Coach Boeheim Quotes - Media Day 2003-04
Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim's opening remarks to the media: "We’re 0-0 right now. That’s all this team needs to worry about. We're going to go forward from here, try to be the best team this team can be. There are no carry-overs in team sports. Some years that’s a real good thing.”
Boeheim on his feelings about the new season: “I feel just like I do every single year…0-0 and we’ve got to get this team together and try to become a good basketball team. I have the same feeling every year.”
Boeheim on the approach this year's team will take: “We’re not last year’s team. We’re a different team. We have to approach it that way. Our players have the confidence they gained from last year as any team or individual would. All your experiences are what make you what you are. I think all the experiences that we’ve had are going to help us.”
Boeheim on his impressions so far of this Orangemen squad: “They’ve worked hard. They’ve done everything in conditioning that we’ve asked them to do. The individual work-outs have been strong. Guys have come back much bigger, stronger. Even the young guys have already gained more weight and strength than we would have thought at this stage. That’s all great. I think this group has worked very hard getting ready. The interesting thing with us, we’ve been here practicing, working out since Sept. 4 or Sept. 5. We used to not even come into school until mid-September, so they’ve had five, almost six weeks of conditioning. That’s a lot. Some schools don’t even get into session until the 28th or 30th of September and they’ve had a week or two. They look fit physically. We’re ready to start practicing.”
Boeheim on his team personnel: “Whenever you incorporate four new guys, it’s going to take some time. Fortunately, we’ve got seven guys back who have played, who know the program, who have a good understanding of what we try to do. I think that’s all real positive.”
More on the team personnel: “I think it’s always good to have experience. We’re still a relatively young team with experience. We only have one senior. But, we have experienced guys. I think that’s a good thing. We have some very good freshmen that we think can contribute. We’ll see how much. We really have no idea right now, because I really haven’t seen how they practice. In a couple of weeks, we’ll have a better idea how these guys will fit in. Right now we have a lot of work to do.”
Boeheim on whether teams will be "gunning" for his defending national champs: “The teams in our league always try to come after us. If you ask anybody in our league what a big game is for them, they’re going to say Syracuse. I don’t think that’s going to change. I think we’re a big game for everybody. We don’t have a problem with that at all.”
Boeheim on last season's success: “I’m only thinking about this year. I’m done talking about last year. I’m done thinking about it. Last year is history. I’ve really been done mentally with last year for two or three months.”
Boeheim on his personal motivation for the upcoming season: “I’m looking forward to it the same as always. If anything, I’d say I’m a little more eager than normal. But not much. I mean I’m always eager. It’s kind of a bad statement to say that I’m more ready this year, because you should be the same ready every year. I’m ready to go.”
Boeheim on Carmelo Anthony: “Carmelo Anthony was the player of the year in college basketball last year in my mind and anybody that knows anything about basketball’s mind. You don’t lose those guys and expect to be as good. We’re going to have to work really hard just to get close. He did everything. There’s really virtually few, if any players I’ve ever seen in college basketball who have been able to shoot the three and rebound as well. He could pass the ball probably as well as any forward who’s ever played college basketball. He could handle the ball, make plays as well as any forward that we’ve ever had and any that I’ve ever seen. The reality of Carmelo Anthony is if he was voted Player of the Year in every poll, which he should have been, everybody would be talking about it a little differently. Just because you don’t get those votes doesn’t mean that you weren’t. He was, by far, the best player in college basketball. It wasn’t even close. Nobody was even close to him last year in college basketball. That’s the bottom line.”
Boeheim on what he believes will be the key to the season: “I think balance is the key to any team when you lose a player of Carmelo’s abilities, everybody’s got to pick it up a little bit. No one guy is ever going to replace him. Everybody has to pick up a little bit. Our centers are experienced now. They certainly have been very good for us. We think they can do more for us on the offensive end. And no one guy has to pick it up a lot. We really don’t have somebody that’s got to go from averaging five points to averaging 15, which Hakim did. We’ve got guys that had pretty solid scoring averages last year that just have to improve a little bit. I think that can happen. But, no one guy has to dramatically go up in terms of offense production. But, I think each position or each guy can go up a little bit and that’s what we need to do because we lost two guys – a 22-point scorer and a 14-point scorer. So, we’ve got 36 points to replace and that’s got to be spread out over five or six different guys.”
Boeheim's thoughts on the recent events involving The BIG EAST Conference: “Bottom line is we’ll end up with a good conference some day. Hopefully by November 4, we’ll know where we’re going. We’ll know who it is. We’ll have a better basketball conference, I’m convinced. I think for the institution we’ll have a better football conference. People forget a few years ago, Miami was coming off a 2-10 season and Virginia Tech when they came into our league was coming off a 2-9 season. Leagues can help make programs, not the other way around sometimes and I think we have to be mindful of that and understand that that can happen again. I’m not saying it’s going to, but there’s no reason that it can’t happen again. At one time, Virginia Tech wasn’t Virginia Tech. At one time in basketball, Connecticut wasn’t Connecticut. People don’t really want to look at history and learn from it. They want to just say ‘Well, that’s it, the world’s over’, throw up their arms and go home.”
Boeheim on Hakim Warrick: “Hakim Warrick had an unbelievable year last year. His numbers are big and he didn’t get as many opportunities that I think he can get this year. I expect him to get better. I expect him to improve like I expect all of our players, but like I said, I don’t know if there’s going to be a big numbers change.”
