Duke Players Talk Matchup Against Louisville

A clash between the two of the best teams in the ACC will take place at Cameron Indoor Saturday evening when 3rd ranked Duke and 11th ranked Louisville take the court. Here’s what Captain Jack White and freshman phenom Cassius Stanley had to say about the game.

Senior Forward Jack White:

On what the team is trying to focus on against Louisville:

The things we can control, first and foremost. We’ve got to come in and prepare. We’ve got to know their personnel. With us, it was really putting an emphasis on coming out and playing harder than them, being hungrier, just competing at a higher level. We feel like if we want it more, then good things are going to happen for us and we feel like that’s being shown throughout the season already. So, really just coming out hungry. We feel like we’ve got something to prove and [we’re] just trying to be first to every ball and just win every play.

On what challenges Louisville presents:

They’ve got a few really good three-point shooters obviously with [Jordan] Nwora [and Ryan] McMahon, so we’ve just got to try to take them out of the game [and] not give them any good looks to get them going. We really weren’t happy with our defense obviously on Tuesday night. We just kind of let their best players roam free and get what they wanted, so [we’re] just really coming in, really trying to make teams uncomfortable, trying to take them out of their stuff, be an aggressive defensive team and really just get back to our identity of what we want to be known as, which is the best defensive team in the country.

On if anything sticks with him from the team’s 23-point comeback at Louisville last season:

Just for us to have that character – obviously being down at their place, it’s obviously an incredible comeback. We know that left a foul taste in their mouth and they’re going to come in here and really try and make a statement with us. For us, coming off a loss, we’re trying to make a statement ourselves. If anything from what last year’s game shows us, it’s we have the ability to fight back and we can’t be counted out of games.

Freshman Forward Cassius Stanley:

On what the team is taking from Tuesday night’s loss at Clemson:

We’re just realizing that everyone’s coming for us. For us as freshmen, we’re realizing every win in the ACC, every game in the ACC matters. It doesn’t matter if it’s the last team or the best team – every game matters. [We’re] taking everything and owning it basically – just going out there, making it ours and really making it personal and we’ve got to bring it every day.

On what some of the biggest matchup problems are that Louisville presents:

They’re a veteran team, they’re very seasoned, they’re very strong, very big, very physical and so we’re just going to have to go out there, match their physicality and match their effort and intensity. But, [we have to] make them match our effort and intensity too and make them play at our pace. It’s going to be a good game.

On if this is going to be the biggest game he has played in:

I’m not really looking into it as that big. It’s a big game, obviously, but [College] GameDay doesn’t affect us – we’re going to be shooting around or back at the dorm. It’s going to be a big game, obviously. It’s one of the biggest, but like I said earlier, it’s an ACC game, so we’ve just got to approach it the same way as we would if it was another team and we’ve got to win the game to better ourselves and better our record.

The game tips at 6 p.m. ET on ESPN with Dan Shulman, Jay Bilas and Holly Rowe on the call. On the radio, David Shumate and John Roth have the call on the Blue Devil Sports Network from Learfield IMG College (96.5FM & 610AM in Durham) and on Sirius 84 and XM 84. The national radio broadcast on Westwood One has Ryan Radtke and Kyle Macy calling the action.