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Coach Boeheim Quotes
Syracuse vs. Louisville
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Carrier Dome/Syracuse, N.Y.
Opening statement:
“The defense was good. We lost the game on the offensive end. We got some good opportunities and we got some good shots. We didn’t convert. I thought we got a little bit frustrated with their defense. They played a tremendous match-up (zone). They did a great job defensively, making sure we couldn’t get Andy (Rautins) any shots, until we got a couple in transition. Wes (Johnson) and Kris (Joseph) have to get in the lane and make plays. We weren’t aggressive till the end of the game. The end of the game, Kris took it to the basket and dunked it. Wes went in and got an offensive rebound. I thought we were aggressive then.
“I thought for the last few games against DePaul, you look at that game, even stretches of the Providence game, Cincinnati, and the Connecticut game; all four of those games, I thought we didn’t play at a high level. We managed to be tough and finish the game and win the game. We tried to do that tonight. We shut them down and maybe a couple great plays and we got back to where we had a chance. Scoop (Jardine) did a great job of getting him (Wes Johnson) the ball back in there. Wes had a great opportunity on the baseline to get to the basket and have a chance to tie the game. You can’t be in all these games and get down to the end and think you’re going to win. You have to play better for the entire game.
“Tonight, we just were not good offensively. I thought defensively we did a pretty good job. We didn’t get a couple of key rebounds. Louisville, other than the St. John’s game, is very good on the road. Both West Virginia and Pitt games, they could have won. They’ve been very good at all their road games, except for the last one. We expected them to come in and play well and they did. I just think that offensively we didn’t do the things we had to do to win. That’s the bottom line.”
On Louisville’s defense:
“They pressured our guards. I thought they did a good job pressuring when we got the ball. When we wanted to get the ball to Wes to make plays, he had a lot of good opportunities tonight. His hand is bothering him a little bit, but he practiced the last two days. I think his timing is off a little bit.”
On Andy Rautins’ 3-pointers in transition:
“They decided to take him away. They just decided to guard him wherever he was. That’s what we’ve seen every game for the last four or five games. If they are going to put one guy on him, wherever he goes, and that changes because of matchups we have an opportunity for the other guys to score. He’s not going to get shots if they’re going to play him like that. Those two threes were both in transition. His shots are going to come in transition.”
On Brandon Triche:
“He struggled. His finger hurts a little bit on his shooting hand, but he has struggled. We’d like to see him get going again.”
On what they did on the offensive glass:
“We gave up about what we normally do. We grabbed 19 offensive rebounds, they got 18. We’re going to give up some offensive rebounds. Defensively, we gave up two on free throws that were bad. Other than that, our defense didn’t crush us. Our offense wasn’t good enough. We’re not good enough on offense. We were 52 percent free-throw shooting. Today we were 41 percent. We shot 26 percent from the three. Not good enough. We’re not enough of a defensive team to overcome those numbers.
