Coach Boeheim Quotes - Syracuse University Athletics

Syracuse vs. Northeastern
December 30, 2007
Syracuse, N.Y. - Carrier Dome

Opening Statement:
“I think, hopefully we’re going to learn from this game that for us to win, we have to play better defense. The first half tonight, we played no defense, and we were fortunate to be ahead at halftime. We were only ahead because we played well offensively, and it was the same the whole game against Rhode Island, the whole game against Massachusetts. We just have got to make more of a commitment to the defensive end of the court. I thought in the second half, Scoop [Jardine] did a much better job of staying with Janning, and I thought we did a little bit better job inside in terms of our defense. Last year, we weren’t able to guard them in a man-to-man and this year we did a much better job in the second half of playing man-to-man defense. That’s a huge key for us if we’re going to be successful, because if you play good defense you stop them and you get fast break opportunities, which we need to score. I thought, again, Scoop did a good job, a really good job on [Janning.] In the first half, they played a triangle on Jonny [Flynn] and Donte’ [Greene], which we hadn’t seen before. That gave Paul [Harris] some opportunities, gave Arinze [Onuaku] some opportunities too, and I thought offensively, we took advantage of that. We just didn’t do a good job on the defensive end, and that’s a lesson that we’ll learn, we’ve got to play better there.”

On the play of Scoop Jardine:
“Well, when nobody guards you, you should be able to score. That should be something you should do, but I thought his defense was key. I thought he did a good job of getting through the screens, and staying with Janning, not letting him get open looks. He’s a very good shooter, in the first half, we let him shoot, and he made them. But we lost three outlet passes again today, there is no excuse for that, just carelessness with passes on the outlet that we can’t afford to do. By this stage of the year we should have solved that problem, we still haven’t solved it. Those are horrific turnovers that you can’t make. Other than that, our turnovers were good. Scoop was good, I thought he was very solid out there today.”

On the preparation for BIG EAST play:
“They know it’s going to be much more difficult, they understand that, and they’re just going to have to wade into it. I think they have a good understanding of how much tougher it’s going to be, but we’ve had very tough games. We’ve gone into the BIG EAST many, many, many years with half of the toughness we’ve had now. We’ve had nothing but tough games, almost. We’ve had maybe two games out of the games that we’ve played that wasn’t a tough game. We’ve been tested. We’ve had a lot of close games against very good teams, so I think they have an idea of what has to be done. We’re not coming off of an easy schedule where we’ve had a lot of easy wins.”

On the upcoming game against St. John’s:
“Every game is tough, every team is good in our league. St. John’s beat us last year down there, we had a tough game with them here, every team is good in this league.”

On Paul Harris’s play against Northeastern:
“I though he did a better job of finding the openings, again, the triangle helped him get looks early, he got to the basket, I thought he passed the ball well, I thought he handled the ball well. When he’s on his game, he gets at least 10 to 12 rebounds, at least. When he’s at two, four, six, seven, he’s not on his game. He was on his game tonight. He made a lot of really good plays, and he didn’t have to make a jump shot, and that’s the way he can play.”

On the defensive effort:
“Defense is never completely learned by any group, and especially not by a young group, we’ll still be trying to learn it next summer. It takes the whole year. Defense is difficult. We can’t play horrible defense, but we have to play better, and that will be going on all year long. I’m shocked that we’ve been as efficient offensively as we’ve been. I’m very happy with it, but it’s shocking that we’re able to play at the offensive level that we’ve played at this year. It’s a huge, huge shock to anybody that follows the game. Offense is not that easy, either. They’ve gotten better, they’re getting the ball where is should get. You couldn’t ask a team to play better offense than we’ve played this year on a consistent basis through the 13 games we’ve played. I think our guys are more offensive-suited, they’re more offensive-minded. Defense is harder for young guys, they’ve never played it before, they’ve always played offense, but they’ve never played defense until they’ve come to college. So we’ve got a lot of work to do on defense, we’ve just got to keep working at it. It takes a long time to play good defense.”

On the changes on the team from Eric Devendorf to Scoop Jardine:
“We don’t rely on the three-point shot, obviously. He’s got to penetrate, which he did a good job of. He’s got to forget about the jump shot, which he figured out finally. He’ll get to the lane, make things happen going inside. We can’t rely on our jump shot. East Tennessee State’s a good a team we’ve played these last four or five games. But with Eric, without him, the difference is that he gets five threes in the first half. And when he’s out there, you can’t play a triangle on Jonny and on Donte, you can’t play a box and one, because you’ve got him out there, so it makes it easier. If we played East Tennessee State today, with this team right now, we’d have a hell of a game. Eric is just such a threat, that when you played us, you had to worry about Eric, really, first I think, because he can drive and shoot, then you worry about Jonny or Donte or Arinze or Paul. He was just a huge threat.”