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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: BUFFALOMarch 21, 2014Jim BoeheimC.J. FairBaye Moussa KeitaBUFFALO, NEW YORK THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Syracuse student‑athletes C.J. Fair and Baye Moussa Keita. Guys, congrats. We'll take questions for them at this time. Q. Dayton, a lot of guys, a lot of different faces you're going to have to match up with. What's the preparation been like so far? C.J. FAIR: You know, today in practice we're going to go over a lot of the tendencies against the zone. We know they've got a lot of different players that can do multiple things. Dayton is a tough matchup, but we're going to prepare as much as possible for the game tomorrow. BAYE MOUSSA KEITA: Dayton is a tough matchup. We see them play a little bit at the end of regulation against Baylor in Maui, but we didn't have a chance to watch them play the whole entire tournament. We've got to go through their offense and see the faces we're going to match up to tomorrow. Q. I know you guys have the game a little bit out of hand in the second half. You guys got some rest. Does that really affect you guys going into tomorrow playing a team that plays 10, 11 guys when you guys are only playing 7, sometimes 8? BAYE MOUSSA KEITA: I think that doesn't make a difference because we're just going to go ahead and play our game. It doesn't matter if they play 9, 10, guys, and we play 7 or 6. I think everyone is going to play their game, play the hardest we can. I think we're just going to play smart and just play the game. C.J. FAIR: Yeah, they have their style. We have our style. They rotate a lot of guys in and out frequently. For us, we play our starters the majority of the game. But it's been effective that way. So I don't see no problem with it. Q. Baye, we've seen you and Trevor get in a lot of foul trouble in the latter part of the problem. How do you guys fix that problem? Why do you think that's happening? BAYE MOUSSA KEITA: Foul trouble, we play as hard as we can. Every foul we have, we're going to use it and put the guys on the line if we can. Everybody thinks about, Oh, you're getting in foul trouble, you're getting in foul trouble. We're just going to play the game. We don't go into the game thinking we're going to get in foul trouble. We just play the game. Every game you're going to have inside presence somehow. So we're just going to go ahead and play the game and not worry about the foul trouble. If you worry about it, you're not going to play to the best of your ability. Q. If you're getting three or four, you're not thinking, Oh, I'm going to get my fifth, you just play the same way? BAYE MOUSSA KEITA: It's kind of a little bit tough if I'm out and Rak has four fouls and Jerami might be in playing center. But if that's what we have to do, we're going to do it. Q. C.J. and Baye, as seniors, how do you help the younger guys prepare for playing two games in three days on this kind of stage since you've been through it before? C.J. FAIR: I mean, it's tournament time really. We don't really need to say much. Everyone in the locker room wants to win. You know, we have some experience in the beginning of our season where we was in Hawaii, and we played three games three days in a row. So coming into this tournament, it's not a lot of time to get rest, but everyone is going to be eager to play. BAYE MOUSSA KEITA: We started out the season going to Canada and played three tough games there. After that, go to Maui and play three other tough games. Been playing all the tough games throughout the season. The guys, like I said, they're mentally ready, and they know it's tournament time. There's not a lot of things to say. They know everybody in the locker room is ready to play and get your rest. I think everybody got their rest, and we're just going to go ahead and play the game. Q. Dayton talked about the importance of getting some easy baskets against you guys. Just what is the key for you guys to being so good at limiting, being in transition, defense in transition? C.J. FAIR: We do a good job of getting back. Since we play zone, we can just run back to our area. We don't want them to penetrate our area. We don't want them to penetrate the zone. So our guards do a good job of stopping the fast break. By the time that happens, our forwards are back, and we can regroup from there. BAYE MOUSSA KEITA: Same thing, we play zone. So getting back, it isn't going to be a challenge because everybody know exactly where they have to be. Coming down the floor, I know I have to be right in the middle. I don't have to worry about it. If that was man‑to‑man, we'd have to worry about who we're guarding. The guards are going to stop and take out our defense. So we put our defense in and just help. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, guys, for your time. Good luck tomorrow. With Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim. We'll just take questions at this time. Q. Jim, you're probably sick of this, but UConn, Villanova, you, three of the last four teams. I even thought Providence might have got here. It's a little bit like a Big East reunion for you. COACH BOEHEIM: I've only looked at Dayton, so I can't help you with that one. They're good teams. Not surprising that they're here and playing. Q. So you are sick about hearing about the Big East? COACH BOEHEIM: Not really. I just don't think about it anymore. You've got to move on. It's like you don't ask questions about someone's ex‑wife, do you? There's a good reason for that. You can only get in trouble with answering that question, if you're married again. Q. Jim, everybody talks about pace, and they talked about liking to go and liking to run and trying to do it their best. Is that something you try to dictate in a game like that? How do you adjust that to what they like to do? COACH BOEHEIM: You know, if teams are going to hold the ball for the whole shot clock, which we see sometimes, it's hard to get in a running game. You're not going to probably be able to in those situations. You try to run when you can. But it is difficult. Teams that play a little bit faster, then I think you can get up and down a little bit better. But really, the pace of the game is dictated by whoever has the basketball. You know, basically, that's the way it is. Q. Coach, what's it going to be like to see Allen Griffin on the other sideline? COACH BOEHEIM: I'm not looking at Allen, don't worry. I know someplace on him he's got something orange. It's not going to be in view, but his heart will be for sure. He's a great kid, a great Syracuse kid. He's as good as we've ever had. He's a great, great kid. Q. He said afterwards you guys are going to meet, and he's going to give you a big hug. Looking forward to that? COACH BOEHEIM: We'll see what happens. Q. When you see what just happened to Duke, does that remind