Rutger's Game Quotes

Syracuse Quotes


Jim Boeheim

On who's making plays

“This team’s made plays when games have been close late,” “Veteran guys make plays. Everybody’s said all along ‘OK who’s going to make plays?’ We got a lot of guys who makes plays. I think that’s going to be a good thing. It has been a good thing for us and that’s why where we’re at — different guys can make plays.”

On what he didn't like

``For such a good job as we did on those guys, the game really shouldn't have gotten like it was,'' ``It was too many second shots and we didn't do a good job on Biruta inside. That was really disappointing.''

On the offense

``We played pretty well against Connecticut, but in four of the last five games, we haven't been very good on offense, either movement or shooting,'' ``We've got a lot of guys who can make plays. That's a good thing for us.'' “I don’t think we’re playing the way we have to,. “I thought at the beginning of the year we had some really good [offensive] movement in games. We really, I thought, were playing a lot better, particularly on offense.”

On defensive rebounding

“We’ve just gotta get back in there and get a couple of those,” “We play good defense for 35 seconds, they take a tough shot, miss and we don’t get it back. And then we’ve got to play defense for another 30 seconds.”

On Scoop

“Scoop made big plays down the stretch,. “That’s what you would hope from a senior guard. He’s been doing that all year.”

On KJo's big 3 and Melo's two FT's

"I thought those were two big plays," "Then Scoop. The rest was Scoop."

On CJ

"C.J. was great in the first half," "He was unbelievable in the first half."

On Dion

“I think Dion’s struggling a little bit,” “He kind of got going at the end of Connecticut, but he really hasn’t been shooting the ball well. I think he’s probably struggled the most. He was getting 15-16-17 (points per game).”

On Melo

"I think early they were doing a really great job of attacking and keeping (Melo) involved,""Later, they weren't attacking him as much. They were taking different shots, and he was in position to get the ball."

On Brandon Triche

"I think Dion and Scoop have been playing so well,"But (Triche) was good at Louisville, and he'll be good again."

On the game plan

“We were pushing outside to make sure their guards didn’t get comfortable. “The times I’ve lost down here are when we let guys shoot from the perimeter. This is a good shooting place and you’ve got to disrupt that.” “I watched them a lot,” “Against Florida they were making shots that were unbelievable. I didn’t want to let them get in a rhythm shooting the ball. They get it going, they can beat anybody.”

On Playing in the Rac

“This is a tough place to play, I don’t care who you are,” “I think Florida is pretty good, Connecticut is pretty good. Notre Dame lost in here? They’re pretty good, too.”

From SUA
Coach Boeheim Quotes

Scoop Jardine

On making the big play

“I’ve done that a couple of times in my career,” he said with a wink. “It’s doing what you know you should. I was driving all game so he was backing off me and I got some space and had the confidence to knock it in.”

“This is why I am who I am. Not trying to be cocky, but just confident,” “I work on my game so much for these moments. I can take criticism. I’ve been taking it my whole career. With that being said, it helps me for these moments being able to go out there and make winning plays to help my team.”

“Once I got the ball,” “I knew my defender thought I was going to go baseline because I had him. I faked and came back middle and went into a rhythm jump shot, one I work on every day in practice. ``I made that shot a lot. At that moment, we needed a bucket, and I knew I was the one,'' ``That's what we needed. In this environment, you can't give those guys a step because they're going to take a mile.''

And I knocked it down.”“Yeah, they were big-time shots,” “But they were rhythm shots. They were shots in the offense. I didn’t rush them. I had confidence. And I made them.”

On recovering from bad plays

“I forget about the bad stuff,” “It’s easy to forget about bad stuff. You forget about bad stuff in life all the time. I mean, you always remember it, but you forget it, you know?

“That’s how I play ball. There are so many plays in a basketball game, so many opportunities. I forget the bad stuff at the moment, and then go back and watch it on film. Then I try to remember not to forget that I don’t want to make that mistake again.”

On his lob passes

"They're plays you have to live with, but I make a lot of them, and I just have to play with freedom,"

On Coach

“Coach gives us freedom to make plays, especially the guards,”. “When a coach gives you freedom like that, confidence like that to make plays, you feel like you can take on anybody.”

On CJ

“He’s the guy you have to have if you’re going to win a national championship,”, one of those exciting open-court players who isn’t labeled with a position. “He can’t be stopped and I know I’m always looking for him. He’s been shooting the ball great." He’s always in the right position to make a bucket,”

On this team

“We have guys that make plays at the right moments. We’ve been criticized because we don’t have that one superstar, but I’d rather play on a team like this one with four or five guys that can make a play at any given time.”

On Rutgers guards

"Those guys are really good," Myles Mack, Eli Carter and Jerome Seagears. "They are going to improve when they get confidence. This is a tough league, going against seniors and bigger guards like myself. We'll be talking about them 2, 3 years from now."

On Rutgers

"You can’t give those guys a chance. They’ll take you out. They’ve done it. We had to knock them down. That’s why we got the win.”

CJ Fair

On Scoop

“Scoop is what you want in your point guard,” He sees the floor, he hits the open man and he’s an unselfish player.”“He made a couple of big shots,”“That’s what it takes to be a good player. You can’t be afraid to take the big shot,” And he wasn’t today. He’s never afraid. Usually he facilitates. But today, he came up with two big shots when we needed it.”

On offensive rebounding

"In the first half, I got a couple offensive rebounds and that got me going,” "(That's) just position and trying to time where and when the ball is going to go off at," "Sometimes I came up lucky — I think someone shot an air ball, and I was right there. That's all it is about getting position and not giving up on a play.

"We've got good players on the perimeter, and sometimes I think defenders watch them operate and lose me."

On how he gets open

“It was how they were playing the zone,”“Fab [Melo] was being a big target and they covered him and sometimes left me wide open. Scoop always has his head up and he did a good job finding me.”

On going 8 for 8 from the line

“Once I made my first two, I got in a rhythm and I knew I was going to knock them down,”

On the team

“We really executed today.”

On close games

“To tell you the truth it’s always better to win close games,” he said when asked about the difference of winning all those blowouts this season. “You get experience. You get momentum. You get confidence in case it occurs again.”

On that dunk

“I’d say that’s top three,” “It’s my favorite so far. I gotta see the replay of it, though. I see the boys from Duke throw it all the time.”


Fab Melo

On the play of CJ

"He was insane," "He was insane the whole game."

On CJ's reverse dunk

"Oh my god, that was the highlight," "I loved it."

On defending Gilvydas Biruta

“You get close to him and then he goes under you,” he got some jump shots, and we didn't think he would do that," "That wasn't in the scouting report. … Sometimes I don't want to get in foul trouble, so I don't try to block everything — only if I have an opportunity. And he was pump faking many times, so that's why it was hard to play against him."

On delivering those clutch free throws in the face of frantic RU fans

“Just go there, focus, make the free throws, follow through,” “It’s just the mechanics. It’s easy when I figured that out.”

Kris Joseph

On the nonsense talk of "go to guys"

“That’s how this team has been built,” “There’s nobody who’s going to score a bucket of points for us. That’s how it’s been; that’s how it’s going to be. I don’t know why people would think it would change through the course of the year.

“With all that ‘go-to guy’ talk, I think we have 10 guys who can score the basketball whenever needed. In my opinion, what’s the point? We’re 27-1. That speaks for itself. That should show people we don’t need a ‘go-to guy.’ This is the way we’ve been doing it all year. Why would we change now?”
On the team

"We make shots," "The leadership, making the right plays down the stretch, that's huge and that's what we did."

On Gilvydas Biruta

"(Biruta) did a good job of trying to decode our zone,. "He got a couple fouls early, got the free-throw line and things like that. But we were able to make adjustments, and that's how we are."

