Transcript: Jim Boeheim Recaps Win Over Boston College

After Syracuse's 75-67 win over Boston College, head coach Jim Boeheim discussed the victory.

OPENING STATEMENT

"I thought Boston College really did a great job today. They have a smaller ball handling team," Boeheim said. "They did a great job of moving the ball. Really getting the ball in some tough places. I thought the second half we did a little better job defensively in terms of our defense and in terms of contesting their three point shooters. They made some threes and they did some great things against us. Defensively, they pressured us really hard. Quincy didn't get going early. He's got to get going. Second half he got going on the boards. We've got a little bit of an advantage there and we've got to be able to get it to him. Marek started slow and just couldn't finish anything. In the second half he got to the basket and finished and we got to the foul line. Joe saved us in the first half. He was tremendous. He just kept us in the game. We would have been behind eight or ten points at halftime if it wasn't for Joe. In the second half, he got the ball to people. I thought he did a great job of getting the ball to people and moving the basketball. Kadary, defensively really struggled. It doesn't show, I mean he was 3-6.

"But he was -11 when he was in the game because he didn't make his rotations and they got two open threes on his side. End of game, he gave them an open three. Little things that we need to do better. This was a case of Boston College really doing a great job and we didn't do the things we have to do. I was watching Florida State just before the game and Wake Forest was beating them the whole game. Ended up I think they beat them, Florida State won in overtime. That's college basketball. You're going to get into games and you've got to find ways to get through them somehow. You've just got to find a way. We made our free throws coming down the stretch and we got the ball to the basket and made some plays there. We finally got some defensive stops and got the rebound. We made some plays when we had to. It's just one of those games where you have to figure out a way to get to the end and win it. They did that."

WHY DID YOU CALL TIMEOUT WITH 12:18 TO GO?

"Quincy, we wanted to get him isolated. He can beat that guy on the dribble. They're in foul trouble, get to the basket and he settled for a step back. He hasn't made a jump shot in the game, it's not the right play. Then Kadary came down and we wanted to open where he can drive like he did against NC State and he takes a jump shot. That's not going to win the game. You've got to win the game, not take a jump shot. That's not the play to make in that situation. You have to go to the basket. We got Marek the ball, he got to the basket, got fouled, got to the basket again. Quincy got to the basket. That was the difference. You've got to do what you have to do to win the game. Kadary's got a lot to learn about the game. Defensively, it was really bad. The forward will get blamed for the jump shots that he gave up because that's how they do the analytics. That's why the analytics are totally useless. You have to know whose rotation it is and nobody doing the analytics knows that. He's got to make those rotations. You just leave guys wide open to shoot jump shots they're going to make them. We just got to do better. I thought Alan had a good start, then he tried to go when he didn't have it. He's still trying to learn when he's going and doesn't have it, what do I do? He needs to make better decisions when he makes the move and doesn't have something. It's a learning process and it's going to take some time. He's learning, he's trying to learn what we're doing."

WHAT HAS MADE THIS TEAM SO AFFECTIVE AT THE FREE THROW LINE?

"We have guys that are good shooters. Marek has really worked hard on his shooting. He's a tremendous free throw shooter. He can't take it out to the three point line. He changes his shot a little bit. But he's a tremendous free throw shooter and he gets fouled a lot. Obviously we know that Buddy and Joe and Alan are really good shooters. That's a strength of our team. We need to drive and get to the foul line. There's been a couple games, at Clemson we tried that and they didn't call anything. We didn't shoot any free throws. That's what we're trying to do because we have good free throw shooters. We want to get to the basket and try to get some of those."

WHERE DO YOU FEEL THIS TEAM IS HEADING INTO THE STRETCH RUN?

"We're up and down. We've got a lot of things that have to go right for us to win. These guys have tried all year. They're trying to do things. They're trying to learn. We've played a lot better. We were more aggressive in our traps in the North Carolina State game so we forced more turnovers. Here we weren't quite as aggressive in our traps so we didn't get as many turnovers. That was the takeaway from North Carolina State, it was our trapping and getting steals that won the game because they shot it well, all their percentages were good. We forced the turnovers and that was the difference in that game. We're among the league leaders in turnovers and steals. That helps us. With our rebounding, we were ok on the boards today. They had a smaller team in there. I thought we should've been able to rebound better on the offensive end than we did. I think we were guilty of trying to shoot jump shots and try win the game that way. That's not the way to do it. Again, the first half, Quincy was off his game, Kadary was off his game, Marek was probably one of the worst offensive halves he's had this year. Joe just carried us. He just put us on his shoulders and carried us in the first half. He was tremendous. In the second half, he looked for people and got them to ball and really didn't look to score because we were looking to get it inside and get to the foul line. He had a tremendous game."

WHERE DO YOU THINK YOUR TEAM IS WITH FIVE GAMES REMAINING?

