Coach Boeheim Quotes
Syracuse vs. Le Moyne
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Carrier Dome/Syracuse, N.Y.
“I thought for the whole game Le Moyne really out-played us from the beginning of the game to the end. There was one stretch where they missed a couple shots and we got the lead early, but they out-played us the whole game. They were much more disciplined, their movement was better, and they’re screening was better. We have not played that much against zones and their zone was active. It was a very good zone. We didn’t move the ball like we needed to, but with all that said, we still scored enough points. We couldn’t stop them on the dribble and that’s one thing that has been something we have been looking at in practice and worried about. We’re having trouble with dribble penetration and tonight that certainly was a problem. Arinze (Onuaku) always has trouble against small teams that have guys that can put the ball on the floor and go by. That was the case tonight.
“I think overall the biggest disappointment was our defense. I thought the end-game situation was good for us. We had an opportunity to try and get back into the game really in trouble - six down. We made good plays and got back in it, but the last timeout, this is a young team. They are in a new situation, but we talked about one thing in the timeout, which was not to let (Chris) Johnson shoot and he came right to Kris’ (Joseph) side and he backed off of him and that was the ball game. You’ve got to be able to react better than that.
“One thing that I felt with this team coming into this year was that they’re very young mentally. They really have got to grow up mentally and physically. I think we’ve got some talented guys, but particularly our young guys who have not been in tough situations, have got to get better. The biggest disappointment is that Arinze feels better, but he had not played basketball for five months until the last two weeks. He is still at least four or five weeks away from where he would need to be. He does have trouble with smaller guys, but that’s no excuse. He wasn’t active. He didn’t go to the ball well and he didn’t finish well around the basket. He just didn’t look quick to the basketball and that’s obviously something we have some time to work on.
“We’re concerned about our man-to-man. We wanted to play it to get some tape on it and see what we need to do better and there is really no area that we really couldn’t do something better, in terms of defending the post, helping on screens, and helping on drives. There will be a lot of tape to see. I like Le Moyne’s team. They’re a very good team and I think if we played them again this week, they’d give us a tough game and we’d have the same opportunities if we played man-to-man. We’ve got a lot of work to do on our defense and not that much time to do it. Hopefully, this will be a wakeup call for some of our players on the defensive end.”
On his point guards tonight:
“I think that they let some guys get by them. I thought that was disappointing defensively. I thought Brandon (Triche) took charge at the end and tried to make some plays. He made a big shot, but he’s young and has a lot to learn. Certainly, we have some work to do at that position.”
On whether this game can help the team down the road:
“I think every day you practice, everything helps you. The first game didn’t help us. I thought that team didn’t attack us very well. They just moved the ball around and took shots that weren’t really good shots. It was too easy. This is the kind of game that can help you. If we play man-to-man, I don’t think we’re going to beat Le Moyne by many points anytime. I think we can get better, but certainly not at this stage of the season.”
