Opening statement
“We were extremely excited in that locker room. Two years ago we came up here and they beat us. We made some mistakes, did some dumb things, but we also made some good basketball plays – getting the ball in the middle and going high-low.
“To win that game and get 84 points with Marcus [Paige] only getting three – if you had told me that before the game, I would have said we have no chance at winning. But he realized he wasn’t shooting the ball well and he had eight assists and was our best defensive player. Isaiah [Hicks] was big time for us, there’s no question about that. Five-for-five from the floor and 11-of-13 from the foul line.
I thought another big key for us in the second half was our rebounding. At halftime they had 11 points on second shots and we had six. At the end of the game, we had 15 and they had 13, so we held them to one basket on second-chance opportunities in the second half. The last six or seven minutes, other than Brice’s one turnover, I don’t think we turned it over any more times and got great shots against a very tough zone that’s hard for a lot of people to handle, including us at times.”
Can you talk about Brice Johnson’s eight assists and the high-low working with him?
“Well I watched their game with Clemson the other night and they were effective getting the ball inside. We did try to focus on getting it inside and we always try to keep one guy below the defense against a zone. We were able to get some good passes by Brice.
“Trevor [Cooney], I think he made some really tough shots. You have to congratulate them, but we went to the trap one possession and we deflected it out. Then he makes a three right over Marcus [Paige]. They’re hard to guard because (Michael) Gbinije and Cooney attack you so much, but it was a good day for us because some of their other guys didn’t make as many shots as they normally make. (Tyler)Roberson was really good as well, 5-for-5 himself.
How did Hicks’ and-one opportunity swing the momentum in the second half?
“Well, I think every possession is important, but what you don’t want to do is get behind two or three or four or five possessions. As long as you’re within a couple possessions I’m comfortable and I don’t look at the clock too much – that may have been the one in the locker room that they were talking about where it was 56-50, then we got a stop on the other end and came down and scored again.”
Can you talk about Coach Boeheim’s return?
“I was glad to see him back, no question. I think he gave their crowd a huge emotional lift, we were lucky the ball just went in for us. But when I saw that his first game back was going to be against the University of North Carolina, I wasn’t the happiest guy in the world, no question about that. He’s a great coach, a great person and he’s been great not just for Syracuse basketball, but he’s been great for the world of college basketball as a whole.”
Can you talk about the way your team closed the game out?
“I think our depth helps us because we can play fresh people. They played six guys over 20 minutes, we played nine or 10, so we think over the course of the game our depth will always help us down the stretch. Late, I decided to go with just Brice [Johnson] and Isaiah [Hicks] and we have not played them together over long stretches. I liked the lineup that we had in there. I was worried about Justin [Coleman], he had a temperature of 101.3. He didn’t go to pregame meal and didn’t go to shoot around. I watched him during warmups and asked him if he could go, he got his temperature down to 98.5 and was able to keep food down so he felt like he could go and he was nice for us as well.”
On Isaiah's athletic ability, strength and intensity around the basket
If you’re that big and can jump that high, you should do anything but dunk it when you’re that close. 5 for 5, I think he made one, he got an opportunity to get a three point play, but the other four were dunks. He’s probably our most creative dunker, but the strongest dunker is he and Brice.
On what does it mean about your first 4 and 0 start in the ACC
We are 4 - 0 with this years team that what it means. All that other stuff is nice and it make Kirsh something to do to make his living like that, bring up those kind of things. The players noticed it, they said something about it in the locker room and I didn’t realize it. It was the first time any of our teams have been 4 and 0, which is good. I like it!
On you talking about needing more toughness from this team
With the timeout around the seven minute mark, I said, we’ve been here before, let’s do it with our brain and our heart both. I think that’s what we did at Tallashaee the other night and I think that’s what happened to us tonight as well. Even when we would make a mistake, Trevor would knock in a big shot like he did over Marcus, we just kept playing. I think that’s an important quality to have and hopefully we’ll keep it the whole year.
On Kennedy giving you a good boost early tonight
Just what you said. He was able to do some things, scoring inside. With their lineup there at the end, made us want to go with two guys a little more quicker, a little more athletic defensively, but we’re glad to have Kennedy back. He’ll get some more minutes as long as he stays healthy. We just manage his minutes quite a bit for the next couple of weeks.
On what you’ve seen from Syracuse on film, did you see anything different tonight
With Jim coming back, I think it gave them a huge emotional lift, but you still have to be able to do things on the court. In the second half, we were, you know we shot 65% and we’re not bad ourselves. I’m not saying we’re the best by any means, they are good. They’ve gotten off to a rocky start here, I guess you could call it that. We still got to play them again and we’ll have to play our butts off when we get em the next time too.
