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DICK'S SPORTING GOODS NIT SEASON TIP-OFFNovember 25, 2011Jim BoeheimScoop JardineKris JosephNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY69 THE MODERATOR: Coach will make an opening and we'll go with questions for the players. JIM BOEHEIM: We played 40 minutes of improved defense. 35 minutes of horrendous offense. We played three or four minutes good full court pressure and got back in the game. But they really outplayed us the whole game. Our offense has been bad down here. The only way we're going to get better is to get our offense better and it looks to me like there's a lot of work to be done there. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the players? Q. Kris, it seemed like it was that lineup again, it was you, Melo, Waiters, Triche and Fair that did it again for you guys today. KRIS JOSEPH: You know, I guess we just went back to what was working yesterday down the stretch. That's the lineup we went with. It was working for us. So tonight we went with the same lineup. The results were the same. We played well. We played hard and we came up with the win. Q. You guys, both of you, seemed to struggle in the first half of both games down here. Is there anything you think led to that and picked it up in the second half? SCOOP JARDINE: Not really. We just got to come out with a better mental‑‑ we came out a little sluggish. Our defense is holding us in the game. Like Coach said, our offense is not clicking for us. We have to do a better job and continue to do what works for us, and that's driving the basket, and continuing trying to find each other. We're a young team. We have to work and get better. Q. It seemed like for most of the game you were struggling to get shots and then you got a couple of buckets in transition off a steal there; is that what you needed to get going? KRIS JOSEPH: It definitely got me going. We pressed and I got two baskets off of our press. From there, it's just all about heart for the whole team. Not just me. Dion scored first down the stretch, C.J., it was all about heart in those last six minutes of the game. Q. You know your defense is going to be there. How much of a luxury is it when the offense is struggling that you guys can turn on the defense? SCOOP JARDINE: We know with our zone if we play the right way, we have a chance to win every game. And our zone also allows us to get out in transition. I don't think anybody in the country is better than us in transition. We got steals that got us going. Like Kris, he got a couple of lay‑ups. Things that are going to help us is our defense and getting out in transition. That's easy baskets and it gets you on the offensive end. Q. There were five guys who had three steals or more in the game. What were you guys able to do to really disrupt their offense and cause a lot of turnovers? SCOOP JARDINE: Well, we‑‑ playing down here we kind of are extended a lot. They were killing us in the high post. Once we adapted to that, we kind of started taking away the high post. Once they were trying to pass out, that's how we got our steals and led to offensive passes and transition. KRIS JOSEPH: Down the stretch our press definitely helped us get a few steals. Making the right rotations while we were in our zone, you know, it helps us tremendously. Just because we know where the next pass is going to be going. If we can just get in that lane and anticipate that pass, then we'll get steals. That's what we did. Q. Scoop, can you talk about Fab Melo's play? SCOOP JARDINE: Fab has been awesome for us the whole year. He's controlling the paint. He's bringing energy. He's blocking shots. He's changing shots. He's just playing basketball. He's having fun with it. He's going to be a great force for us down low. We're going to have to do a better job of trying to find him ways to score. But he's doing a great job on the defensive end. We're going to need that all year. Q. You guys had more turnovers than you usually do. What do you attribute that to? Mistakes or the defense? SCOOP JARDINE: We weren't patient at all. If we would have calmed down and ran our sets and played Syracuse basketball, definitely a lot of turnovers would have been cut down. We have to be patient and trust in our offense and trust in each other and it will be better down the stretch. Q. Kris, when you guys were making that run, did you call glass on that shot, that turn‑around? KRIS JOSEPH: No. That's one of those‑‑ JIM BOEHEIM: Do you think their guy did on their three‑point? KRIS JOSEPH: That's what I was going to say. Your friends ask you, definitely. But I didn't call it. Q. What does it mean to you individually to be the outstanding player? KRIS JOSEPH: My teammates were able to get me involved. It's not just for me. I think we could all share that award. We all played great all ten guys who contributed to these two wins. If I could cut it up and share it with my teammates, I would. We all played outstanding, I feel like. Not just me. Q. Scoop, Coach