Clemson-Duke Coaches And Player Quotes

March 1, 2000

Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski: “I thought that Duke played really well because Clemson played really well. We expected a tough game. Since they’ve got everybody healthy, I think they played really well, especially at home. I thought that the last eight minutes of the first half were the best eight minutes for us. We were so efficient. Then they came back and showed a lot of heart.”

“Nick Horvath had the best game under pressure.”

“Andre Buckner, for a kid who hasn’t played much to come in and hit his free throws and get open against the press and he made that one sensational defensive play.”

“We’re not the Duke team that we were a few weeks ago, but we’re still fighting like crazy. If we can keep getting better while Dunleavy is gone, maybe when he comes back we’ll be a better basketball team. We’re a different team.”

“I’m proud of our team to go through the ACC and be 8 and 0 on the road. It’s amazing and I’m proud of them.”

Clemson Coach Larry Shyatt: “Our players and staff are disappointed at our loss against Duke. Our performance was good. I wish we could have played a little bit better and won. Our main adjustment was for 3-point shooting. We changed into a box and a zone.”

“I feel that our effort was fine and consistent throughout the game. We turned around our assist-turnover ratio. Will Solomon had a tremendous game with nine assists, six turnovers and 26 points. The assist to turnover ratio was a tremendous stat.”

“Our freshmen are improving, making 10 of their 13 shots, but they still need to improve more. Solomon and Scott did a good job getting the job to the basket. They either made shots, passed or got fouled. Having everyone healthy has made us able to compete with teams like Duke. We are getting by people we have not been able to get by.”

Clemson’s Will Solomon Playing 40 minutes: “I feel good right now, I could play another game. I just like playing, I love playing basketball, so I am just always ready to play.”

Battier’s 3s in the first half: “He is a tough guy to guard. He hit jump shots on our defense. We tried to force him to take the jump shot and we had a hand in his face, but he hit some difficult shots. It is a credit to their whole team they shot the ball well in the first and second half.”

Clemson’s Andrius Jurkunas “I felt like we played pretty good. They hit a few early shots. They were up by 16 in the first half, but we talked in the lockerroom about how we needed to come back down and play as hard as we could. Hopefully cut the deficit down to single digits and to give us a chance of hopefully winning the game. I think we played pretty hard the whole game, especially at the end when we cut it down to seven points. Of course I wanted to come out with the win. The effort was there, we just did not get the win.”