Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball versus Lipscomb on December 16, 2025 at 6 p.m.
Men's Basketball
vs Lipscomb
.png&width=24&height=24&type=webp)
Quotes: Duke 84, Michigan State 79
12/2/2010 1:16:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski
Opening Statement:
“Big time game. Two great groups of kids. Two great groups of men. It was a man's game tonight, both teams played it. They're [Michigan State] really good. Tom [Izzo] coaches them so you know they are going to be unbelievably well coached and play together. Those four kids, those veterans for them, [Kalin] Lucas and [Durrell] Summers and [Korie] Lucious and [Draymond] Green, very difficult to defend, very difficult to defend them. I thought we were difficult to defend too. Kyrie [Irving] was sensational, a difference maker. I thought Mason [Plumlee] was too because Mason had to play 35 minutes with the foul trouble we had and they kept alternating bigs and Mason got a double-double and five steals. As obviously sensational as Kyrie was, quietly Mason was outstanding, he was outstanding. I'm proud of our guys because we beat an outstanding team tonight. There wasn't a turning point, every possession was hard fought. We got ahead of ourselves on some of the fast breaks and probably lost about ten points, that's how you learn. We still have a lot to learn. I'm proud of my guys because they beat a heck of a team tonight.”
On what he would like to see Kyrie do better:
“Defend you know, but I'd like to see our whole team do it. They put a lot of pressure on you. They are about as good of a half court offensive team as there is, especially being a veteran group. They run their stuff well, but they make reads within their play and only veteran teams do that. In other words if you take a certain part of that play away they go to something else and they read each other well because they have played against each other. Kyrie was just great, you know he was sick, he didn't practice on Monday he was throwing up all morning and the practice Tuesday, I was a little bit worried as the game went along with him getting cramps but he handled it well.”
On the scheduling of Butler on Saturday:
“We scheduled a tough schedule, and a big thing for our team will be one, you can't practice tomorrow with those guys. We will have to see were Mason is with his sprained ankle and the guys who didn't play much we can get them to run. It will be more of a meeting and give them a preview of Butler and just not to have a hangover from a great game because we are going to play another really good team. A little bit different type of team, not as physical but as well coached so we'll see. In order to win later in the year you have to put two games like that together. It's great for us to be able to have that. That's why we scheduled it this way. We knew we would play Michigan State, we knew it would be Wednesday and we knew it would be midnight you know. So we wanted to play a team of championship caliber a couple days later and that's why we scheduled the Butler game when we did.”
On the whether the atmosphere felt like a March game:
“You know here at Duke we have been in a lot of March games in December, January, February because we are in a great conference and we have been able to schedule pretty well with the flexibility that our conference has given us with 16 games. When you have 16 games you are really able to schedule a national schedule and hopefully we can continue to do that. This was a big time game. I'm proud of our guys. We had to fight like crazy to win and the crowd was unbelievable, the atmosphere. The atmosphere here this year is I think as good as it's been in a long long time and it hasn't been bad. Hopefully we get it next week when we play Bradley and Saint Louis before exams too.”
On the pressure Michigan State applied to keep the game close:
“Well there is game pressure on you all the time for both teams. I didn't think Kyle [Singler] had a great game but he made great plays for us, those two threes in a row, that stick back with one second to go on the shot clock and then he in-bounded the ball without any mistakes the last four minutes when they were pressing. So did he have a bad game? He didn't have a bad game, but he didn't have a great game. That's what a good player does you know. When he hit those two threes he was 2-11, so it's not like you're hot and you still have to have the courage to take the shot and hit it. Nolan [Smith] was struggling with fouls, he only played 12 minutes in the first half and we had a couple of exchanges were he got five points for us right away. I thought, the two kids were obvious but Mason was right up there and we don't have him playing tonight the way he did, we don't win.”
Freshman Kyrie Irving
On coming back from illness earlier in the week:
“My teammates picked me up tonight, and they picked me up in practice on Monday. I was really excited for this game, and to play this well in a big-time game feels good.”
