Coach Boeheim Quotes
Saturday, Dec. 20, 2003
Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.
Syracuse Head Coach Jim Boeheim
On the game:
“I thought, for 10, 15 minutes in the first half, I thought we played pretty well defensively. We got on the backboards better than we have. I think we just played better. We were more active out of our man-to-man. Our full-court pressure wasn’t very good, but I thought we did get into our man-to-man situation and thought we did a pretty good job contesting them and making it difficult for them to get shots.
“We got good control of the game. In the second half, they stayed patient, they kept working and getting inside. Our low-post defense wasn’t good and they made a couple good plays inside. They made a couple tough shots. We got a little stagnant on offense. Some of our young guys are just not ready yet in these kind of games. We just have to keep working hard in practice. They’re just going to have to work and get ready, get themselves ready in the next couple weeks. I’m just disappointed in that we get pushed around a little bit, people are physical with us and we tend to get knocked out, knocked away, some of our younger guys.
“I looked at the half-time – we had 42 points and Gerry (McNamara) was 3-for-10 and Billy was 0-for-6. I think we accomplished a lot considering how those two guys shot the ball. Siena’s a really physical team. They got back and they were physical and played good defense. I thought we did some good things on offense, but we still need to make some perimeter shots. When Demetris (Nichols) and Louie (McCroskey) were in there, Hakim (Warrick) got them a good look at a three, and eventually we’ve got to get to where we can make that perimeter shot to be effective. I think that’s something that we just have to keep working at. We have to work very hard.
“I thought we pushed it a little bit better in the first half than we have and got downcourt and got some transition baskets, which is something we have to do. We’re having Gerry try to push it up a little bit more and let Billy get downcourt and try to get a little bit quicker down the court. We did that a little bit, but not as well in the second half.
“I thought there was a lot of good things from our defense tonight, and the rebounding was better. They’re a very good rebounding team, and we’ve been getting nothing done on the boards, so I thought, tonight, we did a little better job there.
“I thought Craig (Forth) was active and we found him open and getting into the open spots. That was good for us.”
On Craig Forth:
“I think his movement has been better. He really helps us on offense. He got Gerry a wide-open three. He made a couple of good passes into Hakim. Offensively he helps us tremendously when he’s in there. If he can then also get the open spots and score, that makes it even better. Defensively, I think he’s helping us more this year. He’s moving and getting into position better, getting his hands up, making people take tough shots. I think he can still get better and we’re going to try to keep pushing that. Big guys take longer, but I think he is getting better. He’s made his jump shot better. He’s got to keep looking for that. I think he’s got to be active and, right now, our first five guys are playing the way they can play. We’ve got to get some other people playing well.
“He’s moving better and he’s just got to be more aggressive in looking for the ball and coming for the ball. Hak is really looking for him. Hakim’s doing as good as job as anybody we’ve ever had of looking for people out there. Sometimes he’s looking too much. But he’s looking for people and getting people the ball. Josh (Pace) did a much better job tonight of getting in to where he can make his shot. Josh is a competitor – he’s the best competitor we have. He’s going to come at you. Defensively, he’s our best player. All those things make up for the fact that he doesn’t shoot well from the outside.”
On if he’s comfortable with Forth shooting 16-foot jumpers:
“Lately I have been. If he can make them, he can shoot them.”
On playing man-to-man defense versus the 2-3 zone:
“I think we’re doing an adequate job, but I think we’ve still got a lot of work to do with that. I think we’ve got to get our zone a little better. We’re standing too much – we’re playing the zone passively. When it’s passive like that, it’s not very good. Right now, I’d say our zone is not very effective. The more you substitute in a zone, the more problems you have with it. Trying to play nine or 10 guys, the zone is difficult to do that. You gotta be in there to see what they’re doing against it, feel what they’re doing against. Our zone has not been good the last couple of games. Those things change, they fluctuate a little bit from time-to-time.”
On the freshmen:
“They’re just not playing very well. They got to get better. That’s it. Louie had a couple good outings, but he looked like he stepped backwards 10 steps from what he played before.”
On the low-post defense:
“It wasn’t Craig, it was both Craig and Hakim – and Terrence (Roberts). They’re a low-post team. They try to get the ball there, they do a good job getting the ball there. We did a pretty good job defending it in the first half, second half we didn’t. That’s why they got opportunities down there and finished things down there. I think that our offense fell off a little bit in the second half and our defense fell off a little bit. It was a combination of those two things. We had control of the game. We’ve got to get people into the game at that stage, and they’ve got to be able to somewhat hold the court, hold the balance. It went from 19 or 20 up to nine up. We’ve got to have better success in that. We still had two or three starters in the game so it wasn’t like we didn’t have anybody else in the game. We’ve got to get those guys playing better, either through playing in the games or through working every day in practice, or a combination of those two things, for us to be effective.”
On whether he’s concerned about some of the team’s slow starts:
“I don’t think it’s necessarily the slow starts – the zone, we’re a little slow in the zone – but we’ve been in the games. I just don’t think we’re playing that well overall, it’s not necessarily the beginning or middle or end. We really have not done anything that well on a basketball court since we started playing games this year. We’re either going to get better or we’re going to struggle, it’s as simple as that.
“Right now, we’ve got a team of five or six guys that understand what we’re doing and five guys that have no idea. We’re going to have to get those guys contributing as we go on.”
On Siena:
“We saw their earlier games and they played pretty darned well. They just didn’t play well in their last two or three games. I thought when we got a hold of the game, they just kept patient, they kept coming at it and being patient and kept doing what they were doing. I thought they did a good job. I thought they were very physical. I thought we played very well in the first half or else it would have been a close game. I think Gerry hit a couple of tough shots, going to the basket. I thought we did some good things or it would have been a six- or eight-point game and then it would have been a real game. I thought they played well – much better than we saw. They were more physical. They did a better job defensively.
“I still think they’re a good team, they just had a bad stretch. We played Manhattan and Manhattan’s got Flores, but other than that, Siena can compete with them pretty easily. They do a good job defensively and they get the ball to the right places. I thought they did a good job. I think the kid (Austin) Andrews can shoot the basketball. (Tommy) Mitchell is a good player. I’d be surprised if they don’t turn this thing around and surprise a lot of people before it’s all done.”