said all season, there's no set minutes with anybody. It's kind of on the flow of the game. What has your mindset been like the last couple of games watching you guys pull it out in the end? SCOOP JARDINE: Just win. JIM BOEHEIM: We're going to try to win and we're going to put the combinations out there that we think are going to help us. Scoop was very, very good offensively to start the second half really. He had a couple of threes. Made a couple of good plays. He made a couple of bad turnovers. He needed a little rest. We went back with the two guards that obviously played so well together last night. We got James a little opportunity there. He got two good looks. He'll make those shots in time. Baye would have played more. He just couldn't stop fouling people. We're going to try to get the best combination out there and some games it might be six or seven‑‑ six guys. Some games it might be nine or ten. We'll have to wait and see and give you all something to second‑guess me for. Kind of fun. I would like to give Stanford a lot of credit. Two teams in a row that have really‑‑ don't get hurt. Another turnover. (Laughter). I think the two teams we played here have been very, very good teams for us to play against. They've used the shot clock, which is what we're going to see. And moved the ball. They had a good plan of attack. They brought the shooter in. We knew he hasn't played this year but we knew he could shoot based on last year. We went out on him and he still made it. He made two corner threes. I haven't seen a big guy shoot since (Kevin) Pittsnogle was at West Virginia. First time he shot in the corner, I was thinking it was a good shot. It was for them, not for us. He can shoot the ball out there. I thought that both teams we played really attacked us really well and I'm happy that our defense held up. Now we've just got to get our offense better. Q. Coach, you really hadn't had to use the full court press this season. From watching it in practice this year, did you expect it to be this effective when you used it? JIM BOEHEIM: No, not really. But we practice it every day, and we're hopeful that it will help us in some situations. That was the difference in the game. Without the pressure, we wouldn't have won. We couldn't have won. They were taking 35 seconds with five or four minutes to go. You're down 7, you can't catch up. So, that was the difference in the ballgame. Q. Coach, foul trouble for Baye and for Fab. Such a big thing for you guys last year. Baye got into tremendous foul trouble early on. How big was it that Fab stayed out of it? JIM BOEHEIM: He did a great job. I think‑‑ Baye's fouls are borderline calls. They were‑‑ a couple of them were very, very borderline calls. They were letting so much go, I thought he got a couple of bad whistles. That's the good thing about having two guys. It's going to be rare when they both get in big foul trouble. You still have ten fouls there. Baye could have still come back. He could still play in the game. I'm not concerned about that. Q. Coach, you've been talking about how Kris is coming along. Two games in this tournament he's played very well. He played very well down the stretch today. Where do you think he's at and how do you think he played down the stretch? JIM BOEHEIM: I think he did the things we need to win. I don't think he still has the game he needed. He charged a couple of times. He has to make better decisions going to the basket. We want him to go to the basket but we have to stop and drop it off and make a play there, not be overcommitted to the basket. But I don't think he's close to shape. He's got some work to do to get to where we would like to see him get condition‑wise. But he's a very good player, and I envision him getting better as he goes along. And I envision our younger players getting better. Dion and C.J. Fair and Baye and Fab are sophomores. They're still young players. They're key guys for us. Those four guys are really key guys for us. Obviously two of them are playing‑‑ three of them are playing starter's minutes of the four guys. So we're playing those young guys, and they have to be good for us. As we go along, we should get better. We need to get better. So I hope we do. Q. Coach, that lineup of Kris, Triche, Dion, Melo and Fair, Kris talked about it before, you guys did it again today; what is it about that lineup? JIM BOEHEIM: That's our best offensive lineup right now. You have the two best guards offensively. Obviously Kris our best offensive player and C.J. Fair is a very good offensive player. That's our best offensive team. And they're pretty good on defense too. Scoop played real good tonight, really well, really did a good job. And that's important. We need him to play well for us to be effective. Q. Jim, are you guys where you thought you would be? Are you surprised or is this what you expected right now? JIM BOEHEIM: I think the one thing I will say in defense of my team, because I killed them in the locker room at halftime and after the game still, we