Ahead of traveling up to Durham, N.C. to take on the No. 9 Duke Blue Devils late Wednesday evening, Bruce Pearl shared his thoughts on the matchup ahead for the No. 2 Tigers.
Below are highlights from Pearl’s press conference on Monday afternoon:
Opening Statement:
“Lot of responsibility comes with all the notoriety. We get an opportunity to go play one of the best teams in the country, probably in one of the toughest environments. If you talk about Auburn and Duke, you know both teams are really good this year. But one thing we have in common is we both play in very intimidating places. Cameron Indoor Stadium is probably the most famous home court advantage in college basketball, and Neville arena certainly has become that.
“Duke is a very talented team. They're very deep. Just looking at the guys, some of the guys that are on their bench were five star McDonald all-Americans great, gonna be great players and just waiting their turn because the guys that get out there are terrific.
“And for Duke to be playing this well this early with this young of a team is a credit to their coaching staff. Jon Scheyer probably gets a lot of credit for how talented they are, and how deep they are, and what a great recruiter he is, and everything. I study coaches, I study systems and what they run is hard to guard. It fits their personnel. They've got great counters. He's very creative. They run new actions at the beginning of games, stuff you've never seen, and it all fits, and they hang their hat on the defense.
“This is the number one defensive team in the country, I think, in part because they're so long. They're the tallest team in the country, and they got great length in every position. They have active hands. And they get their arms and hands on a lot of balls. And when we get the ball to our bigs, they'll be poking away at it and reaching in and be they're real handsy and active, and
they do a really nice job.
“I guess the last thing would be the three balls important to Duke. And they shoot it great at home. They do shoot better at home. This team does, and historically, they're making over 13 a game at over 38% at home this year. And so it's really hard to find much of a weakness when you go at them. So best team we played so far, Iowa State's awfully good, but Duke is just so deep and so big, so talented, and obviously, without question, the toughest environment that we will play in.”
On Johni Broome scoring with both hands in Maui:
“Well, Johni is better over his right shoulder than with his left hand, but, to be harder to guard, you've got to be able to score over either shoulder. Dylan Cardwell, the same way. Better over his left shoulder with his right hand, but Dylan is using his left hand more, and the ability to do that makes you just a tough scout, tougher to cover.”
On the environment inside of Cameron Indoor:
“Yeah, this will be a game that we will work with our crowd noise equipment here in Neville today, so the guys won't be able to hear me, and that definitely will affect our play calling. And so the guys are gonna have to be really sharp leaving the huddle knowing what we like, knowing what the breakdowns are and even being effective with our hand signals and things like that, to be able to communicate to the team. So we will definitely work on that today in practice.”
On Cooper Flagg and depth of Duke:
“He's effective offensively, defensively, inside and out. He's got a high basketball IQ. Got a great love of the game. With some teams we go up against, like you maybe were involved in recruiting with some guys. Maybe you didn't get them, maybe you did. You know, the players on Duke's roster, we would love to have been able to be involved with any of them,”
“I just like their practice situations. You know, when all summer long, in the fall, I imagine when they practiced. You know, that's why I'm impressed with is how good they are this early, because as young as they are, and that's because of their depth, you know, they've beaten Arizona at Arizona, and they lost last possession games to Kentucky and Kansas.”
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Patrick is a junior from Auburn, Alabama, double majoring in journalism and marketing. He started with The Plainsman in the fall of 2022.
You can follow him on X (Twitter) at @patrickabingham
