Coach K: Duke Had Two Days Off Before Carolina Game

Blue Devils coach gave team time to regroup

Duke closes its regular season on Saturday against North Carolina and had the benefit of a Monday game, giving the Blue Devils an extra couple of days to prepare for the rivalry showdown.

Coach Mike Krzyzewski used the extra time to give the Blue Devils some much-needed rest.

"We actually spent two days just getting their bodies and minds fresh and not even talking about North Carolina," he said. "Tuesday and Wednesday."

The rest wasn't for this week but to help the team prepare for what it hopes will be a long run in tournament play.

"It’s a long season," he said. "A lot of times, people talk about a freshman hitting a wall. I don’t really think that’s happened to our guys or, because of somebody else playing a little bit better, we haven’t seen it. Just the fatigue, and even for Tre (Jones) the number of minutes. The same thing for next week (at the ACC Tournament)– we’ve got to look, for this week and next week, the big picture – making sure that we get refreshed. We’re working out. We’ve added a few new things offensively, and we’ll continue to do that next week, but staying fresh and healthy, both physically, emotionally and mentally I think is important. Next week, too, is Spring Break, so we have a little bit more time and maybe they can catch up on some of their academics during that time, going into the NCAA Tournament. Our thing right now is looking at – obviously, this game (Saturday) is huge and the ACC Tournament, we always want to do well in that – but at the end of the day, we’ve got to be fresh in about 10 days for that week.”