Orangeyes
R.I.P Dan
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JB
On the play of the team
“We were playing great and we were 2-up with whatever it was; five or something minutes to go in the game,’’ “And we were playing good the whole time. Then we just played better, which is hard to do sometimes when you’re playing really good and play better.’’ “I think offensively, this is the best we’ve played all year,”
If we shot a lower percentage, we would have gotten beat. We got good looks and we made them."
“When they got to two, we made four or five in a row,’’“It’s not like they were easy. They were good shots and the ball went in the basket for us.’’
On Scoop
“He’s going to make a bad play every once in a while, but he makes good plays,” “We need him doing that.”"I think that’s obvious," (Boeheim, the always-difficult-to-please coach, allowed afterwards.) "He played great."
On CJ
"C.J. Fair was tremendous tonight,""He's been working hard on his shot. When he has a bad game he takes it to heart and he really went to work the last few days shooting the basketball." "He's a pretty good rebounder overall," "Sometimes it's where you're positioned, where the ball comes in the zone. I thought he was more aggressive getting it."
On Kris
It’s important for him to set up his drive,’ “He needs to make that. I thought today his long game was good. He missed two or three layups in or around the basket. He missed seven shots inside, but he’s shooting (the three) better now.’’
On Fab
“He is a decent shooter. I let him shoot a shot or two, and if he misses a couple, that’s it. I wasn’t going to stop him after a made three. After the last miss, I said that’s enough."
“It’s like in Vegas and you’ve hit a couple rolls and you’ve got the money in front of you,” “You’re usually better taking the money and going home.”
On the rebounding
Did this live up to what you want
Marginally,” “We didn’t get killed, let’s put it that way.”
On UConn
"Connecticut is a very good basketball team," "I would not count them out. They have some time left, and when we go down there it will be a difficult game, as it was today."
On Jim Calhoun
“His back is bad,”. “If you can’t get out of bed, you can’t coach. I’m hoping that it’s something a solution can be found and he’ll be back.”
When he’s not there, it makes a difference,” “He’s one of the great coaches of all-time.”
Scoop Jardine
“We were winning with the ball,’’ “I’ll take that anytime.’’ "We had a flow," turnover. "Our defense starts everything, we got out on , we made some shots, I made some nice passes and everything was clicking today." “We were settled in with the big crowd because we had one on Wednesday, so we knew what it was,”
On what JB told them
“Coach told us ‘You get out there and knock them out first and they’ll lay down’,’’ “But they didn’t. They didn’t lay down and we had to beat them.’’
On Kris
“Kris Joseph helped us on Wednesday and we got a win,’’ “but myself, Dion and (Brandon) Triche knew we had to pick up the slack because he definitely helped us out Wednesday night.’’
On his career coming to an end here
"It’s really sad," "It’s almost over for me. I appreciate everything I’ve gotten here in Syracuse. The fans have respected me, so every time I go out there I want to leave everything on the floor, on Jim Boeheim Court. This is it for me."
"Sometimes at practice, I’ll be down," "I’ll be wishing I was a freshman all over again, because this is the best time of your life. Coming here and having the career I’ve had, I can’t ask for anything else. I don’t want to leave."
“My redshirt year — when I had basketball taken away from me because of injury — was the first time I ever went through a year without basketball in my life. It was tough,” “I had to find myself as a person.”
“It’s helped me grow so much,” “Everything I went through here, there was a reason for it. Everything happens for a reason.
“I can’t even put into words how much it helped me,”
On his game this year vs last year
“I’m more efficient this year,” , second on the team with 35 steals. “My scoring has been down, but my goal coming into this season was to be a special person on our team, be the person that does the things that nobody else does.
“I just focus on being efficient, being there when they need me, and playing as hard as I can the time I’m in the game,”
“It’s a different mindset,” “Now, I think I’m a much smarter Scoop, a year older. That’s what I need to be. Everybody knows I can go out and score or try to put the team on my back. Throughout my career I’ve been doing that. For the most part, it’s doing it now in the right moments, making the right play to win us a basketball game.”