“My shots were falling early, and I was in rhythm every time I shot the ball. I feel as though I got a lot of good looks.”
On Michigan State's guards:
“We had an awareness on them. They're great players – Durrell Summers, Kalin Lucas, and [Korie] Lucious, he's a tremendous ball handler and scorer. So we just tried to limit their touches and just contest on the wings. My ball pressure created some of the contesting on the wings. We had an awareness on them all night.”
On the upcoming matchup with Butler:
“I'm expecting a little crowd. I'm really excited to go back home and play, especially against Butler. They're a great team, and I know Kyle and Nolan are really excited. They had a great game against them last year, so we're going to go into New Jersey and we're on a mission.”
Senior Nolan Smith
“Tonight was definitely a big win for us and a big step forward for this team. Kyrie played like a veteran. He was very mature tonight, and for a freshman to show up on this stage is huge. He doesn't play like a freshman, and he hasn't acted like a freshman. And this team, we're growing. In the last few weeks, we've played some very tough teams with Kansas State, Marquette, out to Oregon, and finally home for this game. We're growing and we just want to continue to get better. We have a tough game coming up against Butler. I feel like it's going to be another stepping stone for this team.”
“Michigan State is obviously a very good team and a very physical team. They were very well-balanced, they have great guard play with Korie Lucious, Kalin Lucas and Durrell Summers, and they have bigs inside that can bang and are athletic. They're really similar to us – the majority of the scoring comes from the perimeter and the big guys do the dirty work down low. I don't want to make predictions, but we could see them down the road.”
On the upcoming matchup with Butler:
“[I see] a team that's going to have a huge chip on their shoulder. We have to get the same chip. It can't just be a game versus the team that we beat last year. It can't be that because they're going to be looking at us as the Duke Blue Devils who just barely beat us. They're going to be mad coming into this game, and we have to have the same anger going against them.”
Senior Kyle Singler
“I don't really base my performance on missing shots or how many points I'm scoring, but, of course, when I'm not shooting the ball well, there is a little bit of frustration because I consider myself one of the scorers on the team. But I'm not frustrated. The main thing is we played well as a team, and we got the win.”
“Kyrie [Irving] was huge for us, on both ends of the court. But mainly he took care of business, and when things got tough, he made big plays for us. He had a great performance.”
“We have a lot of things to improve on. We've got to learn how to take care of the ball better. We got outrebounded tonight, so we can work on that. We still need to get better on both ends of the court. That might be hard for people to realize, but within our team and though the coaches, we've got a lot of improving to do.”
Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo
Opening Statement:
“Korie [Lucious] had a very good game. He had eight assists, he moved the ball. We just have to get Durrell [Summers] and Kalin [Lucas] even more involved. Like I said, Durrell, Dede [Draymond Green] and Delvon [Roe] struggled tonight, and we need those three guys no question.”
On comparisons between guards:
“You know I'm sick of seeing all these good guards to tell you the truth. They're all very, very good. You know I thought I saw a plethora of guards over in Hawaii, but then we run into another one today who's a great point guard, but we also run into some other guards that were very good. And I think our guys, if you take away anything, I don't know. Kemba Walker was so good over there, he was unconscious. But as far a speed goes, I think you can see that's one thing Kalin doesn't have back that he had. And he'll get that back. And you know what? We just might be a team to be reckoned with down the road. But it's still going to be a little ways down the road which I thought, and hopefully we build off this game.”
On needing consistency from Durrell Summers:
“Yeah that's an understatement. And like I said, all three of those guys tonight, I mean Dede [Draymond Green] bumped back a little bit in the second half. Between three turnovers and Durrell, we made some shots, but we just have to get him more shots, and he's got to get more shots. We brought him off a couple of screens early, but just wasn't ready to shoot. That's still a concern of mine. He's got to do a little bit more. He's not doing well and getting 11 or 12 points so there's something encouraging in that still.”
