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BIG EAST CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 8, 2006Jim BoeheimGerry McNamaraTerrence RobertsNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK COACH JIM BOEHEIM: Two games we played with Cincinnati; we dominated them in the second half, they dominated us. Today was an opportunity to see who could get it done. I thought for about 34 minutes we played as well as we played, and, you know, we just didn't do a good job defensively against White. He made some great shots. But, you know, we made a couple bad mistakes at the end of the game, and fortunately Gerry corrected them. That's about the way it went. THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Gerry, as far as big shots go, how would you rank that shot? GERRY MCNAMARA: Well, I think this, with the situation we're in, under the circumstances, this is probably the most important to me right now. Under the circumstances, this is the most important shot that I've hit. In the situation we're in, we're fighting and trying to battle for every game, we needed this one. There was no doubt about it. You know, I'm just happy it went in. We're going to have a tough game tomorrow. Connecticut is a great team. You have to tip your hat to Cincinnati because we controlled the game for a lot of that. And the four- or five-minute stretch, they put us, you know, against the wall. They really did. You know, I just hit a shot. You know, that could have gone either way. Then Muhhamad almost makes the next one. That's how the game went. Pretty evenly-matched teams. COACH JIM BOEHEIM: It was close. Q. Their comeback, was it something they did better? COACH JIM BOEHEIM: Well, White got open. They moved the ball better. The biggest problem is we stopped scoring. We missed some plays, we missed a couple layups. You know, we're not going to shut them out. We just stopped scoring for two, three minutes. Our defense, I thought, was better. Our defense has struggled all year, but it was much better today. But having breakdowns and making mistakes, it's cost us all year. For a while tonight, our defense was really good. I really thought even though we had a couple breakdowns on defense, we stopped scoring for two, three, four minutes there, and, you know, that hurt us. But I thought the good thing about us offensively is we got everybody involved today. When they doubled, we were able to get the ball to Terrence. Terrence made plays, which we haven't done. Mooky (phonetic spelling) finished inside. It was really the best balance that we've had all year long. That was probably the difference, the balance. Q. Coach, it seemed like you were telling them to be patient. Was that a problem? COACH JIM BOEHEIM: Were they? Yeah, they found James White and, you know, made a foul-line play. He was the guy. He had a tremendous game. We couldn't do anything with him the whole game really. Q. Gerry, on that last point when you get the in-bounds pass, what are you thinking? Are you thinking you're going to take the shot? Are you thinking it's going to be a three? GERRY MCNAMARA: I wanted to take what I got. Muhhamad did a pretty good job of shielding me and forcing me in the lane. Terrence ran up for the screen. When I went back against the grain, they hedged. All I had was to split it. You know, if I'm gonna take a runner, I'm not gonna step on the line. I made sure I was behind the line. Plus, there wasn't much time. You know, I knew the clock situation, and, you know, I wouldn't have gotten a layup. So I took the three. I knew I was taking a three at that point, so, you know. If I had a layup opportunity, I would have taken it. COACH JIM BOEHEIM: We knew they had another foul to give, that's why I didn't take the time-out. I was hoping that Gerry could get it and go before they could stop and say, "Hey." They still had one more foul to give and then there would have been no time left. I thought we were better having Gerry try to go and make a play. Q. Coach, can you talk about Darryl Watkins. He had a career high today. COACH JIM BOEHEIM: I think Mooky is just starting. He's a junior. I think all of our Juniors are in a position where they're just -- this year is the first year they've had responsibility to carry us. I think it's just taking them -- they haven't had that responsibility. They didn't have it as sophomores, they didn't have it as freshmen even to be factors. I think that it's been a hard year for them to understand they've got to be the guys. Today is really the first day that I thought all of the three front line guys were involved in the game, all three. We've had one, two maybe; we haven't had all three. You know, Gerry has been very consistent for us all year, his whole career. I have to laugh a little bit when our own paper is calling him, our own student newspaper is calling him "overrated." They actually listened to a couple assistant coaches who I guarantee you will never be head coaches if they think Gerry McNamara is overrated. Of course our paper won't print that anyway because that's -- you know, somebody said it. Without Gerry McNamara, we wouldn't have won 10 fuckin' games this year. Okay, not ten. The other guys just aren't ready. They needed him. Without him there, not ten. We wouldn't be here to even