NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: REGIONAL SEMIFINAL - TEXAS TECH VS DUKE

March 23, 2022

Mike Krzyzewski

Paolo Banchero

Mark Williams

Wendell Moore

Chase Center

Duke Blue Devils

Sweet 16 Media Conference

Q. Paolo, I know that AAU and those sorts of things, all-star games and all that were sort of curbed when you were coming through as a result of COVID. Have you ever had the chance to compete with Chad Holmgren? Did you ever play against one another or with one another?

PAOLO BANCHERO: Yeah. We went to some of the same camps in high school, and then we actually got to play against each other at the Iverson Classic last May.

Q. (Off microphone).

PAOLO BANCHERO: Chet is a great player. Me and him are cool. We talk here and there. Yeah, he is always a challenge to play against. It's alleges fun.

Q. Kind of for all three of you, one of the talking points heading into this game is the average age of the starting five. Yours being 19. Texas Tech's being 22. How do you feel like you match up against some of those guys that have a little more miles on their legs in college basketball?

MARK WILLIAMS: For us it's an opportunity for us. Those guys have played a lot of college basketball, and even though we're younger, I feel like we also have experience. Played Michigan State just last game, high-level game. We played a number of those games with a lot of high-stakes, high-intensity. I think with us we are younger, but at the same time we're really a together group. We know what it takes to win, and we're willing to do that.

Q. This question is for Wendell. You talked a little bit about your free-throw routine against Michigan state, the way you close your eyes, deep breaths, that kind of thing. I was curious, though, when did you develop that? Was that something in high school or during college, and did anyone kind of help you with that?

WENDELL MOORE JR.: It's been something that I've kind of been developing for a while. My routine is always to take a deep breath in between. Now I just started to close my eyes before. It just really helps me feel like I just center myself. It can only be me in the room, so I feel like that kind of gives me an advantage in a hostile atmosphere, things like that. It's been working out, so I'm just going to keep it going.

Q. (Off microphone.)

WENDELL MOORE JR.: I would probably say that before the game and stuff like that I do something close to it, but just really any time I do that, really just -- I just center myself back into focus. I'm big on meditation, and it's just a way for me to kind of practice it.

Q. Paolo, Texas Tech's defense are known for that this year. As you watch film and scout them, what aspects of that jumps out to you as being particularly strong, and does it remind you of anybody you've played this year, and how do you plan to -- what do you need to do to attack it successfully?

PAOLO BANCHERO: They're a great defensive team. Really physical. Really active. They swarm the ball. There's two, three guys at the ball as soon as you get in the paint. So really not just trying to go one-on-one and isolate. There's not going to be a lot of opportunities for that really with the way they play, so it's really just going to come down to moving the ball, playing together, and taking quality shots as a team.

Q. This question is for Mark. Mark, after the game on Sunday Coach K mentioned your improvements on defense and lateral movements. I'm just wondering what it's been? It's obviously translated into a lot of blocks down the stretch. I'm wondering who you were working with and kind of when that maybe changed or your improvement came throughout the season?

MARK WILLIAMS: I would probably say in the offseason we did a lot of lateral movement work just at Duke. The entire team, I think, improved a lot on the defensive end, like moving, guarding. I think that's probably the biggest thing. I think we're seeing it now. Obviously we're in the thick of things in March Madness. This is really where you have to guard your yard, stuff like that, so probably that's my answer to that.

Q. This question is for Wendell. Also about Texas Tech's defense, you guys had so much success at the end of the Michigan State game, really just driving and taking it down the middle against them, but Texas Tech set up to keep you from doing that. What adjustments do you have to make or have you talked about with sort of their approach?

WENDELL MOORE JR.: I think really the main thing is just being strong with the ball. Like Paolo said, they're a very physical team. They kind of force you into the paint where they have three, four guys waiting on you. I think if we are strong with the ball, play off two feet, really just play together, we're going to have to make a lot of connecting plays. This can really be a game where you have a lot of assists, a lot of made shots. We all just have to be shot-ready because they leave people open sometimes, like around the perimeter, around the three. We're ready to shoot, knock down some shots, then I think we'll be in a good spot.

Q. Wendell, wearing a Duke jersey itself comes with added pressure and scrutiny, I know, but as the circus rolls downhill towards Coach's eventual last game, has it felt different? How do you guys -- I know you are insulated for it at some and level, but how? How do you avoid and ignore it?

WENDELL MOORE JR.: The main thing we do we really just stick together. Through all the ups and downs, the crazy media posts, the shame and the praise. I mean, we all just kind of do it together. You know that we're not going to be able to do any of it without each other. That includes Coach. So the 14 guys on our team, the five coaches on our staff and our community and our family, we keep it a tight-knit circle so we don't get too high on things or get too low on things. I think we do a good job using each other to help us stay in that balance.

