William & Mary Player Quotes
Syracuse Men’s Basketball
Sunday, November 21, 2010
SU vs. William & Mary
Carrier Dome
Student-Athlete Quotes
Scoop Jardine, Junior, Guard
The struggles the team had in the first half really seemed to carry over to the second half. What was the reason for that?
“We just have to get better as a team. Give William & Mary a lot of credit. They made shots. They were able to slow the game down and every time we started to pull away, they would hit a big shot. For us though, we have to grow up fast. We’re still immature in a lot of ways, just still making some bad mistakes. We just need to find a way to grow up fast."
How much pressure do the four returning veterans have on them right now?
“There is no pressure. I knew we were going to be the leaders coming into the season. Last year there was no pressure for Andy Rautins or Arinze Onuaku to lead us. But we just need to make plays and that’s what I’ve been trying to do. The ball wasn’t falling for me today, but I just tried to make plays that would give my team a chance to win the game."
There were a lot of attempted dunks tonight that were both successful and unsuccessful, is that a product of the team’s immaturity?
“Not really. Sometimes when you play basketball, the ball just won’t fall for you. That’s what happened tonight, along with the first three games we’ve played. We haven’t been knocking down shots, but the thing we have to do most is just play defense and rebound. It is absolutely unacceptable when we don’t give 100 percent effort on the defensive end.”
How surprising is it that the team continues to come out and have the same problems?
“It’s as if we’re only playing one half of basketball. We have to pick it up fast. Coach (Boehiem) does a great job of getting us ready. He never lets us get too high or too low. It starts with us and our preparation. We have to get ready and just get out there."
Kris Joseph, Junior, Forward
What did Coach Boeheim say to you guys after the game?
“He said that this is a team that maybe we should have beaten by a few more points. But we’re all happy we got the win. We’re just looking forward to going to Atlantic City.”
Can you talk about the challenge of going to Atlantic City and facing some pretty formidable opponents?
“We’ve been starting off these games really slow and against a team like Michigan we won’t be able to do that. We have to come out right out of the gate and jump on whoever we are playing. I think we’re going to be able to do it. We have tomorrow off and then three days of really hard practice to get ready."
Talk about the team's shooting today. Shots weren’t dropping. but they seemed to be good shots overall.
“You just have to keep shooting. You don’t want to shoot every shot, occasionally you need to try other things. But the shots will fall. When they do start falling it’s going to add another dynamic to our team and we’re going to start winning games more handily.
William & Mary seemed to be giving you guys the three and really stopping everything inside. Would you agree with that?
“No doubt, they wanted absolutely no penetration. They wanted to make us hit shots from the outside and we really struggled to convert those opportunities into points.”
Rick Jackson, Senior, Forward
How have the first-half struggles continued to hang around this team?
“We were up early today and then the starters came out. Some of the young guys got in there and kind of just let things slip. We gave up some shots. They were a team that lived and died by the three so for us to be up 10 or 12 isn’t that much. If they’re going to knock down threes, they’ll make that up in no time. They found a way to get some momentum going by the second half. It made them really hard to stop because the shots just kept falling for them. I think we showed a lot of heart today. We had a lot of big stops. We were down four and we got the stops we had to on the defensive end and we pulled the game out.”
When a game like this goes down to the wire, how much does it help you going forward?
“I think it helps us a lot. We haven’t been playing the way we want to be playing, but at the same time we’ve never really been tested. When you’re down with three minutes to go, it lets you show your poise. We just managed to go out there and make some big stops and grab some big rebounds. We didn’t panic, which says a lot.”
Talk about the challenges of playing two good teams in Atlantic City next weekend?
“Going down there is going to be a good experience. We’re playing two good teams and they’re going to be ready for us. They’re going to watch this tape and see the things that we did, so they’ll do a lot of the same things to try and stop us. We’re going to take tomorrow off and come back Tuesday to work on a lot of things. Right now, we’re a better offensive team when the opponent plays man-to-man rather than zone. We just need to figure out what spots we’re supposed to go to that will allow us to attack a zone.”
Atlantic City is close to your hometown of Philadelphia, what does that mean to you?
“Scoop (Jardine), Dion (Waiters), and I all have a lot of people down there who are going to come see us play, so it’s going to be great to play there. Our friends and family will get to see us play on a big stage. We’re all going to have to be ready to play.”
