Coach Boeheim Quotes -- Lousville
Syracuse at Louisville
February 19, 2020 | KFC Yum! Center
Postgame quotes
Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim
Opening statement
“I think we were good in the first half except for (Ryan) McMahon. Joe (Girard III) left him once, Buddy (Boeheim) left him once, Elijah (Hughes) once and Quincy (Gurrier) once. The one thing we want to do in the first half was not to let McMahon get free and that was the difference in the half. The second half, our guards did a better job, we found him better, but we didn't rotate and take away the inside play, and that was it. That was the game. They just got too many easy shots down there. Our defense was good the whole game. I thought their defense was just better than our offense. I think they're a really good team. I think they’ve got a chance to beat anybody, and tonight we just weren't good enough in the second half defensively or offensively.”
What would you attribute Elijah Hughes' struggles to tonight?
“I thought they did a good job on him defensively, they just did. They made it hard for him to get by, and they just did a good job on him and Joe, they did a really good job on both of them. On Marek (Dolezaj) same thing, I thought they just did a good job defensively on those guys. The disappointment was our defensive breakdown in the second half. I think that was the one thing that was disappointing about the game. They're good, they're probably going to win a lot of games in here. I think we have obviously played very well. We played very well on the road, we played better on the road than we have at home overall. We just didn't have it tonight in the second half, especially. They were pressuring, we just couldn't really get by, and make a play.”
“A lot of stuff has been written and said… we're not tired. We don't have a tired guy out there. We're not good enough at the end of the game, in the games we've lost, to win. That's the bottom line. I wish we were better. I wish we were doing something wrong that we can correct, but we're just not quite good enough. These guys have fought hard.
To go down to the wire at Florida State and Clemson, and to win the four road games that we won, I think is a tremendous tribute to this team what they've done. We're young. We're still making some mistakes we can't make on both ends of the court.
Obviously Bourama (Sidibe) and Marek, are getting in bad foul trouble. That's not something that's going to help us. They fought very hard. The reason we aren't winning at the end of games is we're not good enough. Sometimes that's just the case.
I think we played better in certain games at the end, and have won of those games we played in. This group's played hard, they're trying to do everything they can to win games. I'm confident that they will be ready to play and play hard the rest of the way, but we just haven't been quite good enough. Tonight was a big example of that inside, we just couldn't handle them inside in the second half and their defense was just good, better than our offense was. I think they're a top team, top 10, wherever you want to put them and we’re not. It’s pretty simple really.”
This is the first game in about three months that your team wasn’t in, so what do you tell your players after this one? Especially with five games left?
“Get ready for the next game. This is not rocket science. There is nothing about this game. They’re going to play 31 games this year and we’re going to try and play all 31. You’re going to have a bad game. Every team, basically, in the country is going to have one. Unless, you’re Baylor, maybe Kansas or some of those three or four teams that maybe haven’t. But everybody else is going to have a game or two where they aren’t there.
This team, I think, in the league, has been as competitive in the league as I could ask them to be. We are not good in the middle. We have trouble with big guys. The reason we lost our non-conference games is we give big guys, pretty much around 24 and 10 every game. We can’t handle those guys. We play good at all the other positions and battled all year and will battle. I don’t know what will happen, but we will battle every game regardless of who we play. After a slow start tonight, we battled back, hung in there for a while. But their defense just took us out of what we were trying to do in the second half. The shots we got, we didn’t make and they hurt us inside. “
February 19, 2020 | KFC Yum! Center
Postgame quotes
Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim
Opening statement
“I think we were good in the first half except for (Ryan) McMahon. Joe (Girard III) left him once, Buddy (Boeheim) left him once, Elijah (Hughes) once and Quincy (Gurrier) once. The one thing we want to do in the first half was not to let McMahon get free and that was the difference in the half. The second half, our guards did a better job, we found him better, but we didn't rotate and take away the inside play, and that was it. That was the game. They just got too many easy shots down there. Our defense was good the whole game. I thought their defense was just better than our offense. I think they're a really good team. I think they’ve got a chance to beat anybody, and tonight we just weren't good enough in the second half defensively or offensively.”
What would you attribute Elijah Hughes' struggles to tonight?
“I thought they did a good job on him defensively, they just did. They made it hard for him to get by, and they just did a good job on him and Joe, they did a really good job on both of them. On Marek (Dolezaj) same thing, I thought they just did a good job defensively on those guys. The disappointment was our defensive breakdown in the second half. I think that was the one thing that was disappointing about the game. They're good, they're probably going to win a lot of games in here. I think we have obviously played very well. We played very well on the road, we played better on the road than we have at home overall. We just didn't have it tonight in the second half, especially. They were pressuring, we just couldn't really get by, and make a play.”
“A lot of stuff has been written and said… we're not tired. We don't have a tired guy out there. We're not good enough at the end of the game, in the games we've lost, to win. That's the bottom line. I wish we were better. I wish we were doing something wrong that we can correct, but we're just not quite good enough. These guys have fought hard.
To go down to the wire at Florida State and Clemson, and to win the four road games that we won, I think is a tremendous tribute to this team what they've done. We're young. We're still making some mistakes we can't make on both ends of the court.
Obviously Bourama (Sidibe) and Marek, are getting in bad foul trouble. That's not something that's going to help us. They fought very hard. The reason we aren't winning at the end of games is we're not good enough. Sometimes that's just the case.
I think we played better in certain games at the end, and have won of those games we played in. This group's played hard, they're trying to do everything they can to win games. I'm confident that they will be ready to play and play hard the rest of the way, but we just haven't been quite good enough. Tonight was a big example of that inside, we just couldn't handle them inside in the second half and their defense was just good, better than our offense was. I think they're a top team, top 10, wherever you want to put them and we’re not. It’s pretty simple really.”
This is the first game in about three months that your team wasn’t in, so what do you tell your players after this one? Especially with five games left?
“Get ready for the next game. This is not rocket science. There is nothing about this game. They’re going to play 31 games this year and we’re going to try and play all 31. You’re going to have a bad game. Every team, basically, in the country is going to have one. Unless, you’re Baylor, maybe Kansas or some of those three or four teams that maybe haven’t. But everybody else is going to have a game or two where they aren’t there.
This team, I think, in the league, has been as competitive in the league as I could ask them to be. We are not good in the middle. We have trouble with big guys. The reason we lost our non-conference games is we give big guys, pretty much around 24 and 10 every game. We can’t handle those guys. We play good at all the other positions and battled all year and will battle. I don’t know what will happen, but we will battle every game regardless of who we play. After a slow start tonight, we battled back, hung in there for a while. But their defense just took us out of what we were trying to do in the second half. The shots we got, we didn’t make and they hurt us inside. “
