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Jim Boeheim’s radio show is on Thursdays from 7-9PM on ESPN Radio in Syracuse, which is AM1200 or FM 97.7 on the dial. The show originates from Delmonico’s Italian Steakhouse on Erie Boulevard in Syracuse. The first hour, hosted by Matt Park, the Voice of the Orange, is on their general network. The second hour, which begins with the conference season, is hosted by Gomez, a local radio personality.
The first hour is eventually, (it can take weeks) podcasted on the SU Athletics website on this page:
http://suathletics.com/podcasts.aspx
(Update: the last podcast is a preview of the first Duke game from last year so maybe they have stopped podcasting the show. )
You can call into the show locally at 315-424-8599 or nationally at 1-888-746-2873. For Gomez’s portion, use 315-4424-8599. Or you can submit questions from this page:
http://cuse.com/sb_output.aspx?form=4
The show can be heard in Syracuse on FM 99.5. It’s sometime simulcast on AM 1200 or FM 97.7. You can also get it on: http://tunein.com/radio/WGVA-1240-s29191/
I will be posting my rough transcript the night of the broadcast focusing on my questions, the team and their last and next games and then a second post the next day on other things that were discussed.
MY QUESTIONS/COMMENTS
First hour:
“Coach, in his first eight games, Chris McCullough hit 57% of his shots. In the last seven games he’s hit only 25%. Did the issue of whether he could be an NBA lottery pick affect his confidence or cause him to try too hard to make big plays?”
Second hour:
“Coach, normally in the pre-conference season you get to play a lot of guys because we are so much better than most of the teams we play. This year, almost all the games have been a challenge and you’ve gone with the guys you felt gave us the best chance to win those games. It would be nice to develop Chinoso Obokoh as a back-up center and BJ Johnson as another option off the bench. Is it too late to do that or could they still earn some playing time by what they show you in practice?”
COACH BOEHEIM
(I have, in some instances, put together statements from different parts of the broadcast on the same subject)
Matt congratulated the coach on the wins over the two Techs. JB: “The bottom line is to win but we’ve got another game coming up and we’re not going to continue to win if we play like we did in the second half at Virginia Tech or the whole game at Georgia Tech. You have to keep thinking about what’s next. In a game you think about the next play. It doesn’t matter what happened- good or bad- leading up to that.”
“In 2003 we played a game against Miami where we were down 46-49 with nine minutes left and won 54-49. We held them scoreless for 9 minutes. Last night it was 8:50. You can bounce back from a game like that. That 2003 team did pretty good. Gerry was 1 for 10 from the field and Carmelo wasn’t making much, either. Players know you can play better.”
This warmed him for a subject that was clearly on his mind because it had been on everybody else’s mind. “It’s not good to tell player they played OK if they didn’t. Kaleb had 3-4 good penetrations for dishes but he was 0 for 2 and had two defensive lapses. Ron Patterson played very well defensively. We’ve got to have other people step up on the offensive end. If Rak didn’t shoot 50% then he didn’t get the shots he needs. Trevor has been missing lay-ups for the last two games. He’s jumping in the air- what’s he thinking? Mike has been solid but we need other people to move forward. Rak’s free throws were big. We’ve had 85% shooters missing in a situation like that. We were fortunate we had a foul to give because Georges-Hunt was free. Then they got the rebound and we were very fortunate.”
This set up my first question, which he was glad I asked. “No matter what somebody says- somebody’s an All-America or he’s terrible- it doesn’t affect his play. If it does, he’ll never become a good player. He’s got to play before 10,000 people. If he can’t handle being judged, he’ll never make it. Players don’t think like that. They just play.”
