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NIT SEASON TIP-OFF

November 21, 2007

Jim Boeheim

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

JIM BOEHEIM: I thought Ohio State did a tremendous job tonight, really at both ends of the court. I thought we did a good job. We were patient, we got the ball inside, and we just didn't do it consistently. We just tried to rush some things. I think a couple of our young guys tried to do a little bit too much, but this is a learning experience for them. We knew coming down here that we've got a lot of things to learn about our team, and I think tonight we did some good things but we really made some very bad turnovers early. We were a little impatient against their zone, and I don't think we attacked it as well as we need to on a consistent basis.
I thought we had some -- we didn't shoot the ball well. Our guards did not shoot the ball well, and that's always going to factor in. But I thought Butler really controlled the game. He played like a senior and he hit the open shots when he got them. I thought he really was good, and (Kosta) Koufos was really good inside. He's a really good player, really good offensive player.
But again, I thought Ohio State played very well. We did some good things but some things that we've certainly got to do a lot better.
Questions?

Q. Is a game like this to be expected from a young team like yours?
JIM BOEHEIM: Well, I think, again, Eric and Jonny, our good three-point shooters, they didn't shoot the ball well tonight. Eric is a veteran player. He had good looks and he didn't make any shots, and that was part of it. We made some bad turnovers in the first half, too.

Q. They had a couple of nice possessions where they were able to go high low. Do you feel like you're still searching defensively?
JIM BOEHEIM: Well, we were playing both defenses because neither one is that good, really. We started out in the zone and just didn't really get any coverage at all and they made a couple threes, and the same thing happened against Fordham. We've got to do better.
Then our man was, at best, spotty.
The possessions that we played fairly well defensively, we forced a couple of bad shots but didn't get the rebound, especially starting the second half we had an opportunity I thought, and they missed a couple and we didn't get the defensive rebound.
I think that -- I know our guards will certainly shoot better. Jonny has played very steady, he just had a bad game. He had one of those games that you're going to have sometimes when you're a young player.

Q. You guys missed 20 threes today. Do you think that NBA three-point line had anything to do with that, forcing some shots?
JIM BOEHEIM: Yeah, it must have been too big. It must have been getting in our way.
When lines on the court have something to do with what you're doing, you've got real problems.

Q. Did you expect them to play the three-two and sort of extend out there to your shooters?
JIM BOEHEIM: Yeah, that's all they played in the first two games. They didn't play anything else. We got good shots. I think we weren't patient enough to get it inside enough. When we did get it in there something good happened. You know, we just -- I don't think we were consistent enough in getting the ball in there, and when we did get the three-point -- Jonny had real good looks. He was six for seven the first game, shooting 50 percent from the three-point line for three games, and he had wide open. His threes were completely wide open. There was no contest in any of them. And all of Eric's, except for I think one, were shots that he would normally take.

Q. Do you think being in Madison Square Garden had anything effect on the young players playing, particularly Jonny Flynn?
JIM BOEHEIM: I didn't take psychology courses in college, so I don't know. I cannot answer that. I'm not qualified to answer that question. It didn't seem to bother Koufos at all.

Q. You said you learned some things after tonight's game?
JIM BOEHEIM: I said I hope we learned some things.

Q. What type of things do you think the players learned?
JIM BOEHEIM: At every phase of the game we can't make turnovers, we've got to execute on offense, we got to execute better on defense, we've got to get to our shooters better on offense, in our man-to-man got to do a better job in pick-and-roll situations, and the shot clock situations. I don't think we did a good job defensively. There's a list of things.
But we felt the same way in our first three games, there were a list of things that we could do better. The fact that we won those games doesn't really change anything. We needed to do things better. I think sometimes players when they win, they tend to think that everything is all right, and when they lose then they realize there's some things we have to do better. That's why we hope these kinds of games, coming in here and playing against Washington, these games will help get us to understand what we have to do better. That's how you learn. You have to take some bumps, some bruises. We have six first-year players, and they've never played in the Garden. Arinze didn't play here. Eric has played here and Paul has played here and that's it. It's a new experience for our guys as well as for Ohio State.
I thought their senior point guard, like I said, he was the difference in the ballgame tonight, played really well.

Q. Do you feel like -- I mean, the quality you play obviously gets so much better by the time you get into February and March --
JIM BOEHEIM: Hopefully.

Q. Do you feel like the No. 21 ranking was deserved?
JIM BOEHEIM: Well, you know, this is just stuff that people do. I mean, the voting, who knows what's deserved? There's no way of telling at this stage of the season who's 21 or 41 or 61. It's just something that people do. People vote, I vote, and then you try to pick the best teams. Three or four teams dropped out that will probably be back in, and some teams are in that shouldn't be, and there's some really good teams in there. Ohio State is without any question a top 25 team. At this stage of the year, you really can't tell, and you really can't tell for a while as far as who really is there and deserves to be there.
As everybody knows in college basketball, the top 25 really is -- there's the top 50 or 60 teams, and I don't think there's any difference between 50 and 24, really. It's just -- you can't vote for 50 teams, so you do the best you can, pick the best 25 teams you can pick. But it's a very, very hard call as to where those teams fit in there, and you really don't know -- it'll be difficult all year. It will be very difficult to figure out where people are before it's all over.

Q. You said you thought Butler was the difference?
JIM BOEHEIM: Well, he was so steady, hit his shots, and he was very steady and running the club. I just thought that a veteran senior point guard, I thought he was really good tonight. Obviously I thought their team played well. It wasn't just him but the two big guys played very well. You know, I just think that he was really steady, and he hit four big threes.

Q. Thad talked about making some adjustments in their zone after maybe the first five, ten minutes of the game. What gave you trouble?
JIM BOEHEIM: I think we were just a little too impatient. I think when we were patient we got the ball inside just fine. I don't think we were quite patient enough. There was pressure in the perimeter and it leaves a gap in the middle and you've got to get it in there and you've got to penetrate. We're not quite as good in the middle of that zone as we'd like to be right now. We need to get better there.
We just weren't patient enough. Early in the year that can happen, and there's not that many teams that play match-up. We probably won't see a zone defense in our league this year. It just depends on who you're playing against.
When we were patient we got some pretty good looks, and we got some good looks from the three-point line that I would take, and we just didn't knock them down.

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