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| Hello Duke fans,
I hope you all are enjoying an amazing season of ACC basketball. The league is a good as I can remember it from top to bottom and the competition is fierce. Our game against Wake Forest marked the 6th time this season we have faced a top 10 in the country. Wake has terrific talent and athleticism. We showed great energy and a fighter’s spirit. G and Jon were sensational. It was the first time Coach K has had two players score thirty points in the same game – WOW! Also, the impact and contribution that Elliot Williams has made since he has entered the starting lineup has be so important to this team. He has set a great standard for our defense and he has given our team a real burst of energy. We are very proud of all of our guys and the week they have had. Our team has had some incredibly tough tests so far with more looming on the horizon. You may have noticed the uniforms in last night’s game were different than normal. Nike outfitted our team with new uniforms. It was the first time a uniform like this was worn in the history of college basketball. There was a subtle design that covered the back of the uniform that highlighted and combined the Duke Chapel and the Duke Basketball logo. Nike did an amazing job! The uniforms are an incredible way to connect the traditions and the cultures of Duke University on to each student-athlete’s uniform. We were honored to wear the uniform and be a part of college basketball history. Thanks to all our fans for the great support. In the ACC, you don’t have time to take victory laps so we are back at work preparing for a hot and re-energized Maryland team. Coach Williams really has his team playing well. The Maryland team has really taken on the personality of their coach – intense, tough, and competitive. It will be a really tough environment and our guys will need to be together and focused! Go DUKE, Coach Wojo |
Hello Duke Fans,
This is my favorite part of the year. Now that we have gotten into January and the ACC season is in full swing, every game has great meaning and every environment you play at on the road is tough. We are off to a great start in the ACC with a 5-0 record. Our conference this year is as strong as it has been in many years, so each win you get is extremely important. We just finished off a great week with wins over Georgetown, NC State and Maryland, all at home.
Playing a great non-conference opponent like Georgetown is always a lot of fun. Its one of the reasons why you come to Duke to play. I remember from my playing days, the great games we played against teams like Michigan, Temple and UCLA. Those are some of the games that I will remember forever. These kinds of games always give you a sneak preview of what it would be like to play in a big-time NCAA tournament game. Our guys were really excited about the game and our crowd was amazing. Gerald Henderson had an incredible 1st half in that that game and it carried us to a big win. I didn’t think he was going to ever miss!!
Next, we had to get back into our regular ACC schedule and routine. It was a quick turnaround with a Tuesday night game against NC State. NC State is a team that is extremely dangerous because they have good talent, especially in the frontcourt, and they seem to always to be ready to play against us. We felt like our guys were ready to play, but we got off to a terrible shooting start to the game. We only shot 20% in the first half and we trailed by four. At halftime, our staff told our guys that we were getting great shots and we just needed to keep shooting with the ball with confidence. The main thing we needed to keep doing was play great defense and hopefully wear them down. In the 2nd half we really turned it on. We shot an amazing 20-26 FGs and ended up winning 73-56.
To finish off the week, we had Maryland coming to town. Over the years, we have always had great games with Maryland. It doesn’t seem to ever matter what the teams records are. In fact, Maryland had been able to come into Cameron and win more than any other team in the past 10 years, so we knew that we had to be ready to play. It was a unique start time at noon, so one of the most important things was making sure our guys were up and ready to go once the ball was tipped. Well, our guys were sure ready! We put together maybe our best 40 minutes of the season on offense and defense and won 85-44. Overall, it was a great performance. The best part of the game was watching the unselfishness that our guys played with on offense. On our 31 FGs, we had 23 assists, and there were a couple fastbreaks where everyone touched the ball and it never hit the floor. We have really been stressing with our team that when we play together and share the ball, we are really a good team.
I have to give credit to the Cameron Crazies because they have been awesome this year. Our guys really feed off their energy and I hope they can keep it going the rest of the way because we are going to need everyone’s support.
It was exciting to see our guys recognized as being the #1 team in the country. These guys have really worked hard, and although the goal is to be #1 at the end of the year, it is an honor that we are proud of. Being #1 is not something we talk about on a daily basis. We just want to keep getting better and fully realize the potential of our group. We realize that there is still a long ways to go with the season. Other teams will always give Duke their best shot, so where we are ranked doesn’t really matter with that either. We know we don’t have any time to celebrate as we play at Wake Forest next. They are an incredible team, we are going to have to be at our best to have a chance to win on their home court.
With that said, I have to go get ready for the game.
