NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 30, 1996

Jim Boeheim

Todd Burgan

Jason Cipolla

Otis Hill

Lazarus Sims

John Wallace

COACH BOEHEIM: Thank you. I think that Otis was so key in the first half. We were struggling a little bit offensively. I thought Otis kept us in there. At the end of the half we tried to trap a little bit. We had to do something to turn them over without going full court, and we used the half court trap. And we were pretty effective with that. We knew they were going to hurt us on the boards. We took care of the ball as well as we have ever. The second half I thought the game turned and when they went to the zone with the three point spread, we got it to John and he did it. Otis was there the first half and John and Todd in the second half. And John's been there all year for us. The zone was good, but it helped that they made -- people don't realize but when you make three's against a zone sometimes it's the best thing that can happen for you. And that's what happened in this game. These kids just did a great job. And I'm very proud of them.

TODD BURGAN: The coaches all week have been telling me that free throws are a mental state. During practice I tried to slow down and focus on making it, not -- blocking everything else out, just me and the basket. And I think I did a good job today of doing that.

JOHN WALLACE: It was in the nature of the game. It was all in good fun, no hostility or anything like that, just part of the game.

JOHN WALLACE: That's really all. It was just a matter of -- I kind of played for the turn around jump shot. And I knew he was going to try that shot and I just tried to get up and get as good D as possible and came right back down on them. And it kind of set the tone at that time of the game. We tied and had that big three. Otis played well, Jason played well, he had the big three, and Lazarus played good the whole game.

JASON CIPOLLA: At my play they were looking for a fast break. I was going to call a time out and I knew I wasn't going to go out of bounds and I just got it kicked out for three.

OTIS HILL: He stepped back and I got around him and got a handle on the ball. And that's something we as a team have been doing, John and myself and J.B.. We kind of front the guy and when he leans back, we step around him with an entry pass in the air.

OTIS HILL: I wasn't surprised. John and the coaches talked to me and said go right at them; don't change anything you've been doing all year, just go right by them to the basket. And luckily all the shots were falling. It kind of slowed me down the second half, they double teamed John and myself. And John and Todd stepped up.

LAZARUS SIMS: No, I don't remember actually who I was throwing it to. There were so many people that were supporting us in the stands and they've been there all along. I was trying to show a little appreciation back.

JASON CIPOLLA: First half I was really trying to shoot the ball. And I wanted to keep my rhythm and stay focused. The phone thing, I was reaching out and telling them I was going to the final to the championship game.

JOHN WALLACE: I've been telling you that from the beginning, this is not a one-man team. Everyone contributes at different times in the game. I might take more shots than anybody else, but for the most part we all get great looks. We all look for each other. Somebody else has got to pick it up sometimes, and they did a great job tonight. Everybody that played tonight for Syracuse did a great job.

LAZARUS SIMS: It was very important. The turnovers set the tone. I wasn't really focusing on who was making the turnovers and how I wasn't making the turnovers. I was trying to get the ball to the right people. And cause a little distraction in their game. And we did that with the help of Jason and Todd and John. It wasn't just me, it was the extra little things to cause those turnovers.

JOHN WALLACE: We've been the underdog since the tournament started. That has no effect on us. We don't care about that type of stuff. They're going out there, we play the same type of game we played, it's anybody's game. We don't care what the spread is or who thinks we're not going to win. As long as we think we're going to win, that's all that matters, not anything else.

COACH BOEHEIM: I'll answer that one question, sometimes when you're playing zone defense and a team makes a couple of outside shots they think it's going to be easy. They think they can make the three's, and sometimes they take more three's than maybe they would like to in that situation, where they miss some early, then they maybe try to pound it inside and attack it inside a little more, that's all. But sometimes it can work either way. Sometimes if they make them, they keep making them, just really depends on the flow of the game.