“When Chris was playing well, he was more active. He got rebounds. No he’s catching and shooting jump shots. He’s got to be more active and move better. He made a good post move, spun and just missed. He missed three lay=ups and 3 free throws. If he’d just made those he’d have 10-11 points. We got spoiled early with his great play. He was in Carmelo territory, getting 15 points and 10 rebounds a game. He was better than Hakim at that stage. I was watching him and saying “Boy, he played great….Chris shoots well in practice.“ Gomez later wondered if Chris’s problem was that once opposing coaches got tape on him, they were able to make defensive adjustments. JB: “I don’t think so. They knew he was good. He was moving better, getting around the basket better, rebounding better. He was getting baskets around the rim, with the occasional jumper. He needs more activity, more movement and more production.
“Kaleb has had some good games. He played well at Villanova. We need just a little more offense from him, 5-6 points a game, and for him to clean up his defense. Ronnie, if he could make a jump shot sooner or later, that could get him going….He could be pressing. He might relax more if he played more minutes. But Trevor plays on Rak’s side and if he wasn’t there, his man would help on Rakeem and he wouldn’t have room to make those moves. That’s the impact of great shooters. It was the same with McNamara and Rautins. Rakeem hit 72% in his last eight conference games before this. If he was just a little closer to the basket, he’d shoot 60% in this one, too. I thought he’d make a big jump. He has even a little bit more room to expand.”
I thanked the coach and wished him luck “getting those tent poles up”. He laughed. Matt suggest this was not the night to put up a tent.
Later Gomez noted that Tom Izzo, whose Michigan State team was playing Iowa, was particularly animated on the sidelines. He commented that fans applaud such intensity during games but then criticize it in a post-game press conference. JB: “He’s an intense guy, a tremendous coach. Michigan State always keeps coming at you….People are watching and paying attention to too many things. People don’t realize that there’s a price to pay to win. I’m not as tough or as harsh as I used to be. It’s a give and take that’s been going on for years.
Another frequent caller, Pat, suggested to the coach that our best line-up was Gbinije, Cooney, and Roberson, Christmas and McCullough across the front line. JB: “Trevor is a 2. Mike is not a 1 but he’s comfortable there. Chris and Tyler are both 4’s. They need to be within 10-15 feet of the basket to operate. If we put both of them in there, their defenders would help out on Rak. We need Kaleb to play better. Mike plays well at the 3. Tyler can give us action off the bench. Chris is effective giving Rakeem a rest at center.”
A caller named Mike wanted to know the chances of anybody going undefeated this year, considering all the close games and how will we compete against Duke, Louisville and Virginia. Coach felt Kentucky has a real chance based on their crushing wins over Kansas and UCLA. But the close games make him “not so sure”. He said “All our conference games will be difficult. Wake Forest is a lot better than people thought. Clemson led at halftime vs. Louisville. We’ll have to play extremely well against Duke =, Virginia and Louisville.”
Matt, tongue in cheek, asked who the best playing coach in the ACC was. JB: “It’s not even close- Danny Manning.”
Brad called in and wanted to know who the team leader was “coming out of the locker room”. JB: “The coaches. This is not an emotional team. Last year’s team didn’t have a vocal guy, either. Players look up to the upper-classmen. Rakeem is a leader through his play. Players need to react to how he works. This is not a great shooting team. We have to grind it out when we’re not shooting well, everybody must work a little harder. Some tams can’t push the limit, just can’t get there.”
Brad suggested that Rakeem Christmas was an example of the virtues of staying in college for four years. Jim agreed. Jim, of course, agreed. “He’s got a better chance of playing in the NBA and has a degree.” Brad said “It’s all about you, coach.” JB: “it was about his and Hop’s hard work.”
A caller wanted to know how a coach can improve a player’s shooting. JB: “It’s hard to change mechanics Lawrence Moten came here holding the ball in his palm. I took it out of his palm and he became a great shooter. Players shoot 300-400 shots a day. Larry Bird used to shoot for 45-60 minutes straight before every game. And he was the greatest shooter in the game. “
“Our practices take only 2 hours- we’re allowed three. But players come into shoot and that doesn’t count against the limit. Ron Patterson starts slow and them makes 19 of 20. Stevie Thompson had a mechanical flaw. He’d make 90 out of 100 but miss 5 of the first 6. Players get a rhythm going. But in games you only get 1-2 shots at a time and you can’t get a rhythm going. Ron is in better condition than last year. He worked all summer on his shot. Demetris Nichols shot 18% from three as a sophomore but jumped to 35% as a junior and then 40% as a senior. We pride ourselves in our players getting better as they work with us.”
