Coach Boeheim Media Day
Syracuse Men’s Basketball
Media Day
October 16, 2008
Coach Jim Boeheim
Regarding the return of Andy Rautins and Eric Devendorf: “Losing Andy in the beginning (of 2007) was a tremendous blow, but still having Eric I thought we could survive that. When Eric went down, it just put so much pressure on our offense to try and score inside and try and get to the basket. We weren’t really able to shoot well enough on the three-point line to win. I think having those two guys back at full speed, two proven three-point shooters, makes our perimeter game much more effective than last year. Certainly from an offensive point of view, even though you lose Donte Green, whose main asset was shooting from the perimeter, those shots will now be taken by Andy and Eric. I think we’ll get a higher return percentage-wise from those guys taking those shots. I think it’s a huge thing for our perimeter game that should help Arinze Onuaku and Ricky Jackson inside. There’s no question that it’s nice to have them back offensively, for sure.”
Regarding Eric Devendorf’s ability to be full-speed from day one: “Eric will probably be another two or three weeks before I think he could be up to that speed. Theoretically it could be a little longer. It’s anywhere from nine to 12 months coming back to that. Andy’s had 12 months.”
Regarding starters for this year: “Anything’s possible as far as who is going to start at this stage. After the injuries last year, we didn’t have many decisions to make. We played the guys as long as they could stand up. This year we expect to be able to play nine guys minimum. You know, get Jonny out and get him some rest. Eric can play point, Andy can play the two or three, Mookie Jones can play the two or the three and Kris Joseph can play the three or four. We obviously have a lot more depth than last year. There’s no question that we got worn down in some situations and in some games and that shouldn’t happen this year.”
Regarding what he learned from his Olympic experience: “I think the last three years with the Olympic team has been a great experience for me. You get to see the other coaches, their philosophies and how they coach. You see not only the X’s and O’s part of the game, but the motivational part of the game. To work with the coaches that were on the Olympic team was very helpful. I think we’ll use some of the X’s and O’s and some of the motivational angles. I think all that can be utilized in some way here.”
Regarding Arinze Onuaku: “Well I think with not playing the year before, he had a tremendous year last year. I thought he exceeded any expectations for him, yet I believe he can still be better. I think he can take his game up to an even higher level. I think the hardest thing about last year when Eric and Andy went down, was that Arinze and Paul Harris were in their second year of playing but they were both in their first year with having any real responsibility about how we’re going to do as a team. With Jonny Flynn and Kristof Ongenaet, it was their first year trying to do what you have to do in this league. I think they came out the other end, with all the things that happened, about as well as you could expect. Overall, it was a tremendous learning experience for them. I think they’re a lot better players today. They know much more about what’s ahead and what they have to do to be successful.”
Regarding Jonny Flynn’s role as a scorer: “I think Jonny’s a scorer. He’s a point guard that can score. He scored last year. It’s going to be easy for him to play this year. He won’t have to score as much if he can get Andy and Eric going. I think Paul has improved his shooting. He improved tremendously from his freshman to his sophomore year, and I think he’s improved again tremendously this year. I think Jonny has people he can set up. That’s what a point guard does and he can do that. I don’t think there’s going to be as much pressure on him to score as there might have been last year. I think he’s certainly capable of scoring if the opportunity is there.”
Regarding Jonny Flynn as one of the best point guards in the country: “I think three or four guys were rated ahead of him, but I think he’s one of the best returning point guards in the country.”
Regarding the status of Scoop Jardine: “Scoop is injured. He had a stress fracture at the end of the year last year. He rested it most of the summer, not every day but most of the time. It’s still giving him pain. We don’t want him to try to play with that situation. We’d like to see him be completely recovered. I think that would take two or three months to be 100 percent if nothing else has to be done to it. With that scenario, we would not want to bring him in too much down the road. Our main focus is to get him completely healthy. It’s six months since we played our last game and he’s not healthy. We want to make sure he is healthy. Without question, he is redshirting this year.”
