Bench to Krzyzewski at Halftime: We Got You, Coach
Duke shot 58.3 percent from the field in the second half of the 94-60 win over Notre Dame, including 7-of-14 from three after halftime. Coach Mike Krzyzewski doesn’t think there’s some secret to the Blue Devils’ success from the field, other than luck.
“Well, no one’s going to be able to shoot like that,” he said. “For that period of time, that was crazy. That’s not coaching, or … how we’re going to do that again. ‘Basketball gods, will you let us do that again?’ It’s not a matter of us calling a play or whatever. I do think that it takes a point guard to play with the verve that Tre [Jones] does, because then our guys feel it, and the home crowd, that combination—the music was just right, the conductor, the music and then all of a sudden, the dancing was just terrific. We want our guys, when they’re open, to shoot.”
Duke got contributions from Alex O’Connell (12 points, four steals) and Joey Baker (eight points) off the bench in the second half.
“Our bench did not help us in the first half,” Coach K said. “We got zilch–that means nothing, by the way–we got nothing from the bench. We said that at halftime. We’re going to need … and this has been a great group. The guys while I’m saying that, said, ‘We’ve got you, Coach.’ When we made those subs, boom! It just exploded, thank goodness, it was a little bit crazy.”
The team also stepped up its defense in the second half.
“Yeah, it was a spurt half,” Coach K said of the first half. “When we went to the bench, they didn’t talk on defense. When we went to the bench, we were going to switch one through five, because [Javin DeLaurier] can play like that, but when you switch, you’ve got to yell, ‘Switch!’ That’s a key thing in switching. And we didn’t do that. They’re good offensively, really good, and they took advantage of it. In the second half, our defense was outstanding, and it starts with those two kids, Tre and [Jordan Goldwire].”
