Coach Boeheim Quotes
Syracuse vs. Villanova
February 23, 2004
Carrier Dome, Syracuse, NY
On the game:
“Somebody questioned this team--whether we had heart after a couple more losses. I don’t think that ever was a question. We got beat badly in a couple games but you can tell heart when a team’s in a battle and they can persevere like we did against Georgetown and like we did tonight.”
“It has to do with defense. We played great defense against Georgetown. We did turn the ball over too many times against Georgetown, we know that, we said that but we played great defense and we made plays. This team got behind tonight in the start of the second half and came back. Had the lead, they came back took the lead, Josh made a great drive, and we made great plays down the stretch.”
On Villanova:
“They’re not going to give up. They’re going to battle you all the way. They’ve got a young team but we’ve got a young team too and I think our guys made some great plays down the stretch when we had to.“
“I was very proud of how we finished up this game, against a very good defensive team. They’re small, they’re quick, and they battle you. They’re after you, they’re pushing you, distracting you defensively the whole game and they’re difficult to play against.”
On the turnovers:
“I think they were trying to get inside our zone and we got some steals and deflections in there. They’ve got a very good team inside. They’ve got inside threats with (Curtis) Sumpter and (Jason) Fraser and our guys did a tremendous job of making sure we didn’t give them threes and looks.”
On improved defense play:
“We’re just more active in our zone right now. We’ve got a great finish this season. We’ve got the toughest teams I think to play in the country coming up at West Virginia, which is the toughest place to play and these games will be wars every one of them and we’re just going to play. It’ll be a tremendous challenge to us and we’re looking forward to it.”
