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Coach Boeheim Quotes
Upstate NY AAU at Syracuse (exhibition)
Nov. 19, 2002
Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.
On the team's overall performance:
"After you play a game and don't win, it is always tough coming back and we had a very slow start. We really couldn't get into anything. We couldn’t get up the court very well. We didn't play with a lot of enthusiasm early but we just made shots and that is not a good thing to rely on. We shot the ball pretty well. The second half, we were a little more aggressive, but overall we have a lot of work to do the next few days."
On playing several different players throughout the game:
"Carmelo (Anthony) is a very good player but we have other guys that are fully capable of making shots and making plays and we scored just as many points in this game when he was out and just as many in New York in the second half when he didn't score. They have to realize that they can score without him in there because there are going to be times when he's not in there. And we have to get him a lot of rest because he is going to get tired. So it was good for those other guys to play."
On the decision to not play Billy Edelin:
"Billy didn’t want to play because he is not going to play the next two months. His comment to me was, 'Coach these other guys need to play in case they get into the game.' I was actually thinking about playing him and I talked to Billy last night and he thought it was better for the team if he didn’t play. With a two-game suspension like it should have been, we would have played him because he was going to play shortly but with 12 games sitting out, that's two months away."
On the progress of the young team:
"We still have a lot of work to do; we are a long ways away, which at this stage in the year is what I expected. In reality, I am always disappointed in how we are playing unless we are playing great basketball; we are not playing great basketball. And it is unrealistic to think that we would be playing great basketball at this stage but we have to get a heck of a lot better in a hurry."
