Jim Boeheim Quotes vs. Illinois-Chicago
Jim Boeheim Quotes
Syracuse vs. Illinois-Chicago
Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.
December 21, 2005
Opening Statement….
“I think what happens to us is we get the shots we want, we get the threes and we get in the situation where we’re going to look at the basket. If we’re not getting any offensive rebounds, which we’re not doing a good job on the boards. You know when the ball goes in the basket, like it did against Davidson. We got harder shots against Davidson than we got tonight and we cored 90 points. Tonight we’re lucky to get 75 because the ball’s not going in the basket and we have to find a way we got inside the second half. We got to be better inside. We have to get better around the basket. Mookie (Darryl Watkins) has to get closer to the basket. He’s falling in love with this jump shot that we can’t make. It’s not going to be a way for us to win games. He did a tremendous job defensively. The zone slows us down a little bit but they had no way to shoot and if we had of rebounded at all even missing shots. They’re a physical team, they out rebound most teams they play but that’s still no excuse. We finally did a little better job rebounding the second half and even though we still didn’t shoot it very well, the game really isn’t in doubt once we start rebounding a little bit, taking away lay-ups, but that’s the same thing that happened at the end of the Davidson game. It should have been a 20 point game but they got four offensive rebounds at the end of the game. We’ve got to find a way to do a better job rebounding and 18 turnovers is just…we can’t make that many turnovers and be a good basketball team. We’ve got to find a way to eliminate some of our mistakes. Josh Wright really helps us out there. I felt like we missed him a little bit out there because he can push it down and get us some easy baskets. He just had a fluke injury in practice and we’re hoping that he’ll be back soon, but we don’t know when. We’re hopeful that he would be able to play fairly soon, although we don’t know. Terrence was more active the second half. That’s a big part of it and we did a better job on the boards. Defensively we just shouldn’t give that much. Our zone was pretty good except for the rebounds.”
On Terrence Roberts’ performance…
“Well he can be a twenty and ten guy, I mean he did it tonight, he can do that. I don’t think there’s any reason he can’t do that. He’s just got to be better finishing around the basket and he was better tonight. There were a couple of opportunities to get him the ball, we made a couple of poor passes where he could have gotten a couple more opportunities around the basket. He’s got to be able to help us down at the low post on defense.”
On Darryl Watkins’ presence…
“He did a good job on the boards. He gets in there and he tries to go for it. It helps when you try to go get the ball. It’s advantageous to getting more rebounds.”
On 16 blocks…
“In the zone it’s good because they’re working hard to get it inside, they don’t have must outside shooting so the ball’s going to get inside so they’re if they take the time to get it in there and that’s where our length is important. Again, we’re going against 6’6, 6’5 guys so we should block some of those shots. But again in a man to man, 16 blocks isn’t a good thing because they’re getting too much penetration, but they’re going to get it inside a little bit. I thought our defense was pretty active but if they work at it, if they’ve got a lot of guys that can out it on the floor and make plays, they’re going to get it inside some of the time. We are long in there and that’s something that we have to do, we have to capitalize on that. When you’re small you have some advantages and when you’re big you have some advantages and that’s one of our advantages. I thought Mookie was active on defense. That’s very important. I think he can rebound better obviously. Demetrius had his first really sub par night. He really wasn’t active on defense and he really didn’t help us rebound like he has been.”
On multiple players with double digits….
“Well the more balance you get the better you are. I think that’s important. Right now, we’ve played a lot of games and we’ve learned some things. We still have a long way to go and you know hopefully we get a couple days off and come back and try to learn something. These non-conference games we have left are good, good teams, well coached teams and hopefully that will help us as we try to get better. We have to get better, you know right now we’re just not very good. We’re making too many mistakes and we’re not rebounding the way we need to. We just have to play a lot better. If we didn’t shoot it great against Davidson then we would have never won the game and you don’t want to get in a position where that’s how you have to win games. We can get better. Guys got to embrace what they have to do to help us and our big guys have to rebound better and we have to be better with the basketball and I think if we can start doing some of those things. We have a chance to get there but right now we’re a long way from there. When you watch basketball games, you can watch any game. St John’s was tied with Duke in the first half and then they made a couple bad plays but they would have been even or even ahead at halftime. Every game is difficult. There is no game that’s going to be easy. Every time you play it’s going to be a battle.”