have a chance to play this game. And everybody's talking to me and writing about Gerry McNamara being overrated? That's the most bullshit thing I've seen in 30 years - and especially if it comes from our people in our papers. But they're quoted from somebody else, an anonymous assistant coach. Let the assistant coach come up to me and say, "Gerry McNamara is overrated." I'd like to see one of those guys come up to me and say that. He's been double-teamed every game this year, and the coaches voted him First Team All-Conference. The head coaches, they don't know shit, I guess. Q. That's a hard one to follow up on. COACH JIM BOEHEIM: Is there a fine for that (laughter)? THE MODERATOR: I don't think so. Q. How many times did you play this game when you were a kid, Gerry, dreaming of this being the last shot, probably the last shot of your Syracuse career? GERRY MCNAMARA: Well... COACH JIM BOEHEIM: Come on! GERRY MCNAMARA: Every kid does. Every kid dreams of making a shot. I'm not worried about it. This game's over with. I'm glad I made it. More importantly, we won the game. That's really all that matters here. We move on and we need to. I think that's the most important thing to realize. We need to win. You know, we're fighting, and hopefully we can get another one. If we're going to do it, we have to do it against probably the best team in the country. Q. Gerry, do you remember the shot that you took prior to that last shot? COACH JIM BOEHEIM: The little air ball. GERRY MCNAMARA: Well, that little air ball I guess doesn't really mean anything now, does it? Q. Terrence, can you talk about Mooky today and his performance. He had a career high 15. Is this one of his better games? TERRENCE ROBERTS: I definitely think it was one of his better games. I think all our guys did a great job of driving, penetrating to the basket and getting open looks. He did a great job of finishing. We were working on that all this week and before the game, stuff like that. I just told the guys before the game, We just got to be able to get out there and finish, be strong. I think we all did a good job of that throughout the night. Q. Can you talk about what Gerry has meant to the team this season. TERRENCE ROBERTS: Like Coach said, without him, we probably wouldn't have won 10 games. He's been our backbone this year. He's carried us. He's helped me and all the other juniors come out here and slowly mature. Without him, we wouldn't even be here. Q. Coach, if I told you coming in you'd turn the ball over 22 times, do you think you'd win? COACH JIM BOEHEIM: You know, they're a gambling pressure team. Eric just got a little careless a couple times. When we attacked their trap, we got layups. So, you know, when your team gambles, you got to make them pay. One of the reasons that Mooky and Terrence got those layups is because they were extending their defense. We just didn't handle it as well as I think we could have. But you're going to turn over a little bit against a team that extends like that. We're still, you know, making some mistakes, some unforced mistakes that cost you. They would have cost us tonight. We can't take the ball in bounds when they go ahead. I mean, that kind of a mistake, you know, you shouldn't probably be able to win, if you make a mistake like that. You can't inbound the ball. Gerry is standing there wide open, and Eric, who we don't tend to take the ball inbounds to anyway, is covered, and we try to throw the ball to him. That's just an unforced error that you just can't make, those kind of mistakes. But Cincinnati is a veteran team. They have three really good seniors that have won a lot of games, they've been in a lot of situations. You know, they made 17 turnovers, 17. I mean, first game in a tournament, sometimes you make some mistakes. That happens. You have to play through them, basically. Q. Jim, what kind of balance did you show tonight? How much better prepared are you for Connecticut? COACH JIM BOEHEIM: Connecticut is a great team. I've said it from the beginning of the year. Jim keeps telling me not to say it. They're a great team. There's no way to hide it, you know. We were not in either game when we played them. You know, we just have to get ready and be ready to play. I mean, anything can happen in college basketball. It happens all the time. West Virginia women's team lost eight straight games and beat Rutgers by 20 points. Anything can happen. That's just the way it is in tournament play. You know, we just have to be ready and go out and play. Q. Jim, you said patience on offense was the key. COACH JIM BOEHEIM: It's more than that. That's just one part of it. You know, you have to be patient. You have to make good plays. You have to battle. The first game we battled them on the boards remarkably. But the second game, they just dominated us on the boards. But, you know, we were not in either game, and, you know, we just have to turn that completely around. Sometimes you play a team and you're battling them. You're in there. You have to look back and say, "Well, we could have done this or that." But we played Cincinnati two, three weeks ago and they beat us by 20 points. So you don't know in college basketball. It's a funny game. THE MODERATOR: Syracuse, thank you.
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