Syracuse Player Quotes
Syracuse vs. Maryland
March 20, 2008
Syracuse, N.Y. – Carrier Dome
Donte Greene, Fr., F
On the crowd support:
“I want to start off by saying that people don’t realize how much the crowd is important in the game. For all the fans that came to the game, and everyone who wanted to come, please come to our next game. The crowd makes a big difference and tonight they kept us energized, especially coming off a game on Tuesday. We really haven’t played a day off in awhile. The crowd definitely helped us today, so we want to say thank you to our fans. Come out and support us. We need at least 25 to 26,000 in the Dome on Tuesday night. We’re just trying to win the NIT. We know we had a disappointing season and there are definitely disappointed fans.”
On how he thought Jonny Flynn was going to play tonight:
“He was a little upset he didn’t get to play on Tuesday, so he rested and definitely came out well with vengeance.”
On how the team is different now than a couple weeks ago:
“I think we’re more hungry. I don’t think we really understood what was at stake. We’re a young team and we didn’t really understand that one game could definitely put us out. That Pittsburgh game definitely hurt us. I think we’re more hungry and we understand what we need to do. We went out and competed and beat a good team tonight.”
On playing a high quality team this late in the season:
“Going into next year, I think it helps us out a lot, especially with our schedule. I believe we have Memphis and Florida next year. This is definitely going to help us out. It’s getting us stronger and getting the team chemistry tighter. We’re a young team and we’re just trying to build upon that and prepare for next year.”
Kristof Ongenaet
On how he changed his game in the second half:
“I think we all had to fight for it. The second half was a little more loose and open for everybody. They kept giving me the open spaces and they gave me the opportunity to go to the offensive rebound more than in the first half, so that gave me a chance to score more.”
On his thoughts on the Massachusetts game next Tuesday:
“I’m sure that it’s not going to happen twice. It’s not going to happen anymore. That was our mistake. It was preseason, so we can’t let that happen anymore. We have to get that win.”
Arinze Onuaku
On the emotion of being in a post-season tournament:
“You have to take every game the same way. You have to approach it like it’s the national championship. We’re trying to win the NIT so we’re going to go at every game hard.”
On whether it’s good to play an ACC team this year:
“It’s the ACC, so it’s a BIG EAST kind of a game.”
On the open looks in the first half:
“I am just trying to finish strong. You have to take everything to the rim, so I was dunking.”
On giving the crowd another home game:
“It feels great. We came into the tournament and we’re trying to win it. We had an ACC team coming in strong, so we had to get them early.”
On his feelings on a possible rematch with Massachusetts:
“We owe them one. They’re probably going to come in here and they’re probably going to think they can beat us again, but we’re going to go out there and play hard. We’re a better team than we were earlier in the season, and that they are, so we’re going to go out and play hard and we should come out with a ‘W.’”
“We owe them one. They’re probably going to come in here and they’re probably going to think they can beat us again, but we’re going to go out there and play hard. We’re a better team than we were earlier in the season, and that they are, so we’re going to go out and play hard and we should come out with a ‘W.’”
Jonny Flynn, Fr., G
On his response to the change in turnovers from the Robert Morris game:
“We had 12 turnovers and turnovers are aggressive plays. They weren’t careless turnovers, except probably the one I had at the end of the game when I shot it, not really looking at Donte’. We were really making aggressive plays and that’s what you want on a team. When you get turnovers making aggressive plays, Coach [Boeheim] can’t really get mad at you. We were really aggressive out there and it showed.”
On Donte having five steals:
“He was really up on his game, manning the team. Everyone was saying he was going to his home-state university. Everybody was thinking he was going there. He picked Syracuse over them, which was a big deal for them. This was a good win for us, we wanted to do this for Donte.”
“He was really up on his game, manning the team. Everyone was saying he was going to his home-state university. Everybody was thinking he was going there. He picked Syracuse over them, which was a big deal for them. This was a good win for us, we wanted to do this for Donte.”
On whether there was a point in the game where he felt better:
“I started the game coasting a little bit, but then I thought that if I’m out here, I might as well go all-out. If I can play, I can play. I’m not going to sit out here and be a liability out here, like a wounded animal out there in the jungle.”
On what it was like to sit during the Robert Morris game:
“It was hard, a couple times I jumped out on the court and almost got a technical foul. Scoop Jardine making good plays and he had another great game tonight. It’s always good to get aggressive. They took me out in the first half and I saw defensive and offensive opportunity, and that really helped me out.”
“It was hard, a couple times I jumped out on the court and almost got a technical foul. Scoop Jardine making good plays and he had another great game tonight. It’s always good to get aggressive. They took me out in the first half and I saw defensive and offensive opportunity, and that really helped me out.”
On how Scoop Jardine has improved through the season:
All Scoop needed was confidence and playing time. A guy like him, he has all the talent and all the ability in the world, but you can’t really see that if he’s not playing that much. At the end of the season, his minutes start picking up and his confidence starts getting better, and you just see the outcome for years to come with what Scoop Jardine is going to do for Syracuse basketball.
