SWC75
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Jim Boeheim’s radio show is on Thursdays from 7-8 or 9PM on ESPN Radio in Syracuse, which is AM1200 or FM 97.7 on the dial. The show originates from the Cavalier Room at the Marriott in Downtown 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.
You can call into the show locally at 315-424-8599 or nationally at 1-888-746-2873. For Gomez’s portion, use 315-424-8599. Or you can submit questions from this page:
Submit a Question!
Or on Twitter at mattpark1 or “askBoeheim”.
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: WGVA
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
1st Hour: “Coach, in the press conference after the Wake Forest game a reporter implied that our improved rebounding in the second half was due to greater effort on the player’s part. You made it clear that there were other factors involved. Fans are quick to attribute poor performance to quantity of effort rather than quality of effort. What should we look for as we watch a game to determine the difference?“
2nd Hour: “Coach, in the Notre Dame game our players had a hard time finishing drives to the basket. It wasn’t just one guy. We missed enough lay-ups, dunks and tip-ins to have stayed in that game if we’d made them. Were these misses due to physical limitations, poor technique, indecision or something else?”
COACH BOEHEIM
(I have, in some instances, put together statements from different parts of the broadcast on the same subject. In recent years they have started out doing one hour shows and then shifted to two hour shows in January. When they do two hour shows. I will do two posts: one on the night of the broadcast on the issues directly relating to the team on the other the next days on other things that were talked about.)
PART ONE
Coach on Wake Forest: “We needed the win. Wake Forest is a solid team. We got off to a slow start on offense for 30 minutes and then played the best offense we’ve played this year. And our rebounding got better….We haven’t been in close games. We were really good in the last 10-12 minutes. But it won’t be enough. We have to be consistent for 40 minutes. We were a little better against UNC and for quite a while against Notre Dame. This has been much more difficult than would have anticipated. ”
Which was the perfect set up for my first question. JB: Loose balls are always about effort. You might not get it but you must always go after it. Rebounding is different, especially in a zone. The ball seemed to bounce right to Collins in the first half. It didn’t in the second.” (When you get good positioning, it’s amazing how often the ball bounces right to you.). Back to JB: Tyler Lydon and Taurean Thompson did a better job of getting a body on them and made them work more on defense. Taurean kept rolling down and got 16 points in the second half.”
“We’ve got Andrew White playing small forward so we’re not a great rebounding team. We need to make up for that with greater ball movement and by making our threes. You want to get mismatches as we did against Pitt and Miami. It’s hard to get lay-ups but we got some. John Gillon and Tyler Lydon did some good passing Taureen has been great at finishing. Ideally we should be 5-3, not 4-4. Our three home games have been outliers- we’ve been better at both ends than in any road game.” (Four, including Boston College).
“Our problems came in pre-season. We couldn’t get the new guys to play together. I don’t think we really don’t ever hustle. The new group doesn’t know what to do. But they’re getting better. You get two seniors form another program. It’s easier in some ways to deal with freshmen. At Colorado State John Gillon was taught “put your head down and go to the basket”. You can’t do that in our league….it’s harder to coach 5th year seniors than freshmen It’s like we have four freshmen and a sophomore. That’s pretty young. The hardest positon is point guard, where we’ve got the equivalent of two freshmen and a sophomore. Of course, if you’ve got all these new parts, you have a chance to get better. If a veteran team is struggling, they might not get better….I don’t know that it’s chemistry. Its learning different offenses and defenses. We dominated the bad teams. When you don’t dominate, you need to play right….We’ve always been a good road team. We won the most road games in big east history- by a mile.”
Liam in Pompey complained that “the officials tried to give the game to Wake. Roberson couldn’t catch a break.” JB: “You’ve got to play through the bad calls”. Liam wanted to know how the preparation for Florida State was going, noting their 56-78 loss at Georgia Tech. Coach said “It was their first bad game. They will bounce back. They are a really team and it will be a tough game.”
