Mar 13, 2026
3 min read
Dropping two injured starters and eight second-half points to fuel Florida State, Duke showed their championship prowess in the comeback victory.Nikolas Khamenia spoke to WRAL News in the Duke locker room after the game.
With two starters injured at Florida State and eight points in the second half, Duke showed its championship potential in a comeback victory.Nicholas Khamenea spoke to WRAL News in the Duke locker room after the game.
I mean, yeah, obviously it's different.We have two main guys, but we've been working on them all season.Next, we've got our brothers back and I'm glad we managed to beat them today.How long do you think it took you to get comfortable, for lack of a better word?I think there were periods in the game, you know, it was We're comfortable, but we've got to hold on, put together a minute more.Nick, for Caleb of course, the hope is that you guys can play long enough for him to come back.Have you tried supporting him as one of your teammates since you heard the news?I mean, Caleb, obviously it's big for us.Uh, he's a guy who's been here for the last 3 years.Hmm, even today he felt as if he hadn't been asked.He was on the bench talking to us every time we arrived in terms of time.He was touching.Telling me things, you know, I need to do better.He kept touching my knee saying be aggressive.Ugh, I rocked defensively.He said, No, you must be a short man.Um, that's huge for us, even though he's not on the floor, or he's our coach, so listen to him.It's big for us.How much did you work on the running point to play like, you know, Caleb is out there?I think I did a lot in high school, obviously just playing 1-41-5 in high school, but, uh, basically one practice.Um, how, how do you feel about that?I think knowing that the coaches trust me, Coach Shear told me.Stay in practice you know me I'm a guy he can play in a lot of different positions and he trusts me in that spot uh and coach Baz they talked to me about what they expect from me and I just followed his lead.And hearing that, what was their confidence in you and you going into this game?I think that's obviously big for anybody, uh, anybody young, especially coming into a game like this where, uh, you lose two starters, uh, you've got to show up and do what you've got to do, um, so it was big for us.8 points.I think we talked about they haven't seen our defense yet and we just have to play with the edge and we felt like we didn't talk enough and we had to pick him up so I'm glad we came out and we did that and we went on a run so that was good for us.How do you frame Isaiah's performance, how would you describe his influence?I think the thing about Isaiah is that he sees one or two shots, he's going to make it and I feel bad for the other team because he's going to go fast.How did you prepare mentally?As you said, one practice before the point.How do you mentally prepare for such a situation?You watch film and play some games with the coaches, and then you believe in yourself and all the work you've put in leading up to today.Where does confidence come from?Uh, I mean, I'd probably say my family.I grew up in a family where I have three other sisters and I was the middle child for a while, so you have to have a chip on your shoulder, so I guess that's part of it.12 in the second half.he was adamant for a team that flew right after Florida State.Yeah, our defense, definitely our defense, um, we feel when we stop, we can step it up.I think Malik is such a big, um, possession for us where he got that deflection and I was able to get it back and, uh, I think Slim got a layup, um, he plays that, a momentum changer or where he got a deflection in the half court and got that shot, um, those are just big plays that he makes for us.What and Caleb, what did you learn about yourself?Yes, we compete.Uh, Florida State, they're a very good team.They finished the regular season very hot.Um, I think we know if we play defense, we can compete with everybody.Uh, we're all at Duke for a reason, so I think when C Foss and Pat are out, we just have to take our brothers because they know, we know they do so much for us, so we have to take it.
