Mike Krzyzewski bats away specific excuse as reason for upset loss

While Duke had been on a hot streak prior to Monday night’s 69-68 loss to an unranked Virginia team at Cameron Indoor Stadium, it had also been playing an NBA-style schedule that didn’t include much time for rest or recovery.

After playing at Louisville on Saturday, Jan. 29, the Blue Devils had to turn right around and play at Notre Dame on Monday, Jan. 31. Fast forward one week later and Duke had to encounter the same type of schedule, as it traveled to North Carolina this past Saturday and then hosted Virginia on Monday.

As it’s a good possibility – and would make complete sense – that the Blue Devils didn’t have much energy coming into Monday night’s game with just one day in between, Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said he doesn’t think that’s why his team lost to Virginia.

“I don’t think it’s exhaustion,” Krzyzewksi said. “We’re not in the desert or on a forced march or whatever. … I call it ‘not having a rearview mirror.’ You can’t look back. It’s one of the reasons I’ve tried to do this season the way I’m doing it so I don’t fall into that. I’m 74 years old – I’ve been throught it where I’ve made my mistakes and hopefully won’t make many more.

“These kids are going through it for the first time. And they’re a good group – they’ve done a great job. But we weren’t able to do that tonight. When we were right there, we couldn’t close the deal. We couldn’t close the deal.”

After the setback against Virginia, Duke returns to action Thursday on the road at Clemson. Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET on the ACC Network.

Krzyzewski calls out star player, team offense following Virginia loss

While Duke dug itself into an early 10-point hole and trailed 34-29 at halftime against Virginia, Blue Devils’ star Paolo Banchero struggled throughout the night – scoring just nine points on 3-of-9 shooting. He took just one total shot in the second half, which was a 3-pointer as time expired.

Following the Blue Devils’ loss, head coach Mike Krzyzewski was asked what Virginia was doing to keep Banchero from taking shots and getting going.

“He’s touching the ball,” Krzyzewski said of Banchero. “He needs to take more shots, and he needs to take his jump shot. He needs to take his jump shot. With him, when he does get the ball, a lot of double teams. There’s a lot of double teams. So then you’ve gotta pass out of it – and we’ve gotta hit shots. If we hit shots, they don’t double team. I mean, that’s part of making those adjustments.”