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Boeheim Cornell Quotes
Syracuse Men’s Basketball
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
SU vs. Cornell
Carrier Dome
Coach Boeheim’s press conference
Opening Statement
Cornell played us so tough last year. They didn’t have (Louis) Dale and all of those guys are a year older. Watching the tapes, they played great their first two games. Seton Hall beat them because Hazell (Jeremy) was just making an incredible number of tough shots throughout the whole game. Seton Hall is a very good team this year, they really improved. Cornell was coming in from New York.
I think our guys did a tremendous job, particularly the start of the second half, adjusting defensively. We got to their shooters the first eight or 10 minutes. They made some very tough shots in the first half -- some very tough shots. Two or three right at the end of the shot clock, we had hands up.
Offensively, we missed a couple of layups in the first half. We were not rebounding inside. Our big guys are not rebounding the way we need them too, but I thought the second half our defense the first 10 minutes was really good. Brandon (Triche) got some great opportunities and got into the lane. Andy (Rautins) has been playing tremendous basketball. I thought overall our defense was the key starting the second half.
This was a tough game to come back from New York and play this team. Obviously, I think they are a tremendous team. I think they are going to be in the NCAA tournament and be a very good team in the NCAA tournament. They have a very good basketball team and this was a tough game for us to get ready for mentally. I thought the end of the first half, every time they made a three we came back and made a good possession and made a good play. I thought in a lot of ways, this was as good a win as the two we had in New York. Most people wouldn’t see it that way, but I think coming off that tournament and coming home, I would see it that way.
On the 10-minute stretch in the second half:
Well, we got to their shooters better. They do a tremendous job. They are as tough to play as anybody. They have three or four perimeter shooters and they move the ball around. Even when they go inside, they still come to their perimeter shooters. We were doing a better job of finding those shooters in the second half. They are probably the most difficult team to play against zone that we will play. I am pretty comfortable at saying that. We did a good job of finding their shooters. It is a good lesson for us because we need to be able to do that. We did not do a good job on the post guy and we will see that this year. So, we need to do a little better job than we did in that area too. It is the metal thing of coming off New York and being able to get composed and coming back and playing a good game. I think that is very difficult to do.