“It was impressive that Rak hadn’t been at the line the whole second half and he was able to win the game for us. 90% of the time in that situation, you’ll lose the game.“
Lenny in Syracuse praised the play were we dribble penetrate along the baseline and dish. JB: “It’s good movement with multiple passes. Sometimes we try it with one pass and it doesn’t work. It catches the defense off a bit. When you ar struggling to shoot you want to get as close to the basket as possible.”
Tom wanted to know why we get so many touch fouls called against us. “Maybe you should take your jacket off.” JB: “We need to get to the line more. We got 7 foul shots to 16, (actually 10 to 15). We were behind vs. Virginia Tech until they started fouling us at the end.”
Tom also asked how to pronounce Chinoso Obokoh’s name. Jim pronounces it something like “Oh-Bake”. It didn’t seem quite right to me. Tom asked how he was coming along. JB “He’s getting better. He can’t hang in with the big guys. He lost sitting out for a year. . He needs to be better defensively. That was the thing about Baye. He was so good defensively. We’d have won 1-2 more games with him. “ He was asked about the decision to redshirt DaJuan Coleman. “We had to make the decision by the end of December. He would have taken another month to get into basketball shape. He’ll need a full season to get his game back up. He’ll benefit from having a full year and then an extra year after that.”
This led to my second question about whether someone could work his way into the rotation at this time a year by what he shows in practice. “There’s still a chance. We monitor BJ in practice. He’s very thin which hurts him on the boards and he can’t play the 2 yet. Mike’s playing great. Chris has been a good presence at center. We’ll be playing three games in a week. Rak will get tired or banged up. Chinoso is getting there defensively and he can help us in that situation.”
“Florida State is big. They’re playing very well. They made changes in their line-up and are now playing very well.”
So I survived asking my two questions. JB at Delmonico’s is a different guy than JB at the post game presser.
The first hour is eventually, (it can take weeks) podcasted on the SU Athletics website on this page:
http://suathletics.com/podcasts.aspx
(Update: the last podcast is a preview of the first Duke game from last year so maybe they have stopped podcasting the show. )
You can call into the show locally at 315-424-8599 or nationally at 1-888-746-2873. For Gomez’s portion, use 315-4424-8599. Or you can submit questions from this page:
http://cuse.com/sb_output.aspx?form=4
The show can be heard in Syracuse on FM 99.5. It’s sometime simulcast on AM 1200 or FM 97.7. You can also get it on: http://tunein.com/radio/WGVA-1240-s29191/
I will be posting my rough transcript the night of the broadcast focusing on my questions, the team and their last and next games and then a second post the next day on other things that were discussed.
MY QUESTIONS/COMMENTS
First hour:
“Coach, in his first eight games, Chris McCullough hit 57% of his shots. In the last seven games he’s hit only 25%. Did the issue of whether he could be an NBA lottery pick affect his confidence or cause him to try too hard to make big plays?”
Second hour:
“Coach, normally in the pre-conference season you get to play a lot of guys because we are so much better than most of the teams we play. This year, almost all the games have been a challenge and you’ve gone with the guys you felt gave us the best chance to win those games. It would be nice to develop Chinoso Obokoh as a back-up center and BJ Johnson as another option off the bench. Is it too late to do that or could they still earn some playing time by what they show you in practice?”
COACH BOEHEIM
(I have, in some instances, put together statements from different parts of the broadcast on the same subject)
Matt congratulated the coach on the wins over the two Techs. JB: “The bottom line is to win but we’ve got another game coming up and we’re not going to continue to win if we play like we did in the second half at Virginia Tech or the whole game at Georgia Tech. You have to keep thinking about what’s next. In a game you think about the next play. It doesn’t matter what happened- good or bad- leading up to that.”