“We were extremely excited in that locker room. Two years ago we came up here and they beat us. We made some mistakes, did some dumb things, but we also made some good basketball plays – getting the ball in the middle and going high-low.
“To win that game and get 84 points with Marcus [Paige] only getting three – if you had told me that before the game, I would have said we have no chance at winning. But he realized he wasn’t shooting the ball well and he had eight assists and was our best defensive player. Isaiah [Hicks] was big time for us, there’s no question about that. Five-for-five from the floor and 11-of-13 from the foul line.
I thought another big key for us in the second half was our rebounding. At halftime they had 11 points on second shots and we had six. At the end of the game, we had 15 and they had 13, so we held them to one basket on second-chance opportunities in the second half. The last six or seven minutes, other than Brice’s one turnover, I don’t think we turned it over any more times and got great shots against a very tough zone that’s hard for a lot of people to handle, including us at times.”
Can you talk about Brice Johnson’s eight assists and the high-low working with him?
“Well I watched their game with Clemson the other night and they were effective getting the ball inside. We did try to focus on getting it inside and we always try to keep one guy below the defense against a zone. We were able to get some good passes by Brice.
“Trevor [Cooney], I think he made some really tough shots. You have to congratulate them, but we went to the trap one possession and we deflected it out. Then he makes a three right over Marcus [Paige]. They’re hard to guard because (Michael) Gbinije and Cooney attack you so much, but it was a good day for us because some of their other guys didn’t make as many shots as they normally make. (Tyler)Roberson was really good as well, 5-for-5 himself.
How did Hicks’ and-one opportunity swing the momentum in the second half?
“Well, I think every possession is important, but what you don’t want to do is get behind two or three or four or five possessions. As long as you’re within a couple possessions I’m comfortable and I don’t look at the clock too much – that may have been the one in the locker room that they were talking about where it was 56-50, then we got a stop on the other end and came down and scored again.”
Can you talk about Coach Boeheim’s return?
“I was glad to see him back, no question. I think he gave their crowd a huge emotional lift, we were lucky the ball just went in for us. But when I saw that his first game back was going to be against the University of North Carolina, I wasn’t the happiest guy in the world, no question about that. He’s a great coach, a great person and he’s been great not just for Syracuse basketball, but he’s been great for the world of college basketball as a whole.”
Can you talk about the way your team closed the game out?
“I think our depth helps us because we can play fresh people. They played six guys over 20 minutes, we played nine or 10, so we think over the course of the game our depth will always help us down the stretch. Late, I decided to go with just Brice [Johnson] and Isaiah [Hicks] and we have not played them together over long stretches. I liked the lineup that we had in there. I was worried about Justin [Coleman], he had a temperature of 101.3. He didn’t go to pregame meal and didn’t go to shoot around. I watched him during warmups and asked him if he could go, he got his temperature down to 98.5 and was able to keep food down so he felt like he could go and he was nice for us as well.”
On Isaiah's athletic ability, strength and intensity around the basket
If you’re that big and can jump that high, you should do anything but dunk it when you’re that close. 5 for 5, I think he made one, he got an opportunity to get a three point play, but the other four were dunks. He’s probably our most creative dunker, but the strongest dunker is he and Brice.
On what does it mean about your first 4 and 0 start in the ACC
We are 4 - 0 with this years team that what it means. All that other stuff is nice and it make Kirsh something to do to make his living like that, bring up those kind of things. The players noticed it, they said something about it in the locker room and I didn’t realize it. It was the first time any of our teams have been 4 and 0, which is good. I like it!
On you talking about needing more toughness from this team
With the timeout around the seven minute mark, I said, we’ve been here before, let’s do it with our brain and our heart both. I think that’s what we did at Tallashaee the other night and I think that’s what happened to us tonight as well. Even when we would make a mistake, Trevor would knock in a big shot like he did over Marcus, we just kept playing. I think that’s an important quality to have and hopefully we’ll keep it the whole year.
On Kennedy giving you a good boost early tonight
Just what you said. He was able to do some things, scoring inside. With their lineup there at the end, made us want to go with two guys a little more quicker, a little more athletic defensively, but we’re glad to have Kennedy back. He’ll get some more minutes as long as he stays healthy. We just manage his minutes quite a bit for the next couple of weeks.
On what you’ve seen from Syracuse on film, did you see anything different tonight
With Jim coming back, I think it gave them a huge emotional lift, but you still have to be able to do things on the court. In the second half, we were, you know we shot 65% and we’re not bad ourselves. I’m not saying we’re the best by any means, they are good. They’ve gotten off to a rocky start here, I guess you could call it that. We still got to play them again and we’ll have to play our butts off when we get em the next time too.
