BP: Was your first Duke Basketball road trip everything you expected?
Nolan Smith: It was definitely what I expected. We travel nice. We are taken care of very nicely. It was just a good trip in general with us winning the championship.
BP: How did you like Hawaii and had you been there before?
Nolan: It was beautiful. The weather was nice. It was good to get out of Durham a little bit. I had been there before during my freshman year of high school at St. John’s.
BP: Did you guys get a chance to explore a little bit or was it all business?
Nolan: We were mostly business until Wednesday night after we won the championship. That night, we were able to go out on the beach, get in the ocean a little bit, and have a lot of fun.
BP: At this point in the season, what can our team do to improve?
Nolan: As a team, we can always defend a little better. We can always push the ball even more than we are. We can just pick it up a notch. We can hold teams to fewer points, and I think that is the main thing we will work on.
BP: Last year at about this time, we lost to Marquette in an early-season tournament’s championship game as Dominic James poured in 25 points. I thought this year, one of the keys to beating Marquette was our depth and the variety of defensive looks we could throw at them with you obviously being a key to these improvements. Talk about that and your partnership with Greg at our point guard position.
Nolan: Greg and I — Our chemistry right now is great. When we sub in and out for each other, we keep each other fresh. With Dominic James being such a great player, you have to have fresh legs on him in order to check him, and a fresh mind in order to keep him in front of you and make him force shots. That was a key in the game. The second half, he only scored one point. Greg did a great job keeping him in front, and Kyle and Lance both took a lot of charges in the game when Dominic left his feet.
BP: Talk about the poise of our three freshmen. You guys seem to have a comfort level already that greatly exceeds what you would expect out of first-year college basketball players.
Nolan: The poise is natural, it is just in us, we are poised human beings. It extends from off the court to on the court. I have never been scared of anybody. I feel if I were to play against Kobe Bryant on any night, I would never back down and I wouldn’t be scared of him. That is how all of the freshmen here now approach the game. When we are out there, we just try to make plays with the confidence that we will do something good.
BP: Last year, for the first time in 12 years, Duke failed to win a championship during the season. What did it mean to you to win a championship in our first try this season?
Nolan: It feels great. That is what I wanted to do, come in and take this team to another level with my defense and my fearlessness. It was really letting the guys know it is a new year. Last year was over and done with, and the coaches are really excited about this year. Winning Maui was one of our goals and I knew we were going to win it before we even played our first game just with the confidence and relationships our team has. We went out there and took care of business.
BP: You guys seem to be a close-knit group that has a lot of fun playing together. Do you feel that way?
Nolan: Oh yeah, this is definitely one of the closest teams I have been on. We hang out all the time on the weekends. In Hawaii we were very close. That will take us a long way. The coaches said in the hotel they will mix up our roommates on the road, so we all get to know each other even better so we can continue to grow and get better on and off the court.
BP: Where do you personally go from here — What do you work on in the days ahead?
Nolan: Just take the big games we just played and run with them. Maintain my confidence and my ability to stop the other team’s point guards and helping the team win any way I can. Getting in the gym and getting lots of shots and continuing to get better.
