Duke
Duke's Jon Scheyer on Wake Forest: "They're really like a top 25 team"
Duke head coach Jon Scheyer shows support for Wake Forest after the team's 77-69 win over the Demon Deacons.
All right. Um, well, look, I think that's a really good win for us. I'll just tell you guys this. I, I think Wake Forest man is a big time team. Like I, I don't think they get the respect nationally. They, they're really, they've had three different teams all year. To be honest with you guys, this is really at least the second different team. You know, they start off four and three since then. They've only lost four games when Reed is playing. You know, you had a guy like Monsanto later in the year. We know him. Well, Monsanto, he's a dangerous player. So for them, even with that, if you look statistically analytically all that stuff, they're really like a top 25 team. And so for us one, I don't know how you don't think that's a tournament team. That's the first thing. But the second thing is they're really good and so they kept answering us, I mean, for us to have the lead the whole game or was tied too, but for us not to give them the lead for 40 minutes, I think that's a big time thing. I thought Mark and flip were men. I thought they were really tough tonight. And, uh, you know, these guys, anybody who doubts their toughness or they're about, they don't know, Mark Mitchell, they don't know Kyle Philip Posy. Those guys were, uh, just men tonight and I could go down the list. You know, Jared is four out of five games. He's had, uh, double digit rebounds and, uh, he's a warrior. You know, we were kind of banged up. Tyrese was a little banged up but he was battling through um I thought Jeremy stepped up to hit some big time shots. So anyway, I'll let you guys ask me questions, but I just want to say that uh from the get go, hey John, now I can hear you, you, you mentioned with Kyle, you've been trying to get him back to this level the past couple of weeks, what has allowed him to be able to come back and have that sort of performance and what does it sort of say again, continuing about his character to be able to come back like that, you know. Um Kyle man is um he's, he's a different guy, you know, like he's um cal is very thoughtful, very thoughtful and he takes the uh pressure of the responsibility that he has for a team and when he's not playing as well, he takes that on his shoulders and, you know, basketball is not a per you, you're not, it's not a sport that you're supposed to be perfect in. And so for him, it's just embracing that and he's doubled down on the work that he's put in. You know, if you saw him earlier today, he got a great workout with uh Coach Carwell on the court uh to really just simulate what he's gonna do in the game. And, uh I thought the main thing he did, he just had a different burst to him tonight. You know, he just uh I'm proud of him for that because it's not supposed to be smooth sailing all the time. Even when you come back as a sophomore, you think it's supposed to be better. Well, it's only better if you make it better and uh he's made it better. Uh especially tonight, John, uh you really compressed your rotation in the second half, I assume Proctor's head injury had something to do with that. But still you ask some of your key players to play a lot of minutes in the second half, you talk about how that happened, how they responded. Well, it's hard to take Mark Mitchell or Kyle Filipowski off the court when they're playing that way, you know, and like we've always done it here and we always will, if a guy has it going and as long as they're playing defense and battling every play, which they were, you know, it's hard to make a sub at that time and guys still have to be ready things can change quickly. Um, I don't think it's gonna go that way all the time, but tonight we just, we found a great groove there in the second half and it's hard to sub, uh, mark, flip a, any of those guys when they have it going and, uh, thought they just did a great job playing for 40 minutes. Do you have any rate on, on Proctor's head injury? Not yet. I need to go see him after this is, is Jared doing anything differently to, to account for the rebounding. I mean, did you have a conversation with him that he needs to be more aggressive or is he taking it upon himself or what's, what's the cause of it? Uh, the cause of it is, I, I think he's a guy that would do whatever it takes to win at any cost. And, you know, look, we're, we have a smaller perimeter this year than we normally do. We play basically three point guards at the same time. And, uh, so we've emphasized a lot gang rebounding. We need guard rebounding and Jared has just done such a good job. You know, he's guarded, we've done some unorthodox things. He's even guarded fours and fives at times the way we've matched up because he's just so tough. He battles and, uh, and then, you know, seeing what he does, we let him go to the offensive boards, you know, he gets, he just comes up with plays and, uh, he's got great nose for the ball. Uh, he's one of those guys that makes plays within the play. You know, a lot of guys will just make 11 effort at it or one play. He makes plays within the play. And, uh, so it's really all him. He just, he's a competitor. A vast majority of the season wakes prominently been in drop coverage last couple of weeks, probably since Syracuse game. They've been a little more aggressive hedging blitzing. Um, and it felt like in the second half tonight, things really swung when you got to those empty corner looks. Um, is that something you had to feel coming into tonight? That could, you know, if the game gets tight, this is something we can go to or is that more just, uh, what you saw how things were going and decided to pivot to it during the game? Excuse me? Uh, well, you hit on the head, they played, not just drop, but they played