Head Coach Jim Boeheim Postgame Quotes
vs. Cornell
Syracuse vs. Cornell
November 30, 2010
Syracuse, N.Y. – Carrier Dome
Head Coach Jim Boeheim Postgame Quotes
Opening Statement:
"In the first half we were pretty good with the basketball. We did a good job on the boards. We shot the ball well and made good decisions. We just made a couple bad turnovers.
In the second half we thought the game was over and made a lot of turnovers. Our four best ball-handlers had 16 turnovers, that’s just not going to get it done. I was very disappointed with the second half after a pretty solid first half.
We just can’t seem to put good efforts together on the offensive and defensive ends. We were good defensively in the first half, and in the second half we had very little effort defensively. When you don’t have good effort, people are going to score against you.
We just made ridiculous turnovers that you just can’t have -- we have a lot of work to do, we can’t seem to get it together for 40 minutes.
We have to get better and we are a long ways from where we need to be at this stage in the year. We had an advantage inside with (Rick Jacson), he did a great job down there, but we’re not going to have that advantage every game. It’s just disappointing that our veteran guys can make so many bad turnovers and we have to be better than that. We have a lot of work ahead of us."
Were you more disappointed with the defense in the half-court or transition?
"In the second half there was nothing good about our defense."
Fab (Melo) seemed to have an increased presence. Do you see an improvement in his game?
"He was a little more active -- he blocked that shot early. The second time he got in the game he couldn’t get up and down the court two or three times in a row and they went down and got layups. He has to be able to get up and down to get in position. I thought tonight when he got in position, he created some things. He’s has to be able to get up and down better."
Rick (Jackson) had another big game. Is he going to have to play like this all year long?
"He has to play well every game."
Can you comment on the development of Dion Waiters?
"He has good moments on offense. He makes mistakes we can’t make in transition. He makes a good play and comes down three-on-one and we can’t even get a shot -- we just can’t play like this and be successful.
You can’t look at this game and who we’re beating, that’s just nonsense and foolishness. It’s how you play, not who you play or who you’re playing. It has nothing to do with anything. You can’t play bad basketball and win games against good teams. We’re playing bad basketball and we’ve been playing bad basketball from the first game until now."