Regarding the non-conference schedule: “Until a year or two ago, we’ve always played two intersectional games that would be difficult games. A Memphis or a Kansas in a tournament. We’ve always done that, but we’ve always played them in January or February because we had space there. Now with the 18-game league schedule you have no space there, so we had to play those games early. It’s basically the same schedule we always played, except those two intersectional games we played in January or February are now being played early because of the BIG EAST playing 18 games. We’ve always played the tournament.”
Regarding areas which need improvement: “I think maturity and depth were what hurt us most last year. We’re going to be better in both those areas. Regarding this team, they haven’t played a game yet. Until you get into it and see what the strengths and weaknesses are, it’s hard to talk about what we need to improve on. Last year’s team just didn’t have a lot of maturity or enough depth. If you look at what this team’s strengths could be, we should be able to shoot the ball from the outside, we should be able to handle the ball better and we should be more mature and make better decisions. We are not going to be a big team, so we’re going to have to work hard and rebound the ball. That will always be a concern. I think our defense last year wasn’t as good as it needed to be. That’s an area we’re going to have to get better at.”
Regarding the BIG EAST Conference: “I think there are eight teams in the BIG EAST in the top 25 or 30, and I think that’s more than we’ve ever had. I think there’s probably four other teams that are really good that aren’t in there. I’d say in my mind, there are 12 teams that are NCAA teams and after that, there are four other teams after that which can beat you if you don’t play well. It’s as good as the league’s ever been from top to bottom. I think there will be two or three teams that will emerge as top five teams. North Carolina is clearly the best team coming back by quite a bit, but after that it’s wide open. I think our league is wide open. I think there are four or five teams that would be hard to choose from, with three or four after that. It’s the best I’ve seen from top to bottom.”
Regarding the roles of each player: “I don’t see any big change this year from roles last year. I hope we can cut back on some minutes. We need to cut back the minutes some guys are playing to we can be stronger, tougher and more physical at the end of games or when we play two or three games in a week. We do that a lot right at the beginning of the year. Minutes are definitely going to be cut back and we’ve talked about that a lot. That should be a very positive thing. One thing I learned this summer was that you can be very productive when you know you’re going to play 20 minutes. You can go as hard as you can every minute. You can’t necessarily go that hard for 30 minutes. Dwyane Wade averaged 17 points a game and played 19 minutes. If he had played 30, he probably would’ve averaged the same number. He knew this was what the minutes were going to be and he was going to take advantage of it. I think that’s what will happen with this team. The guys will get more than enough time to do what they need to do, but they won’t have to be out there for 35 minutes like they were last year. When you play that much, there’s time you rest. We won’t need to do that this year.”
Regarding his expectations for the two freshmen: “They’re going to play, they’re going to be a part of it. How much? You never know until you get into the season. There have been years where I thought a freshman might not contribute that much and they end up being one of the best players. You never know until you get into practice and into the first few games. I anticipate both guys will help us this year.”
Regarding expectations for Ricky Jackson and Sean Williams: “I think Ricky has improved a lot. His workouts are better. He’s much more focused. Sean has improved a lot. I think both guys are capable of helping us out. I think Ricky is really ready to step in and be a big contributor this year.”
Regarding a Sean Williams redshirt: “I don’t know right now. We haven’t made any plans about anyone else other than Scoop.”
Regarding Jonny Flynn’s position as a leader: “I thought Jonny had a great year. I thought he played as well as any point guard in the country last year given the circumstances he came into. He was really left out there when Eric went down. He really could’ve struggled, but he had a tremendous year. He was really left out there with no veterans and no good shooting with him. I think he’s getting better. It’s hard for a freshman sometimes. I think a lot of it is just working hard, coming every day and making plays. That’s the kind of leadership he has to do. I think everybody on this team should be able to step up. I expect Arinze, Andy, Eric and Paul to step up. They’re veteran players and have no immaturity excuse. They’re mature, experience college basketball players. They have to step up as a group, not one or two, all of them. They have to be different players this year. I don’t think anyone was mature enough last year to step up and say, “This is what we have to do.” I don’t really fault anyone for that, but I think you need to have a veteran player that’s been there. When we won in ’03, we had a lot of freshman but we had a lot of sophomores with experience. You have to have somebody and we didn’t have anybody.”
