Duke Basketball Holds Team Meeting, Addresses Loss to UNC

Dives on the floor should be a more common sight from the Duke basketball squad in its next outing and beyond.

Photo credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

Two days after falling to archrival UNC, 93-84, in Chapel Hill, Duke basketball head coach Jon Scheyer's mood appears just as serious as in his press conference following the defeat, his first at the hands of the Tar Heels in his two years leading the Blue Devils. His thoughts on why they lost also seem unchanged from Saturday night.

RELATED: Duke Collapses in Effort Department Against Tar Heels

On Monday morning, the 36-year-old Scheyer, now 2-1 versus UNC and looking for his No. 9 Blue Devils (16-5, 7-3 ACC) to exhibit more energy in their upcoming three-game homestand, met with media via the weekly ACC teleconference.

And he was fresh off meeting with his players as a group for the first time since inside the visitors' locker room in the Dean E. Smith Center. Once again, Scheyer emphasized the need for far more loose-ball hunger than Duke displayed on the road against No. 3 UNC (18-4, 10-1 ACC):

"I saw a bunch of the guys yesterday. It was a day off, but they were getting treatment...We met as a team this morning.

"Really, it's a lot of the stuff we talked about after the game...I mean, just if you take away everything else, and you just got loose balls in that game — if you just got loose balls — I think it's a different outcome.

"But with that said, still, the credit goes to North Carolina. They played a great game. They were the better team throughout because they made those plays. I thought we gave them a lot of life with some easy baskets — from the loose balls, from transition.

"And for us, it's full steam ahead. I thought [Saturday night] was uncharacteristic of who we've been...We've been incredibly connected on the offensive end. We've been sharing it, and our offense has been lights-out, I think, for the most part. Defensively, we've been good, at times really good.

"And so for us, it's right back to it this morning. We already met as a team, right back to it this afternoon on the court.

"That [loss to UNC] wasn't acceptable for me and for us and our program. But you still give a lot of credit to [the Tar Heels] because they were great, and they played a great game."

NEXT DUKE BASKETBALL GAME: at home versus unranked Notre Dame (7-15, 2-9 ACC), 9 p.m. ET Wednesday (ACCN)

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