Coach Boeheim Quotes
NCAA Selection Sunday
Sunday, March 16, 2003
“Obviously we’re thrilled to be back in the tournament. Whenever you miss it, like we did last year, you really appreciate being back in it. It’s a tremendous accomplishment for our team to be able to go through the year and get a No. 3 seed. I’m very proud of this team – what they’ve accomplished. I think that they’ve reset their priorities to go and play the very best they can. It’s great to be in the East Region, to be in Boston, and to have the opportunity to stay close to home. It’s the first time in memory that we’ve been able to do that. It’ll be a tremendous challenge, but we’re really looking forward to it. We’re excited to be playing in this tournament again, and to have a chance to stay close to home is tremendous.”
On Manhattan:
“They’re very good. They’ve got all those guys back. We had a tough game against them in the NIT last year (SU won, 78-58), and I‘ve watched them play this year a couple of times on television. Bobby (Gonzalez, Manhattan’s head coach) has done a great job with that team. (Luis) Flores is as good as any guard in the country. They’ll be a great challenge for us. In the NCAA tournament, there are no easy games anymore. They’re all tough, and that’s the way it should be. They’ve played extremely well all year long. They beat St. John’s from our league, and won their league – regular-season and tournament. They’re coming into this tournament playing very well.”
On getting a No. 3 seed:
“At the beginning of the year, we would have been happy just getting in the tournament, especially after last year. That stretch run we had after the Connecticut loss in Hartford (Feb. 10), looking back on it, was a tremendous run. To go to Notre Dame and Michigan State and Georgetown – those are three places where teams seldom win – those wins were tremendous, and I think that we got rewarded for that run. At the time we started that run, we weren’t among the top four seeds. So I think that run of games really got us where we are. The players earned it, no question about it.”
On possibility of playing in Albany:
“There’s no question we’d love to win as many games as we can – we’d love to have the opportunity to get to Albany. In the NCAA tournament, you don’t look past even one game anymore. Every game is tough. We’re just going to have to play great basketball to get by anybody in this tournament the way it is right now. You saw it in the conference tournaments – everybody got beat in the first day or two – all the No. 1 seeds and No. 2 seeds were getting beat. It’s going to be just the same this week in the NCAA.”
On how SU’s freshmen will handle the pressures of the NCAA tournament:
“They’ve been good all year in big games. We’ve had a lot of big games that we had to win, starting with Pittsburgh here and Notre Dame here, and we were in pressure situations where we had to make plays at the end of games. We’ve done that all year long. I think they’re ready for that. I think they’ll be able to handle it.”
