Coach Boeheim Quotes
Syracuse v. Robert Morris
NIT First Round
March 18, 2008
Syracuse, N.Y. – Carrier Dome
Opening Statement:
“Jonny Flynn got hurt in the Villanova game and didn’t practice but has been getting treatments and really felt good. But when you don’t practice for six or seven days, it is difficult to play, but he felt fine. It wasn’t hurting him and we just needed to get as many minutes out of him as we could rather than play with six guys. He landed right on the ball on the same spot that was hurt, so he absolutely could not go anymore.
Scoop [Jardine] came in and did a tremendous job. It is ironic but what is so difficult with this team, and I am sure anybody can see this, when they do the things that we want to do, they are really good and they do a lot of good things. We went to Arinze [Onuaku] knowing they were going to double team and he passes it out and Donte’ [Greene] gets a wide open three. We got it to him again, he passes to Kristof [Ongenaet] and he gets a layup. The next time they played the defense the same way and Arinze dribbles the ball and loses it. At this stage of the year, those are mistakes that you cannot make. If they’re coming to get you then you pass it back out and we get an open shot. Another time we passed it out, reversed it, Scoop got a wide open shot. When we move the ball and do the things that we are capable of, we get great shots.
We have one rule about offense – shooting, really – the only rule we have is use the backboard on a lay-up. This is something we tell guys from the first game of practice, and we shoot lay-up’s every day. You either dunk or use the backboard. Scoop went in and probably got fouled as two guys went after him and he used the backboard and made it. Now what would possess someone to think when there is nobody there that they should shoot it over the front rim, I don’t know where that thought process comes from. There is no process and there is no thought is where it comes from. In a two point game, that would be the game and we would be done, right now, we would be done.
The biggest thing that bothers me with this team is we play good defense, we force them to miss a shot, we can’t get the rebound against a 6-foot guy. Not against a 6’9” guy or a 6’10” guy or a 6’6” guy or a 6’4” guy. We can’t get the rebound with two of our guys and a 6-foot guy. Another time there was one of their guys in there, we had everybody in and their guy got the ball, threw it out and they made a three. Our defense many times was pretty good and they throw it out and have a wide open three because we don’t get the offensive rebound. That should be our strength in this particular game.
Our strength was we moved the ball well when we didn’t make a bad mistake and we made good shots and we shot a good percentage and that is why we won the game. We didn’t use our inside strength at all to win the game. What really is crazy to me is we throw a pass to half court against pressure when we have two timeouts. I guess we didn’t learn in the Pittsburgh game why we aren’t playing in the NCAA Tournament and why we wouldn’t throw that pass. That is what disturbs me the most at this stage in the year, we should have learned from some of these things that have happened and it doesn’t appear that we have.
Playing six guys, this high intensity a game, and it was an intense game and these guys played hard. People were worried ‘well, they’re in the NIT’. We’re going to play. Jonny tried to come out of the hospital to play. We played hard. I don’t think there has really been a question this year the whole year of us losing a game because we didn’t play hard. We didn’t play well and we make mistakes and some of the mistakes that are appearing are still the same mistakes and that is what is disappointing. We have gotten better but we are still making some unbelievable turnovers, Donte’ tries to dribble out on a fast break and they get a lay-up. Things like that we should be better at. We started the second half with a six-point lead and got two stops and we throw the ball out of bounds twice. Then we score twice and without that, we should be up 14. Those kind of plays we still are making and it is very frustrating for everybody at this stage of the year to make those kind of mistakes.
Robert Morris is a very good team. They won 14 straight games in a league that has some very good teams. They went to Boston College and won. Boston College didn’t have a great year but they beat a few people this year. They went to Seton Hall and lost in double overtime, or whatever it was. They’re a good basketball team and they played well. They did a lot of good things and where we should hurt them more on the boards, we didn’t. We did get baskets by throwing it into Arinze and then out, so even though he didn’t score, we got baskets that way. This was a hard game and to lose Jonny. We have been very fortunate. If Jonny got hurt six weeks ago, we would be fishing some place right now. We wouldn’t be playing basketball. We were very lucky to go from our 10th game to 22 more games without getting him or anybody else significantly hurt. We have had that problem. I guess we can’t get it all year long. For us to win this game against a very good pressure team with just one guard is a tremendous achievement, we’re happy to win, we’ll get a day and try to come back Thursday and see who we play and what we have to do for Thursday.”
On Donte’ Greene:
“We looked for him, he got inside a little better, he made some moves going to the basket. He didn’t rebound the way he had to, he just has to rebound more for us. Offensively, he is a tremendous player.”
On Scoop Jardine:
“Scoop was tremendous, he made that one bad drive just before the missed lay-up, he got in the lane and charged. Other than that, he played a tremendous game defensively and offensively, very good.”
On Jonny Flynn playing Thursday:
“We never, never, at any point, risk injury. He was cleared, he was healthy, he was fine. If he is cleared and healthy he will play. If he is hurt, he won’t play. He wanted to play tonight and he could see he couldn’t after that, so he didn’t play.”
On the difficulty on defense:
“The problem is, if you play zone, they are going to get shots and you have to get them as contested as you can and in theory, they are putting four guys on the perimeter and that is how they are going to get shots. Then, when they miss and they are going to miss, we should get the rebounds and that is where we hurt ourselves. We didn’t get the misses enough and they got it back and got threes. We played man-to-man three possessions, they scored three times and we fouled them twice. At the end, they shoot nine foul shots because we are playing zone. We play man-to-man the whole game, they don’t make 16 threes, they probably only make 10 and they shoot 35 foul shots and we have no players at the end of the game because they’ve all fouled out. So, we could do that and if that is what people want, us to lose that way, we could do that but I would rather win, I like winning.”
On whether making the NIT is easier after winning a National Championship:
“It is never easy but we have five first-year players and two sophomores. With everything that has happened and as tough as our league is, we have eight teams in the NCAA Tournament that we had to go through – for these guys to win 19 games is pretty good. Everyone says we could have won the Georgetown game. Well, Georgetown did that to eight people. Five-point lead with two minutes to go isn’t any big deal in college basketball. The one game we let get away was Pittsburgh – there is no question – but that happened in a minute. We went from nine-up to two-up in a minute. We made two major errors and they made two threes, but even that does happen in college basketball – happens all the time. Other than that, we didn’t really have an opportunity to win. We had some opportunities, but we could have lost to Saint Josephs just as easy as not. Jonny makes a three without taking a three the whole game. Siena, who I think is a great team, Jonny makes six or seven threes or we lose to Siena and I think Siena is very good. They’ve proved that and they are in the tournament. These guys have won 20 games now and I’m never satisfied. If we had won 25, I’d think we should win more but I’m not sure looking back on it. We’re close enough to the end that you can look back a little bit and think that these guys, given the numbers and the circumstances and the inexperience that we have, they have been pretty good. I get on them – I’m on them all the time – but they are trying to get better, they work hard, they try. We’ve got some real deficiencies. Right now, we’ve got one guy that can shoot three’s on the team. Jonny is streaky but can and we have a lot of inexperience, but they’ve battled through it and done a pretty respectable job overall.”