"We've played pretty similarly. We came off a really good game at NC State. We've been up and down a little bit. We have to get great movement, we have to get great shots and we have to knock down some shots to be successful. These guys are doing everything they can to get there. We have to play a lot better down the stretch than we did today to be able to win."

WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN OUT OF THE RESERVE CENTERS?

"He (Frank) hasn't played. He hasn't been ready. John had a few practices, we changed the way we're defending the post so John is a little bit better than the bigger guys at covering corners. Doing some things. He just can't get involved in this altercation down there. Somebody pushed Alan, then he got back then John got, it was foolish. You've got to walk away. We should've had a technical and that should've been the end of it. Alan and John engaged in that instead of walking away. That was a mistake and they have to learn from it. John gives us a little better presence on the defensive end in covering things. He's had good practices. Robert's had good practices. Robert tried to do things today that he shouldn't try to do. Dribbling the ball and he charged twice. That's not his game. He should not do that. But he wants to help and he's trying to help but that's not the right away to help. When Kadary goes in, we're giving him the ball and the freedom to go. We want him to go and get to the basket. That's what we need from him. When he does that he's really good. It makes up for the defensive errors. He is great at steals. He's tremendous. But that's five percent of defense. Ninety five percent of defense is the coverage, where you're covering and where the three point shooter is that you're responsible for. Not only did he give them threes that they made, he also gave them two or three threes, wide open threes, that they missed. Good shooting teams aren't going to miss those.

"This was a very subpar defensive game for us. That's just what it is. Boston College has a lot of pride. We went up there and we played the best we played all year and got way ahead. They've got a lot of pride. They've got guys that are going to work really hard. They played really hard, they played smart, they did a lot of really good things against us. You have to give them credit for what they did. They were really good. They did a tremendous job. This is not easy. This is not an easy game. You're not just going to go out there and win. I thought we weren't sufficiently engaged in the first half defensively and on the boards. When you're not moving defensively and giving people shots, they're going to make them. Second half we were much better for the first part of the half. At the end of the game we slipped a little. Left a guy open, fouled a guy when you don't need to foul. You have to get the win in these games and we did the things you have to do to win the game. We shot it good from the free throw line, we shot good percentages from three and from the two. We did the things you have to do to win the game."

WHY FEWER THREE POINT ATTEMPTS THIS TIME AGAINST BOSTON COLLEGE?

"I thought they did a great job defending. We had to drive. They didn't give us any open looks out there. When they played the zone a little bit, they gave us some open looks early and we made them. Then they went back and pressured. Played man. Switched everything. They weren't giving us threes, so now you have to drive. The game dictates what you do. I don't dictate what we do. It's the game and how teams play you. The best way for us to win this game was to get to the basket. That's what Marek did and that's what Quincy did in the second half and that was the difference. Up at Boston College, they didn't defend us. They didn't have a good defensive game. They let us have open looks, open threes. They were a completely different defensive team today. I thought they played well against Wake Forest the other day. Now they got a couple more guys back. Even though they're small, they really get into you. So it's hard. Really pretty good defenders. The best way to beat them is to get it inside. That's not a strength of our team, unfortunately. The only way we can get it there is to drive it. That's what we started to do."

THOUGHTS ON THE POTENTIAL FOR FANS IN THE DOME?

"First of all we have 30,000 seats. I don't think there should've ever been a time this year that we didn't have 10 or 20 percent of our fans in the building. I don't understand that. They're doing it all over the country. That I don't understand. You can space people out at least 10 feet and if it's a family pod or something. But you can space people out 10 feet just to get them in the building. Just so they can come in the building. People would maybe have better seats would be happy to be in the building for a game. I don't understand it. I've never understood it. I've never understood the whole thing with restaurants. It makes absolutely no sense to me. Eighty percent of this horrible disease is groups of people. Group gatherings of people. Close contact. Not 10 feet apart sitting at the Carrier Dome. I don't understand it and I have never understood it. We'll do the best we can, hopefully. Two thousand fans is not going to make a difference but it would be nice for two or three or four thousand of our fans to be able to see a game. It would be good for them, I think. It would be nice. But that's something I haven't understood from day one, but I'm not in charge.

"We make the best of the situation. The players have been great. They've taken care of themselves. They've isolated themselves. They have done everything they've been asked to do. Obviously even though this is a difficult year, we're doing the only thing that we can do. Try to work our way through it. I don't know the exact percentages but I think they've played 70% of the games that were scheduled. Some number. Don't hold me to that, Mike. It's a good number. There is no alternative. There was never an alternative other than doing what they Ivy League is doing, not playing. To my knowledge, 1,500, 2,000 basketball players that have had covid, they're all back playing and healthy. We just have get through this as best we can and that's what the players are doing. That's what everybody's doing. Hopefully we can finish up the year and get to a conclusion. That's all you can do in this time. We'll try to have a happy Valentine's Day and get ready to play on Wednesday."