Coach Boeheim Postgame Quotes
Coach Jim Boeheim Press Conference Quotes
Syracuse vs. Canisius
December 17, 2008
Carrier Dome/Syracuse, NY
Opening Statement:
“When you lose that first game and come back the next time, it’s always awkward. It takes something out of you, that first loss of the season. I thought we came out at the end of the first half, we started playing better, more aggressively, defensively. Then in the second half we really came out, I thought and defended better that we have been, and we rebounded better. We got out and even though we made a couple of bad turnovers, we got the ball down the court, but it was, again, stemming from our effort on the defensive end. I think we were better. We didn’t turn it over as much -- we made a couple of bad ones -- but it’s something that I think we can correct. I think the players are thinking about playing Saturday, that’s an exciting game. Memphis is tough down there, they haven’t lost in a while, and we’re looking forward to going down there and playing.”
On playing Rick Jackson and Arinze Onuaku in the lineup together:
“We haven’t done it much this year, because the teams we’ve played against have been so small. We wanted to look at that. Rick [Jackson] had Arinze [Onuaku] wide open, we just didn’t execute a couple of times. I think that’s something that gives us another rebounder out there for sure. That’s a lineup we’ll see sometimes. It was only one eight-minute stretch, so I wouldn’t read too much into that.”
On Syracuse’s slow starts to open games:
“We’ve had some better starts, they haven’t all been slow. Our turnovers are a bigger problem, especially making bad turnovers in the first half. We’ve had significantly more turnovers in the first half than we have in the second half. We’ve also shot the ball a lot better in the second half. Jonny [Flynn] has been much, much better in the second half. Sometimes that’s just the point guard feeling his way in the game, and then realizing ‘Ok, this is what we have to do’. I don’t think it’s slow starts versus anything, I just don’t think we’re playing all that well. Even in the second half of games – against Kansas we didn’t play well in the second half, we played well in the last six minutes. We played terrible in the second half. We’ve played poorly in the second half in games too. The last part of the game, we have kind of fought back in games. I just don’t think we’re playing well, were through 11 games now. We’re not playing well. I don’t think we’ve played well all year. In stretches and parts of games, yeah, but I don’t think we’ve played well first half or second half. I think we’ve closed some games well, and that’s as far as I can go as far as how we’ve played this year. Obviously when you play a team like Memphis, particularly down there, you’ll find out if you’re not playing well. You’ll have a long night.”
On Paul Harris’ play:
“I thought the good news tonight was that Paul [Harris] was back to being himself, maybe for the first time all year. I thought he was going after the ball and grabbing the ball, which he has not been doing. That was a significant thing tonight. He hasn’t been as strong or physical as he was tonight.”
On preparing for Memphis:
“People think they lost everybody, and they didn’t lose everybody. I think they are very good. They had a really good chance to beat Georgetown the other day at Georgetown. They have a tremendous team with tremendous size and great speed. They have a team that will contend in the NCAA tournament, there’s no question about it. They have the weapons to play with anybody in the country. Memphis is a good team, and will be a great challenge for us. We’ll go down there and see what happens on Saturday.”
