Not sure what else can be said about the end of last night's Syracuse / Duke game , or the game in general. Instead, I thought it best to hear it from Jim Boeheim and Mike Kryzyzewski, two of the greatest coaches in college basketball today.
I transcribed portions of both of their post game press conferences from last evening. Enjoy.
Jim Boeheim:
I thought we played as well defensively as we played all year long and I thought the game was extremely well officiated, as well as any game we have had all year, and … don’t laugh, I do make jokes but that’s not a joke… I thought it was tremendously well officiated, three great officials. The first half Michael Gbinije was in the same position, got in front, and the new rule is it’s a block. That is the new rule, it has been explained 100 times. C.J. [Fair] got into his motion, I saw the replay, and the guy was moving. That’s it. It’s as simple as that. It’s a new rule. It’s a block… and I wanted to see if I still had it in me to go out there. I did, I got out there pretty good. I thought I was quick. I stayed down, and I didn’t get injured, so all those things are good. But that was the play,that was the game. That was the game decider right there. I would have been happy with a no call, let the players make / finish the game and see what happens, but it was a great game. A tremendously well officiated game. I just disagree with that last call there. That’s all.
Jeez, I’ve only been thrown out only once in my life and that was an exhibition game. I just thought that was the worst call of the year, that’s all. I just hated to see the game decided on that call.
You’re going to lose tight games, it’ s part of the nature of the game. If you are in tight games … we were down six, we weren’t ahead. We had a six point deficit and made a great move to get back into the game.
There’s not much difference between great games in this league or that league. Both teams went at it as hard as they could, you know the whole game. It was a tremendous basketball game just like the one in Syracuse was. This was just a different game. But it was a great game… if in the beginning of the year I could’ve split with Mike[Kryzyzewski] I probably would have taken it without any hesitation. But once we won in Syracuse I might not have… it’s great, two great games… games lived up to everything. People will remember this one for 30 years ‘cuz the old coach went out there a little bit. Got a little excited. So, they’ll always remember you for something. Down here I think those fans will remember Jim Boeheim, down here, after that.
Mike Kryzyzewski:
Another great game. Different from the first one because it seemed like both teams were scoring easy up at Syracuse and today it was really difficult to score. I don’t know how either team could play any harder. What a great environment. I want to thank our fans, the whole … their celebration of basketball up there [Syracuse] and our celebration of basketball here [Duke] was phenomenal. It’s what makes our sport so good. I mean I love the NBA to death but this is something they can’t do. And we should always recognize that… the thing at Syracuse and here… that’s our product. That’s our product. Genuiness, purity, and my guys to fight like they did today, that’s their fourth game in eight days, coming after one of our worst halves of the season at North Carolina, and they played great there… I’m not knocking them. They made us look bad.
But to come back and play with this level of intensity was spectacular. Just absolutely spectacular. Our defense was really good; their defense adjusted. What they did in their zone when we flashed , they stayed with shooters, and so up there when we flashed they collapsed a little bit and you could kick out and you have a shot. They stayed with shooters today, and so that’s why we , what turned out to be a good move, putting Rodney [Hood] there, and what that did was then he could run offense in there a little bit, not great, but better, and Rodney, that part of the game was amazing.
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