Coach Boeheim Quotes vs. Notre Dame
Coach Boeheim Quotes
Syracuse vs. Notre Dame
January 30, 2007
Carrier Dome-Syracuse, N.Y.
Opening Statement:
“We played man-to-man. Notre Dame is a very good shooting team and we had to play them man-to-man and we couldn’t do it. It was very disappointing. The Villanova game we had to play man and we did a very good job and really turned that game back around. Tonight inside we had no effort until the end of the game and that’s just not going to get it done. It was very disappointing.”
“The only thing that was a positive was, as we have when we’ve been behind, we keep trying, we keep trying to make plays. Defensively we played fairly poorly, offensively the first half had 42 points, but defensively we didn’t find the shooters, we didn’t get on the boards. (Luke) Harangody and (Zach) Hillesland look like All-Americans instead of first year players. Really this is the first year Harangody has played and the first year Hillesland has played, and they dominated our two big guys. There is just absolutely no excuse for that and that was the difference in the ball game really. (Colin) Falls is going to make shots and (Russell) Carter is going to make shots, we expect that. For those guys to do that inside and we did nothing with (Tory) Jackson. It was really three first year players that determined the outcome of the game. They’re going against two seniors and a junior and that’s very disappointing, those guys are going to have to accept responsibility.”
“When you lose two close games on the road that you have a better than good chance to win it’s not going to put you in the right frame of mind but there is no excuse for the level of defense we played tonight. I’d like to give Notre Dame credit, they’re a good offensive team but there guys will shoot if they’re open and they’re going to make shots. We just didn’t guard, that’s really the story of the game.”
On Paul Harris’s performance:
“If we’re down twenty he helped us get there, he played right from the beginning. He’s struggling on half court offense; tonight he really struggled on half court defense.”
On the players stepping up to new roles:
“I think Demetris (Nichols) has really stepped up and Terrence (Roberts) is trying to step up now. I thought Terrence played well, his knee is banged up a little bit, I kept him out because his knee is pretty swollen. I think they both tried I think Mookie (Darryl Watkins) needs to step up, Josh Wright has to step up and they haven’t shown any sign of that yet. This was really that first game that Eric (Devendorf) had a bad game, Eric has been playing great, he’s been really our steadiest player and this was just the first night that he really couldn’t get anything going.”
On Andy Rautins exit from the game:
“Andy hurt his knee (taking a charge), I don’t know what his status will be.”
On the defensive strategy:
“We play zone and we’re good at it. I don’t think we could have beaten Notre Dame playing zone tonight, we have been successful with them in the zone but they’re better at attacking it and they’ve been shooting the ball. The times we did try and play zone tonight, four or five times we played zone, they scored. The zone was not going to be a winner tonight. We probably would have done better if we played all zone but we would’ve been behind and we’d always looked back and say but what if we play man-to-man, that’s what everybody likes to do anyway. The reason we were in the Louisville game, the reason we were in the St. John’s game was because we played zone, and I don’t think people have a comprehension of that. They think that if we play man-to-man we’re going to win those games and the reality is if we play man we’d have probably been beaten by 25. At least by playing zone we gave ourselves a chance to win and if we didn’t go 0-for-13 against Louisville we would have been able to win that game. It wasn’t our defense in those two games but it was our defense tonight and we played 37 minutes of man-to-man tonight. Everybody has got to play, we’re right on the fine line, and we’ve got to get better play out of everybody. At the end of the game Mookie is going after the ball, well we have to be doing that all game, that’s pretty obvious, I think everybody sees that, I think he sees that, it’s very disappointing.”
On coming in after the first half:
“We just go out and try to play better defense, we actually did, we played a little better. We had some offensive possessions in the start of the second half that we didn’t finish that could have put us in a little better position earlier in the second half. We just wanted to get a couple baskets back, we couldn’t get anything back in the first 8 or 10 minutes and it was a little too late then. There is no excuse to play defense at the level we played in the first half and they’re veteran guys. We have two seniors and a junior going against two freshman and a sophomore who did not play against us last year, and I don’t think he played much if he did play last year at any time. We should have the advantage in those match-ups and we got crushed in those match-ups.”
On the full court press at the end of the game:
“That’s just desperation. They’re going to make some mistakes, but they’re protecting a 30 point lead, they’re not going to attack it and if we pressed in the first half which we did they went right by and scored. When they’re up 20 you’re going to get a couple turnovers, they’re just not going to attack you; it’s a whole different scenario. Sure we got a couple baskets here and there and in the first half they sort of attacked us and like they did went in and got lay-ups, when they have the lead they’re not going to keep attacking it.”
On looking ahead to March:
“I think Marquette is pretty good right now, I think that’s a pretty good win, I think Villanova is a pretty good win. We’re not worried about getting good wins; we’re worried about winning wins. We’ve got four wins in the league and you have to get eight or nine to have a chance to be considered and we’ve got eight games left, that’s all we’re concerned about. Resume wins don’t matter if you don’t get enough wins, but we beat a couple good teams. We’ve got to beat more teams that are left and not worry about who they are, we’ve got to win, every game. Every game is important, there is no game that’s not important but our seniors have got to be able to show that they are a good team. They’ve got to be able to prove that and to this date they haven’t proven that yet. So we’ll see what happens the rest of the way and then we’ll judge them at the end of the year.”