Matt asked about Tyus Battle’s late foul. JB: “It was a difficult situation. If you wait too long they could call an intentional foul or a shooting foul. We are trying to prevent the 3. You’d like some time to go off. It’s the best way to win a game. When Duke was here, (2014), we didn’t foul and they hit a three. I’ve seen too many shots go in. if you foul them the only way they can avoid losing is to make the first, miss the second and get the round. I’ve seen that happen, too. We used to get a lot of offensive rebounds with big guys who couldn’t shoot fouls…. We aren’t supposed to be a good free throw shooting team but over the years we’ve made more than the other teams have attempted. Derrick Coleman once dunked in three straight misses. We got 6 points on those instead of 3….Fouls are usually even at the end of games unless you have to foul late like Notre Dame. “
Matt asked some question about emptying your bench at the end of games, which I didn’t quite understand. Jim told of a game where he sent in three walk-ons to play with 2 starters. He had to send the other starters in when a 16 point lead turned into 4, so whatever Matt was suggesting wasn’t a good idea.
Matt in New York City asked how our players were doing along the back line of the zone and in the press. JB: “We’re not good in the back line of the press so we don’t do it much. Taurean is better at center than forward so we go with that. Tyler Lydon is our best defensive center and our best defensive forward. Taurean may have to play forward next year.” (Implying that either Chukwu or one of the new comers will be the center: I don’t think he expects Lydon to be back or he’d still be talking aobut playing Tyler and Taurean in tandem the way he is this year.)
Matt noted that we’d come out of a time out in the press against Wake and scored immediately. JB: “We use it sparingly. We prefer the half-court trap.”
Matt mentioned that Georgia Tech had beaten Florida State. JB: “By a lot. I don’t think people thought they could win more than a game but they are 4-4, just like us. Josh Okogie is one of the best freshmen in the country. He does everything. Their big man, (Ben Lammers), is really good, too.” Matt Park noted that we are going two see two more of the best freshmen in the country in the next two games: Jonathan Isaac of Florida State and Dennis Smith of NC State, whom Jim described as “Chris Paul at the same stage with a jump shot”.
Gomez suggested that the ACC is “one of the deepest conferences ever”. JB: “It’s pretty deep."
"Boston College beat Miami and Georgia Tech beat North Carolina and Florida State. When your bottom teams are that good it’s a tough conference.” Can the teams ranked 20-50 beat the top 20? “Easily. Georgia Tech wasn’t top 100, although I guess they will be now. NC State is top 40”
I called in my second question- about finishing drives to the basket. “”We’ve made all our lay-ups at home. The basket is the same height- 10 feet on the road. It’s the same players with the same bodies. We missed four lay-ups in the first half against Notre Dame and could have been even at halftime. The same thing happened at North Carolina and Boston College. You can’t do that and win unless you are really good and even if you are really good you’d better not do that. We missed some easy ones. Taurean missed an easy one at Notre Dame. Tyler Roberson missed a lay-up and a dunk. Tyus missed one. This is why we have a bad road record. …It’s not technique. If you are a scholarship player, you should be able to make a lay-up. We work on it in every practice. If there’s a 7 footer changing your shot that’s one thing. But he’s not there. We missed very easy ones. It would be nice if they would miss some for us, but they don’t. Kentucky missed a couple of easy ones at the end vs. Tennessee.” Gomez asked if we try to dunk more than we need to. JB: “Just get the ball in the basket.”
Drew asked how the defense is coming along. JB: “the defense is progressing but we’ve got to get better. We’re not there yet defensively. We continue to work on it. It’s bene disappointing, particularly on the road.” Drew suggested that playing good defense leads to better offense. JB agreed. “When they make a basket, you don’t get down the court very fast.”
Gomez said he’d re-watched the Virginia game and was still amazed we pulled that off. Jim: “They’d beaten us so many ways in that game and before. We got two steals from the press. They had a missed shot and a turnover. It was a huge upset. They were 16-0 when leading by 12 points at halftime.” (I’ll bet we are, too.) It’s not like coming back against a normal team. It’s the biggest upset turnaround we’ve ever had. It’s hard to get to the Final Four. If you are down most of the game, they are probably the better team. It was a great feeling to beat them”.