you of how sudden things can happen at this time? Do you feel for Coach K? COACH BOEHEIM: Yeah, I watched the game, I watched almost the whole game. Honestly, it's probably the only team in the country I haven't seen play this year. I don't know how I missed them. Just watching them play, I thought they were a better team. I didn't think this was like Duke playing bad or anything like that. Whoever is playing Mercer is in trouble. That's what I think. Inside guard play, big guys. I just think they're just a really good team. In this tournament, when you lose to a really good team, it can happen any time, and that's just the way it is. That's the way this tournament is. It can happen any time to any team in this tournament. It's as simple as that. You watch those games last night, and it was just a thread as to who was going to be playing and who was going to be going home. That's what makes the tournament great. It makes it heartbreaking for the teams that don't quite get there. It's one play. It's one shot. One missed free throw. That's what it is. It's very, very difficult. Q. Jim, at this portion of the tournament on the second day of the weekend, how hard is that turnaround in terms of preparation and scouting? COACH BOEHEIM: You know I don't watch much tape, so it's not much difference to me. I don't mind. It's the same for everybody. You got to get your team ready. As long as it's the same for everybody, it's fine. Q. During the month the tournament is going on and you're in it, how much do you watch of other games? If you do, do you watch as a fan? Do you watch as a coach? COACH BOEHEIM: I watch all the games. I always do. I always have. You only think so much about your game. You've got to get that done. We have our scouting report. We haven't talked to the players yet about Dayton. If you ask them a question about Dayton, I don't know what they'll do because we haven't done that yet. We'll do that today at practice. We think Dayton's terrific. We happen to see them play in person in Hawaii three times. So we know how good they are before we ever got here. But I watch all the games. Go out to dinner. We'll get ready for tomorrow night. Q. You had an early start yesterday, late start tomorrow. Do you have a preference? Does it make a difference? COACH BOEHEIM: I kind of like the 4:00 game where you're not too early, not too late. It's fine. Whatever, you know. It's good. 7:00's fine. I'm good with that. Q. Coach, with some schools it's a celebration of getting in the tournament, some winning a game. You guys have won so much. Sweet 16 has been a place you've been a lot. Not that people won't be excited, but that celebration if you were to win tomorrow, that some schools obviously would have more than maybe yours, because you've put this team in this position so many times? COACH BOEHEIM: Yeah, I mean, everybody has different expectations and different, you know, goals or where they want to go. It's just the way it kind of is. My feeling is if we play well, whatever that game is, and if we lose, we lose. You might not play well. That's just the way this tournament is. There's no predicting it. There was no predicting that we would play the way we played yesterday. I thought that would be a difficult game coming into it. Things just went right for us, and the game changed quickly early. The one thing, as you get old like I am, you know it's going to be disappointing if you lose. You just have to learn to live with it. I'm not sure I've quite learned that yet, but I'm optimistic that at some point in time I might learn how to deal with it better. But I don't know if you ever do. Probably never do learn how to. That's the nature of this tournament. It's just such a great, great tournament. It really is. But it's such a real kind of false indication of what you are. I remember when we won, we were 18 points down to Oklahoma State, and it was like one of those games you think, Well, let's try not to get beat by 30 here. We came back and won. That was the biggest scare we had in the tournament. You just never know. We could be out in that game and not able to go on and do what you did. Q. Jim, I just wonder what you know about Archie Miller, real young coach. COACH BOEHEIM: I've known him a long time. I saw him on the Tonight Show when he was 6 (smiling). He's a great coach. I think he's done a great coaching job. I said earlier in the year when we saw him, you know, you watch teams on TV, get a certain feel, but when you watch them in person, like we did in Maui, which you can't do anymore. You can't scout people anymore, but we watched him over there because of the tournament. I'm just impressed with how hard his team plays, how they play together. Just a really, really well‑coached team. He's done a tremendous job coaching that team. Q. Jim, do you have any theories on shooters, why they get on streaks, off streaks? Why a guy like Cooney is suddenly making them? COACH BOEHEIM: The thing about shooters, I like the ones that don't think much, or maybe can't think much is even a better description, because they just forget things. They forget what happened or what didn't happen. They just get the next shot. And the best shooters, those are the guys. They want that shot, they're going to take it, and they don't think about anything except getting that shot up there, and they think they're going to make every one. That's what the great ones do. They just get in that mode. You know, there's not really a lot of great shooters. I mean, guys like Reggie Miller. If he gets ten shots, on a bad night he's going to make four, and on a good night, he's going to make seven. There aren't many guys like that. There's very, very few like that can really shoot the basketball that way. Like I watched Kevin Durant and Carmelo during the Olympics, these guys make 18, 19 out of 23 in shooting drills. College kids, if they make 10, we call them great shooters. These guys make 19 out of 20 like 10 times. If Kevin Durant makes 15 out of 20, well, look at the ball because there's something wrong with the ball there. That's just not right. But those guys, they go up. They believe they're going to make every shot. The worst thing is when the shooter starts thinking about it, and some shooters, you'll see them change their shot a little bit, try to aim it a little bit. Those guys are never going to be good. You've got to get set. You've got to take the same shot every time. That's really the key to being a great shooter. You watch the great shooters, they shoot the same shot every time. Too many guys don't. They're moving. They're sliding. Too many different things. Trevor's a really good shooter, and I'm confident that when we get him good shots, he's going to make them. I'm very confident in that until the game's over and he doesn't. Thanks. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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