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NCAA MEN'S REGIONALS SEMIFINALS & FINALS: BOSTONMarch 24, 2012Jim BoeheimScoop JardineKris JosephBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS Ohio State – 77 COACH BOEHEIM: You know, I thought we fought as hard as we have all year, just like we do every game. I thought our defense was good. I thought that‑‑ I just thought we lost a little offensive patience in the first half. I thought we forced some shots in some situations when we should have been a little bit more patient. I think our offense just hurt us tonight. Our offense has been really good the last two games. I just thought tonight we just weren't as patient as we've been on the offensive end of the court. We got (Jared) Sullinger in foul trouble early and we didn't take advantage of it. You know when he comes back in he's going to be difficult, and he was, but I thought the first half it got away from us. We got 10 down, we made an unbelievable comeback, got it to 1. All year we've been able to make a play in that situation, and we just didn't. But I give Ohio State a ton of credit. They played really, really well. They've got a great basketball team, and they deserved to win. Q. For both players, I know it's tough right now, but when you have threes, looks at threes that you've been hitting all year long and yet you're in a game where you're going to get rewarded for going to the basket, is it hard to keep it in mind to pass up those threes? SCOOP JARDINE: We're going to play the way we've been playing all year, and I was very confident in our guys that had the threes was able to make them and that's how we got back in the game from being ten down. Brandon (Triche) made a couple big threes that opened the game for us, and we attacked the basket, as well, just missed some chippy lay‑ups. Like coach said, tonight wasn't really our night on the offensive end, but I think we done a great job of sticking with it. That's what we've done all year, and that's why it hurts so much, because you're playing with a group of guys that you worked so hard all year to get to this moment and everybody knows the goals, and it just hurts because we just came up short. The loss hurts, but me not playing with these guys for the rest of my life is going to hurt even more. These are like my brothers, and we came up short today, but for the most part I think we had a great season. COACH BOEHEIM: We didn't take that many threes. We took the normal amount of threes actually, probably less than normal. Q. Kris, would you describe Sullinger's effect on the game the second half from the big guy's point of view? KRIS JOSEPH: He played hard. He was attacking the basket. He was getting positioned down low, and when you were guarding a big body like Sullinger's it was tough for anyone to do something. Either he's going to get fouled or he'll have a chance to score two points. Our bigs did as good a job as they could have against him. He made some tough shots, and he's a great player. Q. Kris, Scoop (Jardine) just there was talking about how not playing with these guys anymore hurts almost or maybe more than the loss does. This is the end of your career, as well. Are you able to describe what it's like right now? KRIS JOSEPH: (Nodding head) It's tough. It's real tough knowing that my career is over and that I won't play with these guys again. Q. For Scoop, obviously the referees called a very tight game that seemed to affect it a lot. Ohio State went to the line 42 times, made 13 of 14 in the last minute. How did that‑‑ the way the game was called, affect you guys, do you believe? SCOOP JARDINE: First of all, I want to give Ohio State a lot of credit. They won the game. Without the referees they played a good game, and that's all I've got to say about that. We're not going to blame it on the refs. I think we had a chance to win the game no matter what, with the refs or without them giving us any calls. So for the most part, I want to give Ohio State credit and congratulate them on going to the Final Four. Q. Can you just explain what was your thinking by not playing Scoop for the last four minutes? COACH BOEHEIM: Dion Waiters has been our best offensive player this year. Brandon Triche had two threes in a row. He hasn't played in the last seven, eight, ten minutes of several games this year. It's fairly, absolutely normal. The only reason Dion didn't get back, he had four fouls and I didn't get him back in there because Brandon hit the two threes and Scoop got the two drives, but I wanted to get Dion in there for the last few minutes. Q. The whistles, how much did it just hurt the flow of the game? COACH BOEHEIM: No comment. Q. You said that you guys weren't able to take advantage with Sullinger on the bench in the first half. What exactly was it that prevented you from doing so? COACH BOEHEIM: As I said, I think we took a couple bad pull‑up jumpers. We should probably have tried to get there at that time, tried to get there. But I just don't think we had good movement, as good as we've had this year, in that 10, 12 minutes at the end of the first half. Ohio State is a very good defensive team with or without Sulli. They might be better without him because you can get some pick‑and‑roll stuff when he's in there because he doesn't step up. That's how Scoop got those lay‑ups in there. But we just didn't play well offensively in that time