Allen, Jones, Plumlee Post Game

638951ec-af85-4a25-a182-83e09f143959Here are post game comments from Grayson Allen, Marshall Plumlee and Matt Jones,

Q. Marshall, can you tell us how your injury is doing, how it's progressed over the week?
MARSHALL PLUMLEE: We've been making great progress, and the bone that I broke up here is such a small bone that it starts to heal pretty quickly. Swelling has gone down, and most importantly, I've gotten comfortable playing in a mask these last few days of practice and kind of fine tuning that mask to give me better visibility. So it's going great.

Q. Grayson, you're playing a lot of minutes. How are you recovering? What is your sort of day after a game recovery, and how are you keeping your body together with all the minutes you're playing?
GRAYSON ALLEN: Yeah, well, all the guys are playing a lot of minutes. We make sure that any of the extra time that we get outside of school and the practice time, we're in the training room getting extra treatment, whether that's the cold tub, extra stretching, or any kind of extra body or muscle work with our trainers Nick and José. And just making sure we're taking care of our body, hydrating outside of practice and making sure we eat enough, and sleep has been really big, as well.

578dd93a-0081-40aa-b2ea-6f2b1f89c5dfQ. Grayson, can you address what you know about Wilmington's backcourt, what kind of match-ups they'll present you?
GRAYSON ALLEN: We know they have a very dangerous backcourt, Ponder, Ingram and Flemmings. They're able to stretch the floor with Flemmings on the floor, as well. We know that they're kind of similar to us with four guards. But they're a very fast team, and they're going to push the ball up, and the guards that they do have are very quick. They have smaller guards, but they're a lot faster. That's something that we're going to have to be mindful of and really get back in transition.

Q. Grayson, you brought up sleeping. How many hours a night do you think that each of you sleep?
GRAYSON ALLEN: I would say, I think Marshall gets the most. He's always the first to bed.

MATT JONES: Old man.

GRAYSON ALLEN: Yeah, he's the old man. But at least eight. I think Marshall goes for around ten.

MATT JONES: Yeah, you hit it on the nail. Marshall usually gets the most, but for me, I can say eight as well.

MARSHALL PLUMLEE: Yeah, like they say, I'm a growing boy, so I would say at least eight, pushing for nine.

Q. Grayson, you were actually second on the team last year in scoring per 40 minutes. You obviously have confidence in your ability. How much of that performance in the national title game allowed you to take it to the next level this season?
GRAYSON ALLEN: I think it was a confidence boost going into this year for me. Being able to do it on that stage, I think gave me the confidence to do it just starting out the season. With that, I also had to go into the summer with the mindset of I had a lot to improve on because I couldn't -- in the national championship game, I was able to give us energy, but I knew for next year I was going to have to do more than that with scoring the ball in a bunch of different ways and becoming more of an all-around player. For me, I think it was big for my confidence, but I still had to get back and work hard for next season.

8360b91c-a051-461a-93ed-134144ef2533Q. Marshall, you talk about getting more comfortable with the mask. In D.C., what was it like just dealing with that? Were the sight lines weird? Did it get sweaty? What was it like handling that or dealing with it?
MARSHALL PLUMLEE: I was fine. No excuses for my play that game. I have a great training staff, and they did everything in their power to get me ready. I was as ready as you could be. You can't go blaming a mask when honestly it gave me the opportunity to be out there on the floor.

So it was fine, but I will say, over the course of this past week it's gotten better and better each time I've gotten a chance to use it.

Q. Grayson, this time last year you were sort of playing a supporting role on a team with players that were getting a lot more attention. Now you're sort of one of the faces of the program and one of the more recognizable college basketball players out there. How different does this feel getting ready for your second trip to this tournament?
GRAYSON ALLEN: To me, I think I kind of feel the full excitement this time around. Last time I didn't know what to expect, and I wasn't a part of this. I wasn't here at the podium, and I wasn't one of the guys answering all the questions in the locker room, so to be in this position is different. And I think for us as the returning guys, we have a lot more excitement. We've all had bigger roles coming into this year, and it's a lot more exciting this year.

Q. Marshall, just talk about the grind of the ACC and its tournament. And once you've gone through that, is there anything here that's going to surprise you or challenge you?
MARSHALL PLUMLEE: Yeah, the ACC has done a great job preparing us because there's tough competition from top to bottom. And especially the way the scheduling worked out, with having games back to back days and some of the tough stretches we've had to go through, it simulates tournament play in such a way that, when we come up to opponents like UNCW or are faced with environments like the tournament, we can think back and reference different points during the ACC schedule and be like, look, we've been through this before, this is how we handled this, this is what we can do better. So the ACC is tough, but it's given us tremendous experience.

Q. Marshall, you and your brothers have played in so many of these NCAA games. Now, you being a senior, this is going to be the last time. Have they given you any advice on what you're going to be feeling the next few days, and have you given any thought to that?
MARSHALL PLUMLEE: They've given me advice, but more just in general as a player. Both of us having been on national championship teams, we both kind of have a sense of what it takes to go the distance. There's not too much they can fill me in on other than just lifting me up in general as a player. They're very encouraging. But more than anything, they try to give me my space because they know during this time of the year a lot of people try to come into your life who weren't necessarily there with you for the rest of the season. And so you've got to have the horse blinders on and kind of focus on what the team needs from you and not a lot of outside distractions.

Q. Grayson, obviously Wilmington has won 25 games. Just how aware were you of what they were doing this season? How much did you know about them when that match-up popped up on the screen?
GRAYSON ALLEN: Well, during our season it's hard for us to focus on anything really outside of our conference. When it does get towards the end of the year, I think we're all watching the conference tournament games because they're so exciting. So we saw them win the CAA, and then going through scouting, we've seen a lot of film on them, and they're a really talented team. You look at what they've been able to do. They've won a lot of games this year, and they've been really successful. They're a team that's going to get after you for 40 minutes, and that's something we have to be ready for.

Q. Grayson, Wilmington plays a style similar to Louisville. You guys had some trouble at Louisville last time you played them with your pressure, a lot of turnovers. What do you take from that experience into this game?
GRAYSON ALLEN: Well, we have to learn from it. I'm thankful that we had that kind of game to prepare us for Wilmington. I mean, we know the pressures are going to be similar, and it's not going to be an easy task because they play a lot of guys, and the pressure is going to be on the whole game, and it's going to be the whole length of the court. So for us, we have to be sharp. We can't get into a rush. We can't play tired and make mistakes when we're inbounding the ball, just careless stuff, giving the ball over. They're a team that's going to try to force a lot of turnovers. We just can't give them any easy ones.

Q. Matt, Grayson is kind of viewed as the next guy that people dislike at Duke. There's always someone. How does the rest of the team deal with that kind of noise during the season?
MATT JONES: Coach does a really good job of kind of portraying the message of one voice. We watch TV just as well as y'all do, so we know what they say about Grayson, but we just make sure that Grayson knows that we have his back. We haven't done a good job of that the whole year, but at this time of the year, especially, we have to make sure that G knows that, and as a team, we rally behind him.

Q. Matt, you're obviously playing an in-state team in UNC Wilmington. Do you sense any extra effort or something to prove out of the other in-state teams you play, whether it be NC State, Wake Forest or anyone else outside of conference?
MATT JONES: There's a possibility. Obviously being in the tournament, everyone has that sense of urgency themselves. They have a couple guys from that area where Duke is so, I mean, they could definitely have an added sense of urgency to themselves. But at the same time, we know that every team we face, they're going to bring their best, so we have to bring ours.