Q. This one is for Paolo. You mentioned last week how you were excited to get back over here and that you would have some support. I'm wondering what kind of support do you have for tomorrow as far as maybe friends or family being here, and what does it mean for you to be able to play back on the West Coast especially on this stage?

PAOLO BANCHERO: It's a great feeling. As soon as the bracket first came out, I saw San Francisco was the location, and immediately got excited. Yeah, I got a lot of family out here. Immediate family. I have distant family. I have friends. There's a lot of people, so support is going to be strong, and I'm glad to be able to play, like you say, on this stage just because it's not every day that anybody gets to experience a sweet 16 game. So for it to be close to home, relatively close to home is good. Especially playing at Duke, it's only the second game we've played on the West Coast. So it's a good opportunity for my family who haven't been able to see me to come see me.

Q. This question is for Wendell. In Greenville you were talking about how Coach mentioned it to you the last five minutes were all heart. How would you describe how a team gets to that point where it's just heart that's willing you to win the game and have you seen that in past Duke teams you've been on here?

WENDELL MOORE JR.: I think the main way we kind of fought through was really just through trial and tribulations. A couple of other games -- a couple of other games earlier in the season we were kind of in the same situation. When we were up or down late in the game we have a chance to fold or we have a chance to kind of come together and say we're going to do this. I guess going down five with five minutes left, just looking at everybody's face on the bench, nobody had a losing face. Everybody's face was strong. Everybody's face was like, come on, let's go, let's do this. We only had five minutes -- we only had five minutes of basketball left in our guaranteed career this season, so with this team we didn't -- I mean, we just didn't want our dream to end early. I mean, this team loves each other so much. I mean, we just want to keep playing so we found a way and dug deep, and everybody who was on the court helped out. Ultimately we found a way.

Q. This question is for Mark. In speaking to the Texas Tech players, they said that in asking about their underdog mentality, they said they didn't have any top recruits, no Five Stars that came into their program. Duke right now is a one-point underdog, which is not often the case. How do you guys approach this game kind of maybe in an underdog role? How do you approach it?

MARK WILLIAMS: I mean, for us to know that we're the underdog sort of speaks to itself for us. Obviously, you have to have that mindset knowing we're not favored to win the game.

As far as Texas Tech is concerned, obviously, they're a great team. Even though they don't have those five-star guys, they're still obviously a great team. I mean, they're in the Sweet 16, so obviously, they're one of the best teams out, but we're also one of the best teams out as well, so it's going to be a battle. It's going to be a tough game, and we just have to be prepared for it and prepare ourselves mentally and physically.

Q. This is kind of to piggyback on Dana's question about insulating yourself from the noise around Coach K, and I'm curious just knowing these are going to be his last few games, does that give you a little extra motivation in and juice when you step on the court?

PAOLO BANCHERO: Yeah, definitely. All season we've been dealing with it. It's Coach's last something every game, so it's just -- I mean, that's not all we're motivated by, obviously. We come out and we know it could be our last game as a group. Obviously, last -- Coach's last game, it's his last year he is coaching, so we want to send him out the right way, and that's been the motivation since the beginning was to send him out on top.

I wouldn't say it's something we talk about before every game. That's just kind of -- it's just a given. We know that. We just come in every game focused.

Q. Hey, Mark and Wendell. Texas Tech's players, obviously their defense is what it is. They were talking about how they like to use their length defensively to make a difference. You guys can do sort of the same thing. We talk a lot about their defense, but for you guys what's the key to shutting down their offense and making it tough for them to get the looks they want?

WENDELL MOORE JR.: Really just playing together on the defensive end. For us their two main scorers are at their 4 and 5 position, so we really key in on them, and also their perimeter is really good too. Their perimeter loves to get downhill. They love to find open guys for shots. Most of their offense comes from the defense a lot too. We do a good job in not turning the ball over and not getting easy run-outs in transition. Really just playing like us. If we feel like -- if we play like us on both offense and defense, it's going to be a great game.

Q. Mark, Durham is over it 2,400 miles away from here. What's it like going clear across the country? Paolo was talking about second time playing on the West Coast. What's it like trying to get through jet lag and all the physical conditions you have to get through tomorrow?

MARK WILLIAMS: We got here yesterday. We flew out yesterday morning. We got here. We practiced. Sort of just getting accustomed to the time difference and all that, but it hasn't been too bad. Obviously, we got to sleep on the plane a little bit. Tried to stay up to get accustomed to the time I think we've done a pretty good job adjusting, ultimately. The schedule has been pretty good.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, if you could make an opening statement and then we'll take questions.

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Obviously, we're having excited to be here. Quick turnaround for us from Sunday night. We got out yesterday, and we were able to practice at San Francisco and kept them up a little bit later so we get accustomed to the time zone. I think we're good. We're good.

