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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: CLEVELAND

March 18, 2011

Kris Joseph

CLEVELAND, OHIO

Syracuse Â– 77
Indiana State - 60

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim and student-athletes Scoop Jardine and Kris Joseph. Coach, an opening statement.
COACH BOEHEIM: Well, I thought when we drew the game that this would be a difficult game. And it was a lot -- very difficult. We played as well as we could in the first half offensively. Ricky didn't miss a free throw, and we're up eight points at halftime.
So I knew this thing was going to be tough. And it was. They're a very difficult team to play against. They're very well coached. They move the ball. They have a lot of guys that can shoot.
I thought in the second half our defense got a little bit better when we needed it to. And we got some turnovers and got a couple of easy baskets.
But it's a very difficult game, and it could be even tougher. They had a couple go in and out when it was a ten-point game. But we made some good plays coming down the stretch when we needed to.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Scoop, I'm wondering if you can comment about the way Rick played tonight. Obviously the idea was to get the ball inside to him. Could you talk about the way he played?
SCOOP JARDINE: Rick's been playing strong for us all year. We wanted to establish it early and get the ball into him, and Coach said they didn't have nobody that could guard him, so we wanted to emphasize just getting the ball in to him. And he delivered for us. And like Coach said, he made his foul shots, which made it even easier for us to get it down there to him.

Q. Scoop, could you talk about the perimeter defense in the second half? And in the first half they were like six of 13 from outside and then second half they were one for eight.
SCOOP JARDINE: Like Coach said, that's a difficult team to really play against. In the beginning of the game they kept getting the ball inside and kicking it out.
And we adapted to it. Their point guard is very crafty off the bounce, and he was getting it in there. But the thing about it, he didn't want to shoot it at first. We made him shoot the ball, and that's kind of how we got them to play our type of basketball.

Q. Scoop, how is the wrist? What happened on that play?
SCOOP JARDINE: The wrist is fine. I just fell hard on it. It kind of numbed up on me. But it's fine. I should be okay.

Q. Kris, you had ten rebounds tonight. It's probably one of your better rebounding games the whole year. Could you talk about what was going on there tonight?
KRIS JOSEPH: They're a smaller team, so we could really pound the glass. I just found some spots. I tried to emphasize crashing the boards. Coach Boeheim and Coach Fine really emphasized just doing that, because we had the advantage and we just used it to the best of our abilities and we got rebounds.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach.

Q. How about C.J.'s play tonight? He did a lot of good things for you?
COACH BOEHEIM: You almost don't notice it until you get the stat sheet. He made a huge play when it was four. We were trying to go to Ricky and they came back off C.J., and really he made a very difficult drive and got a bank shot in there when it was down to four.
And I think that was kind of the play. We got six, then we got a steal and got eight, to ten. But that I thought was a huge, huge play. But he's been good all year. He just does what he does. He gets in the right spots, and he's a very good basketball player.

Q. What did you think of the way they attacked your zone early on? Seemed like they were getting the ball in the middle and getting it out.
COACH BOEHEIM: Well, we play our zone in a variety of ways. And we tried to -- we recognized that guy was only coming in there to pass, but we didn't get out a couple times in the first half and they hit a couple of open ones. But the second half we made that guy score or try to score and we were able to cover the shooters better.
So I thought the players made a really good adjustment there. We let Ricky handle the middle, and he's very experienced and he understands what has to be done in there. I thought he did a great job in there and enabled our other players to spread out a little bit more and get some pressure on their shooters.
And that was the big difference in the two halves. But, I mean, defensively we had a solid game. Offensively I thought we played very well. And we needed to play very well.

Q. You're no stranger to later games. But how difficult is it to wait around all day and start this late? And should any team in this basketball tournament be playing a game at 12:40?
COACH BOEHEIM: It's pretty tough. I think the players are fine. It's me. I didn't get -- I stayed in bed the whole day. I didn't even think about getting up. I didn't even get up -- I did have to get up a couple times. But if I hadn't had to, I wouldn't have.
And it's late. I mean, we played late last year. I mean, I guess it's gotta happen. I don't know the exact logistics of everything. But once you get past the 9:00 starting time, I think you'd like to see that be the last. I don't know when we finally did start tonight.
I don't think the players mind. We practiced Monday and Tuesday at 10:00 just to, whether it helped, I don't know. Probably didn't help much. But we did practice those two days just to get a feeling for what it's like.
But I think the players are okay with it, really. I don't think we've got too many guys go to bed at 9:00. Indiana State, they may have a couple of guys, but I don't think we've got too many guys who go to bed early.
So it's just part of the tournament. They have a lot of teams. Maybe they can juggle it a little bit to get it a little bit earlier, but it is -- when you're in the tournament, you should be happy. I'm happy we're in the tournament, we're still in the tournament.

Q. What did you think of Dion's play tonight?
COACH BOEHEIM: Why is it always one of our guys that asks these questions? I don't know, what did you think about him? I'll leave that one up to you. He didn't make one shot that was important.
If we were on a plus/minus system like hockey is, though, it wouldn't be pretty.

Q. Speaking of not pretty, Brandon struggles but you stuck with him, and late in the game he hit a line drive 3 that was pretty important.
COACH BOEHEIM: He hit a big 3. In fact, we set it up for him coming out. We were going to go inside to Ricky and he just got wide open and took it. You know, we need Brandon to play the way he can play. I just don't think he realizes what he can do yet, even though I think he should by now.
He's really a good player, really good player. I think he's one of the better guards in our league, and we need him to play that way.

Q. Is it a good thing, bad thing, not really matter that you're playing a league opponent so early in the tournament?
COACH BOEHEIM: I think it's a bad thing. I'm sure there's some reason for it that both us and Connecticut and Cincinnati and Marquette were playing. I guess it's something that probably had to be, I guess. Although, when you look at things you see where it wouldn't necessarily have to be that way, but it is.
And it's just what it is. I like to play other teams when we get to the NCAA, to tell you the truth. But it's what it is. We've got to get ready to play. Marquette's very good. They beat us early this year at their place and they played very well.
And they had us down quite a bit. And we made a comeback to get back in it. But we were down the whole game. I think Marquette's a very, very good basketball team, and I know Xavier is. They won like 17 out of 18 games or something like that. And Marquette had -- I watched the game back in the locker room, when I wanted to try to stay awake, so I watched the whole game in there. And Marquette's very good.
I really think they have a tremendous basketball team.

Q. That loss against Marquette came in late January. Is there anything different about the way your team's playing now?
COACH BOEHEIM: I hope so. I hope so. I hope we're playing better. I hope we play better. We'll need to play a lot better than we played in that game.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

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