Jim Boeheim Quotes
Coach Boeheim Quotes
Selection Sunday
March 12, 2006
Opening Statement…
“First of all we’re obviously happy to be in the tournament after the trauma of the season and going to New York City, I guess somebody said we made the biggest RPI jump in history in four days. To go from out of the tournament to the five seed is a tremendous accomplishment for these players. Texas A&M will be a very good basketball team. I watched them beat Texas. Texas is a two seed. They have a tremendous coach who’s done a tremendous job at Texas A&M. They’re a very talented team.”
On how important their seed is…
“I don’t think it matters. The difference between a four, five, and a six or an 11, 12, or 13, I just don’t think it matters. There’s a lot of good teams in this tournament.
On their seed…
“I really don’t think about it a lot because it really doesn’t matter. You look at a four seed, five seed, six seed; you can pick any seed you want. Pitt’s got Alabama and Alabama has beaten a lot of people this year. Northern Iowa’s got Bucknell and we couldn’t beat them. It doesn’t matter. When you’re in the NCAA tournament you’ve got to play well. When we’ve gotten to the NCAA tournament years when we’ve played well we’ve won, we went don’t play well we go home. There are no more gimmie games in the NCAA tournament.”
On how to top their run in New York…
“I think the good thing about New York was that we had good balance. That’s something that we didn’t have last year. With Hakim (Warrick) and Gerry (McNamara) we just don’t have the balance that we do this year. We played four different kinds of teams which was difficult this year. Last year we had an easy first round game, and even the third game last year it was West Virginia’s fourth game. I think both Pitt and us being the fourth game made it possible for us to win. If we had played someone who was on their third game it might have been different. Pitt missed some free-throws, they missed two lay-ups.”
On the eight Big EAST teams making it in…
“I think Cincinnati should have gotten in. I think that the thing that hurt them was that they won their two best non-conference games with (Armien) Kirkland. I don’t know if that’s what the committee will say but it would have been interesting if we lost to UConn to see who would have gotten in, but I’m glad I don’t have to.”
On why everything came together in New York…
“I think we had more balance and that was it, bottom line. We ran the same plays but we ran them a little bit better and a little bit more spread. I just think that our big guys moved a little bit better. The reason that we won the Pittsburgh game was because Demetris got going. Josh made those two free-throws”
On if the guys other than Gerry McNamara learned the will to win…
There’s no question. They made the plays. Josh Wright made the four free-throws, Matt Gorman made the steal and the outlook pass. Eric Devendorf made two free-throws, made the jumper. Mookie made the block down there, Terrence (Roberts) made plays. Louis made some huge plays down there. They all made plays. They shot more efficiently; they shot a better field goal percentage. We held people to 30 percent from the three point line. We held people six or seven percentage points lower than we did all year and we played the four toughest teams. It’s never been about Gerry (McNamara) this year. We won four or five league games because he put us on our back and carried us. We won the Davidson game because he went for thirty. If he had gone for twenty we would have lost. It’s been about the other guys getting to where they need to be. Gerry (McNamara) proved himself a long time ago. He’s up there in the league in steals and assists. The only reason he isn’t higher in assists is because we didn’t catch the ball. He can’t throw it, catch it, and put it in. It’s always been up to the other guys to step it up and they have. They never had the weight on their shoulders until this year. The non-league games aren’t enough weight. They responded pretty well in some of those games but until you get into the tough part of the league you have to respond in those situations. We also had a brutal schedule. Our schedule could have kept us out of the NCAA. If we didn’t have a brutal schedule I think we would have won nine games. We could not overcome the schedule. Five games in 12 days, five games in 12 days later. It took our guys a long time to get to where they we there for us. We wouldn’t have won a game down there if Mookie had played the way he played all year. He stepped it up big down there in New York. It’s to their credit. You get in a do or die situation. Demetrius hitting that therein the corner, we lose that game if he doesn’t make that three. We may have found a way but it would have been a lot harder. If Josh didn’t make the first two free throws, (Carl) Krauser’s basket would have tied it. These guys have grown, stepped it up and grown up. That should help us a lot this next week. It wasn’t all Gerry (McNamara) in New York; it was Gerry (McNamara) before New York. As great as it was, it was still these other guys making plays, great plays. Gerry (McNamara) made the big plays but these other guys stepped it up. I think that’s why we’re going forward and it’s given us a little better opportunity now.”