had four easy games, and I just don't think it prepared us. We just weren't prepared coming down here for somebody to be‑‑ move the ball. I think our defense actually held up, which is good. But nobody that we played could defend us at all. We could just make a pass and go. We just didn't play anybody that could defend us. Both these teams, I give them a ton of credit. I think they're pretty solid defensive teams. They can switch, they got a lot of things that they can do. And the one thing we're not doing is we're not taking advantage of the offensive boards. We didn't rebound very well again tonight. I think we've got to rebound a little bit better. But offensively I'm disappointed where we are right now. We're not very good offensively right now. We're not making some threes that we need to make. And we're‑‑ this is our first bad turnover game. Just some really bad turnovers in transition. We had two on ones, three on twos and didn't even get a shot. That's not good. Q. Coach, talk about the potential of a back court as the season goes along. JIM BOEHEIM: I think our back court is good. I think they can get better. I think they can get a lot better. We got three veteran guys that are good. They have been in there. They have all had big games. They're all capable. I think Michael could help us if he listened to the coach a little better. Q. Stanford big men had their way getting behind the zone, crashing the offensive boards pretty effectively; is that a concern heading forward? JIM BOEHEIM: I think they did a good job in the boards. In the zone you're going to give up some offensive rebounds. But I think that's fairly normal. We're extending. We're guarding the three‑point line. That opens up some rebounding opportunities. And they did a good job getting in there and getting some of those. Even if you play man‑to‑man, you usually give up 11, 12 offensive rebounds anyway. That's part of the game. You have to accept that. Q. Do you anticipate Fab will be able to come in and have this big of an impact? JIM BOEHEIM: Two years ago? Q. After the season he had last year. JIM BOEHEIM: I knew he was in better shape watching him practice. We knew he was going to be better. He still gets a little tired. I think he's going to be really good. He's not there yet. But he's getting better. Q. Jim, when people talk about a player's improvement, a lot of time they focus on the offense. Can you talk about what Fab‑‑ JIM BOEHEIM: He couldn't get to play defense. If you're not there, you can't play much defense. He's there now. He made the one block that was an unbelievable block on the dunk. That was a major shot block effort there. But he discourages people in there, and he's only going to get better. People forget that he didn't play in Brazil. He played that other game with the round little ball. He came here and sat out here, he played one year of high school. So he really is a very, very young basketball player right now. Q. Coach, the schedule eases up now a little bit over the next few weeks. JIM BOEHEIM: Florida is easy, huh? That's good. Tell Billy that. I'll tell Billy you said that. Q. Outside of Florida. JIM BOEHEIM: Oh, outside of Florida. Outside of Florida and North Carolina State you mean? Okay. Q. At least in some of the non‑conference games going on. JIM BOEHEIM: Okay. Q. Some of those things you're going to work on a little differently, prepare for the Floridas and NC States, the faster‑paced games? JIM BOEHEIM: We're going to prepare for everybody and try to work to get better. You never know when you play in these non‑conference games, there are some people on our schedule that people don't respect too much that are pretty good teams. We tried to schedule St. Louis and they backed out of the game. I'm glad they did now. It doesn't matter. We're playing teams. Marshall can beat anybody‑‑ we're playing several of those games that people can play. But I'm not concerned in the non‑conference games about that. I'm concerned about how we're playing, how we're executing, and we can work on that every day in practice and we can work on it in games. We just have to learn from these two games down here. This was a great learning experience. We had to go to the wall‑‑ go right to the end to win both these games, and I think we‑‑ there's ample opportunity to learn from these games down here. And that's why we play these games. There's no question we get support here the Garden. We always have. And that's a great thing. And when we get our press going, I'm sure that helped us. But you still have to make the plays. You have to go and make the plays. And we did that when we had to. We've got a lot of games to go, and a lot of opportunities to get better. We need to get better. There's no question about that. These games were really good for us. We have a whole bunch of games in November and December that are going to be good for us and help us to get better. Thanks. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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