.png)
Hillsman Postgame Quotes
Syracuse vs. Dartmouth
Carrier Dome -- Syracuse, N.Y.
December 13, 2009
Coach Hillsman Quotes
Opening remarks…
“We had a few simple goals this game. I thought we did a pretty good job of reaching them. One goal was to not foul them. Obviously they were 5-for-7 from the free-throw line so they didn’t shoot many free throws. I also wanted to hold them under 12 offensive rebounds and we did that. Our third goal was to not let them get more than 40 points; they got 42. The other was to take three charges. So we just had four simple goals that we wanted to reach. I thought that overall we did a very good job at defense and rebounding. The turnovers were a little disturbing but I thought that when you have Carmen Tyson-Thomas trying to make plays you can live with that, she’s a freshman. Kayla Alexander is starting to get inside. She’s starting to get nice, wanting to share the ball and pass the ball, but I don’t really want her to lead the country in assists, I want her to lead the country in shot attempts. She’s determined to pass the ball to the kids cutting to the basket. I keep telling her, ‘let them get the rebound, you go ahead and put the ball up on the rim.’ Overall, for us to be off this long, and this was a tough week for us scrimmaging-wise, we had a few people sick, nothing serious, just a few people out. We didn’t play five-on-five at all this entire week. We just worked on skills stuff and just trying to keep our kids rested. Vionca [Murray] played 18 minutes and Nicole [Michael] played 17 minutes and Erica [Morrow] played 18 minutes, we really want to get people on the floor, let them play minutes, and try to get as many people in double-figure minutes as possible. I think that when you look down the list, even though they played those minutes, these players, they were very effective. I am happy with the win, I am happy to get to the finals break, still undefeated, that’s great for our program; great for our kids. I think that’s a testament to my staff, they do a great job of scouting and personnel stuff. Our players have done a great job staying tough through this long layoff. It’s tough to come back and play after a long layoff. I thought that we did a good job. If we cut those turnovers down to where we are normally, 16 turnovers, you get 10 more shots and I think it’s a different basketball game. We definitely played hard. We really wanted to throw the ball inside. We were 38-8 in the paint, and that was our goal, to really pound the ball inside and to take advantage of some things that we do down on the block.”
If the team is where he wants them to be…
“No question, we are playing hard and we compete. I think that if anybody comes to watch us play they can definitely say that we compete and we play hard every possession. We may make some mistakes, but it’s not mistakes of effort. That’s the main thing that you want as a coach, to know that every game your players are going to come out and compete and play as hard as they can play and they definitely did that.”
On Tyler Ash playing the point…
“Yes definitely, you will see that. We were trying to ease her into it, but Tyler (Ash) has been struggling with her Achilles, and we just have to get her flowing a little bit. Once she really gets herself healthy I think that she can be a big difference at that spot because she can see over the defense. I thought she played well and I think that when you put Tyler (Ash) on the top of that point and spread the floor it’s a totally different look. We can go high and low a little bit easier and do some things that we want to do offensively.”
On how the defense improved in the second half…
“We just got them to shoot a little bit faster. The first half I thought that even though they were 3-for-17, we really weren’t there. In the second half, the ones that they hit we were there. We were flying out on them. We even blocked a couple of them. When you talk about that kind of effort on the defensive end, it’s good. It’s hard to come out here and watch the men play and you say, ‘man, I wish we had a zone like that.’ But we don’t have Wes [Johnson] and Rick [Jackson] and those guys on the back line and really shutting down space. I think that for our version of our zone though we’re doing a really great job of getting out to shooters. Coach Boeheim always tells me to not give him credit for the zone because if we lose he has to take credit for the loss, so I guess I can’t give Boeheim and credit for the zone.”
Thoughts on the defensive effort…
“A great defensive effort. We’re talking about 28 percent from the field and 25 percent from behind-the-arc and to not foul, that’s definitely a great defensive effort.”
On if there’s any concern for the team losing focus during the break…
“No, I won’t let them do that. We’re going to be alright, we’re not going to lose focus. That’s not even an option. We’re going to be very focused. When we step on the floor versus Delaware State you’re going to see a very focused team.”
On Kayla Alexander providing a spark off the bench…
“We really wanted points in the paint. That was one of our goals. We wanted to throw the ball into the paint and cut backdoor so we can rebound the basketball, and we did a really good job of doing that. If you look at the offensive rebounding and wonder why we can’t get more, it’s because we’re shooting 51 percent from the field so it’s tough to look at the rebounds. We were looking back at stats and saying, ‘man, why the last three years were we leading the country in offensive rebounding and free-throw attempts?’ Because we missed a lot of shots and the rebounder got fouled. This year we are making shots so it’s a totally different game. We had the pads out and doing rebounding drills, and we had all these drills planned for rebounding. Finally one day, we realized we shot about 30 percent last year, so before we shot in the 30s, now we’re shooting in the high 40s, 50 percent. I guess there’s less rebounds to get. That’s the only concern for us, is just rebounding the ball. I thought they did an excellent job of keeping them off the glass.”
On if the turnovers bother him and how they can correct that…
“I think a lot of it was just being off. I really do. Carmen [Tyson-Thomas] made some passes that were definitely uncharacteristic. You have Kayla [Alexander] inside, you’ve seen her play, she doesn’t pass the ball when she’s one-on-one in the post, and now she’s passing the ball. So there were a few things where I thought we just were a little careless. So we have to a do a good job next week of getting in the gym and playing some five-on-five and getting up and down the floor and getting back into game mode. We didn’t scrimmage one time this whole week because we had some things going on with people under the weather. You get to that point where you don’t want to break the kids’ bodies down. We knew what we had to do to get ready for the basketball game, and we had those four goals that we had.”