Todd in Oswego asked the couch to compare our defensive approach vs. Wake Forest and Florida State. JB: “Florida State has got a lot of weapons. I’d like to see another bad shooting game out of them but it’s unlikely. They are a legitimate top ten team.
Pat wondered if we can combat Florida State’s size by using out bigs to “pull them out”. Coach: We’ve played our big guys up high all year. We’ll mix it up to open up the court. They are big, strong and physical. We need to get back to keep them out of transition and make them make tough shots. “
Pat made reference to that quote from “Bleeding Orange” about how a strong fans base is important to help a strong program get over the off years:
Read Bleeding Orange
JB: “Recruits and players look at the fan base. It’s huge. I’ve talked about it after games and at banquets. “Jim and Gomez started talking about the loudness of the crowds at the Dome. Jim said that one of the loudest was for an NIT game. (This had to have been the 1981 Michigan game, when we made the first 16 shots of the second half and most of them would be three pointers today – the loudest I’ve ever heard the Dome for a basketball game and the crowd was only 16,000.) “Georgia Tech had a full house for the Florida State game. Recruits don’t come if you don’t have fans in the building.” Pat joked “It’s a good thing we don’t need the media to perform as well.” JB: “If they don’t come to the games they aren’t fans. Most fans are great 99% of them. it’s not the same with the media- maybe 98%.”
Myles in Albany wanted to know the prognosis on Paschal Chukwu and whether he could help us this season. Can he get a redshirt year? JB: “He’s already used his redshirt year. He still needs another procedure on his eye. If he came back it would be in the last week at best and he’d have to wear goggles. I wouldn’t want him to risk it if he’s not fully healthy. He had 14 blocks in 7 games playing 10 minutes a game. He can help us defensively next year.”
Someone sent in a question: “What teams do you most want to beat on the way out?” JB: “We want to beat some good teams this year. We will be OK next year. We have a couple of big guys coming in who will help us and we’ll get a couple more guys who will help us.”
You can call into the show locally at 315-424-8599 or nationally at 1-888-746-2873. For Gomez’s portion, use 315-424-8599. Or you can submit questions from this page:
Submit a Question!
Or on Twitter at mattpark1 or “askBoeheim”.
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: WGVA
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
1st Hour: “Coach, in the press conference after the Wake Forest game a reporter implied that our improved rebounding in the second half was due to greater effort on the player’s part. You made it clear that there were other factors involved. Fans are quick to attribute poor performance to quantity of effort rather than quality of effort. What should we look for as we watch a game to determine the difference?“
2nd Hour: “Coach, in the Notre Dame game our players had a hard time finishing drives to the basket. It wasn’t just one guy. We missed enough lay-ups, dunks and tip-ins to have stayed in that game if we’d made them. Were these misses due to physical limitations, poor technique, indecision or something else?”
COACH BOEHEIM
(I have, in some instances, put together statements from different parts of the broadcast on the same subject. In recent years they have started out doing one hour shows and then shifted to two hour shows in January. When they do two hour shows. I will do two posts: one on the night of the broadcast on the issues directly relating to the team on the other the next days on other things that were talked about.)
PART ONE
Coach on Wake Forest: “We needed the win. Wake Forest is a solid team. We got off to a slow start on offense for 30 minutes and then played the best offense we’ve played this year. And our rebounding got better….We haven’t been in close games. We were really good in the last 10-12 minutes. But it won’t be enough. We have to be consistent for 40 minutes. We were a little better against UNC and for quite a while against Notre Dame. This has been much more difficult than would have anticipated. ”
Which was the perfect set up for my first question. JB: Loose balls are always about effort. You might not get it but you must always go after it. Rebounding is different, especially in a zone. The ball seemed to bounce right to Collins in the first half. It didn’t in the second.” (When you get good positioning, it’s amazing how often the ball bounces right to you.). Back to JB: Tyler Lydon and Taurean Thompson did a better job of getting a body on them and made them work more on defense. Taurean kept rolling down and got 16 points in the second half.”