Dion Waiters

On Brandon

"He's just got to continue to play and get better," "Keep working. So at the end of the day, I'm not concerned about Brandon. I know he can come in any given night and go off."

On the post season just ahead

“I’m ready,” “What we’ve prepared for all year is almost here. We have three more games, then the Big East Tournament, then March Madness. We all have got to get better in these next few practices, and then we can look forward to next month. Twenty-seven, man. We’re 27-1. How can I complain?”

Rutgers Quotes

Mike Rice

On his team's play

“I thought as far as the fight and the compete, this was probably one of the more consistent games we’ve played all month, “We just didn’t finish plays."

“Our guys kept the fighter’s mentality. They didn’t back down,” “It wasn’t a negative, frustrated reaction. I’ve been working on that, have an edge, have a passion but don’t become frustrated. That’s selfish and takes away your energy.”

On taking too many three's

"We settled for them, `'"Syracuse plays zone so you're going to take some 3s, we just didn't make enough."

On Syracuse

"Their depth,”“You just don’t know where it’s coming from, you just don’t know where you’re getting hit at.”

On Scoop

They are a very talented team, especially when there is an unfair advantage having another college basketball coach in Scoop Jardine running the point...It hurt us down the line because he was so strong.'' He had just such a composure and understanding of what he wanted to do."

On CJ

"Son of a gun, I'll kill C.J. Fair," "He is the best — that's what is not fair about Syracuse. You think you have everything covered, and then C.J. Fair comes along, who is the best rebounding wing we've faced all year." Such instinct, such toughness, that he gave us a one-punch and then Scoop finished us off with the second.”

On Gilvydas Biruta

"(Biruta) has the skill, he just hasn't played with poise or composure this year,". "So it's nice to have a Gil Biruta sighting, and if he can do it more consistently, I think we'll win more games."“It’s what I thought I was going to have every night to be honest with you."He’s going to talk about (playing) the (center position). I had nothing to do with him being at the five. “He had the same shots and same things. There was a confidence about him.”The moon and stars and planets lined up tonight for Gil"


On the play of his guards

“Whether it was penetration, getting to the basket, drawing the contact -- this team still has young bodies and young minds, and in the Big East you have to seek that contact,” “So the free throw disparity hurts, and settling for probably too many jump shots.”

On his team playing better on the big stage

“I think that’s growth,” “Unfortunately in the Big East, growth doesn’t always mean victories.”

On Eli Carter's quick three attempt

“I love the fact that he has enough onions that he thinks he’s going to make that. But it’s the shot that he’s taken two times that cost us twice before. Again, I watched Villanova, it’s the same thing their freshmen did. I like the fact that he thinks he’s going to make it, he has enough toughness to shoot it, especially after he gets yelled at the two previous times he shot in a situation like that, but now he has to understand that you can’t do that. We have to grind out a great possession. That’s a good shot, I want a great shot.”

On Kadeem Jack the highest rated freshman in the RU class

“He’s going to finish (better) once he gets stronger,” “There’s a process and a progression. As he gets his lower half stronger and plays lower, he’s going to be tremendous for us because he has such natural athletic ability.”

On Mike Poole

“I can’t wait to put ten to fifteen pounds of muscle on Mike Poole. Then I got a steal. He is still a touch frail, but he has a toughness that I love. I enjoy coaching Mike as much as I enjoy coaching anyone. Last night, as I’m walking out of here after a walk-through, he’s still here shooting until 10:30 for an hour and a half.”

On experience factor down the stretch

“They didn’t settle and we settled, so it played a part. Again, I’m playing with five-eight and six-foot-two, and they are playing with six-foot-eight and so our young, big, strong guys have to get better. That is something we will work on.”