On his game today
“I was really trying to get in a rhythm of the game,” “I was just trying to get what the defense was giving me. I’m a confident player. I know I can make plays.”
"I’ve had a lot of games like that during my career," "It’s just that this was a game against UConn with more people watching."
On his shooting
“I was in the right position to make a shot, and I did,”
"They were ‘threes’ in the offensive flow," "I got set. I got my feet under me. And I went up and shot the ball with confidence. That’s why I made my shots today. I played with confidence. I played in control. When I’m playing that way, I don’t think anybody can stay in front of me. But two points or 21 points, as long as we got the win, that’s all that matters."
On hearing Scooooop as he left the game
"I heard it," "It means everything to me. I was soaking it up. It was great. I never thought, coming here, I’d be as big as I am. I want to cherish everything that Coach has given me and everything I’ve gotten from everybody because this is special for me and my family."
On that ally oop to CJ
“I knew if I threw it, he would be able to go get it,” “He had his adrenaline. And he saw me. We made eye contact. And when I saw that he saw me, I threw it with confidence that he would go up and get it.” "
On CJ
"C.J. works on his shot every day in practice and I have confidence that he can continue to make that shot," "And that opens up our offense."
Carl Arrigale, Jardine’s high school coach
There are things that he does that reward you sometimes,” . “And sometimes, when better judgment should be made, it’s not always the top priority.”
Kris Joseph
On Scoop's rally starting three's
“Those are two big shots,’’ “We could see the UConn faces. They hung their heads a little bit. Those are two big threes that Scoop hit and that got us going.’’
On his shooting
“I’m shooting it with confidence,’. “Nothing’s changed since the first game. I went through a little slump, I guess. It happens. Now, I’m hoping I’m out of it.’’
On Fab's shooting
“He was shooting all these jump shots and making them. He’s shooting the ball well. He was practicing that shot all of practice, so I’m not surprised he made it today.”
“I’m not encouraging it,” “If it’s in the late-game situations and for some reason we just so happen to give him the ball and he has to shoot it, I won’t mind. But if it’s in the flow of the offense and he just pulls up for a three, I might have to question that. But he shot the ball well today.”
On how the team played
“When everyone’s hitting, it’s a little easier for us to win games,'' "We won by a significant amount against a good UConn team. Maybe four or five guys were in double-digits. That’s really helpful. That’ll be good for us down the stretch.’’
On the rebounding
“The guards helped us a lot more,” “It was more of a collective effort. We can’t keep getting outrebounded by such a large amount so we definitely dialed in and located the ball a little better.”
CJ Fair
On his game Wednesday
"I was like 'Oh man, what's my father gonna say,' ", wincing at the thought of his 2-for-10 shooting nightmare. "He's my biggest critic, but he didn't say I played bad, he just said my shot didn't fall."
Effect of talking to his dad
"That (talking to his dad) gave me a little boost and I just got in the gym and shot," "I knew I needed this to be a bounce-back game to give me confidence going into Louisville (Monday)."
"He's up here today," "I talk to him after every game, he talks my ears off. I think it'll go better today."
On what helped him going up against Tyler Olander, who is 6-foot-9
I tried to attack him as much as possible when he was on me.”
On what he was doing to get so many rebounds
“Say they shoot it on the opposite side of me, I knew it was probably going to bounce to my side,” “I just tried to position myself for a long rebound. Even if they shoot it on my side, just back up a step to see where it’s going to go.”I want to try and get every rebound. Especially if it is in my area. That's my ball"
On his shot
“I just wanted to get in the gym every day, twice a day. I just wanted to come out here and be aggressive,” “Take the normal shots I take, and today I was making’em.”
On his mindset
"I wanted to rebound well, that was my main focus today," "Rebounding and then hitting open shots."
