Coach K: "Not Having Tre Hurts Everybody"

Duke struggled without its starting point guard

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski wasn’t happy with the performance of his team early in the Blue Devils’ 75-50 win over Brown and took a time out to let them know.

Afterward, Coach K seemed at a loss for words when addressing the media.

“So,” he began his remarks. “What do you think?”

When no one offered an answer, he said, “I’m asking myself that question … All right. Here’s what I think: [Brown is] a veteran team and well prepared. Even though they had a long layoff, Mike [Martin] does a really good job. They’re coming off their winningest season ever, and they have older guys. They’ve got seniors. They’ve got two really good guys that could be All-Ivy in [Brandon] Anderson and [Tamenang] Choh. They know what they heck they’re doing. They didn’t play for 18 days and when you have a veteran team, you have a better chance of being you. We came back two days ago, because I want them home for Christmas. We’ve had two practices and we got them up early this morning and all that. We looked like we had not played or practiced for a while, especially in talking. We did not talk well, communicate. We didn’t play well, and they played well. But in the last 15 minutes, we started talking, and we played really well. Thank goodness we were able to do it while the game was still going on.”

Part of the struggle for Duke was not having its floor leader. Tre Jones missed his second straight game, meaning backup Jordan Goldwire got the start.

“J. Gold over these last two games has done a really good job,” Krzyzewski said. “Not having Tre hurts everybody and puts a lot of pressure on him. He knew that we weren’t playing well, and he sped up a couple times in the first half. To his credit, he stayed composed in the second half, and I’m proud of him for doing that. A lot of kids, once it goes downward, it’s tough. His responsibility in running the team took over.”