Coach K: Kansas Game Wasn't Sloppy. It Was a War

Krzyzewski says good defense makes things look sloppy

Coach Mike Krzyzewski wasn’t happy with the way people described the season-opening win over Kansas.

Duke shot 35.9 percent from the field and committed 16 turnovers, while Kansas committed 28 turnovers. That led many observers to comment that having top teams play each other so early in the season leads to sloppiness.

“Our defense the first two games has been excellent,” Krzyzewski said, “and, by the way, when you play really good defense, it might look sloppy, because there are mistakes that are made. I can’t believe somebody would say that our Kansas game was sloppy. That Kansas game was a war, where it was tough. This isn’t golf, where someone is stopping you from putting. You’ve got great athletes out there working hard, and (if) you win in games like that, that’s a hell of a game.”

Krzyzewski had praise for his players after Duke moved to 2-0 with a win over Colorado State.

“Tre (Jones) is leading us so well,” he said, “and Cassius (Stanley) has had two outstanding just outstanding games and Alex(O’Connell) has had two outstanding games, so that perimeter of those three guys has been really good and Wendell (Moore Jr.) showed some stuff tonight that he can build on, and our two veterans Jack (White) and Jav (Javin DeLaurier) really came through. That’s going to be our team. We’re going to play a lot of guys and see what works. That group at the end of the half really played the best eight minutes of the game, were the last four minutes of the first half and first four minutes of the second half. Jack, Javin, Alex, Cassius, and Tre just found a rhythm defensively and offensively and boom we had it. It’s been two good games for us, got to keep improving but overall, I’m proud of our guys.”