We're healthy. A.J. will be fine. He will be able to play. Ready to go. Ready to go. I'll be happy to try to answer your questions.

Q. When you look at Mark Adams just not as a coach, from an X's and O's standpoint and the cards that he was dealt with the players leaving and Chris Beard leaving. How impressed are you from a coaching standpoint that he was able to right the ship the way he did?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Well, he got new cards. He didn't just work with the cards that were dealt. He did a lot of work. He did a lot of work. They probably have as many transfers as any program in the country. Established transfers, guys who -- Obanor, Williams who have been outstanding players in their respective programs, and once he got them together to get them together to play at such a high level.

We have one of the youngest teams, if not the youngest team I've coached, and you're trying to build habits. When you get transfers, older, and especially established players, they're already pretty well set in the way they play, and so for him to be able to get all of them to be on the same page is a beautiful thing to watch, especially on the defensive end where they've been committed and probably are the best defensive team in the country.

Q. Mark Adams joked that you had him on the podcast --

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: It's not a podcast. We have a show on Sirius. I'm not one of those podcast -- which they're great, but we actually are in our 16th year on Sirius XM.

Q. You had him on the show, but he joked he knew you would be scouting him one day. Did you get any scouting tips from that? And what are your overall thoughts on the journey that he has taken as a coach?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: I'm very impressed with him and know of him and have known about him for a long time. We actually just passed each other and spent a couple of minutes talking. He said he asked me more questions than I asked him, and I said, yeah, your answers, though, were a lot better than mine.

He has learned the game, like a lot of us have plane stops that we've gone, he has learned it with bus stops, the different levels that he has been at. A lot like the guy he worked for in Chris Beard. I respect the heck out of that because when you do that for as long and as successful as he has been, you do it -- like we make a lot of money. When you are at the bus stops, you don't make a lot of money. You better love what you do.

It's obvious that that's what he has done, and he has taken it to a really high level.

Q. I wanted to ask you about A.J. When you said he'll be fine, are you talking about 100%? And then as well as I wondered if you could talk about the last five minutes or so without him and how impressed you might have been with how the guys adjust to not having that threat on the perimeter?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: When I say -- obviously, he sprained his ankle, but he practiced yesterday. Minimal soreness today, and we're getting ready to have a non-contact workout today.

He'll be ready to go. The last five minutes were the most important five minutes of our season because Michigan State had played at such a high level and took the lead, and then during those five minutes we played outstanding defense, but a number of different guys stepped up offensively to make -- in their young careers -- their biggest buckets. Whether it be Keels. Whether it be Paolo on the drive on the baseline, and definitely Jeremy's.

That's cool to be able to be with a young group where they have that moment and you share it with them.

Q. You're getting ready to take on the No. 1 defense by adjusted efficiency in the country, and your players just told us about how they swarm to the ball, and I have noticed in film study how active they are with their hands, and, of course, the age difference a little bit. Can you talk to us a little bit about what you do maybe differently preparation-wise or do you keep things kind of the same at this point of the year?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: No, we prepare the same for every opponent, and there's just certain points of emphasis that you have for each opponent offensively and defensively, and on offense whomever we're playing, you try to come up with an offensive menu that might work against the defense you're going to face, whether it be Jim Boeheim's zone, Tony Bennett's pack line, a hard North Carolina place and high contests and all that. We'll try to put together a short menu of things that we've done before, but that will try to score against them.

Q. Mike, a lot of times when coaches even if they're lucky enough to make a retirement decision on their own, not have it made for them, they may be the only ones or maybe a very small circle who know that this will be the last season. What's it been like to have this be such a public thing for you where everybody really knows?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: When I made the decision along with my President Vince Price last spring, I told him I would like to coach one more year, and if that was okay with him, but I wanted to announce it in the spring or early summer because I didn't want to recruit in an unethical manner where you are telling a kid that he might play for you, and then you're going to pull the plug.

He agreed to that, and then they went through a selection process, and Jon is a great, great decision on their part. I've just tried to jump in and do this season like I do any other season, without thinking it's going to be my last one. I didn't want to leave the program after COVID 13-11. I love Duke. I love our program. I felt that continuity and how we might continue to have continuity was extremely important, and I think it's worked out great. Not good. It's worked out great.

Q. (Off microphone).

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: The public thing has not hurt me. It wears on you a little bit because everywhere you walk, everyone is taking a picture of you and they're watching everything. Look, that gets old. You know, that gets old.

But I feel for my guys. They've had pressure put on them that we're not putting on them. I tell them all the time, we're playing for us, for you, but then it just works out. No one -- it's not a sinister plan against us or anything, but it just happens that way. Since the end of the regular season and especially the start of the -- I think we're through. We're completely through with all that, and our guys, that's helped them get a little bit more refreshed also.

