Duke
Kara Lawson: "In basketball terms, we're not 21 yet. We don't even drink"
Duke head coach Kara Lawson says the team's inexperience and youth played a role in the team's struggles against No. 4 NC State on Sunday.
It was a tough game for us this evening or this afternoon. I don't even know what time of day it is. Um, I thought they played with great passion, great effort, um, great physicality and, um, you know, we just didn't handle that. Well, uh, I don't think we handled the, the intensity of it to start. Certainly. And that happened to us on Thursday. You know, we got down early in the game, um, you know, against, against Virginia Tech. And, um, you know, we've got to figure out a way to, to not put ourselves in that hole and, you know, team, these teams are too good to be able to climb out of those holes. Um, so, um, you know, they, they, they played well and, and certainly, um, ha had a lot of, you know, a lot of success against us and so we'll have to regroup and, and, um, see, see if we can't, uh, get another win here on Thursday. I open the question. So I am here. I don't like that kind of got a little bit, got chance to get in transition and not being said, what was happening. Yeah, I'd I'd have to go back and look, I, I, because I, I'll have a bad memory. I don't know that some of them are live ball but not a ton of them. There was actually a lot of moving screens and travels called there in that first half, which were the dead ball variety. Um, but yes, definitely. Um, we were not, uh, we were out of rhythm for sure. Um, on the offensive end in that first quarter. And, uh, you know, they're, they're very good in transition, very good at running at you. And, uh, but I just thought we were hurried more than anything. Um, and that, that forced those travels and those moving screen calls, you called the Georgia Tech game. It was a complete game and you have the, the impressive win over. Did you sense any sort of hangover coming into today's game or is it really just a credit to kind of went into seated? Um, I, I don't know that we're nuanced enough to have hangovers. I mean, in basketball terms, we're not 21 yet. We don't even drink. I mean, listen, I'm playing the youngest, I'm playing the freshman the most minutes in the AC C. Um, we're the youngest team in the league in terms of players that play. And so this is what it is. Ok. Uh, I wish it wasn't like this, but this is what it is. They're learning on the fly, how to compete against um really experienced players and we ran into an incredibly experienced team tonight. I mean, Collins is 1/6 year Baldwin, 1/5 year Hayes, 1/4 year, um James and Rivers, third years and, and you see how they performed because they have that experience. They've been in so many big games before and that experiential wisdom matters and we just haven't built that yet. That doesn't mean that we're supposed to lose or that doesn't mean that we can't win. It's just these are new experiences for us. We've never played on the road, you know, in, in, in an environment, you know, like this yet this year. Well, probably Stanford, you know what, in the nonconference, but that's one experience. Whereas if you talk to players that have played in, in this league, not just the NC State players, any player, one season in this league, you play in like six of them and so you learn how to, how to, how to play in them and you learn how to have success in them. And so, um no, I don't think it was a hangover. I think it was just, we just ran into a really good team and, and uh experienced team and, and they beat us. I mean, ultimately at the end of the day, like that's what happened. They were a better team today. And um we have to take that on the chin and not whine or complain or make excuses or worry about anything. We have to see what they exposed and then we have to go back to work and see if we can get better. And we got another hard team coming in, you know, on Thursday in Florida State and, and that's the way it goes. And so we'll have a chance to see if we, we can grow from it. Not a lot of things. Right. Said the point. It always take offensively, still count. Well, II I thought that, um, you know, I thought James made some really hard shots. Um I, I thought, you know, we were undisciplined defensively. They, they, and they had a part in that, like they got 18 points from the free throw line. Um That's a lot of points from the line and, and that was a result of our lack of discipline and, um, and then certainly, uh the turnovers as well. I mean, they had 24 points off the turnovers like that, that's your recipe to get your, your point total higher. You know, if you can get points off turnovers and you get to the line, those are like freebies without even doing anything. And then, um, you know, they, they had a player that played really well and, and so the combination of those three things would is what I would say and having not watched the film, um that, that's what I would diagnose is why they scored as, as well as they did over there. Uh, Kennedy has been a good presence for you guys recently, uh, really coming into her own. Um, how pleased were you with her performance today? And we, the team, um, I think she's, here's what you'd expect from, you know, your senior, um, that she would start to take it up a level when we get into conference play. And, um, Kennedy certainly has done that. Um, she's a player that's a low post threat, but you also saw she's someone that can like step out and make the, make the jump shot, which was available to her the way they were defending. And um so yeah, I, I thought the scoring was much needed because, um, you know, the rest of our group really struggled, struggled to score. So it was, it was good to be able to have some of that inside presence. Oh, yeah. So, uh two of your, uh I was wondering if the position is a to help. Uh I think we were just undisciplined, like I said before, um within our scheme and when you're undisciplined and you're out of position, um when there's contact, it's gonna be a foul. And so, um just our group understanding our schemes and, and being more disciplined, um we'll take, we'll take that away.