after it. You've got to give them all the credit."
On Duke's defensive quickness
"They really got after it today. They played hard. Like I said, you have to give them all the credit, they came out to play."
On preparing to face Oklahoma
"It's going to be tough trying to bounce back, but it's a long season so that is why we have to regroup as a team and come out and play harder next game."
Kelvin Torbert
On his second-half performance
"I was just trying to get something going inside, something to the basket because I knew jump shots weren't falling for us. We wanted to try and get the basket and try to draw fouls."
On Duke's defensive effort
"They came out and played well defensively. They pressured us all over the court, they denied a lot, so that took us out of a lot of our plays and messed up some of the rhythm of our offense."
