Coach K: "We Were Very Soft. I'm Extremely Disappointed"
Duke suffered a shocking loss at Miami to a Hurricanes team with just seven scholarship players who had lost four straight games by at least a dozen points each. The Blue Devils fell behind late in the first half and could never find a game-breaking run, losing 77-75.
Coach Mike Krzyzewski pulled no punches afterward.
“I’m disappointed in our team,” he said. “We acted like a real young team.”
Krzyzewski praised the veteran Hurricanes’ poise, but he also felt like the Blue Devils should have been able to handle the experienced Miami team.
“I don’t know—quick turnaround (Like Duke, Miami played on Saturday then had a day off before the Monday night game), if our guys thought this would be easy,” he said. “We didn’t play well. Bottom line. We can go through a whole bunch of things, but I didn’t think we competed. I thought we were soft. I saw it in practice yesterday. I tried to take steps to change that. We were not able to change it. I’m really disappointed in our team. We did not play like a Duke basketball team tonight. Obviously, that’s my responsibility for that. The last two games, we won, and we were deserving to win. We were not tonight.”
Duke had 13 turnovers, most of which triggered Miami breaks. The Hurricanes outscored Duke on fast break points 14-4.
“We threw the ball to them,” Krzyzewski said. “About five times, we threw it right to them where they got layups. We were very soft. We were very soft. I’m extremely disappointed. Extremely disappointed.”
