Head Coach Jim Boeheim Quotes
Syracuse Men's Basketball
Syracuse vs. Louisiana Tech
December 14, 2014
Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.
Head Coach Jim Boeheim
Opening Statement
“It’s strange. We really played well. It was just the bad turnovers. I’m not talking about turnovers that were caused by pressure. I’m talking about turnovers in transition where Kaleb (Joseph) just throws the ball away to the other team, or loses the ball. You can’t play (like that) when you get an eight- or 10-point lead and work through it and just give back points. It’s like with four minutes to go, even though that pass was there, Trevor (Cooney) just should have kept the ball. We’re up 10, you run 30 seconds off the clock and the game isn’t an issue. As he did throw it, Tyler (Roberson) tried to catch it with one hand. Same as B.J. (Johnson) on a long pass.
“We spent more time this week on the scouting report for this team because obviously we had a good team. We went over their strengths. We identified #3 (Raheem Appleby) as being the one guy that we don’t want to shoot. We identified two lob pass play that they run and we worked on that for three days. The guy that we didn’t want to shoot had 15 points at halftime and the lob play worked three times in a row.
“Rakeem (Christmas) had a great post move at the end and made the basket -- that was a great play. They did a good job of pressuring our guards so we couldn’t get the ball to Rakeem (Christmas), but also that opened it up for Trevor (Cooney) and Kaleb (Joseph) to get to the basket. Trevor played the way he had to play. He was a player, he wasn’t a shooter. He got to the basket, he drove and made plays. That’s a huge thing for us. Trevor Cooney’s a very good player. He has proven himself. He doesn’t have to prove anything to anybody. Today he showed, again, that he can do other things. They’re pressuring so hard and they’re playing Rakeem so hard that there were gaps there. They’re helping so much that all Tyler (Roberson) had to do was go to the boards. He had 11 offensive rebounds because they were worried about Rakeem.
“Chris (McCullough) has to be helpful down low for us. That’s where he can be effective and help us. Kaleb (Joseph) made some really good plays today, but he can’t make those unforced ones. Some of them were traps and he turned it over and that’s okay, but he can’t make the unforced ones that he made.
“I thought defensively we were pretty good in the second half. We got some turnovers, made some traps. We got some good opportunities off that."
Does Trevor (Cooney) get more confidence when he makes a three?
“No I don’t think so. He looked confident shooting the three tonight. He made a hard one. He hasn’t made any hard ones this year, but he made a hard one tonight off the screen on the top, off Rak (Rakeem Christmas). He hasn’t made the hard ones this year and he’s mostly going to get hard ones. He got a couple good looks, one on the out-of bounds from Rak (Rakeem Christmas). He saw that that was there.”
Could you talk about Tyler's (Roberson) play?
“The problem is he is a four man. When he plays the three, he is too far away. Chris (McCullough) got in foul trouble, which I don’t want to happen all the time and Rak (Rakeem Christmas) so Tyler (Roberson) played at four. That’s his position. At the three, he struggles, because he tries to do things like that spin move and throw the ball up from wherever he wants. If he would play the three and not do those things, then he could be more effective, because now he is going to the boards against a smaller guy. Tonight he played the four for the majority of the game. When he’s played the three, he’s too far away. He’s got to get closer basically.”
With five full days to prepare for Villanova, can you take that same approach with the scouting report?
“Well we’re going to do the same thing all the time. We’re going to work on everything, and yeah we will look at the scouting report. Yeah we’ll do both those things. We had a lot of time last week, and we didn’t show much except that our offense was better.”
Do you think it’s because the players are not concentrating?
“We’ll see. We’ll find out. The good thing about this is that we will find all this stuff out. We don’t have to ask these questions. They will either get better and do these things or they won’t, and we’ll see it. I don’t have the answer to that.”
Syracuse vs. Louisiana Tech
December 14, 2014
Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.
Head Coach Jim Boeheim
Opening Statement
“It’s strange. We really played well. It was just the bad turnovers. I’m not talking about turnovers that were caused by pressure. I’m talking about turnovers in transition where Kaleb (Joseph) just throws the ball away to the other team, or loses the ball. You can’t play (like that) when you get an eight- or 10-point lead and work through it and just give back points. It’s like with four minutes to go, even though that pass was there, Trevor (Cooney) just should have kept the ball. We’re up 10, you run 30 seconds off the clock and the game isn’t an issue. As he did throw it, Tyler (Roberson) tried to catch it with one hand. Same as B.J. (Johnson) on a long pass.
“We spent more time this week on the scouting report for this team because obviously we had a good team. We went over their strengths. We identified #3 (Raheem Appleby) as being the one guy that we don’t want to shoot. We identified two lob pass play that they run and we worked on that for three days. The guy that we didn’t want to shoot had 15 points at halftime and the lob play worked three times in a row.
“Rakeem (Christmas) had a great post move at the end and made the basket -- that was a great play. They did a good job of pressuring our guards so we couldn’t get the ball to Rakeem (Christmas), but also that opened it up for Trevor (Cooney) and Kaleb (Joseph) to get to the basket. Trevor played the way he had to play. He was a player, he wasn’t a shooter. He got to the basket, he drove and made plays. That’s a huge thing for us. Trevor Cooney’s a very good player. He has proven himself. He doesn’t have to prove anything to anybody. Today he showed, again, that he can do other things. They’re pressuring so hard and they’re playing Rakeem so hard that there were gaps there. They’re helping so much that all Tyler (Roberson) had to do was go to the boards. He had 11 offensive rebounds because they were worried about Rakeem.
“Chris (McCullough) has to be helpful down low for us. That’s where he can be effective and help us. Kaleb (Joseph) made some really good plays today, but he can’t make those unforced ones. Some of them were traps and he turned it over and that’s okay, but he can’t make the unforced ones that he made.
“I thought defensively we were pretty good in the second half. We got some turnovers, made some traps. We got some good opportunities off that."
Does Trevor (Cooney) get more confidence when he makes a three?
“No I don’t think so. He looked confident shooting the three tonight. He made a hard one. He hasn’t made any hard ones this year, but he made a hard one tonight off the screen on the top, off Rak (Rakeem Christmas). He hasn’t made the hard ones this year and he’s mostly going to get hard ones. He got a couple good looks, one on the out-of bounds from Rak (Rakeem Christmas). He saw that that was there.”
Could you talk about Tyler's (Roberson) play?
“The problem is he is a four man. When he plays the three, he is too far away. Chris (McCullough) got in foul trouble, which I don’t want to happen all the time and Rak (Rakeem Christmas) so Tyler (Roberson) played at four. That’s his position. At the three, he struggles, because he tries to do things like that spin move and throw the ball up from wherever he wants. If he would play the three and not do those things, then he could be more effective, because now he is going to the boards against a smaller guy. Tonight he played the four for the majority of the game. When he’s played the three, he’s too far away. He’s got to get closer basically.”
With five full days to prepare for Villanova, can you take that same approach with the scouting report?
“Well we’re going to do the same thing all the time. We’re going to work on everything, and yeah we will look at the scouting report. Yeah we’ll do both those things. We had a lot of time last week, and we didn’t show much except that our offense was better.”
Do you think it’s because the players are not concentrating?
“We’ll see. We’ll find out. The good thing about this is that we will find all this stuff out. We don’t have to ask these questions. They will either get better and do these things or they won’t, and we’ll see it. I don’t have the answer to that.”
