Coach Shyatt’s Post-Game Quotes

Jan. 5, 2003

Overall feelings on the game… “I would like to compliment our team for putting us in a position to grab a crowd like this tonight. I also compliment our central administration for putting together a venue like they did tonight. This wasn’t our night. Even with the score at 38-36, the game was going too quickly for us. We weren’t defending as well as we had been. And then we got into some early foul trouble. Nonetheless, I hope we play hard enough in the future because we have pretty good chemistry. We’ve got to find a way to overcome such huge deficits in the 3-point game (11 made by Duke to 1 by Clemson).”

On the second half… “When we were down by 10, we acted as if we were trailing by 20. We have to close out on defense better, and guard the ball more effectively. But I thought we continued to play hard. I like the way we attacked the basket on offense to the very end. We missed a lot of shots that we had been making in both practice and in previous games. We probably missed 6 to 7 tip-in shots.”

On the toughness of Duke… “It was a pretty good war and an extremely physical game. We found that Duke has been the most physical team in this league during the last 5 or 6 years. It was toe to toe at 38-36, but a couple of bad possessions turned the game into a 10-point lead at half.”

On the rebounding battle… “Rebounding is definitely one of our strengths and it will remain so for the rest of this year. The rebounding edge is why I said it was not our night offensively. And then add in that Chey Christie went 1-for-10. It’s going to be tough for Duke to get beat when they are able to hit 11-of-23 3-pointers.”