Coach Boeheim Quotes -- Louisville
Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim
Syracuse at Louisville | ACC Men’s Basketball
Feb. 5, 2018, | KFC Yum! Center
Postgame Press Conference
Opening Statement:
“I thought tonight…we’ve struggled to score. I thought the one thing we were a little better on tonight was moving the ball and being patient. But, at the end of the day, we haven’t been making shots. We made shots, our guards have been four-for-17, four-for-17, six-for-17. If they do that tonight, we lose. They both made 7-for-15, and they’re capable of that.
"I thought Louisville did a great job getting inside—we just couldn’t do anything with them on the glass down there in the second half.
"I thought that, obviously, the play that Ty making the jump shot in the lane; earlier. Frank made the three up against the shot clock that was really hard. Then, he made the drive. But, Ty (Battle) made the foul line jump shot to get us a little space, and then, Marek (Dolezaj) got the tip off the isolation play. But, this was our best win in a long time, coming off a couple really not good offensive, three bad offensive performances in a row. And to play well offensively tonight, I just felt we had good patience. We hit some shots. It’s a lot easier to try to win a game when you score more than 50 points, and we haven’t been able to do that for a few games now. This was a great effort.
"I thought Louisville did a great job at the end getting the ball inside— we just couldn’t contend with them. We had massive foul trouble the whole game. I thought our players were smart. They were good. They stayed away from situations. But, it was a great effort.
"I thought Marek was tremendous tonight. Every time they doubled, we found someone who made a play. We were concerned coming into the game not to let Ryan McMahon have any looks and we did a great job on him, except we fouled him once and gave him that one at the end. We did a good job on their three-point shooters, and early, they made some mistakes, but the second half, they made two turnovers. They were really good and they got it inside. But, we had just enough to hold on. It was a great win.”
Did you make any adjustments defensively after Louisville was able to get the ball inside?
“No, I think when they cut it to two, I think we got a bucket. I can’t remember the exact play, but I think they missed and we got the rebound, something happened down there. I can’t remember exactly, but they had scored probably four straight times. I think two of them were tips. They get (Ray) Spalding down under the basket, and you can’t do much with him in that situation. When you have a lead and you lose it on the road, it’s always tough. You’ve got to make plays, you’ve still got to make a play or two. We knew we had the clock, we just had to get it back up to four, two is not enough. We were patient, and at the end it came down to Tyus making that jump shot in the lane to get us some space. It was a great effort.”
Was your lack of depth a concern?
“If you look carefully around the country, there’s a few teams that play five or six guys. Villanova is pretty good last I looked, and they played one guy six minutes and one guy three minutes yesterday. They beat a top 15 team and scored 92 points. There’s a few teams that play five or six guys.
"Our players are in great shape. They’re capable, they don’t seem tired, they make plays at the end of games. They’ve been playing the whole year, and we’ve won an overtime game, we’ve won games at the end. It’s a different game today, you get a two and a half minute rest every four minutes. Without that, you couldn’t do it, but that’s a big factor.
"Now that said, our backup point guard (Howard Washington) was helping us. It was tough to lose him and Bourama Sidibe, he goes for 18 and 16, then he tweaks his knee again. We’re hoping that this week the rest is going to help him and he’ll be back. The one thing I think it has helped a little bit, and I believe this, when you know you’re going to play the whole game and you’re not quite as confidently as you should be, I think you play better. I really do.”
How significant was this win on the road?
“Well, we need wins. We need wins anywhere. The road is good. We need to get wins. I told them after the game the other night we have eight games left, our season will be determined by what we do in these eight games. We’ve let a couple slip away in this makes up for some of those. Every game is going to be like this. We’re not overpowering anybody. We haven’t overpowered anybody. We’re going to have tough games every game now. This was a good start. Louisville’s got tremendous talent and are a really good basketball team. We’re fortunate to come in here and get this win.”
Were you pleased with how your players handled the fould trouble?
“That was good and we needed them. In fact, Oshae (Brissett) should have never gotten the fifth one. He made a bad play on that side and he knows better. It was an obvious block and he knows better. We committed three or four bad fouls, five maybe that we can’t commit. I sometimes forget they’re young players and our veterans, it’s Frank’s (Howard) first year starting and the second year for Tyus (Battle) to start and all of the rest of them are first-time starters. They’ve learned. They’re getting better but we’ve still got a ways to go.“
Was it odd being here and looking down to the other bench and not seeing Rick Pitino?
“I don’t code play against the coach. We don’t have to play one-on-one. It’s a good thing, David (Padgett) would beat me by about 30. David is doing a great job.
"I don’t want to get anybody mad at me and I’m not trying to -- obviously Rick Pitino worked for me and is a great friend of mine. In my opinion he’s one of the two best coaches that have coached in modern basketball in college with that I mean after John Wooden. To lose a guy like that, in my opinion that’s where he is at, you have to put Mike (Krzyzewski) ahead of him. I think Rick did it with lesser players. He’s a great friend of mine and I feel bad about the whole situation but it’s what happened. It’s interesting the other three coaches are still coaching, I don’t know if that means anything or not.”
Did you offer any words or advice to Coach Padgett before the game?
“I said he’s doing a great job, I think it’s an impossible situation. To take over a team like that is something that is just hard, I think he is doing just great.”
