Coach Boeheim Press Conference vs. St. Francis
Coach Jim Boeheim Press Conference
Syracuse vs. St. Francis
November 10, 2006
Carrier Dome-Syracuse, N.Y.
Coach Boeheim
“I think defensively we were pretty good tonight. I thought we stayed down pretty well. We didn’t reach and we wanted to work on our defense. I thought we did a good job at keeping them in front of us for the most part. Our rebounding broke down late, particularly when we had the young guys in there; they just didn’t do a good job on the boards. When you are not making shots in the first half it’s always a struggle on defense and on offense and then you have to play good defense in those situations, which we did. But it was a good opening night.”
“I thought both teams played extremely well for being a first game. I think there are two really good games left in this tournament and we are going to have to play better. Penn is a very good basketball team, and UTEP played extremely well tonight so we will have a good game tomorrow night.”
“I think we are still learning to be patient and get some ball movement offensively. Our offensive focus is still not good. We are not executing offensively as well as we need to, but I think Josh Wright did a nice job tonight at moving the ball. (Freshman forward) Paul (Harris) rebounded the ball which is something he does well. It is going to take us a while to get in sync offensively, particularly with a new point guard and so many new players trying to learn what we are doing. I think we are making some progress. The good news is we’ve got two really tough games left. I thought both teams played really well.”
How do you feel about the defensive effort and so many steals?
“We have to play good defense and either get steals or get the ball off the backboards. We haven’t finished as well in the running game as we need to. We were a little bit better tonight but that is something we have to keep working on.”
How do you feel about Paul Harris’ play?
“I think he is not used to college basketball yet. He is used to being able to dribble and go into the basket, but here you just can’t do that. I thought both he, (sophomore forward) Andy Rautins and (freshman forward) Mike Jones made some really bad turnovers today, and we have to avoid those.”
What happened to Terrence Roberts?
“He got bumped on his knee; it’s been sore but we will see how it is tomorrow.”
How do you feel about Josh Wright’s play tonight?
“He can play better. He is a good transition player and I think he can still get better. The key is for us to play good defense and rebound the ball and get it to him and get some opportunities down there.”
Will you use more man defense this year?
“We always try to play man defense and we will see how much we can play it as we go along. I think we will use both defenses and see which one is most effective.”
