Coach Boeheim Quotes
Syracuse 66, Butler 65 OT
March 18, 2002
Head Coach Jim Boeheim
On the crowd:
"The fans were unbelievable tonight. That was a big difference. We beat a very good team and fans are the homecourt advantage. The fans were clearly the difference. They got us going and kept us going when things were not good."
On Syracuse's defensive effort:
"Our defense was probably as active as it has been all year."
"We wanted to mix it up and play some man-to-man and some zone. They hit a couple of tough shots and they missed some against the zone. Sometimes great shooting teams shoot better and play better against man-to-man than they do against zone for whatever reason."
On beating Butler:
"When you get down 15 against a team like Butler and are able to come back, it is a heck of a win. They're a difficult team to come back on. They were in every game they played this year, and they could've won all their games. They're a veteran team and very solid. We had to play very well to win."
On Preston Shumpert's performance:
"Preston has been shooting the ball great. When he shoots it like that we have a chance."
"He's getting as much defensive pressure in these two games than he has all year long, but he's got his confidence back. That's the difference. He's going to get his shots up and we're going to find him."
On Billy Celuck's play:
"Billy is our best passer offensively. He gets the ball to people. He also rebounded well tonight. He was active and was a key guy in the game."
On the final play of the game:
"Four seconds is tough to get down and make a pass. We wanted to get up and pressure them a little bit but stay in the zone in the back and force their guy to take the shot. Once he made the pass, it is tough to get that shot up. It would've been close. We'd still probably be looking at the replay, but luckily it didn't go in so there's no argument."
On James Thues:
"James is good in the zone. He's good at getting the ball to people. He's not a bad shooter, he just doesn't take a lot of shots. He hit a big one tonight."
