NIT SEASON TIP-OFF

November 21, 2001

Jim Boeheim

COACH BOEHEIM: I think, you know, we -- this was especially a good win for us, because we didn't do what we can do, the best, and that's shoot the basketball. The defense was good. We were active. We tried not to give them good looks, tried to keep pressure on them all the time. I thought the key really, especially in the first half, we hung on the boards. That was surprising. We did a good job. I thought offensively we had a little better patience in the first half. That enabled us to get some offensive rebounds the second half. We did a good job against our matchup. When they matched up on the out of bounds, we generally got a good opportunity against our matchup, but we battled hard. And even though we didn't make shots, we were able to hang in there. When they tied it, we were able to still hang in there, make a couple of good defensive plays and couple transition baskets. It was a tough hard game. They played physical and you have to play physical against them.

COACH BOEHEIM: He was active, you know. He's an active player, probably took a couple too many shots tonight. Two he had to take. I'll forgive him for those two. Couple of the other ones we'll have to talk about. I thought he did what had to be done. He's played very well this year.

COACH BOEHEIM: The reason we got a lot of offensive rebounds. We spread them out, them having to play their four man on Duany. Kueth is going to get opportunities and use his quickness. We were able to pull their big guys away from the boards. That enabled us to get some offensive rebounds. Second half we weren't as patient. We tried to go right away, which happens when you get a little bit tired, I think. When we did get a shot, we got good shots, but there was absolutely nobody on the boards, because we really did not move them around at all. But we wanted to try to take it to the basket and spread it out, take advantage of their big guys and try to get them in some kind of foul trouble.

COACH BOEHEIM: You know, at the end of games they were trying to -- they were doing the right thing. They were trying to get in the post. We allowed them to get in the post and throw it out, Adam Wolfe, at that shot. We wanted them to go in there and spread and make that post guy put it on the floor. Then we can get back in there and knock it away. We had a couple of traps when they had it in the corner. Mostly it was just we were active and I think in end-game situations, you know, they have young guys. You know, to his credit, Hale made, I thought, some tough shots out there against Arizona, but at the end it's tougher to make that shot. They were trying to get inside. When you try to get it inside, then we're going to get our hands on some of them.

COACH BOEHEIM: I'm a big proponent of early seating tournaments. I can't believe anybody except someone who does not like football would want to have early season tournament. That's the only reason I could think we could -- would not have tournament, some wrong-minded person -- I wouldn't want to give them credit to have the second part of that. I think if we don't play in this tournament, we'll play Michigan State at Michigan, or they're going to come play Syracuse, in Syracuse, November 10. That ain't gonna happen. That won't happen, as long as I'm at Syracuse. I play them on a neutral court. It's fair for everybody. Plus it helps smaller schools. You think Ball State would have been able to play Kansas? They would have played them at Kansas with three big, 12 officials working the game. It's ludicrous that they're fighting this thing and this thing is going on. It's just absolutely nuts. It's the best thing that can happen for college basketball is these tournaments. We're on TV, a lot of publicity. We're getting a lot of people interested about basketball. The players get to play top-level Congress, smaller and big schools benefit. I'm sure Duke learned a lesson that first night. I didn't think they needed a learning, but I'm sure they learned something. These things are great. No question about that.

COACH BOEHEIM: I keep telling him you should get 30 every night. He's got 6, 9 guys playing him. He was active today. He did a great job. He's playing very well. He's confident and, in fact, some shots he missed, I think you know he can make, but he was terrific tonight.

COACH BOEHEIM: He's been trying to convince me for three years he should be playing. I think he's finally convinced me. He's finally got through to me, but I think he's effective because he's gotten tougher. I never thought he was tough enough in the beginning. He's gotten a little tougher. He's hanging in there, banging people, battling people a little harder. He's worked hard, really hard on his shooting. Every day he works hard on his shooting and he's become a pretty good shooter. His quickness, you know, he's benefited -- Preston didn't play well tonight. But Preston has been so effective that people have to help and change their defense. Michigan State, you'll never see people get layups on Michigan State because somebody is staying with Preston wherever he is. If he's going to the bathroom, there's somebody with him. With Deshaun it's just about as dangerous. When you have to play somebody that closely, it creates opening and layups. I think Craig is still trying to feel his way out there. He was open a few times, we didn't get him the ball. He made a couple of great passes, he's a great high-post player. I think we'll learn in time to take advantage of that, but, you know, Preston, Deshaun demands a lot of coverage; rightfully so. Tonight Preston was rushing a little bit, but he's difficult to guard because he's putting the ball on the floor much better now and he's going to the foul line. We got them in the foul trouble right away. That was a big part of the second half.

COACH BOEHEIM: He seems all right. I think it was those two turnovers he made what aggravated that ankle a little bit.

COACH BOEHEIM: He got an opportunity and he did all right, but we just decided to go with a smaller line up. As long as we can get a break-even on the boards, we're going to be better with the senior in there than a freshman. But he's getting better all the time in practice. These young guys are getting better, you know. It will take a while, though. They're not quite ready for this game.

COACH BOEHEIM: We try to go to the two guys. The third guy gets open. They don't have another to play him. Most teams, one or two. It's hard to find that third guy, especially when we push Kueth to the four spot. Now they have to have a big guy, or take their big guys out of the game. They don't want to do that. It disrupts what they're going to try to do. I always felt any good team, pro college, you've got to have three guys who can score. Can't win with two unless they're real big-time scorers. We're hoping as we go through the season it will develop a couple of other guys that can give us some points as well.

COACH BOEHEIM: They're both good teams. This tournament here, when you come here, you just say, well, let's not be the team to lose two. That's all you say. That's going to happen to a very good team, and you know, these teams are very good. Thank you.