COACH BOEHEIM: We didn't get a real good shot when we switched the first time, but we wanted to take a time out, it was an eight point game down to, I think, three. We wanted to really be patient and have Z penetrate, and we were going to Jason, but he found Todd, and sometimes when you -- that's coaching, you know. The wrong guy and he made the shot, which means it was the right guy, I guess. The second time we had a real good sequence and moved it and got John the ball and he made a tough shot. The zone switch was a difficult one for us. When you don't play against the zone the whole game, that switch there can be a bothersome thing. When it was eight they got two offensive rebounds and that's how they got back to the three. So that was a huge basket. If Todd, I think, doesn't make that three, the game probably goes down to the wire. But that was just one of those huge baskets. And then Jason's play, you know, that really was -- that was the game when he made that play.

COACH BOEHEIM: I'm not sure. I thought they made some bad turnovers early. I don't think they were turnovers we caused early. Several of their turnovers, they were just bad turnovers. It wasn't our defense. But when Dampier caught the ball, we just wanted him to either make a shot or pass, whatever he wanted to do. We didn't want to let him get close to the basket, we wanted him to take the in-between shots. And the same thing with Walters, although he got in and made a couple. Early we weren't identifying the shooters, and later we started identifying the shooters. The trapping sequence was important for us at the end of the first half. They had their young guard in, we wanted to go after him a little bit and that was important. But the turnovers, we don't normally turnover a lot half court. We're usually pretty good there. And tonight we were obviously a little bit better than pretty good. But that's really what we needed. The way they hurt us on the boards we had to create disparity. The turnover differential was about 16 or 17 or something like that. So the rebounding thing doesn't matter as much.

COACH BOEHEIM: It's been the seniors, I think, and the overall chemistry on the team. They get along real well together, the bench guys, I think they've really helped us. But the seniors, the two seniors have been good all year long. You have to remember back that we started out after Arizona had won the NIT, the preseason NIT and beat some real good people, and we went into their home court where I think they lost one non-league game in whatever period of time and won very easily. That was an indication of maybe how good we could be. And then we came back from Hawaii, whether it was the travel and having to go to West Virginia and Connecticut and Georgetown back-to-back to back, that's a tough road trip, especially after coming back. But even through all that we played pretty good. We had one bad game, and that was Georgetown. And they can do that to a lot of people down there. But then we righted ourselves and finished the season very well. So I'm -- I said to somebody the other night I'm not that surprised by the way we've gone in this tournament. We should have been able to get past the first couple of teams, and then we played a great -- we had a great finish against Georgia, a game that could go either way. And again, it's amazing how basketball, you really can't figure. Three weeks ago this team, Mississippi State beat Georgia by, what, 18 or 20 points? It's hard to figure the game. I know you guys are real smart, but it's hard to figure this game sometimes. I can't figure it out, I've been in it a long time.

COACH BOEHEIM: You never know. I thought we played well in the Big East tournament. I thought we came out of it playing pretty good. But we've stepped it up in the tournament, obviously, and I don't understand the tournament exactly. Villanova, the year they won, we had beaten them about a week before the regular season ended by 22. And they went to Pittsburgh and lost by 20. And they lost in the Big East tournament and won the National Championship. It's hard to figure this game out. As much as you'd like to figure it out and figure you've got an idea, I don't know if any of us have figured this game out yet.

COACH BOEHEIM: Whether you sneak in or not when you go to the Final Four it doesn't matter how you get there, if some teams drop dead on you and you get here you're here. We had to overcome probably the toughest situation in the tournament that I can remember to get by Georgia in terms of what had to happen at the end of the Georgia game. I mean it was -- I don't remember too many situations in this tournament where a team's done something like that, not only in regulation, but then in the overtime to be able to do that. And then we played a very good Kansas team. Every game we played we've been against the home crowd. It's been -- in New Mexico the underdog, Drexel got the support, Kansas had the support, and today we had some. That was good. That was really nice. These kids play hard. They play together. They look for each other. And they're not afraid to step up. Todd Burgan, as everybody knows, has been struggling, he missed the three in the first half. I talked to him. And he said I can make the shot. And I said I guess you can. And he made the big one. That's what we try to do at Syracuse is let the players play the game. It's his shot. If he doesn't take that three against their zone we may not win the game. And that's what we try to do, let the players play the game. And he stepped up big tonight. And you knew they were going right after him to follow him when the thing turned into that situation. It was great to see him go to the line and make those two free throws, I felt good for him.