What's Next For Duke: "Gotta Get Tough. Gotta Get Tough Quick"
Duke starts four freshmen, but youth is no excuse for the loss to Stephen F. Austin, Coach K said.
“You get old by experience,” Krzyzewski said. “I can’t teach them to be 22. They’re 18—a lot of them. Gotta get tough. Gotta get tough quick.”
Krzyzewski thought many of Duke’s 22 turnovers were a result of a toughness problem.
“They forced turnovers,” Coach K said of SFA. “That’s what they do. They force 25, 26 a ball game. A key factor of the ball game is to be strong with the ball, and we were not strong with the ball. That’s really the easiest answer. You have to be strong. If someone is going after you hard, you better catch it hard. At times, we were catching it with one hand and trying to make a move. If it’s physical, that ball’s not coming with you. It’s not a foul. It’s the physicality of the game. You’ve got to catch it. It’s not a game where territory was easy, so you have to fight through.”
Krzyzewski also made sure to give credit to Stephen F. Austin for the win.
“We were not good, and they made us that way,” he said, “This is not about us not showing up. They played really well. Sometimes when I’m talking about what we didn’t do, I don’t want to disrespect their performance. Their performance was outstanding, and they deserve their recognition for that. They did it to us. They made us look bad.”
Thanks to Carolina Blitz for the assist. Be sure to watch their full video of Coach K postgame.
