Tre Jones: UNC, FSU Games "Just Like the Tournament's Going to Be"

Duke's tough 48-hour stretch against UNC and FSU, which will prepare the team for March.

Tre Jones was happy with the way Duke responded to games against UNC and Florida State in a 48-hour span.

“Florida State is extremely talented,” Jones said after Duke’s 70-65 win over the Seminoles. “Playing them any time would be a really good game, tough game. Especially coming off the one we had Saturday night, having a day to prepare for these guys coming back today, it was definitely tough. Being in the tournament before, I told them that’s how the tournament is. It was definitely a good little run through of how the tournament’s going to be, especially with the way UNC played. That’s a tough thing, and Florida State, ranked eighth or whatever, that’s definitely how the tournament’s going to be. I think we responded pretty good. We were tough throughout the entire game, even when got down in the second half, we stayed tough, got the lead back and just made winning plays down the stretch.”

While the team looked exhausted at times, Jones said the team wasn’t all that tired.

“A little bit, for sure,” he said. “Definitely a little bit there. All of us want to win so badly. We just put that to the side. We don’t think about that. The way we were talking to one another, communicating with the coaches, having the coaches push us the entire game, keeping us in the right space, mentally and everything, I think we were determined to win today.”

The wins should help Duke down the stretch.

“We can definitely use this to propel us to next level,” he said. “Two tough wins like that that, and we had not even two tough wins. We had the three-game road stretch there, then coming home for a tough Florida State team. We can use that to propel ourselves, for sure. But we can’t just say that. We have to attack it now, learn what we need to do better these last two games and continue to work.”