LONDON -- After a whirlwind trip for the men's basketball team across the pond, the Blue Devils got Wednesday and today off, mostly, before returning to practice Friday.
Although Midnight Madness, the first day of NCAA sanctioned practice, was held at all other schools around the country last Friday--the day Duke left for London--the Blue Devils were allowed to begin practice early. NCAA rules in this case stipulated Duke could have ten days of official practice to prepare for the game.
Men's basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski said that his team will go back to basics after playing four games on only those ten days of practice.
"Now we have to give them drills," Krzyzewski said. "We did that in our individual work before we started practice, but once we started practice we had to put in a little bit of a system so we could play games.... When we go back, its like [doing the] the skating compulsories before we do that dance team stuff. We have to get back to the habitual stuff that will make us good."
Veterans
However, all three players said that was only a minor concern, and something to be expected at this point in the season. They added that the team is in good shape overall.
"We haven't been able to teach fundamentals and the way that we play 'Duke defense,'" Duhon said. "So we got the opportunity to see where we are at as a team fundamentally and we know what we have to do. Guys are excited to get better and that's what the purpose of this trip was."
The trip was especially draining on the players because of the packed schedule coupled with jet lag. After losing a night's worth of sleep on the plane ride over, the team played a few scrimmages and then the four games.
However, between the afternoon and evening games on each day they got little time off--by the time they finished Game 1 and lunch they had only a little more than two hours until Game 2's tip.
Krzyzewski and the players said that experience of playing so many games in so few days, was new for everyone involved.
Both Krzyzewski and the players thought it was good for the team. although they acknowledged the trip's difficulty. Jones, specifically, said that concentrating during the four games was tough.
Krzyzewski said the team will use Wednesday to do some individual testing--strength, flexibility, etc.â_"and probably take Thursday off. He added the team will then lift weights Friday morning and possibly watch short individual tapes of London before practicing Friday night.
"The extra practices you got, you have to give them back," Krzyzewski said, adding that instead of giving one day a week off they would give two or maybe three. "If you don't give them back you're going to get punished [by fatigue] for it later, so I want give them back as soon as possible."
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