Coach Boeheim Quotes
Monday, Dec. 22, 2003
Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.
Syracuse Head Coach Jim Boeheim
On the game:
“It was a good opportunity for the freshmen to get a lot of shots. Hopefully someday they’ll be able to make some of them. At least they got into position and got some good looks. I think that’s a good thing. I thought Mookie (Darryl Watkins) played very well. He was very active. I thought it was just a good offensive game for us.
“I thought our man-to-man was good. I wanted to play zone the last 10 or 12 minutes just to get some movement in our zone, try to get better at it. We didn’t recognize and find the good shooter, which is something we’re continuously going to have to work on as we go on into the rest of the month and into the first part of January.
“Overall, this was really, when you look at our season, this is the first game we’ve had that we really got control of the game. There wasn’t any doubt about it. I think this was a good game for us at this stage. Hopefully we’ll be able to go home for a couple days and come back and go to work and get ready for the end of the month.”
On how much the team learns in early games:
“I don’t know if you learn more, but it’s for these young guys – Louie (McCroskey) and Demetris (Nichols) to get 10 or 12 shots up there is important. Demetris was really close. He was getting good looks. He was right there. I think that all the experience that those guys can get is going to be beneficial for us. Like I said, we’ve had tough games. Usually at this stage of the season, we’ve had five or six easy games. We’ve had one. I think this was good for us tonight.”
On the defense:
“Our zone really struggled when we went to it. Our man-to-man has been pretty good. It’s not as good as it looks, but it is a little better. I think we’ve still got a lot of work to do on our zone defense.”
On Hakim Warrick:
“I think he’s playing really well. I thought tonight, the great thing that I thought he did, he came over right away and blocked a shot. He hasn’t been doing that. He hasn’t been active on defense. I thought he was helping better on defense. He’s been passing the ball well. He’s been looking for people – very unselfish. I thought tonight he just really played well. We need to keep him doing those types of things.”
On the freshmen:
“Tonight, we wanted to get them in there. We had control of the game. We kept one of the point guards in there with them, then they should be able to play with that. In practice, they very seldom, if ever, really play together. We’d like to keep at least a couple of veterans on the court with them, which we do, initially. Mookie (Darryl Watkins) got to play a lot with the veteran guys tonight because of the way we started that position. I think that was good for him. He’s a very active player, he’s just still trying to learn some of the things we’re trying to do. We’d like to keep the freshmen, no more than one or two in the game at one time, most likely.”
On Craig Forth’s emergence:
“He started moving right after the first couple games. At St. Bonaventure, he was great, then he was moving good. He’s been moving good, really, ever since then. He does a lot of little things, even when he doesn’t score - setting screens, getting people open - that are very important for us.”
On Colgate:
“I just thought we were better defensively. I was watching the tape (of last year’s game) yesterday. It was a one-point game in the first half, and even in the second half, I think it was still probably a four- or five-point game. We had a pretty good team last year. This was a pretty good effort for us on defense. I thought we really did a pretty good job of talking and helping and not letting them get what they wanted to get. Their first four or five guys are pretty good players, pretty solid players. I thought we played well tonight.”
On the team’s improvement:
“Every opportunity for these young guys to play is important. That’s the bottom line. We’re going to try to keep playing them as much as we can. At a certain point in time, the guys that we feel are ready to play will play and the rest of them will watch. We’re going to try to get as many of them as we can in the next few games.”
