Head Coach Jim Boeheim Quotes
Syracuse Men’s Basketball
Syracuse vs. Virginia
March 2, 2015
Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.
Head Coach Jim Boeheim
Opening Statement
“(It was) 42-20 on the boards. We’ve really held our own all year on the boards. We got them off to a slow start. We did get some opportunities -- we had some pretty good looks during that time. If you are going to have a chance to upset the number two team in the country, you have to be able to make those shots when they present themselves. I thought we had five or six really good looks at the three-point line. Rakeem (Christmas) passed it out of the double team, made good plays. To upset a team like Virginia you need to make those shots, and when we didn’t, they’re going to score some points.
“I think the biggest difference in the ball game is that they got us inside on the boards and I just don’t think we competed on the backboards like we have all year. We can’t win if Rak (Christmas) gets four rebounds. We need him to get 10-12 rebounds. We need our guards to do a little bit more back there. B.J. (Johnson) gives us shooting but he doesn’t give us rebounding. We had a couple loose balls in the first half that we should have gotten, that they got and they scored.
"The real story in the basketball game is 42-20 on the boards. That’s all it takes. I think Virginia is a tremendous team. When they get (Justin) Anderson back they can play. I mean they can beat anyone without him but I hope he is able to come back. They clearly are the second-best team in the country from what I’ve seen. I think they are tremendously well-coached. They’ve got tremendous physical strength. The players are underrated --they are much better players than people might think.
“There’s a reason they’ve just lost one game. I think they can beat just about anybody. If we had rebounded it would have been a different game. It still would have been a difficult game. We just didn’t compete on the boards. We are just not a very good rebounding team. We wanted to go with Mike (Gbinje) -- he has played 20 minutes a game at guard. We wanted to go the whole game with him, which worked well for a while but it didn’t really pick up anything on the boards, and that was one of the main goals.
"Virginia is an amazing basketball team and I think they are going to be a great tournament team as well.”
When’s the last time you saw a team box out Rakeem Christmas like that?
“They had two guys on him all night and I thought he did a pretty good job. In the first half he did a really good job. He passed out of there and when he had his opportunity to score, he scored. In the second half they put more pressure on him. We just didn’t have another alternative. When they are doing that we are going to get looks at the three-point line. The other thing is when we started B.J. (Johnson) -- he has had some success. He has shown he can make that and he got two or three good looks in the first half and we need to make those. If they are going to put that much attention on Rak (Christmas), then we need to make some of those three’s.”
Is that the best defense you’ve seen?
“Yeah, they are leading the country in defense. They are a tremendous defensive team. We have struggled shooting the ball and struggled offensively. We have had some bad games but we have had some games against bad defense where we haven’t scored. Our stats are deceiving. We are not a good three-point shooting team. We just didn’t rebound and there is no excuse for that.”
What was your message to Rakeem Christmas when he came off?
“He has had a great career and has always done everything he has been asked to do. He has battled for 40 minutes just about every game just to give us a chance to win. We have no other inside threat presence of any kind. Rakeem has had to do an unbelievable amount of work. I think he has done an incredible job.”
Syracuse vs. Virginia
March 2, 2015
Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.
Head Coach Jim Boeheim
Opening Statement
“(It was) 42-20 on the boards. We’ve really held our own all year on the boards. We got them off to a slow start. We did get some opportunities -- we had some pretty good looks during that time. If you are going to have a chance to upset the number two team in the country, you have to be able to make those shots when they present themselves. I thought we had five or six really good looks at the three-point line. Rakeem (Christmas) passed it out of the double team, made good plays. To upset a team like Virginia you need to make those shots, and when we didn’t, they’re going to score some points.
“I think the biggest difference in the ball game is that they got us inside on the boards and I just don’t think we competed on the backboards like we have all year. We can’t win if Rak (Christmas) gets four rebounds. We need him to get 10-12 rebounds. We need our guards to do a little bit more back there. B.J. (Johnson) gives us shooting but he doesn’t give us rebounding. We had a couple loose balls in the first half that we should have gotten, that they got and they scored.
"The real story in the basketball game is 42-20 on the boards. That’s all it takes. I think Virginia is a tremendous team. When they get (Justin) Anderson back they can play. I mean they can beat anyone without him but I hope he is able to come back. They clearly are the second-best team in the country from what I’ve seen. I think they are tremendously well-coached. They’ve got tremendous physical strength. The players are underrated --they are much better players than people might think.
“There’s a reason they’ve just lost one game. I think they can beat just about anybody. If we had rebounded it would have been a different game. It still would have been a difficult game. We just didn’t compete on the boards. We are just not a very good rebounding team. We wanted to go with Mike (Gbinje) -- he has played 20 minutes a game at guard. We wanted to go the whole game with him, which worked well for a while but it didn’t really pick up anything on the boards, and that was one of the main goals.
"Virginia is an amazing basketball team and I think they are going to be a great tournament team as well.”
When’s the last time you saw a team box out Rakeem Christmas like that?
“They had two guys on him all night and I thought he did a pretty good job. In the first half he did a really good job. He passed out of there and when he had his opportunity to score, he scored. In the second half they put more pressure on him. We just didn’t have another alternative. When they are doing that we are going to get looks at the three-point line. The other thing is when we started B.J. (Johnson) -- he has had some success. He has shown he can make that and he got two or three good looks in the first half and we need to make those. If they are going to put that much attention on Rak (Christmas), then we need to make some of those three’s.”
Is that the best defense you’ve seen?
“Yeah, they are leading the country in defense. They are a tremendous defensive team. We have struggled shooting the ball and struggled offensively. We have had some bad games but we have had some games against bad defense where we haven’t scored. Our stats are deceiving. We are not a good three-point shooting team. We just didn’t rebound and there is no excuse for that.”
What was your message to Rakeem Christmas when he came off?
“He has had a great career and has always done everything he has been asked to do. He has battled for 40 minutes just about every game just to give us a chance to win. We have no other inside threat presence of any kind. Rakeem has had to do an unbelievable amount of work. I think he has done an incredible job.”
