Coach Boeheim Quotes
Syracuse vs. Fordham
November 16, 2007
Syracuse, N.Y. - Carrier Dome
Syracuse, N.Y. - Carrier Dome
Opening Statement:
“The first two games we played all zone. We worked hard and were pretty good at it. Tonight, Fordham’s a team you should be able to play zone against but they started out and we didn’t do a good job of getting to the shooters. They were pretty deep when they made the first three.
“Obviously Donte’ (Greene) kept us in there because they made a couple of more. We played man for the rest of the game and we made a couple of mistakes in it. But we did a pretty good job in it. We probably played about 35 minutes of man-to-man. They run a good pattern -- they just keep running, very similar to St. Rose’s. I thought we did a pretty good job defensively of getting up on the shooters and not given them open looks. Every time they had an open look, they made it. They shot extremely well and I thought we did a good job defensively to create some fast break baskets and made some good offensive plays.
“ Second half we were a little sluggish and couldn’t really get what we wanted to. That happens. The third game in a week is always a difficult thing. We had two very, very hard games Monday and Tuesday. We had to play a lot of minutes and we had to play hard obviously, from beginning to end, just to win the games. So I thought overall this was a good effort.
“Donte’ (Greene) got us going early. He was tremendous early and then everybody picked it up after that. It was a good overall effort. Again Ricky Jackson came in and did a tremendous job in and around the basket. I thought Scoop (Jardine) did a real good job. It was a good effort from those two kids. It’s been a good week. We couldn’t be in a better position going into New York.”
On cutting down the team’s turnovers:
“I thought the first half was good. The second half we got back into it a little bit. But for the first half, it’s an area we have to improve. No question that has to improve as we go along.”
On Jonny Flynn’s performance:
“He’s playing solid, solid basketball. I don’t know what happened in that first game. I’m still not quite sure. I think we’ll look back on that as an aberration as we go on in the season. He’s capable and I think he shows people he is capable of putting up points.
“We’ve got some guys in Eric (Devendorf) and Donte’ (Greene) that can score. Paul (Harris) missed his jumper tonight but he had a good solid defensive game. He did a good job on the other end on that kid Stout. I thought the defense was good and that’s as important as anything for us. I think Arinze (Onuaku) did a good job down low. With he and Ricky (Jackson) combining for 21 points and seven rebounds, that’s pretty good from that position.”
On bench productivity of Rick Jackson, Scoop Jardine and Kristoff Ongenaet:
“We keep working hard in practice and that’s a big thing. They’re three first-year players and there are little things. We leave a guy open in the corner. Ricky and Kristof are out there. We do that in a big game and the game is over. We can’t do that. We have got to learn from these mistakes and teach them. Try to do a good job. Kristoff made a couple of really good passes in there. He’s a good player. He’s just got to get a little more time and a little bit more comfortable.”