“In 2003 we played a game against Miami where we were down 46-49 with nine minutes left and won 54-49. We held them scoreless for 9 minutes. Last night it was 8:50. You can bounce back from a game like that. That 2003 team did pretty good. Gerry was 1 for 10 from the field and Carmelo wasn’t making much, either. Players know you can play better.”
This warmed him for a subject that was clearly on his mind because it had been on everybody else’s mind. “It’s not good to tell player they played OK if they didn’t. Kaleb had 3-4 good penetrations for dishes but he was 0 for 2 and had two defensive lapses. Ron Patterson played very well defensively. We’ve got to have other people step up on the offensive end. If Rak didn’t shoot 50% then he didn’t get the shots he needs. Trevor has been missing lay-ups for the last two games. He’s jumping in the air- what’s he thinking? Mike has been solid but we need other people to move forward. Rak’s free throws were big. We’ve had 85% shooters missing in a situation like that. We were fortunate we had a foul to give because Georges-Hunt was free. Then they got the rebound and we were very fortunate.”
This set up my first question, which he was glad I asked. “No matter what somebody says- somebody’s an All-America or he’s terrible- it doesn’t affect his play. If it does, he’ll never become a good player. He’s got to play before 10,000 people. If he can’t handle being judged, he’ll never make it. Players don’t think like that. They just play.”
“When Chris was playing well, he was more active. He got rebounds. No he’s catching and shooting jump shots. He’s got to be more active and move better. He made a good post move, spun and just missed. He missed three lay=ups and 3 free throws. If he’d just made those he’d have 10-11 points. We got spoiled early with his great play. He was in Carmelo territory, getting 15 points and 10 rebounds a game. He was better than Hakim at that stage. I was watching him and saying “Boy, he played great….Chris shoots well in practice.“ Gomez later wondered if Chris’s problem was that once opposing coaches got tape on him, they were able to make defensive adjustments. JB: “I don’t think so. They knew he was good. He was moving better, getting around the basket better, rebounding better. He was getting baskets around the rim, with the occasional jumper. He needs more activity, more movement and more production.
“Kaleb has had some good games. He played well at Villanova. We need just a little more offense from him, 5-6 points a game, and for him to clean up his defense. Ronnie, if he could make a jump shot sooner or later, that could get him going….He could be pressing. He might relax more if he played more minutes. But Trevor plays on Rak’s side and if he wasn’t there, his man would help on Rakeem and he wouldn’t have room to make those moves. That’s the impact of great shooters. It was the same with McNamara and Rautins. Rakeem hit 72% in his last eight conference games before this. If he was just a little closer to the basket, he’d shoot 60% in this one, too. I thought he’d make a big jump. He has even a little bit more room to expand.”
I thanked the coach and wished him luck “getting those tent poles up”. He laughed. Matt suggest this was not the night to put up a tent.
Later Gomez noted that Tom Izzo, whose Michigan State team was playing Iowa, was particularly animated on the sidelines. He commented that fans applaud such intensity during games but then criticize it in a post-game press conference. JB: “He’s an intense guy, a tremendous coach. Michigan State always keeps coming at you….People are watching and paying attention to too many things. People don’t realize that there’s a price to pay to win. I’m not as tough or as harsh as I used to be. It’s a give and take that’s been going on for years.
Another frequent caller, Pat, suggested to the coach that our best line-up was Gbinije, Cooney, and Roberson, Christmas and McCullough across the front line. JB: “Trevor is a 2. Mike is not a 1 but he’s comfortable there. Chris and Tyler are both 4’s. They need to be within 10-15 feet of the basket to operate. If we put both of them in there, their defenders would help out on Rak. We need Kaleb to play better. Mike plays well at the 3. Tyler can give us action off the bench. Chris is effective giving Rakeem a rest at center.”