Until next time, GO DUKE!!
Coach Collins
Happy New Year to all our Duke fans! I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and that 2009 is filled with health, happiness, and lots of Blue Devil championships!
Our team’s holiday season was a mix of business and pleasure. After the Xavier game, our players and staff got to go home to celebrate the holiday season with their families. Coach K has always been a big believer in having our players have a break around the holidays. He wants to them to connect and celebrate with their families as well as get refreshed for the challenges of the ACC season.
We got back together as a group on the morning of the 27th and began our preparation for the games ahead. This time, right after the holidays, is one of the most important times of the year. Because there are no cIasses and the rest of the student body is away, you have the opportunity to really focus on basketball and improving individually and collectively. I always loved this time as a player and I believe our guys do as well. Our team worked very hard prior to the New Year often practicing twice a day. We really focused on fundamentals and improving in all areas of the game. Our team really took advantage of this time. I think our guys know that we have the toughest schedule in the country and that we need to be prepared for the challenges ahead.
The ACC is again the toughest conference in the country. We have three teams ranked in the Top Five in the country and on any given night you can lose to anyone in the conference. Our guys are excited to see how we stack up against the competition!
I hope all our Blue Devil fans share in our excitement and will support our guys throughout 2009! As always, we appreciate your support and encouragement. Before I go, I wanted to give a special thanks to the energetic and loud crowd at our Davidson game and to all the Crazies who have already set up their tents in K-Ville!
Go Duke!
Steve Wojciechowski
Hello Duke Fans,
Needless to say, the season is now in full swing. We just got done with, maybe, our busiest week of the season last week. We played four games in seven days with travel to New York City for the 2K Sports Coaches vs Cancer Tournament. We started our week with a game vs Rhode Island in Cameron. As a staff, we knew that this was going to be a difficult game to play. We had just won two games earlier in the week to earn the right to play in Madison Square Garden in New York. However, before we did that, we had a hungry, experienced Rhode Island team coming into town to give us all we could handle in Cameron.
It was a special day for Coach K and our staff as we were fortunate to have a visit from legendary Coach Bob Knight. Obviously, Coach Knight has a special relationship with Coach K and is the all-time winningest coach in NCAA history. It was an honor to have him spend some time with us. He came to our shoot-around before the game and watched game film with our staff after the game. He was able to talk to our team about the little things that make a good team great. It was a special treat for all of us.
The Rhode Island game turned out to be one of the more exciting games in college basketball so far this season. Two of URI’s players, Jimmy Baron and Delroy James, had amazing performances, which enabled URI to pretty much control most of the game. Baron put on one of the best shooting performances I have witnessed in person as he made 7-8 3pt shots in the 2nd half. It seemed like each shot kept getting farther from the basket with tighter defensive pressure. I said after the game that now I know how other coaches felt having to coach against JJ Redick. The thing that was great to watch with this game was how hard our players continued to fight, even as URI kept hitting difficult shot after difficult shot. Kyle Singler and Jon Scheyer both had incredible performances for us and we were able to pull out a hard-fought 82-79 win.
We had little time to celebrate our Rhode Island victory, as we were now headed to New York City to play Southern Illinois in the semifinals of the 2K Sports Classic. Southern Illinois has been a program that has had a tremendous amount of success over the past 10 years and they have made their reputation with tough defense and maximum effort. Our players were very excited to play them in Madison Square Garden. Like Cameron Indoor, it is one of those places that feels special right when you step on the court. The day before the game, we were able to practice at the New Jersey Nets practice facility. The guys really enjoyed that as it showed them a glimpse of life on the next level. Midway thru practice, we got some good-natured ribbing from former UNC star Vince Carter, and we recieved a surprise visit at the end of practice by one of our former stars, Chris Duhon. We are really proud of how Chris has been doing as the starting PG for the New York Knicks and it was great for him to pass some things on to our current team.
We played a very sloppy first half against Southern Illinois. The best part about that game was the contributions we got from Brian Zoubek, Miles Plumlee and Elliot Williams. Each of those guys stepped up as our team was struggling. At halftime, we had 17 turnovers and neither Kyle Singler nor Gerald Henderson had a point in the game. In the second half, Kyle and Gerald combined for 33 pts, we were able to get in a better rhythm, and we pulled away for an 83-58 win. We were excited about playing for a Championship the following night.
