Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski

Opening Statement:
"With Ryan (Kelly) being out and Miles (Plumlee) getting into early foul trouble, Josh (Hairston) really came through for us, especially on the defensive end. I thought Tyler's (Thornton) defense and leadership was outstanding during the game. I think we beat a good team. Seth (Greenberg) has done a great job of having his kids up all the time, in spite of more close losses, more close games with a greater percentage of them have been losses. To keep his team into it like they were yesterday and again today, is really a testimony to what a good coach is all about. We made some big defensive stops. We didn't shoot the ball well and a lot of that had to do with the intensity of the game I think. Again, we are excited about going forward and proud of our guys to come up with a win like that with a set, with Ryan, guys stepping up."

Austin Rivers

On the defensive effort:
"I'm really proud of our team because we didn't shoot the ball well, but we didn't let that dictate our defense. I think we've learned in that area. In our last game, against North Carolina, we struggled with our shot and had lapses on defense."

Tyler Thornton

"We knew it was going to be a possession-by-possession game. We knew we were going to have to fight on every possession."

Seth Curry

On Virginia Tech's decision to help off from Tyler Thornton onto Rivers and Curry:
"That's kind of what they did the last time we played them. Every time Austin or I came off a screen, the man guarding Tyler was on us and made us give it up."

Opening Statement:
"I thought in the first half, we just weren't as alert as we needed to be. I can think of eight points in the first half that honestly, we were just not as active and alert, we did not pursue the ball like we needed to. I thought our defensive gameplan was really good. We wanted to make Tyler Thornton beat us. Plain and simple. We knew obviously we couldn't afford to get into foul trouble. We wanted to have someone there when Curry and Rivers were coming off those ball screens. You've got to give Tyler credit, he made that one, big three when we had it to four. Their switching really bothered us, we didn't do a good job of screening on the end and it really pushed us out. In the second half, we went more straight dribble-drive and some quick sprint off ball screens and it was a little bit better. We had some turnovers in the second half that probably cost us a chance to really be in a position to win the game. We competed really hard, and physically we just couldn't at times rebound the ball with them. I thought we played hard and gave ourselves a chance to win. We just didn't make the plays we needed to do to beat a team that is that good."

On the team's struggles offensively:
"I think their defense, the switching, really bothered us. We had some good scoring opportunities in the lane and we didn't finish. When you switch, you got to screen your own man or you got to get yourself up and make a play. Turnovers were not really forced turnovers. We had some chase-behinds, some not made passes, we had some live ball turnovers that obviously they scored on. Our defensive set, our defense was pretty good. We were offensively challenged, and quite honestly, so were they. We took them out of transition, we took them out of shots in transition. I don't think Duke wants to go that deep into the shot clock but it was hard getting into the lane against us. It was hard getting the ball close to the basket. It was hard coming off a ball screen and getting a look. These guys played their tails off defensively and fought for every inch of the floor. I think that both teams were offensively challenged. We shot 29% in the second half, and I don't think going into the game they expected Tyler Thornton to take sixteen shots. I don't think they expected him to take thirteen shots. They couldn't get a shot, and that is the shot they ended up getting. We did what we wanted to defensively. Offensively, we weren't very good."

On the defensive success against Duke from beyond the arc:
"We have the philosophy on our ball screens and our help. And when you have tough guys like [Dorenzo Hudson]. This guy refused to allow himself to be screened. He got through screens and then we gave him great help and again, our game plan was to force Tyler Thornton to beat us. We were ready to give up the open perimeter shots. Were we going to give it up to Curry, were we going to give it up to Rivers, or were we going to give it up to Thornton? And then we needed to play that way because we could not afford to get into foul trouble so we needed to have our help in the post to have short runs. That was our game plan."

Dorenzo Hudson

On if Virginia Tech ever felt comfortable on offense:
"They (Duke) went to a smaller lineup. They did a really good job on the defensive end. We had opportunities to score, and we couldn't capitalize in the lane like we needed to. I had a layup I blew, and I had a couple of dump downs we couldn't finish. I felt like, offensively, we competed."

On if the Hokies could have pulled away if they got the lead in the second half:
"Yes, I do. Like coach said, we needed to get a couple of run outs and a couple of baskets in a row. We had a couple of chances, and we made great plays going down the lane and getting fouled. We needed one burst to get us over the hump."