a deep drop early in the year. And recently they've been blitz and ball screens and, uh, you know, for us, we went over it. I thought we were prepared for the thing that you can't simulate, they have great size, you know, read car, their wings. And so some of the plays we thought could be open, probably weren't open in the first half because of their size and activity and I thought they sped us up a little bit. We didn't handle it well. And then the second half, I just thought we had better poise against it. And, uh, our guards did a better job getting out of their hands quick. Our bigs got out quicker and, uh, then they went to drop and then they went back to it at the end. And, uh, because ST, excuse me, because Steve's a big time coach. I mean, they're, they're, uh, always one of the toughest teams to play. And I think the thing for us is we've already seen so many different ways of de defending us, you know, whether it's junking the game up and not guarding as many guys, whether it's switching blitzing. And, uh, I thought our guys had great poise. I mean, shoot, we had 48 points in the second half and, uh, did a great job with that John, you had that moment in the second half where you tossed the ball to the refs and then you really got the crowd involved in the game. Cameron got as loud as I've heard it in a while in that moment. Was there something conscious there? Was it just your own pure emotion? I mean, take me through what you were sort of thinking as you were waving your arms to get everybody up. You know, I was just, uh, just emotional, you know, just emotional like I just, uh, I don't think this group and look that's on us to prove it. Uh We'll be right there at the end of this thing. I'm just telling you guys, like I, I just, I believe in these guys so much and uh we've been through a lot in the first two years. Like this is my first two years. The support of the crowd has been incredible and this is a key game for us. It was a key moment and I was fired up because Mark Mitchell made a heck of a play, you know, on the sideline, he had great hands. And again, just like, I don't expect our guys to be perfect. Officiating is never gonna be perfect. That has nothing to do with it. The ball came my way and I just, I want to shoot it at first, but uh I knew I couldn't do that. And uh I just, it was just how I felt in that moment and uh Cameron, they're great. They always respond to you the, the, the, the fans, the students, they always respond. And that to me is what makes this place different and special. Yeah, and that's great when that happens. And you just, uh I just, um you know, I wanted us, I, I thought we had a lead there in the first half just to get separation. And um and I think these guys there, there's so much noise sometimes and I just want them to keep believing in themselves, like keep believing in this group we have everything you need. Just, uh, you need to keep growing, you need to keep learning. And I trust how many times we've seen Jeremy Roach and Kyle Philippos in a two man game. And, uh, I knew I was going in when I left his hands. Coach, speaking of growth, uh, back to mccain, where has he grown from your standpoint? That doesn't necessarily show up on a stat sheet, whether it's his patience poison. Where has he grown the most? You feel? You know, uh Jared, you know, his defense has just come such a long way too. And for freshmen, that's the hardest adjustment. You know, the, the physi how to, how to be physical without following uh how to move as the ball moves different rotations, different things. You're, it's just different and it's at a faster speed and he's embraced all of that and he's not, not only is he not, not that he ever was a liability or anything like that, but he can really guard like it's an advantage for us when he's guarding the ball or he does, you know, some people call it dirty work. We call it winning plays when, when you crack in on the weak side to black out a big like he does all that stuff. And uh he's really grown. The other thing you can coach Jared hard without hurting his confidence. And I think for, uh it's a key thing for a lot of young players, you know, like you can get on them and it can hurt their confidence with Jared. He can take coaching hard, you know, and he's still gonna shoot the next shot the same way and that's what you want. And, uh it allows you, it allows him to really grow as a player. And that's, uh, that's a key thing. Uh Kyle mentioned that while him and mark what they do offensively is different when they are clicking at the same time, it makes what he does 1000% each easier. Can you just touch on how those two clicking at the same time offensively? Uh helps the team, you mentioned 48 points in the second half. You know, uh We feel we basically play five guards together, you know, even though flip is 7 ft, he has a game like a guard, you know, he's shot six threes tonight. He's handling, he's passing, Mark the same thing, he's a guard and usually they have bigger, they have big guarding them. And so, you know, you're able to surround them with shooting and for those guys to be able to make plays downhill, however you can get it to him there. Um It changes our team and, you know, I said it to our team after last game, Mark needs to touch it more. He just, he needs to touch it more because good things happen when he touches it and if it translates to scoring 23 points and then that's great, but it's also gonna translate. He can have a game where he has seven assists or gets to the foul line even more. And, uh, those guys are just so smart for their size and their ball handling ability. They're special players and, uh, we gotta keep getting them in the right spots. Um, and the two of them going together is, uh, makes me happy. I know that much. So, uh anyway, I'm proud of those guys. All right. Thank you guys. Make sure.