Coach Boeheim Quotes
January 10, 2004
Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.
On the game:
“I thought the first half we got off to a slow start in the zone defensively, then probably played our best defense of the year in the first half after about a ten-minute stretch. We were very good on offense, really efficient. We attacked the match-up about as well as you can attack it. Hakim (Warrick) got us going early. He made some pretty tough shots that got us in the lead.
“Overall our defense was really good, Craig (Forth) was good. I thought the good thing with Craig getting in foul trouble was that it gave Jeremy (McNeil) a comfort zone that he's gonna be in there for a while, and I thought he was the best he's been all year. He was active and made a big block and made the two free throws when it was a close game, and got a few rebounds in that same stretch, so that was good. I think that's a good indication for him about what can happen.
“I think our guys – Billy (Edelin), Hak and Josh (Pace) - really know where to look for Gerry (McNamara). They're looking for him, and if people make a mistake and forget about him, they're doing a tremendous job of finding him and getting him that open look.
“This was a game - people thought it was over at halftime. These games are never over. It gets back to a six-point game and can go either way. I thought Jeremy made some big plays there, and then we did some good things on offense.
“Their center, (Craig) Smith, is good down low. He's as good as anybody down low. We tried to help and double him as much as we could, but he's tough down in that low box area.
“It's a good win for us. It's good to start out the conference on a positive note. We're gonna get out of here tonight and we know Missouri's going to be ready and waiting. I think they've got a great team that's struggled this year, but they'll be ready on Monday night.”
On Jeremy McNeil coming off the bench:
“I think it's difficult to do, but it's something you have to be able to do; you have to be able to come off the bench and get going right away. It's difficult, but it's what you have to do.”
On doubling Boston College center Craig Smith:
“We didn't want him to get anything easy, and you know he got a couple easy ones there. For the most part, we didn't double him a lot. We doubled him a little bit. I thought the difference was really our pressure. We went to full-court pressure and got two turnovers right away, and then we were able to pressure their guards. Josh got that backcourt steal and we just got a couple good steals out of our press and out of our half-court defense, and they couldn't get the ball to Smith because we were forcing them to turn it over. In the second half when they weren't turning it over, they had 44 points. The difference is the defensive pressure in the first half, getting some steals, turnovers, and allowing us to get down the court. They only turned it over four times in the second half and that's the difference, those six turnovers in the halves.”
On the team's play against tough front courts:
“We have a long way to go. We haven't been on the road. We have tough games coming up on the road and at home. We have to go through a lot with this process of eight to ten league games where you're going to get battered around - knocked around - and we have to fight our way through that stretch. Hopefully we can find out if we can get to be a good basketball team, but we have to go through all that. We have a tough road ahead of us.”
On tying John Wooden for 19th on the all-time coaching wins list:
“There's no significance. The only comparisons between me and John Wooden are we both wear glasses and don't have a lot of hair.”
