Head Coach Jim Boeheim Quotes
Syracuse Men’s Basketball
Syracuse vs. Pittsburgh
February 21, 2015
Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.
Opening statement:
“We got off to a bad start offensively. We missed some free throws early and we missed some layups early and we just couldn’t get in a rhythm. Then we started to a little bit but we wanted to really focus our defense on (Chris) Jones. He really hurt us down there – we just let him have those open shots in the first half and enabled them to get control of the game. It’s just a mistake we can’t make defensively.
thought we played as hard as you could ask a team to play. It was a great battle back at the end. We made some great defensive plays. I thought we gave ourselves an opportunity to win the game. We shot 7-for-25 in the first half and 0-for-6 from the three, we just didn’t make shots that first half. The second half we did play better offensively and we battled back but the first half was a really bad offensive performance and it put us in a bad spot.”
What did you do to battle back there at the end?
“We got a good trap at half court; they threw it out of bounds and then we got another one and then (Michael) Young went to the basket and Rakeem (Christmas) made a good play on him and we got a couple, two or three is all it takes, and then we were very efficient on offense. We got down, we got the ball right to Rakeem, he scored and Tyler (Roberson) made a basket. Then we got B.J. (Johnson) a really good look at the three and he makes it.
thought both Ron (Patterson) and B.J. finally made some shots, which was why we were in the game. They haven’t been doing that and that was big for those guys to make those shots. We trapped and mixed it up and they made a couple mistakes and we were able to convert.”
Can you talk a little about B.J. Johnson?
“He’s a good shooter; he’s had good looks several times this year and I think he was 2-for-something for the year. The first shot he got he air balled it and then he got a good look and made them both and he makes the last one. He is a good shooter. The problem you have when he is in there is that he’s small at the forward spot, hurts us on defense a little bit but we know he is a capable shooter. He just hasn’t shot the ball well.”
Rakeem Christmas was double-teamed early; did you do anything different in the second half to sort of get him going?
“We tried to move the ball a little better and not get (him the ball) right away where we could get them in different situations where they wouldn’t be able to come right away. We moved the ball a little better, got it to him in better spots in the second half.”
Syracuse vs. Pittsburgh
February 21, 2015
Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.
Opening statement:
“We got off to a bad start offensively. We missed some free throws early and we missed some layups early and we just couldn’t get in a rhythm. Then we started to a little bit but we wanted to really focus our defense on (Chris) Jones. He really hurt us down there – we just let him have those open shots in the first half and enabled them to get control of the game. It’s just a mistake we can’t make defensively.
thought we played as hard as you could ask a team to play. It was a great battle back at the end. We made some great defensive plays. I thought we gave ourselves an opportunity to win the game. We shot 7-for-25 in the first half and 0-for-6 from the three, we just didn’t make shots that first half. The second half we did play better offensively and we battled back but the first half was a really bad offensive performance and it put us in a bad spot.”
What did you do to battle back there at the end?
“We got a good trap at half court; they threw it out of bounds and then we got another one and then (Michael) Young went to the basket and Rakeem (Christmas) made a good play on him and we got a couple, two or three is all it takes, and then we were very efficient on offense. We got down, we got the ball right to Rakeem, he scored and Tyler (Roberson) made a basket. Then we got B.J. (Johnson) a really good look at the three and he makes it.
thought both Ron (Patterson) and B.J. finally made some shots, which was why we were in the game. They haven’t been doing that and that was big for those guys to make those shots. We trapped and mixed it up and they made a couple mistakes and we were able to convert.”
Can you talk a little about B.J. Johnson?
“He’s a good shooter; he’s had good looks several times this year and I think he was 2-for-something for the year. The first shot he got he air balled it and then he got a good look and made them both and he makes the last one. He is a good shooter. The problem you have when he is in there is that he’s small at the forward spot, hurts us on defense a little bit but we know he is a capable shooter. He just hasn’t shot the ball well.”
Rakeem Christmas was double-teamed early; did you do anything different in the second half to sort of get him going?
“We tried to move the ball a little better and not get (him the ball) right away where we could get them in different situations where they wouldn’t be able to come right away. We moved the ball a little better, got it to him in better spots in the second half.”
