Head Coach Jim Boeheim Quotes - North Florida
Syracuse Men's Basketball
Syracuse vs. North Florida
December 21, 2019
Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.
Head Coach Jim Boeheim
Opening Statement:
“Obviously, the fans were tremendous tonight. They were in the game from the beginning and they made a big difference in the game.
"We beat a good team tonight. Matchups mean a lot in college basketball and we don’t match up well with this particular team because they have so many good passers and shooters. So, no matter where you go, they’re going to get some looks. I thought, overall, we didn’t do a bad job of defending the 3-point line. They put 46 up to get their 17 3-point makes. They’re very difficult to guard because they penetrate, kick the ball out and they can all shoot.
"I thought Marek (Dolezaj) played really well in the middle. That was the open area so he did a good job getting the ball and scoring or making a play and getting it out for the shooters. Joe (Girard III) didn’t have it going tonight and then he got going. Sooner or later, Joe and Buddy (Boeheim) are going to make some threes. Making 10 threes as a team was pretty good.
"I thought Quincy (Guerrier) played well down the stretch. They were so extended in guarding Elijah (Hughes) so hard that you have Bourama (Sidibe) and Quincy on the inside on the boards. So, if we do miss, we have those two guys in there and Quincy made a couple big plays in there. I told him that if he started making his free throws, he would be scoring about a point per minute. I thought he also rebounded really well.
"I thought Bourama came back with a really good second half. I thought he was active. He had 13 rebounds last time and eight tonight in 22 minutes.
"Everything is a fight for us. We have to fight for everything we get. We’re young and we’re learning. We only turned the ball over four times tonight and we had 22 assists on 27 baskets. I don’t think you can do much better than that."
Was it hard to defend a team that plays so differently?
“Yeah. You hardly ever see where they’re going inside and not really ever shooting it there. They’re just going inside to get you to collapse and then throwing it out. They have three guys out there and you have to defend them and it’s really hard to do. The last two threes they made were really hard shots, too. But when you give up an offensive rebound, that open three becomes available and they got some of those. When they drive in, they’re only looking to throw it out. It’s a good strategy, but you have to have three or four guys that can really shoot it and they can put four out there that can shoot it.
"We got them out of the zone situations and we wanted to get them man-to-man where Elijah could be able to get to the basket. He made the plays down the stretch and then Quincy’s offensive rebounds helped. But we have to make those plays and every game is going to be a fight.
"I thought we battled well on the boards tonight. We got some offensive rebounds which we haven’t been getting and overall, I thought we played really well."
Syracuse vs. North Florida
December 21, 2019
Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.
Head Coach Jim Boeheim
Opening Statement:
“Obviously, the fans were tremendous tonight. They were in the game from the beginning and they made a big difference in the game.
"We beat a good team tonight. Matchups mean a lot in college basketball and we don’t match up well with this particular team because they have so many good passers and shooters. So, no matter where you go, they’re going to get some looks. I thought, overall, we didn’t do a bad job of defending the 3-point line. They put 46 up to get their 17 3-point makes. They’re very difficult to guard because they penetrate, kick the ball out and they can all shoot.
"I thought Marek (Dolezaj) played really well in the middle. That was the open area so he did a good job getting the ball and scoring or making a play and getting it out for the shooters. Joe (Girard III) didn’t have it going tonight and then he got going. Sooner or later, Joe and Buddy (Boeheim) are going to make some threes. Making 10 threes as a team was pretty good.
"I thought Quincy (Guerrier) played well down the stretch. They were so extended in guarding Elijah (Hughes) so hard that you have Bourama (Sidibe) and Quincy on the inside on the boards. So, if we do miss, we have those two guys in there and Quincy made a couple big plays in there. I told him that if he started making his free throws, he would be scoring about a point per minute. I thought he also rebounded really well.
"I thought Bourama came back with a really good second half. I thought he was active. He had 13 rebounds last time and eight tonight in 22 minutes.
"Everything is a fight for us. We have to fight for everything we get. We’re young and we’re learning. We only turned the ball over four times tonight and we had 22 assists on 27 baskets. I don’t think you can do much better than that."
Was it hard to defend a team that plays so differently?
“Yeah. You hardly ever see where they’re going inside and not really ever shooting it there. They’re just going inside to get you to collapse and then throwing it out. They have three guys out there and you have to defend them and it’s really hard to do. The last two threes they made were really hard shots, too. But when you give up an offensive rebound, that open three becomes available and they got some of those. When they drive in, they’re only looking to throw it out. It’s a good strategy, but you have to have three or four guys that can really shoot it and they can put four out there that can shoot it.
"We got them out of the zone situations and we wanted to get them man-to-man where Elijah could be able to get to the basket. He made the plays down the stretch and then Quincy’s offensive rebounds helped. But we have to make those plays and every game is going to be a fight.
"I thought we battled well on the boards tonight. We got some offensive rebounds which we haven’t been getting and overall, I thought we played really well."
