JB
(I may have re-arranged the order of some of the comments based on the subject.)
Matt Park reported that the sun came up Sunday morning, even though we lost. “It always does”, Coach Boeheim said.
“We didn’t play well. We didn’t play well at the end of the Detroit game. We’ve struggled at times. Temple was a capable team, able to take advantage of what we haven’t been dong well. We were fortunate to have a chance to win at the end."
"You can see all the problems against the weak teams if you look for them. We really haven’t been able to stop anything. Detroit stopped themselves for 36 minutes. Temple is capable. They’ve beaten a Top Ten team 4-5-6 years in a row. They were the first team that let Michael get to the basket and he didn’t finish. CJ accidentally steps backwards. He could have a lay-up or a dunk. Brandon missed. They, (Temple, I think he meant), were frozen- they just stopped trying to score. If you don’t play well vs. the Top 50-60 teams, you will lose. We’ve had three games where we’ve put people on the foul line an average of 35 times. You’ve got to keep them in front of you."
"We’ve got a few days of practice and a couple of games to get ready for the Big East. The league is a whole different animal top to bottom. Everyone’s better. Go down the list.” He did, simply identifying about 10 teams as “better” and then saying that only 1-2 teams won’t be as good- but not identifying those.
I called in my question about whether the attitude of the team was any different after a loss, (Temple) than after near-loss, (Detroit). “I don’t know. It’s hard to tell- we think we work hard all the time and do what we need to do in practice. I think they certainly learned from the Detroit game. It got down to 3 points. The first lost is a shock. It sets you back on your heels. There’s enough lessons to be learned. We had two chances to take the lead. That’s better than not being in the game at all. We need to improve our defense and free throw shooting. It’s not even about making 10 more. It’s about making the key ones. Missing them changes the complexion of the game.”
Matt suggested that “You don’t want to be at your best on December 27th. JB: “You’re not going to be unless you have a veteran team. Last year’s team was able to go down to NC State, a Sweet 16 team and beat them by 16 on their own court. We had a really good team and ranked #1-2 in the polls all year. We’d like to get. There we have a chance to get there. You don’t need to lose a game to figure that out.”
“These two games are important to get back to how you want to play. Losing sets you back. The whole purpose of non-conference play is to get tested and we’ve been tested. We’ve had some ups and downs. The defensive stats but we need to play better.”
Later, Dave in Minneapolis asked where the team was in terms of it’s goals for the year. JB: “We are in great position but not anywhere near where we need to be. San Diego State is a good team. They almost beat Arizona. Arkansas was a tough place to play. I knew Temple would be tough and we slipped against them.
We are no where near the team we had last year. We had a top point guard in Jardine, a top defensive center in Melo, a top scorer in Joseph and the NBA’s #4 draft pick. I laughed when people said we were a better team than last year. There is no comparison. We hammered NCAA teams last year. We won on the road vs. NCAA teams. You usually don’t win there.
This team can become a better team but we aren’t there yet. The centers have averaged 11 points and 10 rebounds a game. They are producing enough on offense. They need to get better on defense. That will determine how good a year we have. I’m happy where we are. You always want to win every game. But the key is the conference and the post season. “
A caller wanted to know if DuJuan Coleman was “getting the Fab Melo treatment”: Is he simply not ready or is James Southerland the better option right now? JB: It’s more the latter. James is the best option right now. When you play two big guys, you don’t get back well. Our best defender is Baye with Rak almost as good. DuJuan is better on offense but not on defense. But James is our best shooter. Not to have him out there hurts our offense. With him in there we are quicker and more mobile. Fair is playing at a high level and you want him in there. Freshmen centers take time.” He gave Danny Schayes, Rony Seikaly, Otis Hill, Etan Thomas and Fab Melo as examples. (he could have added Craig Forth, Mookie Watkins, Arinze Onuaku, etc, etc. “DC works hard and will get better.”
Matt noted Fab’s last two games in the developmental league: 13 points, 16 rebounds, 14 blocks, then 32-9-9. JB: :He’s a talented kid. He was a force on last year’s team. He took 29 charges and had the most blocks in the league. He changed the game.”
Darryl wanted to know about the discipline level of the team. He felt there was too much arguing with the referees. JB: “Have we got a technical yet? In the last game a guy from Temple, (Wyatt), cursed at the referees after every call. He had four fouls and could have been ejected. Last year he got 4-5 technicals. Big East referees would have called one. These guys just walked away. I don’t like players to get technicals and they know that. I haven’t had any technicals this year, have I? Kids aren’t going to play without expression. We lost a game and now it’s about discipline? If we make free throws nobody’s talking about discipline. There is absolutely no lack of discipline on this team- no signs of it.” Nothing was said about MCW sticking his leg out at the ref.
A caller wondered if we could play Keita at the ’4’ and James at the ’2’ positions. “We tried James at the ’2’ and they got two fast break lay-ups. Michael drove to the basket and James, being a forward, instinctively went to the basket and we had no one back. Louisville would push it downs court all the time. Baye is not offensively gifted enough to play the ’4’. Defensively, he’s better in the middle. Rak is better at the ’4’. it’s hard to play two big guys. We don’t run the court or get back as well. Very few teams have had success doing it.” Matt noted that the Lakers have struggled using Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard at the same time. (But they used to play Gasol and Andrew Bynum).
A caller said he’d been at the game and SU is unbeaten when he attends night games at the garden but 0-3 for Noon games. He asked that we play no more Noon games or at least get them moved to 1PM.
JB, laughing: “We can’t play Noon any more.”
They also mentioned that the Alcorn State game is part of the “Gotham Classic” as well. You have to wonder what part and what kind of a “Classic” this is. Matt said that this is not the type of opponent we would normally schedule as they have a high RPI, (a low ranking).
A caller wanted to know what the “strategy was” about scheduling Big East teams for non-conference games. “We are talking to St. John’s, Villanova and Georgetown. We want to play at least two of them a year. We want to get to New York, Philadelphia and Washington. We will try to get to New York as much as possible.”
The caller described what happened between the Big East and ACC as a ‘merger‘. That brought a smile to JB’s face. “We didn’t want to be the only team down there. Now it’s more along those lines. Connecticut and Cincinnati are close to getting in if anyone leaves. Then it would be a 50-50 thing and that wouldn’t be bad.” Did the ACC raid the ACC or did the Big East invade the ACC?
The caller suggested that the ACC tournament would be in the Garden “in about 10 years” and hope that JB would be coaching the team then. “There’s a much greater chance of the ACC tournament being in Madison Square Garden than there is of me coaching the team in 10 years.”
Matt again asked for a prediction on the Pinstripe Bowl. “It will be a great, high-scoring game. One of the best bowl games out there.”
Coach is going to see “Lincoln“, (I guess tomorrow). He’s looking forward to it as he likes historical films. Matt wondered if he’d read “Team of Rivals” upon which it is based, which showed how Lincoln brought together rival politicians to achieve what he wanted. JB: We need someone like that now. But even Lincoln probably couldn’t succeed now. These people won’t support anything except exactly what they want. Even a 10 year old knows that won’t work.”
Everybody thinks JB will get a job with ESPN when he retires. Maybe it will be CNN instead.
