A few notes from Duke's 76-60 win Tuesday night at Purdue:
# Mackey Arena was electric before the game _ it was packed 30 minutes before tip-off _ and loud throughout even as the Boilers fell behind. Coach K said such settings are great for teams to experience and grow and then he lamented all the early-season tournament games often played in half-empty (or worse) gyms.
"You would rather play in a gym where people are cheering,'' he said. "That's why I hate Feast Week. There are so many tournaments that nobody goes to. I don't think it's good for our sport to have really good games that nobody is in the stands for. I'd rather have those games on campuses. We can oversaturate college basketball. They didn't even show the stands in most of the tournament games because there was nobody in it. Tonight, I bet they showed the stands. This is what college basketball is about. That's the product we should always be careful about putting out there for the public.''
# Purdue never led, falling behind 7-0 in the opening minutes. A fast start was a point of emphasis for the 8-0 Blue Devils.
"I think it was important for us to get off to a good start,'' Coach K said. "I think (Purdue) was so amped up, not the crowd as much as their team, they did miss a couple of layups right at the start. I think they wanted it so badly.''
Said Jon Scheyer, who tied Kyle Singler with a game-high 20 points: "We knew it was huge to get off to a good start and that's something we were really focused on. Looking back, when we watch the film, we had a couple of chances to really push the lead the first couple of minutes. We didn't really do that but throughout the first half we did make some big plays and push the lead through.''
# Coach K on his team: "I really like this team a lot. I like the fact that they have fun playing. They play really hard. There hasn't been a possession this season that we haven't played hard. We haven't always played intelligently, but we've tried to. They've practiced hard. They've played hard. They've accepted their roles. They've been a really good group to coach.''
# One of the players in accepting his role is senior tri-captain Greg Paulus. A three-year starter, he's now coming off the bench. Certainly that could be tough for any senior and could create issues in the locker room, but Paulus says he's not hung up on the issue: "It's about the team,'' he said. "Me being the captain and the leader on this team. Different guys have little different situations whether it's an injury or a switching of a role, maybe more shots, less shots. I think that we're all putting our hearts into it and trying to get better it. The way that I handle the situation or someone else does as an upperclassman, it sets the tone and builds the culture around here. This is an opportunity for me to do that.''
# A few stats from Tuesday's game:
Duke outrebounded Purdue 49-29. Duke had 16 offensive rebounds to Purdue's 8.
Purdue shot 37.3 percent from the field, the sixth time in eight games Duke has held its foes to less than 40 percent from the field.
One area of concern is Duke's assist-to-turnover ratio. Duke had 12 assists (on 24 field goals) but had 15 turnovers. That's the sixth time this year Duke has had more turnovers than assists. That will catch up with this team in ACC play if it's not corrected.
Kyle Singler's game-high 12 rebounds were just three shy of the total rebounds by Purdue's starting frontcourt.
Although Gerald Henderson had only two points, he added nine rebounds, five assists, two blocks and one steal.
Brian Zoubek had eight rebounds in 11 minutes (he was limited by foul trouble)
Duke is 10-0 in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge
