TYLER THORNTON / QUINN COOK
BY - ERIC MARTIN
Tyler Thornton and Quinn Cook. They are separate people, for now. Thornton started, but he was having a fouling kind of night. He showed he can still hit the big shot, though, with this modest version being a first half 3-pointer from the corner to put Duke up for good. And even on an off-night, he has something of the statesman about him, that Greater D.C. confidence and toughness other leadership guys have brought to Duke from the nation’s capital: Billy King, Nate James, Nolan Smith. “I’m not knocking anyone else’s area,” explains Thornton, “but you can tell the difference between [AAU] teams from our area and teams from other areas.” He’s talking about defense, for one thing, and the schools of hard knocks and merciless competition. “My first varsity game in high school,” Thornton remembers, “I played against Chris Wright [before he attended Georgetown] and he gave me 43 points.” And it was defense—and the confidence that comes with it—that kept Quinn Cook in this game for his best performance of the year. “That’s been my downfall since I’ve been here [at Duke] is working on my defense,” said Cook, “and I’ve been putting in extra time and it paid off.” The key: “just my motivation.” That’s what Coach K likes to hear, and if what we’re learning about the characters of this D.C. point guard duo holds, we may see them loosely platooned together going forward.
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