period. I don't think we took too many threes. We took our‑‑ we actually shot 6 of 16 from the three. The three‑point wasn't the problem. I thought Kris (Joseph) had a tough night in the first half. He just couldn't get going, and he's a big key for us. He just really couldn't get anything going. But I thought a couple lost opportunities in the first half, and second half we did‑‑ Sullinger is a very difficult match down there. I thought we did some good things with him and probably did enough. We got back into the game, and when we got it to one, they made a three and we made a three, and we just couldn't quite make a play. This was going to be an even game no matter what, and we just got it to one, and we really just couldn't make a play. But these guys, they fight every play all year, and we actually almost had a chance at the end. We needed one basket there when it was four, and we just couldn't get it. You know, they played as hard as you can play, and that's all you can ask from them as a coach. We're going to get hurt on the boards. We got hurt a little bit on the boards. That's something that's happened every game. But we just weren't efficient enough in the first half offensively. We just weren't. Q. Did you get an explanation for why you received a technical foul? COACH BOEHEIM: No. First one in about three years, I think. Q. Were they about as effective as any team you've seen operating inside the zone under the basket with those two? COACH BOEHEIM: No, I thought defense wasn't the problem tonight. Our defense was not the problem. I mean, they shot 40 percent, 30 percent from the three. No, that wasn't the problem. Our defense wasn't the problem. Our offense was the problem. And I guess we fouled them too many times. Q. Can you talk about Aaron Craft and his disruptive presence just playing tight D? COACH BOEHEIM: He's a good player. He's a real good player. You know, he didn't bother us.  He had one steal. We had all‑‑ Scoop got to the basket. We got things we wanted to get there. But he's a very smart player. He really gets the ball to people. But Sullinger and (Deshaun) Thomas are tremendous players. (Lenzelle) Smith hit the big shot against us when we cut it to one, and end of the shot clock he hit a pretty tough three. But Smith really over‑‑ for the game I thought we did a good job with everybody except for him. Q. You just touched on it a little bit, but if you could expand, Smith, how much do you know about him, and did you know‑‑ was that a surprise? COACH BOEHEIM: No, he's a good player. He's a very good player. He played‑‑ he had a big game tonight for them. Q. You said all year long that this team would go as far as the seniors took it and you had your defense running nine years. Is there any way you can reflect on those guys? COACH BOEHEIM: Well, they've been great. They've won more games in these four years than anybody in a senior class we've ever had. These last two years they've been great starting, and they've been good leaders. They've really done everything you could ask from them, really. There's nothing you could ask out of those guys. They played‑‑ they had the best year this year Syracuse has had in the Big East Conference, which is always tough. And it was just as tough this year as it's ever been. And we hadn't beaten Louisville in seven games, and we beat them twice and they're in the Final Four, so they must be pretty good. We had never beat Connecticut three times; we did that. We won on their campus, which we've never done. We won 17 games, which we've never done in the Big East. Only one other school ever has. They've just had an unbelievable career, really, these guys. I don't think you can give them enough credit for what Scoop and Kris have done. Q. You mentioned Sullinger and Thomas as tremendous players. Once they got both of them back in the game together in the second half, what was the biggest problem they gave you? COACH BOEHEIM: Well, you know, Sullinger is just too difficult down low. We've got two freshmen and a sophomore that weighs 200 pounds, and they're at a big disadvantage. I thought they did all right. They hung in there against him. He's going to score. We know he's going to score some points. I thought they really battled him pretty good. I think that we wanted to go at him early and try to get him in foul trouble, and the second half we still kept trying to go at him, and he wasn't coming over to help so we could get some lay‑ups, get some easy shots. But he's very good in the low post. He's an all‑American. He's the best low post player in the country. I think we did all right with him. We had to play better on offense. We've had‑‑ coming off two games, Wisconsin is a very good defensive team, one of the best defensive teams in the Big Ten. We shot 55 percent for the game. Kansas State is one of the best defensive teams in the Big 12, and we shot 50 something percent against them. I just thought we could have gotten some better shots in the first half. I thought the second half we did. We shot 48 percent in the second half. I think the first half, the 10 for 28 just wasn't good enough. We needed to do a better job in the first half offensively, and we just‑‑ that's where I think we lost the game. We needed to be in a better position at the end of the half. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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