“We’ve got Andrew White playing small forward so we’re not a great rebounding team. We need to make up for that with greater ball movement and by making our threes. You want to get mismatches as we did against Pitt and Miami. It’s hard to get lay-ups but we got some. John Gillon and Tyler Lydon did some good passing Taureen has been great at finishing. Ideally we should be 5-3, not 4-4. Our three home games have been outliers- we’ve been better at both ends than in any road game.” (Four, including Boston College).
“Our problems came in pre-season. We couldn’t get the new guys to play together. I don’t think we really don’t ever hustle. The new group doesn’t know what to do. But they’re getting better. You get two seniors form another program. It’s easier in some ways to deal with freshmen. At Colorado State John Gillon was taught “put your head down and go to the basket”. You can’t do that in our league….it’s harder to coach 5th year seniors than freshmen It’s like we have four freshmen and a sophomore. That’s pretty young. The hardest positon is point guard, where we’ve got the equivalent of two freshmen and a sophomore. Of course, if you’ve got all these new parts, you have a chance to get better. If a veteran team is struggling, they might not get better….I don’t know that it’s chemistry. Its learning different offenses and defenses. We dominated the bad teams. When you don’t dominate, you need to play right….We’ve always been a good road team. We won the most road games in big east history- by a mile.”
Liam in Pompey complained that “the officials tried to give the game to Wake. Roberson couldn’t catch a break.” JB: “You’ve got to play through the bad calls”. Liam wanted to know how the preparation for Florida State was going, noting their 56-78 loss at Georgia Tech. Coach said “It was their first bad game. They will bounce back. They are a really team and it will be a tough game.”
Matt asked about Tyus Battle’s late foul. JB: “It was a difficult situation. If you wait too long they could call an intentional foul or a shooting foul. We are trying to prevent the 3. You’d like some time to go off. It’s the best way to win a game. When Duke was here, (2014), we didn’t foul and they hit a three. I’ve seen too many shots go in. if you foul them the only way they can avoid losing is to make the first, miss the second and get the round. I’ve seen that happen, too. We used to get a lot of offensive rebounds with big guys who couldn’t shoot fouls…. We aren’t supposed to be a good free throw shooting team but over the years we’ve made more than the other teams have attempted. Derrick Coleman once dunked in three straight misses. We got 6 points on those instead of 3….Fouls are usually even at the end of games unless you have to foul late like Notre Dame. “
Matt asked some question about emptying your bench at the end of games, which I didn’t quite understand. Jim told of a game where he sent in three walk-ons to play with 2 starters. He had to send the other starters in when a 16 point lead turned into 4, so whatever Matt was suggesting wasn’t a good idea.
Matt in New York City asked how our players were doing along the back line of the zone and in the press. JB: “We’re not good in the back line of the press so we don’t do it much. Taurean is better at center than forward so we go with that. Tyler Lydon is our best defensive center and our best defensive forward. Taurean may have to play forward next year.” (Implying that either Chukwu or one of the new comers will be the center: I don’t think he expects Lydon to be back or he’d still be talking aobut playing Tyler and Taurean in tandem the way he is this year.)
Matt noted that we’d come out of a time out in the press against Wake and scored immediately. JB: “We use it sparingly. We prefer the half-court trap.”
Matt mentioned that Georgia Tech had beaten Florida State. JB: “By a lot. I don’t think people thought they could win more than a game but they are 4-4, just like us. Josh Okogie is one of the best freshmen in the country. He does everything. Their big man, (Ben Lammers), is really good, too.” Matt Park noted that we are going two see two more of the best freshmen in the country in the next two games: Jonathan Isaac of Florida State and Dennis Smith of NC State, whom Jim described as “Chris Paul at the same stage with a jump shot”.
Gomez suggested that the ACC is “one of the deepest conferences ever”. JB: “It’s pretty deep."
