SU Player Quotes vs. St. Bonaventure
SU Player Quotes
Syracuse vs. St. Bonaventure
December 30, 2006
Carrier Dome-Syracuse, N.Y.
Senior center Darryl Watkins
On his offensive performance
“It feels real good to know that the coach is going to lean on you on the offensive side. You have to go with the flow, and have a good vibe that you are going to go out and make something happen. When coach is making plays for you, it feels good to go out and execute.”
On playing well before BIG EAST play begins:
“You can’t really say that about this game, we let some things slide. There should have been more points on the board, but even the close game helps us prepare for the BIG EAST.”
On if the team is ready for BIG EAST play:
“I think we are ready. We have to cut back on some mistakes but I think we are ready. We have to play smart and close out games.”
Sophomore guard Eric Devendorf
On the team’s shaky performance and Pittsburgh coming up
“We’ll take it. A win is a win, but we have to come out against Pittsburgh and play 25 times better than tonight. We have to hit the glass and do everything right to beat them. We had some unfortunate turnovers tonight, but as I said a win is a win, and when we play up to the competition in the BIG EAST I think we will be alright. Sometimes we play down to the competition and it was another case of that tonight.”
On frustrations of playing down to the competition:
“It’s frustrating knowing that talent wise that we are better than this team, (not taking anything away from them) but it’s frustrating and we need to work on that.”
On his performance
“I’m trying to get back in the rhythm, but I have to start better. The first half has been kind of slow, so I’m going to try to get off on the right foot next game.”
On Pittsburgh
We get the same thing from them every year. A physical man to man team, they are going to get the ball down low to Aaron Gray and bully down low, but it should be alright.
Senior forward Demetris Nichols
On the team’s performance:
“We didn’t play that well and we had a poor night of shooting, but we found other ways to score. We got the ball inside to Watkins and he took advantage of it, but we had a poor shooting performance and we can’t do that against Pittsburgh. If this was a BIG EAST team we probably would have had trouble tonight, so we just have to get better.”
On Watkins’ performance:
“He played great. I think he was the reason we won the game. He had some great blocks along with his 18 points, so if he can continue to play like that we should be good for the BIG EAST.
On scoring 20 points or more in six-consecutive games:
“It is a pretty good accomplishment because I have been through some ups and downs, but all the hard work is paying off, so it is a pretty cool accomplishment.”
