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SU Player Quotes vs. Charlotte
SU Player Quotes
Syracuse vs. Charlotte
November 22, 2006
Carrier Dome-Syracuse, N.Y.
Sophomore guard Eric Devendorf
On Coach Boeheim’s feelings about the game:
“Coach feels that we’re a real good team and I feel the same way. Obviously we didn’t play how we can play in the first half. I think during the second half we stepped it up defensively and got some good shots and held onto the lead and won the game. We’re obviously not where we should be but that’s just going to come with time. I think when we all start to mesh together everything’s going to be good. He’s a great coach so obviously we’re going to listen to him and it works.”
Sophomore forward Andy Rautins
On Syracuse’s performance:
“I thought we played well at times, but we didn’t play a solid game. We didn’t play a whole 40 minutes and we could have finished a lot stronger than we did. We could have had a better effort out there tonight. It’s all effort with us. I know we got out-rebounded tonight. We can’t let that happen. We have guys that can grab 15 rebounds.”
On the balance scoring:
“We find each other pretty consistently. When we move the ball we can get easy buckets and I think that we need to continue to do that.”
Freshman guard Paul Harris
On Coach Boeheim’s feelings about the game:
“Well he wants to get a national championship of course. We have a long way for that. He wants us to play a perfect game, that’s how Coach is going to be. He’s never going to hype you up even if you play good. He’s still going to say that we have improvements. I understand where he’s coming from he’s just trying to motivate us for the next game and come BIG EAST time it’s going to be tough.”
On Eric Devendorf’s performance:
“We all know that he’s 20-point performer for us. We need him a lot. He got three fouls in the first half and thank God for Demetrius Nichols. He lit it up. That’s what good teams do. We have that much depth where if someone goes down someone else has to step up.”
On Demetris Nichols’ performance:
“Demetris Nichols is the NBA prospect to me out of everybody on our team. I tell him since I came here he’s the best player on our team. Honestly I believe he is the best player on the team and he has to act like it. He has to take over like that and just shoot the ball. He’s a great shooter.”
On being the energy guy:
“Those early shots I felt that I was open so I took the shots. Coach doesn’t want me to settle for shooting jump shots. If I had made them I would have been in the game but I missed them so I gave him a reason to take me out. I only sat out about two minutes and then I went back in and went to the basket.”
Junior guard Josh Wright
On getting the win:
“Charlotte is a good team. I think they beat Hofstra earlier in the year. Hofstra’s a good team. They’re a good team, a well coached team and to get a good win against these guys it shows how much character we have and we can play through our mistakes. As soon as we limit our mistakes, that’s when you’ll see the real Syracuse team.”
Senior forward Terrence Roberts:
On Demetris Nichols’ play:
“He played like the leader he is. He took a lot of good shots and we got him open and he took a lot of good shots. He knocked them down and we needed it. Without those shots and those big plays we wouldn’t have been in the game.”
On the turnovers:
“We have to come out there and be more patient. We just have to be calmer and be more poised out there. We tend to get out there and play to the pace of the other team and that’s not going to work for us. When we get into these BIG EAST games and we get down like this we might not be able to come back. We have to get better now and get the kinks out now.”
Senior forward Demetris Nichols
On his performance:
“My teammates found me. Coach wanted a spark and I felt like I had to do something. My teammates found me, that’s all.”
On the turn around:
“Me and Paul are very close. We talk about the game all the time and we just try to encourage each other. We were down by three or five and I had two three’s and Paul had a couple steals in transition. That’s was the spark right at the time that we needed it.”
On Paul Harris:
“Paul’s pretty good. I told him that I didn’t want his man to score anymore and he did a great job getting on him. The guy that he was guarding I think he was going to be the player of the year in his conference and he only had 15 points. So Paul did a great job on him. He’s coming along. He’s getting his confidence up there. There’s a lot of hype about him and he’s got to prepare himself for that.
On their sloppy play:
“We still have to get better if we want to win a championship. We are going to work tomorrow at practice really hard and take it day-by-day. A win is always good to have but we’re looking toward the future. We have to work out the mistakes so they don’t happen when it really counts. We have to prepare ourselves mentally for those tough games. I’m not saying that this wasn’t a tough game but this was a game that we could have played a lot better for.”
