SU Player Quotes vs Wichita State
SU Player Quotes
Syracuse vs. Wichita State
December 2, 2006
Carrier Dome-Syracuse, N.Y.
Senior forward Terrence Roberts
On team’s performance:
“There was absolutely no defense. We took a lot of bad shots. You cannot play like that until there are seven minutes left in the game. When you get into that big of a hole at home, your crowd can’t even get you out of that. They are a very aggressive team. They got a little stunned at the end. We need to play through bad calls and cannot allow ourselves to get into those situations.”
On Wichita State’s 27-1 first half run:
“We struggled in every type of defense we ran. We struggled in our man-to-man. We didn’t talk during screens or when we switched our guys. Guys got wide open shots. We did a poor job in our zone getting through screens, a poor job taking away their slashing. We have to work hard on not allowing those things to happen.”
On the comeback falling short:
“It is though because we are a better team than them and we were short of Eric (Devendorf) tonight. Without him, defensively we should have worked harder. Regardless of the defense we played, their guys got whatever shot they wanted. We have got to do a better job running our sets and playing defense.”
Junior guard Josh Wright
On overall performance:
“We made mistakes and they capitalized on them. Guys weren’t thinking and we were making mistakes we know we cannot make against good teams like them.”
On playing a ranked opponent:
“We looked at it as another game. We knew we were playing a worthy opponent and we had the game won after playing so bad. We played horrible but we had chances to win. That’s a positive we might take from this game. We have to move on.”
On playing Oklahoma State next:
“I’m not really thinking about being happy about the opponent we’re moving on to. I’m thinking about our next opponent, which is a good team. Whether it was a Colgate or anybody, we are going to have to get ready for them and look to improve from this loss.”
Freshman guard Paul Harris
On his strong second half:
“I just played harder I guess. I saw how the team was down and knew I should have done more in the first half; that’s my fault. I tried to bring us back but we fell a little short. We have to take this defeat as a team. No one can blame it on a missed layup. If we didn’t have contributions from those players, we wouldn’t have even been in it. We have to take this as a team loss.”
On being able to take anything from the game:
“Most importantly we know we cannot get down. Our team showed great heart. Being able to come back against a team like Wichita State from 19 down shows a lot of heart and character. But we came up a little short but we’ll be back. Don’t count us out.”
On going to Madison Square Garden:
“I’m going to treat it as a regular game. Regardless of where it is, the Carrier Dome or the Garden. As a team we have to be ready to go. I told the guys we have to have great practices the next two days and we will go down to New York City and get a W.”
Senior forward Demetrius Nichols
On the importance of Tuesday’s game vs. Oklahoma State:
“It is one of those important games prior to the BIG EAST. We know a lot about Oklahoma State and we have to more days to be ready. We always play well at the Garden. The Garden is like the Dome. It is going to fun for us and we are going to be ready on Tuesday. I don’t know if they memories will come back. I’ll let you know but we have to be ready for Oklahoma State. That’s most important.”
On bouncing back from the loss:
“We have to make sure we put this behind us and tomorrow look to get better and be ready. Look at it as a new day and learn from our mistakes like being down twenty. We came back from it but if we weren’t in that situation it would have been different.”