Syracuse at Louisville | ACC Men’s Basketball
Feb. 5, 2018, | KFC Yum! Center
Postgame Press Conference
Opening Statement:
“I thought tonight…we’ve struggled to score. I thought the one thing we were a little better on tonight was moving the ball and being patient. But, at the end of the day, we haven’t been making shots. We made shots, our guards have been four-for-17, four-for-17, six-for-17. If they do that tonight, we lose. They both made 7-for-15, and they’re capable of that.
"I thought Louisville did a great job getting inside—we just couldn’t do anything with them on the glass down there in the second half.
"I thought that, obviously, the play that Ty making the jump shot in the lane; earlier. Frank made the three up against the shot clock that was really hard. Then, he made the drive. But, Ty (Battle) made the foul line jump shot to get us a little space, and then, Marek (Dolezaj) got the tip off the isolation play. But, this was our best win in a long time, coming off a couple really not good offensive, three bad offensive performances in a row. And to play well offensively tonight, I just felt we had good patience. We hit some shots. It’s a lot easier to try to win a game when you score more than 50 points, and we haven’t been able to do that for a few games now. This was a great effort.
"I thought Louisville did a great job at the end getting the ball inside— we just couldn’t contend with them. We had massive foul trouble the whole game. I thought our players were smart. They were good. They stayed away from situations. But, it was a great effort.
"I thought Marek was tremendous tonight. Every time they doubled, we found someone who made a play. We were concerned coming into the game not to let Ryan McMahon have any looks and we did a great job on him, except we fouled him once and gave him that one at the end. We did a good job on their three-point shooters, and early, they made some mistakes, but the second half, they made two turnovers. They were really good and they got it inside. But, we had just enough to hold on. It was a great win.”
Did you make any adjustments defensively after Louisville was able to get the ball inside?
“No, I think when they cut it to two, I think we got a bucket. I can’t remember the exact play, but I think they missed and we got the rebound, something happened down there. I can’t remember exactly, but they had scored probably four straight times. I think two of them were tips. They get (Ray) Spalding down under the basket, and you can’t do much with him in that situation. When you have a lead and you lose it on the road, it’s always tough. You’ve got to make plays, you’ve still got to make a play or two. We knew we had the clock, we just had to get it back up to four, two is not enough. We were patient, and at the end it came down to Tyus making that jump shot in the lane to get us some space. It was a great effort.”
Was your lack of depth a concern?
“If you look carefully around the country, there’s a few teams that play five or six guys. Villanova is pretty good last I looked, and they played one guy six minutes and one guy three minutes yesterday. They beat a top 15 team and scored 92 points. There’s a few teams that play five or six guys.
"Our players are in great shape. They’re capable, they don’t seem tired, they make plays at the end of games. They’ve been playing the whole year, and we’ve won an overtime game, we’ve won games at the end. It’s a different game today, you get a two and a half minute rest every four minutes. Without that, you couldn’t do it, but that’s a big factor.
"Now that said, our backup point guard (Howard Washington) was helping us. It was tough to lose him and Bourama Sidibe, he goes for 18 and 16, then he tweaks his knee again. We’re hoping that this week the rest is going to help him and he’ll be back. The one thing I think it has helped a little bit, and I believe this, when you know you’re going to play the whole game and you’re not quite as confidently as you should be, I think you play better. I really do.”
How significant was this win on the road?
“Well, we need wins. We need wins anywhere. The road is good. We need to get wins. I told them after the game the other night we have eight games left, our season will be determined by what we do in these eight games. We’ve let a couple slip away in this makes up for some of those. Every game is going to be like this. We’re not overpowering anybody. We haven’t overpowered anybody. We’re going to have tough games every game now. This was a good start. Louisville’s got tremendous talent and are a really good basketball team. We’re fortunate to come in here and get this win.”
Were you pleased with how your players handled the fould trouble?
“That was good and we needed them. In fact, Oshae (Brissett) should have never gotten the fifth one. He made a bad play on that side and he knows better. It was an obvious block and he knows better. We committed three or four bad fouls, five maybe that we can’t commit. I sometimes forget they’re young players and our veterans, it’s Frank’s (Howard) first year starting and the second year for Tyus (Battle) to start and all of the rest of them are first-time starters. They’ve learned. They’re getting better but we’ve still got a ways to go.“
Was it odd being here and looking down to the other bench and not seeing Rick Pitino?
“I don’t code play against the coach. We don’t have to play one-on-one. It’s a good thing, David (Padgett) would beat me by about 30. David is doing a great job.
"I don’t want to get anybody mad at me and I’m not trying to -- obviously Rick Pitino worked for me and is a great friend of mine. In my opinion he’s one of the two best coaches that have coached in modern basketball in college with that I mean after John Wooden. To lose a guy like that, in my opinion that’s where he is at, you have to put Mike (Krzyzewski) ahead of him. I think Rick did it with lesser players. He’s a great friend of mine and I feel bad about the whole situation but it’s what happened. It’s interesting the other three coaches are still coaching, I don’t know if that means anything or not.”
Did you offer any words or advice to Coach Padgett before the game?
“I said he’s doing a great job, I think it’s an impossible situation. To take over a team like that is something that is just hard, I think he is doing just great.”