Dion Waiters
On CJ
"I call C.J. the Silent Assassin," "A lot of times he gets overlooked and he might have a quiet 14 points and eight rebounds. But we expect that from him. Just for him to come out here and rebound like he did today, we need that every game."
. "… We know what he can do, he's one of the best players on the team.
On Scoop
"Scoop hit two big 3s," "He opened it wide open for us, and it was just our turn to stomp on their necks."
On the 18-1 run
"We don’t even know that we’re going on those tight runs until you look up and somebody tells you. I didn’t know we went on an 18-1 run. You’ll be so caught up in the game, you’ll be focused on defense and rebounding, you don’t even look at things like that. We were hitting our shots. It’s tough to stop us if everybody is hitting their shots. Everyone was hitting today.” That’s the best thing about this team this year. Anybody can get it going."
On Michael Carter-Williams flareup
“Just listen; that’s the biggest thing,’’ “All you gotta do is listen. Just firing back makes it worse. Listen to what he has to say because you’re going right back on the court. You just gotta be able to take it in.
“Last year, I got frustrated and put my head down. But now it’s a totally different Dion. Now, when he screams at me, I take it all in. Even if you want to say that one little thing, you got to bite your tongue and say ‘All right, Coach. You’re right.’’
On the 33,430
"Can't get no more loyal that that. You can't,’’ Honestly. I don't even know if they can see the game. Just to see that, you appreciate those types of things."
Fab Melo
On his outside shooting
"I have been making them in practice. I made the first jump shot so I was confident and I kept shooting. I told the coach I’m going to shoot until I miss. When I missed the fourth one, I stopped shooting. It was a good thing today, to show the fans that I can shoot.”
“It is fun,” “(Defenders), they give away space thinking you’re not going to make it. And when you make it, it’s great. It’s fun.”
“It’s a thing I’ve been working on a lot, me and Mike Hopkins,” “Today, I hit my first one so I said, ‘Why not shoot a second one?’ And I kept going.”
He has been making 3's in pratice will we see that in a game
“I’ll leave that for later in the season,” with a smile on his face. “I’ll prepare you for that.”
On rebounding
“We worked on the last practice,” “We were focused on getting rebounds, and that’s what we did.”
Baye Keita
On CJ
“He was just pursuing the ball,” “He was reading where the ball was coming every time. He had pretty good eyes on the ball.”
Michael Carter-Williams
On his tete to tete with HCJB
"It was just a communication thing. I made a mistake and thought I was supposed to be in a different place in a different time. Coach had some words, I was just frustrated, and that was the end of it."
SUA
Players Quotes
JB Quotes
UConn
Acting Head Coach George Blaney
On this SU team
“It’s certainly his deepest team. Whether or not it proves to be his best team, the rest of the season will tell you that. But I have not seen one of his teams be deeper than what they are.”“as good a team as I’ve seen Jimmy have.’’
“When they get in trouble, they can isolate so many different people that can just beat you,’’ “Waiters and Jardine just had phenomenal games and we really had trouble guarding Fair.’’
On the game
“We got it to 63-61 and we got a little careless both offensively and defensively,” “And then it got away. You can’t have a lapse for a couple of minutes.”
More on Fair
We really had trouble guarding Fair. He’s a bad matchup for a lot of teams, including us,” UConn interim coach George Blaney said. “We had three different people play him and really none of them did much on him.”
On Calhoun
“He’s still in a lot of pain,” “He’s been talking to doctors in New York, Boston and at UConn. The problem with backs is that there are all different supposed solutions, and you have to pick the right one at the right time. That’s what he’s trying to decide. His brother, the heart surgeon, is kind of monitoring everything, and I think they’ll come to some kind of decision shortly.”
On Drummond
I hope that it wasn’t the difference,” “but it certainly would have been nice to have him that stretch when he was out.”
