Tre Jones: “When Our Defense Is There, That’s When Our Offense Is Best"

Sophomore point guard Tre Jones said that the second-half dogfight at Georgia Tech showed the young players what conference play was like. Tech battle back from a halftime deficit and took the lead over Duke, as the two teams had a hard, physical battle inside.

“Getting used to how road games are in the ACC, usually,” he said. “Just how the atmosphere was crazy, but then just going through a battle like that coming down to the last few possessions, and then having to just lock in and make the right plays to get us a win.”

Tech surprised Duke with the way it defended ball screens, requiring the Blue Devils to adjust on the fly, something new for the Duke youngsters.

“Everything was different,” he said. “It just depends on who we’re playing, the players we’re playing against, what their specialties are, strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes, we have to adjust to things in the game. It’s not always going to be what we planned before the game. We come out and it’s not going to always go the same. Those in-game adjustments will have to be better for us players, picking up what the coach wants us to do.”

Duke’s defense helps get the offense going, Jones believes.

“When our defense is there, that’s when our offense is best,” he said. “When our defense isn’t there, that’s when we’re not doing our best on offense. Just having our defense there, that helps us get easy buckets in transition but also, it just helps us get to our offense much easier. It helps get guys going.”

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