Head Coach Jim Boeheim Quotes - Minnesota
Syracuse Men’s Basketball
Syracuse vs. Minnesota
November 25, 2013
Lahaina Civic Center, Maui, Hawaii
Head Coach Jim Boeheim
Can you talk about Minnesota's defense?
"Yeah, they had a very tough defense. They pressured the guards, and then they forced you into the bigs, and their bigs were playing solid, strong, Big Ten basketball. We just had to fight through it. We had to adjust how the refs were calling the game."
Can you talk a little bit about your experience and just knowing what's coming up in the next couple days here specifically?
"Well, I think the danger is obviously when you get pressed for 40 minutes. It's a difficult bounceback. Many times you'll come to a tournament it's a 50-point game, 60-point game, and it doesn't take a lot out of you. This game is going to take a lot out of us, but we'll be ready. We'll bounce back. Certainly the pace of the game, how difficult the game was is something that you have to take into consideration. But we'll have to play a couple other guys and look for some more minutes tomorrow. But that will be a challenge. I thought Cal was - I watched a lot of that game, and I think they're much better than they were last year, a much better team. I really was very impressed with how they played. It will be a tremendous challenge for us."
Can you talk about two players, Malik Smith, and then Joey King, both of these guys maybe not on a lot of scouting reports. King didn't play the last game.
"Yeah, we didn't talk about King. We had talked about him before and knew he was a good player. He had good numbers for them, and he hit a big three today and made some steals. He's a really good player. I thought that we knew Smith shot it every time he got it from wherever he was. So we wanted to get up on him. The last two he was a good ten feet behind the line, and after that we just moved up further. I don't think he got another look after that. But he has some kind of deep range. They can shoot the basketball as well as anybody in terms of their whole team. You've got five guys that can shoot threes and they can put the ball on the floor and get to the basket as well."
"Again, I think Richard has done a tremendous job putting that system in in a very short period of time, and they completely understand it and they handle it, and they really are good at what they're doing. The key to the game, we're fortunate. We tried to drive at the big guy. We wanted to get him in foul trouble, and when he was out, we made a 10-point run. He's a big difference maker when he's not in there. When he came back in, we couldn't get to the basket the couple times we had before. But that was a big key to the game really being able to get him in some foul trouble there. He's a really good player, good passer, very good defensive player. They've got a very, very good team. I'd be shocked if they don't have a tremendous year in the Big Ten."
Syracuse vs. Minnesota
November 25, 2013
Lahaina Civic Center, Maui, Hawaii
Head Coach Jim Boeheim
Can you talk about Minnesota's defense?
"Yeah, they had a very tough defense. They pressured the guards, and then they forced you into the bigs, and their bigs were playing solid, strong, Big Ten basketball. We just had to fight through it. We had to adjust how the refs were calling the game."
Can you talk a little bit about your experience and just knowing what's coming up in the next couple days here specifically?
"Well, I think the danger is obviously when you get pressed for 40 minutes. It's a difficult bounceback. Many times you'll come to a tournament it's a 50-point game, 60-point game, and it doesn't take a lot out of you. This game is going to take a lot out of us, but we'll be ready. We'll bounce back. Certainly the pace of the game, how difficult the game was is something that you have to take into consideration. But we'll have to play a couple other guys and look for some more minutes tomorrow. But that will be a challenge. I thought Cal was - I watched a lot of that game, and I think they're much better than they were last year, a much better team. I really was very impressed with how they played. It will be a tremendous challenge for us."
Can you talk about two players, Malik Smith, and then Joey King, both of these guys maybe not on a lot of scouting reports. King didn't play the last game.
"Yeah, we didn't talk about King. We had talked about him before and knew he was a good player. He had good numbers for them, and he hit a big three today and made some steals. He's a really good player. I thought that we knew Smith shot it every time he got it from wherever he was. So we wanted to get up on him. The last two he was a good ten feet behind the line, and after that we just moved up further. I don't think he got another look after that. But he has some kind of deep range. They can shoot the basketball as well as anybody in terms of their whole team. You've got five guys that can shoot threes and they can put the ball on the floor and get to the basket as well."
"Again, I think Richard has done a tremendous job putting that system in in a very short period of time, and they completely understand it and they handle it, and they really are good at what they're doing. The key to the game, we're fortunate. We tried to drive at the big guy. We wanted to get him in foul trouble, and when he was out, we made a 10-point run. He's a big difference maker when he's not in there. When he came back in, we couldn't get to the basket the couple times we had before. But that was a big key to the game really being able to get him in some foul trouble there. He's a really good player, good passer, very good defensive player. They've got a very, very good team. I'd be shocked if they don't have a tremendous year in the Big Ten."
