Notes & Quotes: #6 Duke 95, Michigan 67
12/8/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
N O T E S
Wolverine coach John Beilein announced prior to the game that junior guard Jerret Smith decided to not join the Wolverines for this weekend's game at Duke in order to complete some academic obligations.
With the 95-67 loss at Duke, Michigan now trails in the all-time series, 18-7.
Michigan completed its non-conference road swing at Duke. The Wolverines played six of its first nine games on the road. U-M will close out the non-conference schedule with three games at Crisler -- Oakland (Dec. 12), Central Michigan (Dec. 15) and UCLA (Dec. 22).
With his start at Duke, Ron Coleman extended his consecutive games played streak to 108. He has not missed a single game in four years. In addition, Ekpe Udoh extended his own streak playing in his 44th straight game for the Wolverines.
With Ekpe Udoh earning his first start of the season and the eighth of career at Duke, Michigan started a different lineup for the first time this season. Starting for U-M at Duke was: Manny Harris, Kelvin Grady, DeShawn Sims, Ron Coleman and Udoh. The first eight games of the season, Zack Gibson started at forward/center.
With his eight points at Duke, Manny Harris snapped his streak of double digit scoring games at eight total games. Prior to the game against the Blue Devils Harris had scored in double figures in every career game, which was eight.
With his four blocks, Ekpe Udoh has recorded at least one block in all nine games this season and in his last 11 games for U-M. He now has 30 multiple block games in his career. Overall he has 96 total blocks in his young career, which puts him among the Michigan all-time top 10. He is 10th all time with 96, just one behind Robert Traylor's 97 for ninth on the all-time list.
Ekpe Udoh set a career-high with 10 rebounds at Duke. He split his total in half with five offensive and five defensive rebounds. Udoh's previous best was eight against Delaware State (Dec. 9, 2006).
With his 11 points at Duke, Zack Gibson tied his career-best for points in a game. He equaled the 11 he had against Western Kentucky (Nov. 24) at the Great Alaska Shootout. With his 11 at Duke, he set a new career-best with eight field goal attempts and sank his second career three-point field goal.
With his 12 points at Duke, DeShawn Sims has scored in double figures in each of his last four games. Overall he has scored in double digits in seven of nine games this season.
Kelvin Grady set a new career-high with six rebounds at Duke. In fact he doubled his prior best of three set at Georgetown. In addition to his rebounds, Grady continues to be perfect from the free throw line as he is 10-for-10 this season. He went 2-for-2 at Duke.
K'Len Morris tied a career-high with five points at Duke. He had five points two previous times -- Radford (Nov. 9) and Eastern Michigan (Nov. 12, 2006) in the John Thompson Challenge.
Jevohn Shepherd had a season-best six points at Duke. It was the most points he had scored since he had six points against Northern Illinois (Dec. 16, 2006).
Q U O T E S
Michigan Head Coach John Beilein
On the game ... "Duke is a really impressive team. I haven't seen them play live other than the NCAA Tournament. It's been about 15 years since I have been here, but I can say the one thing I have always noticed is their defense. They have always been known for their defense. There was a five minutes span there in the first half and really in each half where everything just clicked for them. Combine that with you are playing in Cameron Indoor Stadium and it went from an even half to being down 13. It was basically a five, six point difference and then boom there was that spurt. That is where our inexperience comes in. Right now, our skill level just breaks down at different times with a good defensive team. Their defense just took us out of what we wanted to do and we don't counter very well right now."
On playing in an intimidating environment like Duke ... "There is no secret they have the whole package here. The positive is that there are a lot of tough places to play in the Big Ten. So, the lesson here is that we came here, we didn't play well, but we learned a lot and we can go home and continue to get better from this experience. I really thought our kids handled the environment very well. We didn't hit some shots and again there just was that little span. They just have a terrific team and they have terrific players."
On Ekpe Udoh starting ... "I thought he had been playing really well. He had 10 rebounds tonight. Against this type of team he is really good against their pressure. He is a good passer and can drive to the basket. So, I thought he did very well against them tonight."
