Postgame Quotes
Syracuse Head Coach Jim Boeheim:
"I thought we had to battle back throughout the first half. We put in a good effort to get back at half time, going into half only down by two points. They took they early lead in the second half and we did as good of a job as all year to battle back and make it close. Then we made some big mistakes and they took advantage of that. Good teams do that. They were able to attack every defense we threw at them, Alabama is a good team. We made some uncharacteristic bad turnovers that you just can't make in a game of this magnitude. Eighteen turnovers is too many, that made a huge difference tonight."
(On the team overall)
"This team accomplished just as much if not more than last year's team, given what we had. We lost the best player in the country, lost a tremendous senior leader and lost one of our top players from last year's tournament in the middle of the year. Given all of that, they really accomplished a lot this year. I am just as proud of this year's team, if not prouder. To get to the Sweet 16 after losing your starting point guard and many games by a lot of points in the middle of the season is a tremendous accomplishment. This team had a tremendous season, I am very proud of them."
(On the way Alabama attacked their defense)
"They didn’t get any points inside in the first half. They made eight three-pointers in the first half, I think Davis had two points in the first half. The second half we struggled on offense, and that was the key to the game. We got out of the zone in the second half because we were struggling so much on offense. They scored inside on our man to man defense. I thought we did a better job on them outside with man to man. They made some good shots, they didn't make easy buckets. They earned their points. Our defense this year wasn't really going to stop anyone, we have to score. We got it back to 55 points in the second half and they made some horrendous turnovers and they took advantage of that. We made some huge mistakes, our freshman made some freshman mistakes and that was the difference."
(On the team's performance with loss of Carmelo Anthony and Billy Edelin)
"I am not really sure how we won the games we won at the end of the season. This team worked hard, they have a lot of heart. We had huge wins at the end of the season against Pittsburgh, UConn, and West Virginia. We started out that series by barely beating Georgetown and then continued to get huge wins. Gerry and Hakim stepped up huge this season. Our freshman stepped up and I thought they did well today. They dug it out, played with a lot of pride, played with a lot of heart. This team showed a lot of character throughout the season, especially in the tournament."
(On UConn Vs. Alabama)
"I guess we will find that out, won't we?"
(On Forth playing limited minutes)
"It looks as though that was too many minutes. He wasn't ready to play tonight. He has trouble playing guys that are quick, he didn't go up strong in the first half. Had a play designed for him early in the second half and he ducked under the basket. When you are seven feet tall, you need to play like you are seven feet tall and he didn’t do that tonight."
(On Pettway)
"He played great. Alabama played great, they played hard, they played well, they are a good team. Our turnovers killed us. If we would have played a normal turnover game it would have been different. The outcome may have still been the same, we might have still lost, but it would have been a lot closer in the end. The turnovers made a huge difference tonight."
Demetris Nichols
(On what beat Syracuse)
“Our turnovers. The turnovers really hurt us tonight.”
(On team accomplishments)
“We are not satisfied because we wanted to go to the Final Four. Overall, we did some good things as a team, but we are not satisfied.”
Louis McCroskey
(On the seniors leaving)
“I just feel bad for the guys who wont be here next year. Hopefully we will have some more NCAA Tournaments for the young guys. But for guys like McNeil, Brooks, Hall, and Herron they don’t have any more games left and my heart goes out to them.”
(On turnovers)
“That was a factor, but the eight three's in the first half were more important. I don’t know if we should have gone to man earlier. We knew the scouting report but they still hit three's. Maybe if we stopped them earlier we could have been in the game.”
(On Alabama’s Defense)
“They were double teaming Hakim and denied the first pass. So Josh (Pace) and I had no choice but to shoot the ball. They were scoring and time was ticking down so we had to get some easy buckets, which made me rush some shots.”
Josh Pace
(On what to say to the other guys)
“This is something we are going to have to deal with. For the freshman to come in and step in the way they did was big for them and big for us. We could have easily gone the other way and spiraled down after we lost a few games in a row earlier in the season. There were some positives. We got to the sweet sixteen, but I don’t think that was enough. What else can you do?”
(On how tough it is to repeat as champions)
“Its hard to repeat in anything. But when you win, I think teams start to look at you differently. You are going to catch other teams’ best shot. We’ve been playing like that all year, getting teams’ best shot and I think we have done well for the most part.”
(On satisfaction from this season)
“We had a run where we didn’t know where we were going to be. But we came together as a team and get ourselves into the tournament and into a good spot.”
(On Alabama)
“They made plays all game. They are a good team. You know they are a good team when they beat a number one seed. They just came out and made plays. They did what they needed to do to get the win.”
Terrence Roberts
(on the game in general)
“We thought we were the better team. But they came out and outplayed us tonight. I think we might have underestimated them a little bit. Alabama came out and made shots. It’s hard to take when you work so hard to get back into the season. We were down and then beat Pitt, West Virginia and UConn. We got those three big wins and thought it was all uphill from there. Going to the Sweet 16 was a great run, but we feel we could have done better."
(On coming back)
“Once we got even, the game was really up in the air. They kept their calm and composure and made plays down the stretch.”
(On plays down the stretch)
“Alabama got a lot of shots inside. We made ourselves tight and committed some turnovers. If you look back at the games we have lost, we always had high turnovers in the high teens and twenties. When you turnover the ball like that, its hard to win.”
Hakim Warrick
(On how Alabama adjusted to the way they defended in the second half)
“Alabama did a good job of getting on me and fronting me. When I had the ball, I was not finishing to the basket.”
Gerry McNamara
(On why college basketball is historically the hardest sport to repeat championships year after year)
“Yes, I understand it. A lot of teams don’t do it. There are only certain elite groups of teams that can repeat championships. Syracuse was in a position where we could have made a run at the championship but Alabama played a great game and we can’t say enough about how they attacked our defenses and they shot the ball so well and they made it that much more difficult for us to come back.”
Hakim Warrick
(On why college basketball is historically the hardest sport to repeat championships year after year)
“Alabama went right out there from the start and were confident and had some good shots and had a really good shot at winning and they did a good job of taking the zone and taking some tough shots and I think that really got them going.”
Hakim Warrick
(On being surprised at not playing Stanford)
“No, we just look at the game ahead and take one step at a time. You can’t look ahead or that is when you’ll get in trouble.”
Gerry McNamara
(On having knee hit in the first half)
“I went knee-to-knee with Alabama’s Antoine Pettway going into halftime but it only helped me in the second half. It did not hurt me, I played a little better second half than I did first half and I think a lot of that was because of Hakim Warrick. If there is any player in this country that does a lot for his team, I think Hakim does more for this team than any other player in the country. The reason I was able to get those shots and play well was because of him.”