On Drummonds growth as a player
“I love that part about him. What’s interesting about his character is that he’s learning. He’s never had to compete before, he’s always been the biggest, strongest, most natural athlete in any game he’s ever been in. Now he’s learning how to compete at this level. You have to do things: take peoples’ legs out, run the court, finish strong at the rim, get people off you so you two-handed dunk rather than one-handed dunk. He’s picking it up and getting better and better as we go along.”
We talked about attacking the rim [at halftime]," ]. "That's our mantra with big guys. Andre has been kind of reluctant to attack the rim. In the first half, he put up soft shots, a couple of misses. We started screaming at him. 'You've got to go two-handed, full force and rip it down!"
On Jeremy Lamb
“I would have liked to have Jeremy a little bit more ready to pull the trigger,” . “I think he passed up probably four or five shots. I don’t think he thinks he’s shooting the ball well, and so I think he’s passing up to try to get a better shot. I don’t care, I want him shooting open shots. I don’t care whether he makes them or doesn’t, at this stage, I want him shooting open shots.”
On UConn
“I thought the 10 minutes at Louisville were a real step backwards,” “I was real upset about it, and I know everybody connected with Connecticut was upset about it … (today), Syracuse was just real good. You can’t have a couple-minute lapse.”
"I like how we gave a tremendous effort," "I was really, really excited about Andre Drummond finally going to the rim like we know he can, and more importantly posting in a good position and deep. We were able to get him the ball a number of times and he was phenomenal."
Ryan Boatwright
After being down 2 then SU going on that 18-1 run
"I don't even know what happened after that free throw," "I can't even tell you, man."
"When we hit some adversity, they hit a few shots," "And we fell apart after that."
On the remaining six games
"I'd call them must-win games," "We all knew we didn't [stink]. Everybody was saying that. We were just in a slump. We knew if we came in here and played selfishly, we'd get blown out, embarrassed again."
On SU
"Everybody can score on that team," "They shot the ball great." "We had them right there," . "If they miss a shot here or there, we probably would have taken the lead."
On the outlook
“Of course it’s a negative because we lost,” “but I think we can turn this into a positive and understand that the season’s not over with and we’re playing well. If we come to play like that every night we’ll be a tough team to beat.” ”I'm just glad to see everyone has their confidence back,"
"If we keep losing like this, there isn't going to be a tournament "This is definitely the toughest part of our schedule ... We have to turn it around. We have some games at home that I would call `must-win' games."
Jeremy Lamb
On SU
"They were hot," . "They were knocking down shots."
On UConn
"We fought this game," "They hit us plenty of times, and we hit back. We feel better about the way we played." but the game wasn’t as bad as the score says.”
On his shooting
“I’m not hesitant,” “it’s just sometimes, I try to move the ball a little too much. I don’t want to take quick shots. That’s what their defense is predicated on. There were probably a couple of shots I could have taken that I didn’t realize I had, but I’ve just got to realize that.”
Andre Drummond
On his injury
“When it happened, I thought it was broke,” “It was crazy. I just got tape on it and came back and tried to play.” "It killed everything," Drummond said. "I was getting it. We could've had this game." “We didn’t get X-rays but if I can run, it can’t be that bad,” . “They said the most it could be is a bruise.”
On Uconn
I’m proud of my teammates. We played great as a team. Syracuse is a great team, they hit a lot of tough shots against us … but we gutted it out and fought the whole game, kept fighting, kept fighting.”"
Asked if the NCAA decision Friday would affect his decision to remain at UConn or enter the NBA Draft
Honestly, I don't know," Drummond "I'm focused on this season. I'm not focused on what is happening next season. We're right here and now. We're playing for a national championship. I don't care what's going to happen next year, because we're not there yet."
On dunking
I was trying to do that throughout the game. I knew I needed to get a little tougher and not get pushed off," "That's one of the things they've been talking to me about. They said I can't do any more of those finesse shots I used to do in high school. You got big 7-footers, guys that can jump just as high as me to block those shots, so they want me to work really hard and just try and dunk everything."