On putting Myles Mack in sooner at the end of the game

"No, not really. You know why? Because Jerome Seagears was penetrating his tail off, and that’s why I was okay with [Myles Mack] sitting on the bench.Poole was playing with a confidence. I always looked over and I couldn’t figure it out. If I took Dane out, offensively I probably should have, but then I’m never going to get a rebound. I wasn’t real sure who I wanted to put in because we’ve improved in so many areas that Jerome Seagears’ purpose on the offensive end has come along very well.”

On the rebounding edge

“There was a relentlessness (about the team). We said ‘two to the glass.’ I warned Jerome Seagears he couldn’t try and tip dunk today like at an AAU game. Dane and Gilvydas had a toughness about them. Again, in the zone you’re going to find gaps, and they are certainly as athletic as anybody in the league and they had that relentlessness about them tonight.”

On the one play that would turn the tide

“I always think we need a stop,” “That’s who I am. I always think we need a stop and we just didn’t get stops down the line, like we needed. You’re not going to match basket-for-basket with Syracuse. You need to find ways to scratch and claw to stop them. We just didn’t do enough. Scoop hit another corner “J” with somebody all over him — they just hit tough shots.”

Dane Miller

On what makes SU so good

“What makes them different from everyone else is how they play at the end of the game,” “It (gives) them the best chance to win. They can score off a rebound. They’re long enough to block a big shot. They have so many guys who can make a big shot. That’s what it comes down to: they really know how to finish.”

On the game plan

“Stay confident and limit them in transition, “There were times where they got a lot transition dunks because of the turnovers but basically it was just limiting the turnovers and even if they do go on a little run, we stay focused.”

On Scoop

“Scoop is the kind of guy who, all game, he’ll let the game come to him,” after Jardine’s 3-pointer helped Syracuse escape with a 74-64 victory. “Then, at the end of the game, he’ll hit a 3. That’s what Scoop does. I knew he was going to take that. That’s what Scoop does.”

On Kadeem Jack

He’s definitely an X-factor because he plays with a very high motor,” “He’s versatile. He can take other big men off the dribble. He’s really athletic. Kadeem is a really good player. I think sometimes he knows that, but he needs to know that all the time.’’

On Gil Biruta

“He took advantage of the zone and the one-on-one matchup from the free-throw line down and he played a heck of a game.”

On the end game

“We should have gotten the ball in the paint more. We should have gotten it into middle, into the high post instead of shooting too many threes in the last couple of minutes of the game.” “It’s tough, because this is a game we should’ve won,” “There was a lot of little stuff that stopped us from getting that win.”

Gilvydas Biruta

On his game

“The last couple of practices, we worked in zone and I made some calls and worked the defense better,” “I think working the high post, that’s what helped." “I was more poised, and able to read the defense a lot better,” ” “I didn’t rush my shots.”“It should click every time we play against a team like this.”

Mike Poole (guard)

On Scoops late game heroics

“That took the life out of the gym, forget us,”. “The whole gym, all the Rutgers fans seemed like they died when that shot happened. It kind of clinched the game for them.”

On Biruta

“Gil brought an A-plus effort today,”. “This is the Gil we’re all used to seeing last year and early in the season. He’s been through a little slump, but today he woke up and he really contributed.”

On the youth of the RU team

“These guys have played 28 games, they’re not freshmen no more,. “It’s just not capitalizing on the shots we need to make, and not finishing the plays we need to finish.”

On the moral victory angle

Poole wasn’t buying the moral victory argument, either. “Every game we lose, it just feels the same,. “When you fight so hard, to come up short, it takes a lot out of you.”

The bottom line

The effort was there, the heart was there, the fight was there all game, “We just lost to a great team.”“They might be the most talented team in the country,” We fought and they’re just a great team. Can’t really hold our heads. Just got to look forward to Wednesday [at Marquette].”

On SU's Defense

“From watching film, I knew coming in there were a lot of gaps they had. I knew if I could get into the gaps I could get my shot off.”

On the atmosphere

“This is what you come to the Big East for. This I why you put the hours in, to come here and play in front of all these people.”

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