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EA SPORTS MAUI INVITATIONALNovember 27, 2013Jim BoeheimTrevor CooneyC.J. FairLAHAINA, HAWAII Syracuse – 74  THE MODERATOR: We have Coach Boeheim, C.J. Fair, Trevor Cooney in for postgame press conference. Coach, you can open up with some comments. COACH BOEHEIM: I thought the difference is we finally got our defense going after they made those first four threes, we got our defense going. We were much better with the shooters. They really shoot the ball well from the perimeter, and we did a much better job against that. But, you know, the key was offense. Our offense has been really good here. C.J. got us off to a great start, and then Jerami had a great stretch, and then the last four plays, and the new play we put in for this tournament, I guess we'll keep it in there. It worked pretty good. C.J. got some good looks, and we had to keep scoring. They were making a run, and they're really a good rebounding team. We were spread out to watch their three‑point shooters, can they were getting in the lane. We forced them to miss, but they tipped them in. So they're a good team. A really good team. I think this was a great tournament for us, particularly our young guards. I think it was very helpful for them, and figuring out, you know, how to make plays three nights in a row. So this was a really good tournament for us. THE MODERATOR: Syracuse has a 9‑0 record at the EA Sports Maui Invitational now, having won championships in 1991, '98 and now 2013. C.J. Fair was the tournament MVP with 24 points in the final game. We'll open it up for questions for Coach and players. Q. C.J., you played all but four minutes of your team's total minutes played. So how do you feel now? C.J. FAIR: I'm still in the moment. So I'm good. Tomorrow at practice it's going to really hit me. Q. Coach, is there a secret to doing well here, as Palmer said, 9‑0? COACH BOEHEIM: Yeah, we just played well here. We beat Indiana in the finals first two times, really good Indiana teams, and we beat a really good Baylor team. This was a struggle for us. In Minnesota we were two points up with, I think, less than two or three minutes to go and the game was in the balance. C.J. made a runner in the lane that really got us the win. Then Cal was really difficult and we shot made crazy shots, really difficult shots and got the lead. And our defense was better tonight. But normally it's our defense, but it's hard in this gym. People are going to score here. You're not going to score here. We did as good a job as we can reasonably expect to do against their offense. Q. C.J., how do you feel you matched the intensity level that Baylor brought into tonight's game? C.J. FAIR: I mean, we knew coming into this game they were going to be a physical team and they like to pedal the backboards. The main thing we just had to compete with them, and when we did get the ball, we had to push it for the fast break because they sent a lot of guys to the boards. Q. Coach, would you like to bring another of your teams out here again in the future? COACH BOEHEIM: I've retired from Maui; that's what I will tell you. I'm very happy to go into the sunset. The next time I come to Maui, I'll have my golf clubs. I did not have this time. But I'm going to go outside tomorrow morning on the beach for the first time. Q. C.J., you hit a lot of big buckets down the stretch. So did you just want the ball basically in crunch time? C.J. FAIR: I mean, yeah. I knew that the team was looking upon me to make plays, and once I seen a couple of my jumpers go in, that kind of gave me confidence and teammates confidence to keep getting me open and finding me, and it was a team effort from there. And coach kept running the play, and we were doing basically one play the last ten minutes, but we had different options off of it. And I think all the options kind of worked. Q. Trevor, Coach said this tournament was good for you and Tyler. In what ways do you think this tournament helped you two? TREVOR COONEY: Being young guards that we are playing against three really good teams and three different teams, every night was different for us. Every team was different, and all three were great challenges for us. And I thought we stepped it up every night and brought it. I thought that was great for us. Q. Trevor, how do you feel you transitioned from each game providing points for Syracuse? TREVOR COONEY: I just kept moving on offense. When I'm moving, I feel like our offense is moving. If guys are going to take me away, take my shot away, it's going to get a lot easier for my teammates, and that's what I've got to keep doing. THE MODERATOR: Coach Boeheim, maybe you can make a few closing comments about the trip to Maui? COACH BOEHEIM: Well, it's a great trip, obviously. Unfortunately, right now I'm thinking about Indiana; I'm not thinking about this anymore. So I really can't‑‑ I never enjoy these things for very long. But we wanted to get into a tournament this year, and we do every year. We want to play in a tournament that's going to test us. And usually you get an easy game in a tournament; we had four ridiculously difficult games, and the most difficult one was the first one before we even got to Maui. We barely escaped with that first game. Every game here has been difficult. I think, again, that's good for our team. I think we've grown a lot, we've learned a lot, and we've seen a lot of things that we can improve on. But it's been a great trip and certainly it's a beautiful place. I'll try to enjoy it tomorrow morning before we go home. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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