We found out late that night that we would be facing Michigan in the championship game. Maybe people had predicted a Duke-UCLA title game, but Michigan pulled the upset in the semis. Michigan is an extremely well-coached team that plays a very unique style and system under Coach John Beilein. We told our team that it was going to take maximum concentration during our preparation for the game with only a short time to get ready. Our players really responded well. We had a total team effort as we won the tournament championship with a 71-56 win. Kyle Singler was named MVP with two outstanding performances, and Gerald Henderson made the All-tournament team. Everyone was very excited after the game. Winning a championship, no matter when it is, is a great accomplishment and we wanted our players to enjoy the moment.
We had an extremely quick turnaround as we had to face the Montana Grizzlies on Sunday afternoon. We didn’t arrive home until 2 AM on Saturday morning from NYC. It was going to take a mature group to re-focus and get ready to play after having great success in New York. As a staff, we knew that we were going to need all of our guys ready to play and contribute. Although banged up and a little tired from the week, our guys gutted out a 78-58 win. We were able to get 10 players over 10+ minutes and everyone did well. We had to play the game without Greg Paulus, as we try to get him healthy from a forearm injury. We are hoping that he will be ready to go for our next game against Duquesne. We certainly missed not having him out there.
As you can see, it was a long, but successful week for our team. Four games, four wins and we want to keep getting better each step along the way. It is a long season and we are excited about the journey. We will need for all of you to continue to support us.
Goodbye for now and we wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving!
Coach Collins
It was an exciting time for our team last week as we were finally able to start practice, have our Blue-White Scrimmage and then play our first exhibition game of the season. As a staff, we were all looking forward to getting started with the beginning of practice. We are only allowed 2 hours per player of individual work per week in the preseason, so the opening of practice really allows us to begin to build our team. Over the past week, we have been able to start to put in our offensive and defensive systems, as well as begin to define roles and mix and match lineups. All of our players came into the start of practice in great shape. Our strength and conditioning team, headed by William Stephens, did a fantastic job of building our guys’ bodies up for the rigors of a long season. We are excited and believe that this year’s team is one of the most veteran, deepest and talented teams that we have had in quite a few years. Both the players and the coaching staff hold high expectations for the potential of this group.
The other great thing about the past week was giving the players two different opportunities to play in front of a packed house in Cameron Indoor. It’s one thing to be able to practice hard and well, but totally different to be able to perform when the lights go on. In only our 2nd day of practice, we held our annual Blue-White scrimmage. We decided to play two separate 15 minute games and switch the groups at the end of the first. The Blue-White game is always a fun event for the players and fans, as everyone gets a first glance at this year’s Duke team. It is also very special for the freshman class as it is their very first game in front of the Cameron Crazies. Overall, we were very pleased with the performance of the guys. Obviously, it is still very early in the season and we have a lot to improve upon, but each of the guys showed glimpses of what everyone can hope to expect. Both the White and the Blue teams each came away with a victory on the day. Coach Wojo and Coach James coached the White teams and Coach Spatola and I handled the Blue. Maybe the best part of the day was having the football team walk through Cameron on their way to the stadium to play Miami. The fans gave them an unbelievable reception when they arrived.
After using the rest of the week to continue to work hard and improve, we had a chance over the weekend to have our first exhibition game of the season. The NCAA allows all Division I teams to hold up to 2 exhibition games that can be played against Division 2 or 3 opponents. For us, our first game was against Virginia Union. VA Union is a program that has had a tremendous amount of success throughout the years. They have won alot of championships on the Division II level and have alumni that have included NBA stars Charles Oakley and Ben Wallace. We were excited to have the opportunity to play them. Our whole staff was very happy with the effort of our team. Our motto for the game was “Play every play hard”. We felt like we accomplished our goal. It was a little sloppy early on the offensive end, but a lot of that was attributed to the guys being anxious to play and make things happen. Our defense was very strong as we held VUU to 17 points in the first half. We were able to settle in offensively and finish the game with a 114-50 victory. The best part of the VUU game was being able to get everyone on the team valuable game experience, especially the freshmen. It also gave Coach K a chance to experiment with different lineups as we continue to figure out what is going to be best for our team. Overall, 11 guys played 10+ minutes and 6 guys scored in double figures. We were proud of how the guys approached the game.
Now, we have the next 10 days to continue to practice and build our habits. We have our final exhibition game on Nov 5th against Lenoir-Rhyne before we begin the regular season on Nov. 10th against Presbyterian. Hopefully, all of you can check us out and watch us grow as the season progresses. No doubt, this is an exciting time of year!! We have a lot of work to do, so I gotta run!