On the play of the team
“We were playing great and we were 2-up with whatever it was; five or something minutes to go in the game,’’ “And we were playing good the whole time. Then we just played better, which is hard to do sometimes when you’re playing really good and play better.’’ “I think offensively, this is the best we’ve played all year,”
If we shot a lower percentage, we would have gotten beat. We got good looks and we made them."
“When they got to two, we made four or five in a row,’’“It’s not like they were easy. They were good shots and the ball went in the basket for us.’’
On Scoop
“He’s going to make a bad play every once in a while, but he makes good plays,” “We need him doing that.”"I think that’s obvious," (Boeheim, the always-difficult-to-please coach, allowed afterwards.) "He played great."
On CJ
"C.J. Fair was tremendous tonight,""He's been working hard on his shot. When he has a bad game he takes it to heart and he really went to work the last few days shooting the basketball." "He's a pretty good rebounder overall," "Sometimes it's where you're positioned, where the ball comes in the zone. I thought he was more aggressive getting it."
On Kris
It’s important for him to set up his drive,’ “He needs to make that. I thought today his long game was good. He missed two or three layups in or around the basket. He missed seven shots inside, but he’s shooting (the three) better now.’’
On Fab
“He is a decent shooter. I let him shoot a shot or two, and if he misses a couple, that’s it. I wasn’t going to stop him after a made three. After the last miss, I said that’s enough."
“It’s like in Vegas and you’ve hit a couple rolls and you’ve got the money in front of you,” “You’re usually better taking the money and going home.”
On the rebounding
Did this live up to what you want
Marginally,” “We didn’t get killed, let’s put it that way.”
On UConn
"Connecticut is a very good basketball team," "I would not count them out. They have some time left, and when we go down there it will be a difficult game, as it was today."
On Jim Calhoun
“His back is bad,”. “If you can’t get out of bed, you can’t coach. I’m hoping that it’s something a solution can be found and he’ll be back.”
When he’s not there, it makes a difference,” “He’s one of the great coaches of all-time.”
Scoop Jardine
“We were winning with the ball,’’ “I’ll take that anytime.’’ "We had a flow," turnover. "Our defense starts everything, we got out on , we made some shots, I made some nice passes and everything was clicking today." “We were settled in with the big crowd because we had one on Wednesday, so we knew what it was,”
On what JB told them
“Coach told us ‘You get out there and knock them out first and they’ll lay down’,’’ “But they didn’t. They didn’t lay down and we had to beat them.’’
On Kris
“Kris Joseph helped us on Wednesday and we got a win,’’ “but myself, Dion and (Brandon) Triche knew we had to pick up the slack because he definitely helped us out Wednesday night.’’
On his career coming to an end here
"It’s really sad," "It’s almost over for me. I appreciate everything I’ve gotten here in Syracuse. The fans have respected me, so every time I go out there I want to leave everything on the floor, on Jim Boeheim Court. This is it for me."
"Sometimes at practice, I’ll be down," "I’ll be wishing I was a freshman all over again, because this is the best time of your life. Coming here and having the career I’ve had, I can’t ask for anything else. I don’t want to leave."
“My redshirt year — when I had basketball taken away from me because of injury — was the first time I ever went through a year without basketball in my life. It was tough,” “I had to find myself as a person.”
“It’s helped me grow so much,” “Everything I went through here, there was a reason for it. Everything happens for a reason.
“I can’t even put into words how much it helped me,”
On his game this year vs last year
“I’m more efficient this year,” , second on the team with 35 steals. “My scoring has been down, but my goal coming into this season was to be a special person on our team, be the person that does the things that nobody else does.
“I just focus on being efficient, being there when they need me, and playing as hard as I can the time I’m in the game,”
“It’s a different mindset,” “Now, I think I’m a much smarter Scoop, a year older. That’s what I need to be. Everybody knows I can go out and score or try to put the team on my back. Throughout my career I’ve been doing that. For the most part, it’s doing it now in the right moments, making the right play to win us a basketball game.”
