Coach Boeheim Quotes
Syracuse v. St. John’s
January 2, 2008
Syracuse, N.Y. – Carrier Dome
Opening Statement:
I thought both teams played well in the first half. I think both teams had trouble stopping. We had trouble stopping them. We tried both defenses, neither one was very effective. We started out and made shots early, and I think we fell in love with the jump shot. We probably took too many and didn’t get the ball inside enough during a stretch, and they came back and played well.
I thought that in the second half, our man-to-man was good for awhile, but then we got in foul trouble, went back to the zone, and I thought that was good at the last part of the game. It kept them from getting us in more foul trouble, and kept them from getting to the line a lot.
I thought we did a good job when we really needed to get the ball to [Arinze Onuaku], and he finished inside. I thought he was really terrific out there. Guys were looking for him and finding him. When Donte’ [Greene] went out, that’s a big part of our offense, and I thought that Scoop [Jardine] and Jonny [Flynn] and Paul [Harris] got the ball inside to [Arinze], and did a tremendous job of getting the ball inside to him.
Again, we made some mistakes, which we’re going to be saying that all year, that’s just the way it is. They made some, we made some, just some unbelievable mistakes, but fortunately we had a big enough cushion that we could throw the ball away two or three times. Just unforced errors that we have got to learn that we can’t make those. Right up until that point of the game, we only had seven or eight turnovers, which is tremendous improvement from earlier in the year. We just made two or three really bad turnovers, but we had enough cushion that we could overcome it. Ricky [Jackson] made two huge free throws for us, and obviously we missed more than our share down the stretch, that’s something we’re just going to have to do a better job with. It’s tough to win these games.
Last year we lost at St. John’s, and here we won a four-point game, and [Demetris Nichols] had 37. I think St. John’s is much better this year. Mason is now back, and him and Donte’ getting in foul trouble hurt both teams, obviously. But Mason didn’t play early in the year, he’s a big weapon. Burrell is a really good young player and they’re a much improved team from the team we played last year that beat us. I think you get a win, the first one for these young guys. Scoop made a couple of huge plays for us tonight, a couple of passes and the one turnaround jumper he made that hit about 22 pieces of the rim, but it got in there, so we’ll take it. It was a very tough, hard-fought win.
On the play of Arinze Onuaku:
Well, they didn’t double him until late. He got off to a good start, and we found him. Some of it was penetrations, and some of them he just got it and took it by the guy and made good plays. Paul found him a couple times. Paul had seven assists, good all-around game, didn’t rebound as well as we need him to, but I thought Jonny did a good job. Scoop did a good job of getting in the lane and finding Arinze and getting him good looks.
I think he knows where he’s good, he knows he’s good down on the block, and guys are doing a good job of finding him down there, and he’s real good around the basket. He can use both hands, which I think is a tremendous asset, not many guys can do that, and I think it’s a big plus for him. A big plus that he can use both hands so well.
[The last time we had an offensive-minded center] was Otis Hill. Otis Hill was our last offensive weapon inside, and that was about ten years ago.
On being out-rebounded by St. John’s:
I don’t know if there’s any team we should or shouldn’t out-rebound. I think we didn’t do as good a job on the boards as we need to. I think Donte’ and Paul have got to do a better job there, I think. I thought Ricky was close. He was just a little out of position, he had two or three layups, and he was just a little late getting in position, and ended up missing or getting fouled. But we have got to do a better job on the boards.
On the character of the team after their first BIG EAST game:
Every game is tough. We’ve had nothing but tough games. Doesn’t matter if it’s a BIG EAST game or not, they’ve all been tough. We could have lost to Siena, we could have lost to St. Joe’s, could have lost to Washington, could have lost to Virginia, you name it. We could have lost seven or eight games, but they’ve been good down the stretch. They’ve made some mistakes down the stretch, but they’ve been good the stretch, even in the games we’ve lost. We’ve had more than enough tough games. We’ve got 17 more ahead of us.
It takes a long time to learn this game. You can’t do it in a few games, it takes time. You just have to try to keep getting better. We made really good plays today when it was a two-point game. Ricky made the two free throws, Scoop came down and made a big play, and I think he might have made another big play right in there. He had been pretty quiet, but he made a couple real big plays, and that little spurt was the difference.
On changes in play after Donte’ Greene picked up his fourth foul:
We tried to get it inside, we really tried to get the ball inside. We were fortunate to do that. We were able to make plays. Scoop made couple of them, Paul made a couple of them. We just got it to Arinze a couple times, and he made a play on his own, he got an offensive rebound.
It’s always going to be hard when you lose a player like him, or Arinze, it’s going to be hard when we lose anybody. Donte’s our best outside shooter, so that’s another miss that hurts us when he’s out. Our shooting is at best OK, and when he’s not in there, it goes down to not very good at all. It’s obvious that the biggest problem we have with losing the two guys is their shooting. That’s the hardest thing to replace.
On the upcoming game against South Florida:
They’re playing well. They beat Rutgers by 17, I’m not surprised. They won seven games in a row after their slow start. I think they have a real good basketball team. I don’t think there’s anybody that’s not good enough to beat you. Everybody talked about Cincinnati being near the bottom, they beat Louisville. There are 16 teams in our league, you play them, you’re going to have a tough game. I just don’t think there’s a game that’s going to be easy, I know there’s not going to be.