On layups:
“Yeah [Garrick] Sherman I think had one too. You know the layups, free throws. But the turnovers, turnovers, turnovers. They shot 47 percent I guess. When you get some layups that really kills that percentage. I thought our half court defense was pretty good. I thought we did a pretty good job on [Kyle] Singler. He's a hell of a player and a hell of a kid. And [Kyrie] Irving is a tough guard, you know. But we looked tired there at the end, and we should have been. We're on the road and we've been on the road, and we still have to get Kalin back. I just didn't see that jet speed out of him that I saw out of these other guards, and that's expected.”
On Duke Freshman Guard Kyrie Irving:
“His speed most impressed me. I mean he can shoot it, but the way he can handle the ball and get inside out, you've got to corral him. It's hard to corral him when you've got a Singler sitting over in the wing. And one time we did late. We did a heck of a job corralling him, and he finds Singler in that wing, and Singler hadn't been making shots and he made two daggers right in a row. They just have so many weapons. I really like their team. I like the way they play. A lot of good things about them. I'm starting to like mine a little bit, and I think it's going to get better. I really do.”
On Michigan State's big guys:
“Well [Garrick] Sherman's been playing really well. I think you saw a little bit out of Adrian Payne, the way he makes a big block, a big rebound. But again, it goes back to this summer. I said that I watched Mike's [Krzyzewski] All-Access show. The guys were talking about playing together, and we just, a guy like Payne missed four-and-a-half months of lifting and he's just so weak yet. That's why I think we're still a work in progress. As everybody says, my teams are never good until the end of the year, I'm getting sick of that. This year I at least have a little bit of a reason. I think we showed at times, we had some resiliency tonight. We had some fight in us tonight. We made big strides tonight. Not morally, this was not a moral victory. It wasn't even close to that. But we competed better, and we got down and came back against a very, I mean I think this is the best team in college basketball, I really do, and we played some dandies over in Maui. I thought Washington might have been the best team we played. And UConn won it so, who the hell made up our schedule here?”
Opening Statement:
“Big time game. Two great groups of kids. Two great groups of men. It was a man's game tonight, both teams played it. They're [Michigan State] really good. Tom [Izzo] coaches them so you know they are going to be unbelievably well coached and play together. Those four kids, those veterans for them, [Kalin] Lucas and [Durrell] Summers and [Korie] Lucious and [Draymond] Green, very difficult to defend, very difficult to defend them. I thought we were difficult to defend too. Kyrie [Irving] was sensational, a difference maker. I thought Mason [Plumlee] was too because Mason had to play 35 minutes with the foul trouble we had and they kept alternating bigs and Mason got a double-double and five steals. As obviously sensational as Kyrie was, quietly Mason was outstanding, he was outstanding. I'm proud of our guys because we beat an outstanding team tonight. There wasn't a turning point, every possession was hard fought. We got ahead of ourselves on some of the fast breaks and probably lost about ten points, that's how you learn. We still have a lot to learn. I'm proud of my guys because they beat a heck of a team tonight.”
On what he would like to see Kyrie do better:
“Defend you know, but I'd like to see our whole team do it. They put a lot of pressure on you. They are about as good of a half court offensive team as there is, especially being a veteran group. They run their stuff well, but they make reads within their play and only veteran teams do that. In other words if you take a certain part of that play away they go to something else and they read each other well because they have played against each other. Kyrie was just great, you know he was sick, he didn't practice on Monday he was throwing up all morning and the practice Tuesday, I was a little bit worried as the game went along with him getting cramps but he handled it well.”
On the scheduling of Butler on Saturday:
“We scheduled a tough schedule, and a big thing for our team will be one, you can't practice tomorrow with those guys. We will have to see were Mason is with his sprained ankle and the guys who didn't play much we can get them to run. It will be more of a meeting and give them a preview of Butler and just not to have a hangover from a great game because we are going to play another really good team. A little bit different type of team, not as physical but as well coached so we'll see. In order to win later in the year you have to put two games like that together. It's great for us to be able to have that. That's why we scheduled it this way. We knew we would play Michigan State, we knew it would be Wednesday and we knew it would be midnight you know. So we wanted to play a team of championship caliber a couple days later and that's why we scheduled the Butler game when we did.”
