Boeheim Quotes Colgate
Syracuse vs. Colgate
December 11, 2010
Syracuse, N.Y. – Carrier Dome
Head Coach Jim Boeheim Postgame Quotes
Opening Statement:
“It has been a tough year and we haven’t had anything like this and I’m happy to get one. If you think back on our first nine games, they were two or three point games in every game at halftime or closer and well into the second half in most of them. We came out and made some shots early. Our defense has been good all year, and they were good again. We get a chance to play about 30 minutes of man-to-man, which was good and I think it will help us down the road. It was a good game. We have four or five days of practice coming up to get ready to finish the non-conference season. We have three more non-conference games coming up against some pretty good teams and hopefully that will help us get ready for the BIG EAST Conference regular-season.”
What is going on with Fab Melo?
“His achilles is bothering him a little bit. He was very sore tonight. He has missed one day of practice. It’s been lingering for a little while. We’re going to give him off tomorrow and Monday would be an off day anyway – so we’ll get him all treated up and get him back out there.”
Can you talk about Brandon (Triche)’s shooting tonight?
“He’s a good shooter, he’s a very good shooter. He shot good last year, he shoots it good in practice. He gets good shots, so he just has to relax and he’ll make them.”
Can you talk about the first half and Colgate only scoring eight points?
“They just had a bad game. They had a bad game and we had a good game.”
This game ties your highest margin of victory for your career – did you know that?
“I don’t keep track of those things. I need young, smart guys like you to keep track of that stuff. Colgate is struggling and they really struggled tonight. They had some open shots early and they just didn’t go down for them. (If they had made them) it never would have been like that. They had some very good looks and if they made their shots, they would have had some points. They just had a bad night.”
How important is having a break from games for an entire week?
“I think it has been very hard this first part of the season, we’ve had to grind it out. I think it was good to get this win and have some days off and have some days to work on things during practice. I think it’s a good thing. We still have three very tough games right in a row when we start playing again next week.”
What does the win tonight and the games so far this season say about the team?
“We’ve come to play. There has been some games where we haven’t shot well but we’ve been better. We’ve come out every game, we just hadn’t shot the ball as well. Tonight, we made shots and they didn’t. When that happens, it can get out of hand. If they had made some shots early and we missed some shots – if they were 7-of-14 from the three and we were 2-of-14 like we usually are, and they make three or four threes, then it would have been a 20 or 15 point game at halftime. Everything went right for us, all the bounces went our way, and nothing went right for them. It was just one of those games.”
How important was this game for the players coming off the bench?
"I think the young guys have gotten playing time. They’ve been in good situations but I think this helped James (Southerland). James was lively today and I thought Mookie (Jones) was good. This game was for those two guys to help them get back into game condition and hopefully we’ll be able to get them in during the next two or three games and see how they do. And then we’ll have a couple guys with some more game experience headed into the BIG EAST. But this was a good night for us, we’re happy with it.”