Regarding what Wes Johnson can do without playing: “Wes is a good player, obviously a very good basketball player. He will help us just by being in practice, working hard and playing his game. I think he has a chance to expand his game this year while he’s sitting out because the competition will be good. He will help the other guys with that aspect. He’s a proven player. He’s played well in a tough conference. I think he has unlimited potential and he’ll help these guys.”
Regarding having any stated goals: “I never set goals. We want to be the best we can be and play well every game. If we play well and do the things we are capable of, we’ll be fine.”
Regarding the importance of getting back to the NCAAs: “Well it’s important for us to have a great year, and that’s the only way you can have a great year.”
Regarding who the sixth man would be: “I think I have an idea. I have an idea about a lot of things. I have an idea the stock market is going to get better but I wouldn’t rush down to Merrill Lynch right now. There are a lot of things you can have ideas about. I’m not sure right now. I know eight or nine guys are going to play. If you’re only playing six or seven guys, the five guys that start are playing all the time. It’s not that big of a decision. When you have eight or nine guys, it’s not as important that you’re coming off the bench. Everyone wants to start, but it’s important that you play. We’ll play that many guys until we find that we can’t. I don’t think that will happen. I think it’s obvious that we have perimeter guys we think are very good. Obviously Kristof is the only guy who will play the four and the other guys can play a couple positions. I think we have the right kind of depth. I don’t think who the sixth man is going to be that important. I think some years you might want to play the sixth man because you have to, and you have the sixth, seventh or eighth man playing just to give your starting five some rest. That won’t be the case this year. There might be some games that our sixth or seventh man plays better than the guys starting the game. That’s a good problem to have.”
Regarding Kristof Ongenaet’s improvement: “I thought he got comfortable. He figured out what he can do well. He’s a hustle guy. He gets things down, gets rebounds and gives us some toughness. I think he’s a valuable part to what we’ll try and do this year.”
Regarding using the Olympic philosophy of minutes with this year: “I’ve talked to the players about minutes already. Every player wants to play every minute. That’s the nature of what players are. I think when they understand it’s in their best interest and in the best interest of the team if they’re well-rested when they’re on the court, it’s an easy thing to adjust to.”
Regarding getting this team to buy into a defensive philosophy: “Well that team averaged 104 points a game, so I guess they played offense too. That team did play better defense, but what we were was a great offensive team. We would like to be the best offensive team we can be this year. I think we can be a very good offensive team and we’re going to have to play good defense to win. You can’t win anything without playing good defense. We want to be as good as we can on offense, and we could be a lot better team on offense because the four positions are guys who have played. They have experience and should get better. We expect to be a very good offensive team and will have to become a good defensive team to be successful.”
Regarding the affect of losing Donte Green: “Donte was a tremendous player, but he was basically an outside shooter. We should be an improved outside shooting team even though we lost him because we have the two other guys back. We’ll miss his size on the defensive end and we’ll have to make up for his rebounding. His main value last year was his three-point shooting. We didn’t have to do anything but get two guys back to being healthy to improve our three-point shooting. That part should take care of itself.”
Regarding what Paul Harris has to do to improve: “Paul Harris had a good year last year, but I expect him and he expects himself to do more. His numbers were good, he averaged 15 and seven. Those are good numbers for a sophomore. I expect him to be a better player, be a better leader, to make more plays and to be a more dominating player. I think he can be and I think he thinks he can be. This is his year to step up and do those things. I think coming in, when you’re more of an inside player at 6-4,you’re not going to dominate in the BIG EAST conference as a freshman. You’re going to do good things, but until you become a good shooter, you’re not going to be any kind of a dominating player at 6’4”. His shooting is much better and he’s now at the point where he can dominate some games and situations that people might’ve thought he could’ve earlier. I don’t agree with that. I think he’s right on schedule. Having Eric and Andy out there with him will only help his game. It’s going to spread the defense and that’s what he needs. He needs the defense spread so he can be as effective as he can be.”