On his game today
“I was really trying to get in a rhythm of the game,” “I was just trying to get what the defense was giving me. I’m a confident player. I know I can make plays.”
"I’ve had a lot of games like that during my career," "It’s just that this was a game against UConn with more people watching."
On his shooting
“I was in the right position to make a shot, and I did,”
"They were ‘threes’ in the offensive flow," "I got set. I got my feet under me. And I went up and shot the ball with confidence. That’s why I made my shots today. I played with confidence. I played in control. When I’m playing that way, I don’t think anybody can stay in front of me. But two points or 21 points, as long as we got the win, that’s all that matters."
On hearing Scooooop as he left the game
"I heard it," "It means everything to me. I was soaking it up. It was great. I never thought, coming here, I’d be as big as I am. I want to cherish everything that Coach has given me and everything I’ve gotten from everybody because this is special for me and my family."
On that ally oop to CJ
“I knew if I threw it, he would be able to go get it,” “He had his adrenaline. And he saw me. We made eye contact. And when I saw that he saw me, I threw it with confidence that he would go up and get it.” "
On CJ
"C.J. works on his shot every day in practice and I have confidence that he can continue to make that shot," "And that opens up our offense."
Carl Arrigale, Jardine’s high school coach
There are things that he does that reward you sometimes,” . “And sometimes, when better judgment should be made, it’s not always the top priority.”
Kris Joseph
On Scoop's rally starting three's
“Those are two big shots,’’ “We could see the UConn faces. They hung their heads a little bit. Those are two big threes that Scoop hit and that got us going.’’
On his shooting
“I’m shooting it with confidence,’. “Nothing’s changed since the first game. I went through a little slump, I guess. It happens. Now, I’m hoping I’m out of it.’’
On Fab's shooting
“He was shooting all these jump shots and making them. He’s shooting the ball well. He was practicing that shot all of practice, so I’m not surprised he made it today.”
“I’m not encouraging it,” “If it’s in the late-game situations and for some reason we just so happen to give him the ball and he has to shoot it, I won’t mind. But if it’s in the flow of the offense and he just pulls up for a three, I might have to question that. But he shot the ball well today.”
On how the team played
“When everyone’s hitting, it’s a little easier for us to win games,'' "We won by a significant amount against a good UConn team. Maybe four or five guys were in double-digits. That’s really helpful. That’ll be good for us down the stretch.’’
On the rebounding
“The guards helped us a lot more,” “It was more of a collective effort. We can’t keep getting outrebounded by such a large amount so we definitely dialed in and located the ball a little better.”
CJ Fair
On his game Wednesday
"I was like 'Oh man, what's my father gonna say,' ", wincing at the thought of his 2-for-10 shooting nightmare. "He's my biggest critic, but he didn't say I played bad, he just said my shot didn't fall."
Effect of talking to his dad
"That (talking to his dad) gave me a little boost and I just got in the gym and shot," "I knew I needed this to be a bounce-back game to give me confidence going into Louisville (Monday)."
"He's up here today," "I talk to him after every game, he talks my ears off. I think it'll go better today."
On what helped him going up against Tyler Olander, who is 6-foot-9
I tried to attack him as much as possible when he was on me.”
On what he was doing to get so many rebounds
“Say they shoot it on the opposite side of me, I knew it was probably going to bounce to my side,” “I just tried to position myself for a long rebound. Even if they shoot it on my side, just back up a step to see where it’s going to go.”I want to try and get every rebound. Especially if it is in my area. That's my ball"
On his shot
“I just wanted to get in the gym every day, twice a day. I just wanted to come out here and be aggressive,” “Take the normal shots I take, and today I was making’em.”
On his mindset
"I wanted to rebound well, that was my main focus today," "Rebounding and then hitting open shots."
