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Arizona Defeats Duke: Quotes From Coach Miller, Coach K, And Derrick Williams

The world wakes up this morning to a new reality, and how sweet it is. Duke, the most hated college basketball team in the nation, was dismantled by Derrick Williams and the Arizona Wildcats in a Sweet 16 meeting that will go down as one of the best in the long history of Arizona NCAA Tournament victories.

Congratulations to the Wildcats. Not everyone in Arizona is a fan, but even the Sun Devils had to give their grudging respect for your accomplishments.

Before moving on to the Elite 8 match up with UConn, we give you some of the postgame thoughts and quotes from the players and coaches:

Coach Sean Miller

"I really felt like it was two different games. The first half, Derrick's individual play allowed us to have a chance. I mean he scored 25 points in one half. Made five 3s in one half. We were down 6. We could have had a huge deficit at halftime, but he gave us a chance.

"We talked at halftime about taking care of the ball and moving on offense, driving with intelligence when we go, and most important they had 11 points on second shots in the first half, and Duke is hard enough to deal with on the first shot, when you give 'em second shots you almost don't have a chance.

The one huge turnaround in the second half and that was like a second game, we were a total team. We were rev'd up. We had a lot of guys playing at a very high level, and we rebounded. At the end of the day, 40 rebounds for Arizona, 27 for Duke and a lot of that happened in the second half."

Derrick Williams (32 points, 13 rebounds)

"Makes me feel great that if we win this game on Saturday we're going to be known as one of the best Arizona teams to play, and, you know, just to have our name up there, this is the fourth Arizona team to have 30 wins and that's a great accomplishment right there.

The Elite Eight is great, but we're not looking to stop right there. We're trying to win a national championship one step at a time, and one more game we're in the Final Four. That's what we want to do. That's one of our team goals this season was not only to get in the tournament, but to make a run in the tournament and so far we're doing that."

Coach Mike Krzyzewski

"They played a phenomenal game, especially in the second half; and Williams, he's just a superb player. He's as good as anybody we've played, or I should say better than anybody we've played. He kept his team in there in the first half.  I thought we played a little better than the score in the first half, but Williams getting 25 just kept them in."

For more on the game, visit AZ Desert Swarm:

Arizona 93, Duke 73 -- Upset city - Arizona Desert Swarm
They're too young. They're too inexperienced. They're too small. Derrick Williams is their only offensive weapon.  Duke's too good. Coach K is too seasoned. Nolan Smith and Kyrie Irving are too much for Arizona's guards handle.

That's all the Wildcats have heard over the last few days.  What is there to possibly criticize now?

Bonus, enjoy this postgame video: