Coach K denies telling Oregon's Dillon Brooks to stop showing off

ByMyron Medcalf ESPN logo
Friday, March 25, 2016

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski disagreed with the account of an Oregon player who said the coach told him to stop showboating when they talked in the handshake line following the Ducks' 82-68 win over the Blue Devils in the Sweet 16 on Thursday.



Oregon's Dillon Brooks said Krzyzewski told him that he's "too good of a player to be showing off at the end," after the sophomore hit a 3-pointer near half court when the Ducks had an 11-point lead with 10 seconds to play. Brooks said he told Duke's coach that he was right.



Krzyzewski denied Brooks' account of their exchange in the handshake line, which Brooks and some of his teammates didn't join immediately because they were celebrating the win.



"I didn't say that," Krzyzewski said after the game. "You can say whatever you want. Dillon Brooks is a hell of a player. I said, 'You're a terrific player.' And you can take whatever he said and then go with it, all right?"



Brooks, who finished with a team-high 22 points in the win, also had an awkward exchange with Grayson Allen after the game when he tried to hug the Duke star as he walked toward his team's bench.



Brooks said he'd engaged in trash talk with some of Duke's players throughout the game. In the first half, Brooks hit a 3-pointer in front of Duke's bench and said something that appeared to frustrate Krzyzewski.



"They were all trash-talking," Brooks said. "I wasn't really trying to say too much. But it's part of the game. Everybody trash-talks and tries to get you out of your game. But that just makes me go harder and fires me up."



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