Head Coach Jim Boeheim Quotes - Virginia
Syracuse Men's Basketball
Syracuse vs. Virginia
February 3, 2018
Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.
Opening Statement:
“Virginia is a tremendous team, on both ends of the court. I thought we did some things pretty well today in the first half. We wanted to come up on (De’Andre) Hunter and we didn’t do that. There is no excuse for that. He had 11 in the first half. If we had come up and guarded him it would have helped keep us in the game. Offensively, we cannot score against teams that are not really good defensively, so obviously you are really going to have struggle scoring against Virginia. They are a tremendous defensive team. We rely on our two guards to score and make plays and when they don’t, we have a problem offensively.
“That is really the bottom line the last three games – we have had trouble scoring. Bourama’s (Sidibe) knee was hurting tonight. Today, he didn’t think he could go so he was not available for us. The bottom line is we are sitting here where we have won 15 games, so we have eight games left. We have to figure out a way to win a few of those games. The way we are playing, offensively, right now is going to make that very difficult. We have to play better on offense. The reason we shot poorly here was their defense. The reason we shot poorly at Georgia Tech was more on us. Virginia has a lot to do with people shooting poorly. I thought we, in some situations, made some good penetrations, but not enough. But that’s what you have to do against them.”
Can you talk about Paschal Chukwu’s play?
“I can’t explain what is happening to him. We played this team at their court and he had 16 and 11. Tonight, he could have played 15 minutes and would not have scored. I don’t know what it is. He was pretty good in practice yesterday. But the one thing we wanted to do on defense when Hunter came in was to come up on him and he gave him two open jump shots. When you are not scoring and not rebounding and you are not defending, then we have to try something else. Marek (Dolezaj) was the only guy I thought was moving and was pretty good out there tonight. We have too many guys playing minutes that are not productive. If you play 18-19 minutes and you can’t get a shot up, then we have to figure out something else.”
Are Bourama Sidibe’s knee issues the same as earlier in the season?
“Same thing. He banged it the last game and hasn’t recovered. I don’t see him going Monday, but if he could, fine but if not, we have six days again and hope that maybe he will be able to treat it and get it to where he would be able to play again. We will have to see.”
How would you assess the full court press?
“We can press for about two minutes and we might catch somebody but after that, we are not a very good full-court press team.”
Going forward, what do you do?
“We got to be better on offense – just got to go back and work hard, try to get better at movement. We have problems when we don’t have a low post presence so we have to play off our guards and drive. Oshae (Brissett) is having trouble getting to the basket against the teams in our league. He just can’t finish down there. That is what he does and he has got to get better. We have to get our guards in better positions.”
Did you try to start the offense a little quicker?
“We are trying to get up there but we are not very good in transition. We are not very good doing that. “
What was Virginia doing well?
“They are a great team and we were just not able to make good shots against them for the most part.”
Syracuse vs. Virginia
February 3, 2018
Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.
Opening Statement:
“Virginia is a tremendous team, on both ends of the court. I thought we did some things pretty well today in the first half. We wanted to come up on (De’Andre) Hunter and we didn’t do that. There is no excuse for that. He had 11 in the first half. If we had come up and guarded him it would have helped keep us in the game. Offensively, we cannot score against teams that are not really good defensively, so obviously you are really going to have struggle scoring against Virginia. They are a tremendous defensive team. We rely on our two guards to score and make plays and when they don’t, we have a problem offensively.
“That is really the bottom line the last three games – we have had trouble scoring. Bourama’s (Sidibe) knee was hurting tonight. Today, he didn’t think he could go so he was not available for us. The bottom line is we are sitting here where we have won 15 games, so we have eight games left. We have to figure out a way to win a few of those games. The way we are playing, offensively, right now is going to make that very difficult. We have to play better on offense. The reason we shot poorly here was their defense. The reason we shot poorly at Georgia Tech was more on us. Virginia has a lot to do with people shooting poorly. I thought we, in some situations, made some good penetrations, but not enough. But that’s what you have to do against them.”
Can you talk about Paschal Chukwu’s play?
“I can’t explain what is happening to him. We played this team at their court and he had 16 and 11. Tonight, he could have played 15 minutes and would not have scored. I don’t know what it is. He was pretty good in practice yesterday. But the one thing we wanted to do on defense when Hunter came in was to come up on him and he gave him two open jump shots. When you are not scoring and not rebounding and you are not defending, then we have to try something else. Marek (Dolezaj) was the only guy I thought was moving and was pretty good out there tonight. We have too many guys playing minutes that are not productive. If you play 18-19 minutes and you can’t get a shot up, then we have to figure out something else.”
Are Bourama Sidibe’s knee issues the same as earlier in the season?
“Same thing. He banged it the last game and hasn’t recovered. I don’t see him going Monday, but if he could, fine but if not, we have six days again and hope that maybe he will be able to treat it and get it to where he would be able to play again. We will have to see.”
How would you assess the full court press?
“We can press for about two minutes and we might catch somebody but after that, we are not a very good full-court press team.”
Going forward, what do you do?
“We got to be better on offense – just got to go back and work hard, try to get better at movement. We have problems when we don’t have a low post presence so we have to play off our guards and drive. Oshae (Brissett) is having trouble getting to the basket against the teams in our league. He just can’t finish down there. That is what he does and he has got to get better. We have to get our guards in better positions.”
Did you try to start the offense a little quicker?
“We are trying to get up there but we are not very good in transition. We are not very good doing that. “
What was Virginia doing well?
“They are a great team and we were just not able to make good shots against them for the most part.”