Dion Waiters
On CJ
"I call C.J. the Silent Assassin," "A lot of times he gets overlooked and he might have a quiet 14 points and eight rebounds. But we expect that from him. Just for him to come out here and rebound like he did today, we need that every game."
. "… We know what he can do, he's one of the best players on the team.
On Scoop
"Scoop hit two big 3s," "He opened it wide open for us, and it was just our turn to stomp on their necks."
On the 18-1 run
"We don’t even know that we’re going on those tight runs until you look up and somebody tells you. I didn’t know we went on an 18-1 run. You’ll be so caught up in the game, you’ll be focused on defense and rebounding, you don’t even look at things like that. We were hitting our shots. It’s tough to stop us if everybody is hitting their shots. Everyone was hitting today.” That’s the best thing about this team this year. Anybody can get it going."
On Michael Carter-Williams flareup
“Just listen; that’s the biggest thing,’’ “All you gotta do is listen. Just firing back makes it worse. Listen to what he has to say because you’re going right back on the court. You just gotta be able to take it in.
“Last year, I got frustrated and put my head down. But now it’s a totally different Dion. Now, when he screams at me, I take it all in. Even if you want to say that one little thing, you got to bite your tongue and say ‘All right, Coach. You’re right.’’
On the 33,430
"Can't get no more loyal that that. You can't,’’ Honestly. I don't even know if they can see the game. Just to see that, you appreciate those types of things."
Fab Melo
On his outside shooting
"I have been making them in practice. I made the first jump shot so I was confident and I kept shooting. I told the coach I’m going to shoot until I miss. When I missed the fourth one, I stopped shooting. It was a good thing today, to show the fans that I can shoot.”
“It is fun,” “(Defenders), they give away space thinking you’re not going to make it. And when you make it, it’s great. It’s fun.”
“It’s a thing I’ve been working on a lot, me and Mike Hopkins,” “Today, I hit my first one so I said, ‘Why not shoot a second one?’ And I kept going.”
He has been making 3's in pratice will we see that in a game
“I’ll leave that for later in the season,” with a smile on his face. “I’ll prepare you for that.”
On rebounding
“We worked on the last practice,” “We were focused on getting rebounds, and that’s what we did.”
Baye Keita
On CJ
“He was just pursuing the ball,” “He was reading where the ball was coming every time. He had pretty good eyes on the ball.”
Michael Carter-Williams
On his tete to tete with HCJB
"It was just a communication thing. I made a mistake and thought I was supposed to be in a different place in a different time. Coach had some words, I was just frustrated, and that was the end of it."
SUA
Players Quotes
JB Quotes
UConn
Acting Head Coach George Blaney
On this SU team
“It’s certainly his deepest team. Whether or not it proves to be his best team, the rest of the season will tell you that. But I have not seen one of his teams be deeper than what they are.”“as good a team as I’ve seen Jimmy have.’’
“When they get in trouble, they can isolate so many different people that can just beat you,’’ “Waiters and Jardine just had phenomenal games and we really had trouble guarding Fair.’’
On the game
“We got it to 63-61 and we got a little careless both offensively and defensively,” “And then it got away. You can’t have a lapse for a couple of minutes.”
More on Fair
We really had trouble guarding Fair. He’s a bad matchup for a lot of teams, including us,” UConn interim coach George Blaney said. “We had three different people play him and really none of them did much on him.”
On Calhoun
“He’s still in a lot of pain,” “He’s been talking to doctors in New York, Boston and at UConn. The problem with backs is that there are all different supposed solutions, and you have to pick the right one at the right time. That’s what he’s trying to decide. His brother, the heart surgeon, is kind of monitoring everything, and I think they’ll come to some kind of decision shortly.”
On Drummond
I hope that it wasn’t the difference,” “but it certainly would have been nice to have him that stretch when he was out.”