A caller named Mike wanted to know the chances of anybody going undefeated this year, considering all the close games and how will we compete against Duke, Louisville and Virginia. Coach felt Kentucky has a real chance based on their crushing wins over Kansas and UCLA. But the close games make him “not so sure”. He said “All our conference games will be difficult. Wake Forest is a lot better than people thought. Clemson led at halftime vs. Louisville. We’ll have to play extremely well against Duke =, Virginia and Louisville.”
Matt, tongue in cheek, asked who the best playing coach in the ACC was. JB: “It’s not even close- Danny Manning.”
Brad called in and wanted to know who the team leader was “coming out of the locker room”. JB: “The coaches. This is not an emotional team. Last year’s team didn’t have a vocal guy, either. Players look up to the upper-classmen. Rakeem is a leader through his play. Players need to react to how he works. This is not a great shooting team. We have to grind it out when we’re not shooting well, everybody must work a little harder. Some tams can’t push the limit, just can’t get there.”
Brad suggested that Rakeem Christmas was an example of the virtues of staying in college for four years. Jim agreed. Jim, of course, agreed. “He’s got a better chance of playing in the NBA and has a degree.” Brad said “It’s all about you, coach.” JB: “it was about his and Hop’s hard work.”
A caller wanted to know how a coach can improve a player’s shooting. JB: “It’s hard to change mechanics Lawrence Moten came here holding the ball in his palm. I took it out of his palm and he became a great shooter. Players shoot 300-400 shots a day. Larry Bird used to shoot for 45-60 minutes straight before every game. And he was the greatest shooter in the game. “
“Our practices take only 2 hours- we’re allowed three. But players come into shoot and that doesn’t count against the limit. Ron Patterson starts slow and them makes 19 of 20. Stevie Thompson had a mechanical flaw. He’d make 90 out of 100 but miss 5 of the first 6. Players get a rhythm going. But in games you only get 1-2 shots at a time and you can’t get a rhythm going. Ron is in better condition than last year. He worked all summer on his shot. Demetris Nichols shot 18% from three as a sophomore but jumped to 35% as a junior and then 40% as a senior. We pride ourselves in our players getting better as they work with us.”
“It was impressive that Rak hadn’t been at the line the whole second half and he was able to win the game for us. 90% of the time in that situation, you’ll lose the game.“
Lenny in Syracuse praised the play were we dribble penetrate along the baseline and dish. JB: “It’s good movement with multiple passes. Sometimes we try it with one pass and it doesn’t work. It catches the defense off a bit. When you ar struggling to shoot you want to get as close to the basket as possible.”
Tom wanted to know why we get so many touch fouls called against us. “Maybe you should take your jacket off.” JB: “We need to get to the line more. We got 7 foul shots to 16, (actually 10 to 15). We were behind vs. Virginia Tech until they started fouling us at the end.”
Tom also asked how to pronounce Chinoso Obokoh’s name. Jim pronounces it something like “Oh-Bake”. It didn’t seem quite right to me. Tom asked how he was coming along. JB “He’s getting better. He can’t hang in with the big guys. He lost sitting out for a year. . He needs to be better defensively. That was the thing about Baye. He was so good defensively. We’d have won 1-2 more games with him. “ He was asked about the decision to redshirt DaJuan Coleman. “We had to make the decision by the end of December. He would have taken another month to get into basketball shape. He’ll need a full season to get his game back up. He’ll benefit from having a full year and then an extra year after that.”
This led to my second question about whether someone could work his way into the rotation at this time a year by what he shows in practice. “There’s still a chance. We monitor BJ in practice. He’s very thin which hurts him on the boards and he can’t play the 2 yet. Mike’s playing great. Chris has been a good presence at center. We’ll be playing three games in a week. Rak will get tired or banged up. Chinoso is getting there defensively and he can help us in that situation.”
“Florida State is big. They’re playing very well. They made changes in their line-up and are now playing very well.”
So I survived asking my two questions. JB at Delmonico’s is a different guy than JB at the post game presser.
.