Coach K talks Duke's hot streak, Grayson Allen and his friendship with Jim Boeheim
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski met with the media on Tuesday in anticipation of Friday's round of 16 matchup with Syracuse and his good friend coach Jim Boeheim.
The Blue Devils will take on the Orangemen at 9:37 p.m. on Friday in Omaha, Neb.
Here are some of the highlights of Coach K's news conference:
On the state of his team
Coach K: I thought our team did a great job in Pittsburgh (in the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament). I thought we played really well and handled what sometimes is for a young group could be a pressure situation. I thought they were pretty much at ease. It showed in how we played. I thought Grayson (Allen) did a great job of leading us during those two games. We’re playing our best basketball right now of the season. I think we’re a real team right now. Not that anything was wrong, but it takes time. Some groups play together the whole year, and they’re compatible, they’re good, whatever, but when you become a team, there’s something different.
About the rematch with Syracuse
Coach K: You got to be careful not to plan out too much of things that happened a month ago. They’ve changed, and we’ve changed. They’re veterans, so are we. We’re better in our zone than we were that day. They were good that day in their zone too, but their offense wasn’t that good. The two things for them where they’ve really gotten better is (Marek) Dolezaj has become a force. He’s double-figure scorer. The last three weeks, he was good player, but he’s a very good player right now. (Oshae) Brissett has been their best player the past few games, he’s averaging 18 and 10. So, they can really protect the basket when they have those four guys, who are all very big and mobile, and they’re accustomed to playing with each other. On offense and defense they become a tough out, especially if they can keep the score, the number of possessions in the game, a little bit lower than a fast-pace game.
Using zone because of freshmen
Coach K: We don’t have as much time to teach everything. If you don’t have the older players, a lot of times they teach the younger players while you’re teaching them. It evolves like that. Virginia is a great example of that. Villanova is another. Very well-coached teams. Villanova with their zone press, containment 2-2-1, some variations that they have. We’re not, in the last few years, we haven’t been able to do that. So you try to look at other things that you might be able to do. This is something we’ve done very well. We’ve done this really well. Our kids, hopefully we can keep this going. It wouldn't take away from what we’ve already done. They’ve done a good job.
Grayson Allen becoming a leader
Coach K: He’s a much better player now than he’s ever been, because he’s learned all these things. When he finishes here he’s going to be a heck of a pro because he can play, he can run a team. Just before we left the locker room, we were one of the last people to leave after we beat Rhode Island, he was getting therapy, and I just said to him, ‘Isn’t it nice when you say something, then people do it?’ And he smiled and he said, “Yeah.” I said, ‘Your team is really listening to you, keep saying what you think you should say.’ And you could see that he was proud of it. And again, that doesn’t mean they haven’t been doing it, it means we're doing it at a higher level right now. He was extremely vocal in both games.
Boeheim’s friendship
Coach K: Growing up together at Michael Jordan’s fancy camp and all that kind of stuff, Nike trips. Me, Jim (Boeheim), P.J. (Carlesimo) and Mike Fratello were kind of like a little brat pack. We’re all still kind of close.
This story was originally published March 21, 2018 at 4:24 PM with the headline "Coach K talks Duke's hot streak, Grayson Allen and his friendship with Jim Boeheim."