Q&A with Mike Krzyzewski

Q&A with Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, whose guests at practice Thursday included former Duke player and current Barack Obama aide Reggie Love.

Q: I saw you talking to Reggie. How is he coming along?
A: Reggie’s in town for a week doing studies for his LSATs. He takes his LSATs on Saturday. I think he’s just taking a little bit of a break. You do all that studying and need to come in and work out a little bit. We’re really proud of him, obviously. He’s done a great job and has an unbelievable future ahead of him.

Q: Coach (Bob) Knight was on the radio talking about your offense. He compared your offense to an orchestra. . . .Do you agree with that assessment?
A: When somebody says it’s an orchestra, you’d have to know what someone thinks is an orchestra. When it comes from Coach Knight, anything that’s said in a positive way is a very good comment. I talked to him yesterday and he thought we did a very good job against Purdue getting good shots and being patient but primarily on defense.

Q: You have said this year that you thought Kyle (Singler) was playing maybe better than anyone in the country this year. . .
A: I never said he was playing better than anyone in the country. I just said Kyle is one of the best players in the country.

Q: How has the team keyed off his intensity? He seems bigger, stronger and to have more experience.
A: I’m not sure this team has keyed off just his intensity. I think we have good intensity as a unit. The thing that Kyle does for us is he’s one of the most versatile players in the United States. He never gets nervous. He’s never afraid. . . .He’s gotten stronger. He’s playing more on the perimeter where we want him to play.

Q: Have you seen where Gerald Henderson doesn’t necessarily need to score to have an impact on the game?
A: A good player, you have an impact on the game by playing defense, rebounding. Your presence. Attitude. Hopefully your points, assists. In the second half against Purdue, Gerald really rebounded well. He had a couple blocks. He had five assists and just really had a good presence on the court.