"Boston College beat Miami and Georgia Tech beat North Carolina and Florida State. When your bottom teams are that good it’s a tough conference.” Can the teams ranked 20-50 beat the top 20? “Easily. Georgia Tech wasn’t top 100, although I guess they will be now. NC State is top 40”
I called in my second question- about finishing drives to the basket. “”We’ve made all our lay-ups at home. The basket is the same height- 10 feet on the road. It’s the same players with the same bodies. We missed four lay-ups in the first half against Notre Dame and could have been even at halftime. The same thing happened at North Carolina and Boston College. You can’t do that and win unless you are really good and even if you are really good you’d better not do that. We missed some easy ones. Taurean missed an easy one at Notre Dame. Tyler Roberson missed a lay-up and a dunk. Tyus missed one. This is why we have a bad road record. …It’s not technique. If you are a scholarship player, you should be able to make a lay-up. We work on it in every practice. If there’s a 7 footer changing your shot that’s one thing. But he’s not there. We missed very easy ones. It would be nice if they would miss some for us, but they don’t. Kentucky missed a couple of easy ones at the end vs. Tennessee.” Gomez asked if we try to dunk more than we need to. JB: “Just get the ball in the basket.”
Drew asked how the defense is coming along. JB: “the defense is progressing but we’ve got to get better. We’re not there yet defensively. We continue to work on it. It’s bene disappointing, particularly on the road.” Drew suggested that playing good defense leads to better offense. JB agreed. “When they make a basket, you don’t get down the court very fast.”
Gomez said he’d re-watched the Virginia game and was still amazed we pulled that off. Jim: “They’d beaten us so many ways in that game and before. We got two steals from the press. They had a missed shot and a turnover. It was a huge upset. They were 16-0 when leading by 12 points at halftime.” (I’ll bet we are, too.) It’s not like coming back against a normal team. It’s the biggest upset turnaround we’ve ever had. It’s hard to get to the Final Four. If you are down most of the game, they are probably the better team. It was a great feeling to beat them”.
Todd in Oswego asked the couch to compare our defensive approach vs. Wake Forest and Florida State. JB: “Florida State has got a lot of weapons. I’d like to see another bad shooting game out of them but it’s unlikely. They are a legitimate top ten team.
Pat wondered if we can combat Florida State’s size by using out bigs to “pull them out”. Coach: We’ve played our big guys up high all year. We’ll mix it up to open up the court. They are big, strong and physical. We need to get back to keep them out of transition and make them make tough shots. “
Pat made reference to that quote from “Bleeding Orange” about how a strong fans base is important to help a strong program get over the off years:
Read Bleeding Orange
JB: “Recruits and players look at the fan base. It’s huge. I’ve talked about it after games and at banquets. “Jim and Gomez started talking about the loudness of the crowds at the Dome. Jim said that one of the loudest was for an NIT game. (This had to have been the 1981 Michigan game, when we made the first 16 shots of the second half and most of them would be three pointers today – the loudest I’ve ever heard the Dome for a basketball game and the crowd was only 16,000.) “Georgia Tech had a full house for the Florida State game. Recruits don’t come if you don’t have fans in the building.” Pat joked “It’s a good thing we don’t need the media to perform as well.” JB: “If they don’t come to the games they aren’t fans. Most fans are great 99% of them. it’s not the same with the media- maybe 98%.”
Myles in Albany wanted to know the prognosis on Paschal Chukwu and whether he could help us this season. Can he get a redshirt year? JB: “He’s already used his redshirt year. He still needs another procedure on his eye. If he came back it would be in the last week at best and he’d have to wear goggles. I wouldn’t want him to risk it if he’s not fully healthy. He had 14 blocks in 7 games playing 10 minutes a game. He can help us defensively next year.”
Someone sent in a question: “What teams do you most want to beat on the way out?” JB: “We want to beat some good teams this year. We will be OK next year. We have a couple of big guys coming in who will help us and we’ll get a couple more guys who will help us.”
