Duke's done that for quite a few years now. Players know their roles. You don't have a lot of guys sitting on the end of the bench who think they should be playing.

I am proud of our guys, because we were in it until the end. N.C. State is a good team, with lots of veterans, and we stayed tough and I am very encouraged about that.

Michael Jordan and Coach Smith both came in the locker room afterward, ... I said [to the players], 'These guys and [former star player and assistant] Phil Ford and a lot of other people made North Carolina basketball. But you guys are going to be a huge part of it for the rest of your lives.'

We've got guys who are players and seem confident and that's what we need,

We want to look at the players. We've got to get guys snaps. Guys have to get valuable snaps, so we can evaluate against other teams.

We've had a lot of guys thrown into roles they weren't accustomed to, and when you do that they may play well one night but then struggle the next. What were striving for is to get that consistent effort night in and night out. When we don't show up mentally, it shows on the scoreboard.