Coach Boeheim Quotes
Syracuse vs. Maryland
Carrier Dome – Syracuse, N.Y.
March 20, 2008
Opening Statement:
“This was a tremendous effort I thought. Maryland has been a tremendous road team looking back at their tapes and what they’ve done on the road, not just at North Carolina but in other road games. They started out moving the ball and playing great early. We picked it up on the defensive end and did a good job rebounding and we did a good job not turning the ball over against their pressure. Two things that have been weaknesses for us have been rebounding and turning the ball over, and we didn’t do that tonight. We had patience, particularly in the first half when we were struggling. We had patience and got the ball to Arinze [Onuaku] and he finished. We made four or five really good plays offensively to get the ball to him and score down there. That was a big part of us getting back in the game.
Jonny [Flynn] practiced a little bit yesterday and he looked as good as he’s played all year long today. He was tremendous when we broke the game open. He made a couple big shots and a couple big, big pass plays where he got in the lane and found people. They were really two of the best passes he’s made all year in the lane.
I just thought we really played well. At this stage of the year, we played as well as we could have asked our guys to play tonight.”
On Jonny Flynn playing through a back injury:
“I thought the good news was he had some practice time yesterday which he didn’t have prior to that. I think that was the difference tonight, that he had some practice time. He was tentative for a while but once he got into the game, he hit a couple big shots in the first half and then hit some really big shots in the second half.”
On Scoop Jardine’s play:
“Everybody that contributed had a tremendous effort. Scoop made some big plays early when we were struggling to score with two or three big baskets and we were really struggling at that time. I think he got a little carried away because he made his three and then he missed six in a row. He did a tremendous job last game when Jonny was out and today in the first half, again we were struggling to score. He had four assists in the first half and three big baskets. He had a couple others that he could have gotten in where he had open looks.”
On whether he was worried Jonny Flynn would not play:
“No, he practiced yesterday so it was never really in doubt that he would play. He has a bruise, there is just some pain but if you can play through it it’s fine. Nothing is going to be hurt because of it, he’s just going to be very sore.”
On other contributions to the win:
“Kristof [Ongenaet] struggled early but he came back in the second half and I thought did really well defensively. Donte’ [Greene] I thought really made a couple big defensive plays. He had five steals. I think he had some really good defensive plays which is good to see.”
On the play of Maryland center Bambale Osby:
“We’re spread out in our zone, so there’s no block-outs in there and he’s a good offensive rebounder. We were concerned about [James] Gist early, he had 18 points in the first 10 minutes when I looked up and then he had five the rest of the way. I thought we did a good job of moving up on him in the high post and finding him. Osby’s active and there’s going to be some situations where there’s open rebound situations and he took advantage of it. Overall, we did a pretty good job on the boards but he’s active.”
On the play of Maryland guard Greivis Vasquez:
“Vasquez is good. I thought we did a good job early and then he got a couple open looks. We pretty much did what we wanted to do on him and [Maryland guard Eric] Hayes. We didn’t want Hayes to get looks so I thought we did a good job particularly in the second half. Vazquez is a good player. We tried to keep him out of transition and fast break opportunities and we started to take those away because he’s very good in transition.”
On Donte’ Greene passing Gerry McNamara’s record for most three-pointers in a freshman season:
“Well, that’s pretty good. That’s a pretty good player that he passed. He gets them up there, he probably took more than Gerry. He’s a very good shooter, we want to get him looks. Tonight, I thought he made some plays going to the basket, which is really good and which was a big difference. Going to the basket and making some plays. That’s something he has to continue to do.”
On playing in the NIT:
“We just want to play and play as well as we can. It doesn’t matter what tournament you’re in, you go out and you want to play as well as you can. The fans have been unbelievable in both games. These people that are here want to be here, they’re supportive. It’s as noisy as any game we’ve had this year, even with 30,000 people. If you get 14 or 15,000 people in there down low and they’re loud they can make just as much noise as 30,000 when it’s all spread out. The fans have been tremendous, they’re very important. I watched the NCAA tournament today where there were no fans and there wasn’t much emotion. College kids need that emotion, they feed off that emotion and fans are an integral part of that. They’re in the arena making noise and both teams get going in that situation. The fans have been tremendous.”
On playing another quality out-of-conference opponent:
“We’ve had so many good games this year I don’t know if it helps us. But it’s more experience and I think it definitely doesn’t hurt you. We’ve had so many good games this year and I don’t know how many more we need but we’ll get at least one more and we’ll see what happens.”
