Coach Boeheim Quotes
Opening Statements:
“I think when you look at this, Hofstra came in 9-0 everybody is looking at who you played and you who you played doesn’t matter in college basketball, it’s what kind of team you have. Over the years, people have never given teams like Gonzaga credit. Now they get a little more credit because they see them win but they have always been good. Hofstra has got a very good basketball team. I thought the first half we weren’t active enough on defense and we gave they some easy threes. We did pick up our defense in the second half. It was better but they still got threes, but they were tough threes. Anytime you have a team that has three or four guys that can shoot the three and guards that can penetrate, that is a difficult combination and I thought they did a tremendous job of spacing. We wanted no part of the man-to-man defense. With that quickness, we would have no chance of guarding them. If we lost by 15, I would say the same thing. Sometimes in coaching, the hardest thing you have to do is stay with what you are doing, and that is what we had to do tonight.
“They have a really good basketball team and we took advantage a little bit on the offensive glass but the rebounds were even. We’re not bigger than them when we go small, which we had to do to match their quickness. We are about the same size as they are. Their zone spreads out like ours, their zone has the same weakness as ours. You can get in there and get position and get on the boards and Terrence was tremendous on the offensive glass tonight.
“I think the biggest thing in this game was that were behind the whole game and we just kept playing. They kept making a shot, we get ahead or get back even, they would get a three, we would get back even, they would go up six. We just hung in there, and we haven’t had a game like this. Then, when it came to the stretch and we took the lead, we made a couple of mistakes, a couple bad plays and they took advantage of it, got back in the game. When it got to four, when the kid made the three, we had gone to Hak (Hakim) before and he didn’t finish, we came right back down, when right to him and he made a great play, a great three-point play. That was a tremendous play. Then they came back and scored on the tip-in and with 40 seconds to go we wanted to hold the ball and try to get some penetration and they did a good job guarding Gerry and he got it to Terrence and Terrence made a great pass. I mean a great pass to Hakim. It was a great finish. It could have easily been their ball and with 10 seconds left with an opportunity to tie or win the game. I thought it was a great basketball game.
“I thought both teams played well offensively. I thought that we made some tremendous decision down the stretch to win the basketball game, and we had to do that. Hofstra is a very good basketball team, especially when they shoot it like they did tonight. We had some pressure on some of those threes. A couple of them were open, but we had some pressure on a lot of them and they made some tough shots. Again, it was a great basketball game. They have a tremendous basketball team. We are happy to get this win.”
On the difference in energy level at the end of the game:
“We got position and we made a couple of good plays. We picked up and made a couple of defensive stops. We weren’t able to stop them. Our defense was just better. We were quicker. We forced them into two travels. We just did a better job defensively. It was a tremendously well-played game. We had eight turnovers, they had 11. Both teams shot the ball well. This is a game when Mookie (Darryl Watkins) helps us because he is quicker. Craig has a trouble with the smaller teams. They are quicker and they just beat us to the ball. Craig is much better when we play bigger teams, bigger guys. This was a perfect game for Terrence to do some work on the baseline and he was tremendous I thought. This is the way I think he is capable of playing and hopefully this good game for him. I thought Louie came back in and hit a big three, played good defensively. Demetris was just looking to shoot threes. He has got to come in and be a complete player. We don’t need him to just shoot threes. Gerry is Gerry. He had a bad start. If he is shooting early, it changes the whole game. He doesn’t go 0-7 too many times and I think it was the last six out of nine. Sooner or later, he is going to start making them. He would have to go 0-20 before I would take him out. So I guess he doesn’t have to worry about that.”
On Louie McCroskey:
“I thought he was really good. He hit that three, made a couple of penetration moves. Defensively I thought he was good. That was good to see.”
On Josh Pace:
“I think the key guy is Josh Pace. He has got to play better. We kept him in the game because he is a good defensive player. He is a veteran. I don’t think he is getting to enough loose balls. When he doesn’t get any steals, when he doesn’t get many rebounds, he is just not playing him game. He is missing that shot in the lane that he can make. He has really got to be better for us.”
On Hofstra:
“We are not going to shut some teams out, they are going to score points. They play zone. They are a guard-oriented team. They can shoot it. They know how to handle the ball. They know how to play against a zone. They are as good against a zone defense as anybody we will probably play all yearlong. They usually have four shooters in the game. That is a hard combination. They have four guys that can dribble the ball too. That is a pretty good combination of players.”
On Darryl Watkins surgery:
“The surgery was fine. Everything is fine. He is out for at least, minimum of four weeks. That is an absolute minimum. It is a little better that he is an inside player. He doesn’t have to dribble or shoot. He probably won’t like that, but he won’t be shooting. He can still go in and play defense and rebound. So, for a big guy coming back, the time frame might be better because he doesn’t have to do all those things. A shooter might not be back for eight weeks, ten weeks. We think he will be back in four weeks and there is a lot of basketball to be played after that.”
On Terrence Roberts pass at the end:
“He is a very good passer. One thing he is is a very good passer. It was a great play to make. He only had two assists tonight but he had some good passes. He is a very good passer. That is one of the things he does best. It was a great play and a great finish.”
On Coach Paul Pasqualoni:
“Paul Pasqualoni is great man in my opinion. People say I support him because he is a friend of mine. We are not great friends. We don’t go out to dinner. I respect what he does and the kind of person he is. I think Paul is a great man. I think he had a great run here. I think obviously they haven’t done as well as they would have liked the last two or three years. He is a great man. He has been a great Syracuse guy. I believe he will do well. I believe he is a good football coach. I believe he will get jobs. I believe he has got guys on his staff that are quality people, they will get jobs. He has a brought a lot to this university.”
