Syracuse Player Quotes
NCAA South Region Semifinals Postgame Quotes March 27, 2009
Syracuse 26 45 – 71
Oklahoma 39 45 – 84
Syracuse Sophomore Forward Rick Jackson
On the loss:
We came out flat tonight and they had a lead right out of the gate. That really hurt us. It seemed like the whole game we were trying to fight back. When you shoot 0-for-10 from the three-point line, I mean, that’s what we live off of. It just wasn’t our night. I love my guards, they hold us up. They hit a lot of shots this year. We just made some mistakes that we usually don’t make and we had to pay for it.
On the talk at halftime:
We’ve been down more than 13, and we just wanted to chip away at it. We came out kind of flat again and they came right out scoring. It hurt us. We were fighting to get back. You look up and you are down 20 points. We just ran out of time.
On Oklahoma’s hot shooting:
It was their night. We were missing shots and they were making shots. It was just their night.
Syracuse Junior Guard Eric Devendorf
On Oklahoma’s play:
They played good overall. (Tony) Crocker played good and obviously Blake Griffin played well and they made shots. We didn’t.
On his team’s poor shooting:
It’s just one of those games where the shots weren’t falling and their shots were. Obviously, when that happens, it’s not good.
On the season overall:
We played a good overall season. There are a lot of memories. You never want to end on a note like this but unfortunately it’s what happens. We can take a lot from this season. Overall, it was pretty good.
Syracuse Junior Center Arinze Onuaku
What are the emotions in this locker room after this heartbreaking loss?
It’s stuff. Everybody wants to play to see another day. We felt like we didn’t finish strong when we wanted to. After a game like this, if you feel like you played well, then it would be different. But we feel like we didn’t play like we wanted to.
On starting off going after (Blake) Griffin aggressively:
We went after him early. But there were a lot of shots that we usually make. We went like 0-for-10 in the first half from the three point line. That’s part of our offense; having that balance inside out.
On Oklahoma scoring 32 points off turnovers:
That will definitely hurt any team. You can’t give up easy points off turnovers. It’s tough to come back from something like that.
When you look at this season overall and try to put it in context, what’s going to stick in your mind about this year?
We battled back. We had a time when we were really in a slump. I got hurt and Andy (Rautins) got hurt. We battled since then. That’s the good part of it. It’s going to be a bittersweet taste having this last game knowing that we could have played a lot better.
Syracuse Junior Forward Paul Harris
What was said in the huddle in the second half?
The thing that Johnny Flynn said is, ‘If we’re going to go out, let’s go out giving it our all. No matter what. Let’s not go out here and lose by 30 or 40, let’s go out here and give it our all.’ And that’s what we did.
On the first 30 minutes:
I think whenever you start the game 0-for-10 from the three, it’s going to be hard. That’s kind of tough because we rely on our three-point shooters so much. They hit threes, and it’s like we’re supposed to be the three-point shooting team but it was the opposite way around.