Q. Excuse the provincial question a bit, but Tara VanDerveer down at Stanford is the all-time women's winningest coach. I think 45 behind you. Curious, have you had any interaction with her and what you think about her career and the possibility of her passing you in the next couple of years?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Congratulations. I know her. I've known her for years. She's one of the outstanding coaches in the world. Don't separate men and women. She's one of the outstanding strategists in the world.

The number of games can never be -- that can't be what you would think of. I don't -- that would be really a bad thing, but she's terrific, and Stanford has been very lucky to have her for all these years.

Q. For those of us maybe who aren't as good as you are at compartmentalizing things --

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: I'm going to do a Master Class on that this spring.

Q. We'll all sign up. How, though, seriously? Many of us faced in a public situation like this, and even in your own mind, it's my last this, is it my last, how do you function through that and not get lost in it?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Well, you know, we've been on -- I've been fortunate to be on a very public stage for a long, long time, and in my young days I had great training at the United States Military Academy, and in five years as a military officer to focus on the job at hand. That's your orders. That's your mission. It's not about the battle you won. It's about the battle you are going to fight. Then when it's over, there's going to be another battle. I used, it's probably an old thing, no rearview mirror in your car. You never look back. That's why I have a hard time remembering -- like someone will say, do you remember that game that you played? No, I don't remember it. Why? What good would that do? It would not help me right now unless some lesson that I learned in it helped me change the way we coach.

There are a lot of things I cannot do, but I can do what the compartment whatever thing that you just said. It's like so many syllables. It's not in my vocabulary.

Q. Wendell mentioned today that he likes to meditate, does his breathing exercises before his free-throws. How have you seen him mentally mature in the last three years? And does that have a trickle-down effect on the rest of the team?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Yeah, definitely does have a huge impact because he is our leader. To see him so composed in those pressure situations and come through is very -- it's big. Those free throws, it makes it a lot easier maybe to make a move or take a shot because we put some points on the board.

And for Wendell he is still very young too. He was the 18-year-old freshman, so he is just 20. On this team he is the veteran. He is the old guy, and I think he has absolutely had a fabulous year for us. Not just in stats, but in leadership and in developing.

These guys have been really close. They're a very close team, and I've never had one attitude problem or you figure out how do we bond them or whatever? Wendell has been the guy who has helped in that regard.

Q. Mike, I know it's not top of mind, obviously. This is a business trip for you guys, but this is the first time that San Francisco is hosting an NCAA Tournament since 1939, I believe, which was the first NCAA Tournament. Haven't been here long, but what do you think of the venue, and what do you think of I guess the hoops culture out here in the Bay Area in general?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: I'm very familiar with the hoops culture. What Coach Newell and the old AAU teams from here. A lot of people in the East do not realize that this is a strong, deep-rooted love of basketball area as there is. 50 years ago I spent in '71 and '72 a lot of time here when I was in the Army. I was able to try out and make the All-Army teams. We lived in barracks at the Presidio. Hal Fisher, one of the great coaches, coached a team. I was out here at least four different times for six-week periods, and then we would go and play in the World Military Olympics either in Iran, Syria. I know this area well. Heck, when we practiced yesterday at San Francisco, we practiced there. Bobby Geran, who passed, used to help run that place. It's conjured up a lot of the great memories, but also I try to tell my guys, this area loves basketball. It loves -- not just the Warriors. It's deep-rooted.

In their gym at San Francisco, they have three national championships, so at the end of practice I brought them together. Okay, '55, '56, who was the best player, and they all yelled out Bill Russell. I was actually a little surprised. I was ready to kind of dig in on them, but they knew it. I love this area. It really is part of the foundation of me becoming a coach. Playing and then helping Coach Fisher a little bit when we went on these tours.

Q. You've talked a lot this last week about defense, connecting on defense, the communication, and I was going through our archives back in 1986. There was a clip of you and some great footage of your guys. You were talking about the guys slapping the floor when they get back on defenses.

I'm just wondering if there's anything that maybe we don't see that you have used to get the guys' attention when they get back maybe in critical moments on defense?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Well, that's been an old thing and probably Wojo took it to the highest level. We really don't talk about it that much with this team as much as just playing good defense. We've been a really good defensive team. After we won the regular season, the next four games -- Carolina and the three in the ACC Tournament -- we were not very good defensively.

Then we had four days of practice, and I think we're back to playing better and closer to the level that we were playing at before. We're going to have to play really good defense against them. I mean, their two leading scorers are their two big men, and they're not conventional big men. Obanor shoots the most threes. Williams is -- he could have been Big 12 Player of the Year, he is that good.

They're going to be very difficult to defend, and they're going to be very difficult to score against. I guess adding those two up, equals they're going to be very difficult to beat. I think we'll be ready, and I think it's going to be a heck of a game.

Thank you all.