On the whether the atmosphere felt like a March game:
“You know here at Duke we have been in a lot of March games in December, January, February because we are in a great conference and we have been able to schedule pretty well with the flexibility that our conference has given us with 16 games. When you have 16 games you are really able to schedule a national schedule and hopefully we can continue to do that. This was a big time game. I'm proud of our guys. We had to fight like crazy to win and the crowd was unbelievable, the atmosphere. The atmosphere here this year is I think as good as it's been in a long long time and it hasn't been bad. Hopefully we get it next week when we play Bradley and Saint Louis before exams too.”
On the pressure Michigan State applied to keep the game close:
“Well there is game pressure on you all the time for both teams. I didn't think Kyle [Singler] had a great game but he made great plays for us, those two threes in a row, that stick back with one second to go on the shot clock and then he in-bounded the ball without any mistakes the last four minutes when they were pressing. So did he have a bad game? He didn't have a bad game, but he didn't have a great game. That's what a good player does you know. When he hit those two threes he was 2-11, so it's not like you're hot and you still have to have the courage to take the shot and hit it. Nolan [Smith] was struggling with fouls, he only played 12 minutes in the first half and we had a couple of exchanges were he got five points for us right away. I thought, the two kids were obvious but Mason was right up there and we don't have him playing tonight the way he did, we don't win.”
Freshman Kyrie Irving
On coming back from illness earlier in the week:
“My teammates picked me up tonight, and they picked me up in practice on Monday. I was really excited for this game, and to play this well in a big-time game feels good.”
“My shots were falling early, and I was in rhythm every time I shot the ball. I feel as though I got a lot of good looks.”
On Michigan State's guards:
“We had an awareness on them. They're great players – Durrell Summers, Kalin Lucas, and [Korie] Lucious, he's a tremendous ball handler and scorer. So we just tried to limit their touches and just contest on the wings. My ball pressure created some of the contesting on the wings. We had an awareness on them all night.”
On the upcoming matchup with Butler:
“I'm expecting a little crowd. I'm really excited to go back home and play, especially against Butler. They're a great team, and I know Kyle and Nolan are really excited. They had a great game against them last year, so we're going to go into New Jersey and we're on a mission.”
Senior Nolan Smith
“Tonight was definitely a big win for us and a big step forward for this team. Kyrie played like a veteran. He was very mature tonight, and for a freshman to show up on this stage is huge. He doesn't play like a freshman, and he hasn't acted like a freshman. And this team, we're growing. In the last few weeks, we've played some very tough teams with Kansas State, Marquette, out to Oregon, and finally home for this game. We're growing and we just want to continue to get better. We have a tough game coming up against Butler. I feel like it's going to be another stepping stone for this team.”
“Michigan State is obviously a very good team and a very physical team. They were very well-balanced, they have great guard play with Korie Lucious, Kalin Lucas and Durrell Summers, and they have bigs inside that can bang and are athletic. They're really similar to us – the majority of the scoring comes from the perimeter and the big guys do the dirty work down low. I don't want to make predictions, but we could see them down the road.”
On the upcoming matchup with Butler:
“[I see] a team that's going to have a huge chip on their shoulder. We have to get the same chip. It can't just be a game versus the team that we beat last year. It can't be that because they're going to be looking at us as the Duke Blue Devils who just barely beat us. They're going to be mad coming into this game, and we have to have the same anger going against them.”
Senior Kyle Singler
“I don't really base my performance on missing shots or how many points I'm scoring, but, of course, when I'm not shooting the ball well, there is a little bit of frustration because I consider myself one of the scorers on the team. But I'm not frustrated. The main thing is we played well as a team, and we got the win.”
“Kyrie [Irving] was huge for us, on both ends of the court. But mainly he took care of business, and when things got tough, he made big plays for us. He had a great performance.”
“We have a lot of things to improve on. We've got to learn how to take care of the ball better. We got outrebounded tonight, so we can work on that. We still need to get better on both ends of the court. That might be hard for people to realize, but within our team and though the coaches, we've got a lot of improving to do.”
Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo
Opening Statement:
“Korie [Lucious] had a very good game. He had eight assists, he moved the ball. We just have to get Durrell [Summers] and Kalin [Lucas] even more involved. Like I said, Durrell, Dede [Draymond Green] and Delvon [Roe] struggled tonight, and we need those three guys no question.”
On comparisons between guards:
“You know I'm sick of seeing all these good guards to tell you the truth. They're all very, very good. You know I thought I saw a plethora of guards over in Hawaii, but then we run into another one today who's a great point guard, but we also run into some other guards that were very good. And I think our guys, if you take away anything, I don't know. Kemba Walker was so good over there, he was unconscious. But as far a speed goes, I think you can see that's one thing Kalin doesn't have back that he had. And he'll get that back. And you know what? We just might be a team to be reckoned with down the road. But it's still going to be a little ways down the road which I thought, and hopefully we build off this game.”
On needing consistency from Durrell Summers:
“Yeah that's an understatement. And like I said, all three of those guys tonight, I mean Dede [Draymond Green] bumped back a little bit in the second half. Between three turnovers and Durrell, we made some shots, but we just have to get him more shots, and he's got to get more shots. We brought him off a couple of screens early, but just wasn't ready to shoot. That's still a concern of mine. He's got to do a little bit more. He's not doing well and getting 11 or 12 points so there's something encouraging in that still.”
On layups:
“Yeah [Garrick] Sherman I think had one too. You know the layups, free throws. But the turnovers, turnovers, turnovers. They shot 47 percent I guess. When you get some layups that really kills that percentage. I thought our half court defense was pretty good. I thought we did a pretty good job on [Kyle] Singler. He's a hell of a player and a hell of a kid. And [Kyrie] Irving is a tough guard, you know. But we looked tired there at the end, and we should have been. We're on the road and we've been on the road, and we still have to get Kalin back. I just didn't see that jet speed out of him that I saw out of these other guards, and that's expected.”
On Duke Freshman Guard Kyrie Irving:
“His speed most impressed me. I mean he can shoot it, but the way he can handle the ball and get inside out, you've got to corral him. It's hard to corral him when you've got a Singler sitting over in the wing. And one time we did late. We did a heck of a job corralling him, and he finds Singler in that wing, and Singler hadn't been making shots and he made two daggers right in a row. They just have so many weapons. I really like their team. I like the way they play. A lot of good things about them. I'm starting to like mine a little bit, and I think it's going to get better. I really do.”
On Michigan State's big guys:
“Well [Garrick] Sherman's been playing really well. I think you saw a little bit out of Adrian Payne, the way he makes a big block, a big rebound. But again, it goes back to this summer. I said that I watched Mike's [Krzyzewski] All-Access show. The guys were talking about playing together, and we just, a guy like Payne missed four-and-a-half months of lifting and he's just so weak yet. That's why I think we're still a work in progress. As everybody says, my teams are never good until the end of the year, I'm getting sick of that. This year I at least have a little bit of a reason. I think we showed at times, we had some resiliency tonight. We had some fight in us tonight. We made big strides tonight. Not morally, this was not a moral victory. It wasn't even close to that. But we competed better, and we got down and came back against a very, I mean I think this is the best team in college basketball, I really do, and we played some dandies over in Maui. I thought Washington might have been the best team we played. And UConn won it so, who the hell made up our schedule here?”
Players Mentioned
F
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's BasketballCoach Scheyer Media Availability
Wednesday, September 24
Jon Scheyer Press Conference: Summer 2025
Tuesday, July 08
Duke vs Houston: Press Conference
Sunday, April 06
Duke vs Alabama: East Region Champions Press Conference
Wednesday, April 02