On Drummonds growth as a player
“I love that part about him. What’s interesting about his character is that he’s learning. He’s never had to compete before, he’s always been the biggest, strongest, most natural athlete in any game he’s ever been in. Now he’s learning how to compete at this level. You have to do things: take peoples’ legs out, run the court, finish strong at the rim, get people off you so you two-handed dunk rather than one-handed dunk. He’s picking it up and getting better and better as we go along.”
We talked about attacking the rim [at halftime]," ]. "That's our mantra with big guys. Andre has been kind of reluctant to attack the rim. In the first half, he put up soft shots, a couple of misses. We started screaming at him. 'You've got to go two-handed, full force and rip it down!"
On Jeremy Lamb
“I would have liked to have Jeremy a little bit more ready to pull the trigger,” . “I think he passed up probably four or five shots. I don’t think he thinks he’s shooting the ball well, and so I think he’s passing up to try to get a better shot. I don’t care, I want him shooting open shots. I don’t care whether he makes them or doesn’t, at this stage, I want him shooting open shots.”
On UConn
“I thought the 10 minutes at Louisville were a real step backwards,” “I was real upset about it, and I know everybody connected with Connecticut was upset about it … (today), Syracuse was just real good. You can’t have a couple-minute lapse.”
"I like how we gave a tremendous effort," "I was really, really excited about Andre Drummond finally going to the rim like we know he can, and more importantly posting in a good position and deep. We were able to get him the ball a number of times and he was phenomenal."
Ryan Boatwright
After being down 2 then SU going on that 18-1 run
"I don't even know what happened after that free throw," "I can't even tell you, man."
"When we hit some adversity, they hit a few shots," "And we fell apart after that."
On the remaining six games
"I'd call them must-win games," "We all knew we didn't [stink]. Everybody was saying that. We were just in a slump. We knew if we came in here and played selfishly, we'd get blown out, embarrassed again."
On SU
"Everybody can score on that team," "They shot the ball great." "We had them right there," . "If they miss a shot here or there, we probably would have taken the lead."
On the outlook
“Of course it’s a negative because we lost,” “but I think we can turn this into a positive and understand that the season’s not over with and we’re playing well. If we come to play like that every night we’ll be a tough team to beat.” ”I'm just glad to see everyone has their confidence back,"
"If we keep losing like this, there isn't going to be a tournament "This is definitely the toughest part of our schedule ... We have to turn it around. We have some games at home that I would call `must-win' games."
Jeremy Lamb
On SU
"They were hot," . "They were knocking down shots."
On UConn
"We fought this game," "They hit us plenty of times, and we hit back. We feel better about the way we played." but the game wasn’t as bad as the score says.”
On his shooting
“I’m not hesitant,” “it’s just sometimes, I try to move the ball a little too much. I don’t want to take quick shots. That’s what their defense is predicated on. There were probably a couple of shots I could have taken that I didn’t realize I had, but I’ve just got to realize that.”
Andre Drummond
On his injury
“When it happened, I thought it was broke,” “It was crazy. I just got tape on it and came back and tried to play.” "It killed everything," Drummond said. "I was getting it. We could've had this game." “We didn’t get X-rays but if I can run, it can’t be that bad,” . “They said the most it could be is a bruise.”
On Uconn
I’m proud of my teammates. We played great as a team. Syracuse is a great team, they hit a lot of tough shots against us … but we gutted it out and fought the whole game, kept fighting, kept fighting.”"
Asked if the NCAA decision Friday would affect his decision to remain at UConn or enter the NBA Draft
Honestly, I don't know," Drummond "I'm focused on this season. I'm not focused on what is happening next season. We're right here and now. We're playing for a national championship. I don't care what's going to happen next year, because we're not there yet."
On dunking
I was trying to do that throughout the game. I knew I needed to get a little tougher and not get pushed off," "That's one of the things they've been talking to me about. They said I can't do any more of those finesse shots I used to do in high school. You got big 7-footers, guys that can jump just as high as me to block those shots, so they want me to work really hard and just try and dunk everything."
