Jim Boeheim Good Quotations

None of these games are really upsets, like Wichita State or George Mason winning, because if you watch them they are really good teams. There's so much equity it's scary. Remember back in November when we said how good Drexel was and couldn't believe that was the sixth or seventh place team in the Colonial? Well, that's where they finished.

Guard play has always been key. When you have good guard play, you'll always be alright in basketball. Good guard play is so crucial to everything you do on both ends of the court.

This was a good game for us. I like St. Rose. They get very good movement, they really tested us in some things. Defensively, that will help us. We didn't do a good job on the boards and had some really bad turnovers. Our young guys are going to make mistakes. You expect that.

He got guys like Dave Bing to come to Syracuse at a time when the program was really down, ... He made me realize that the foundation for any good team is good players. There isn't a coach in the Hall of Fame who didn't have good players on his teams.

I was a little surprised we were able to get back in it so quickly. We just started off the game so poorly on both sides of the ball - defense and offense - and that's not a good way to start.

Jim and I talked before the game (Monday) about this. It just doesn't make sense. Too many good teams. It's too difficult to stack the deck against people.

I think they're a very good defensive team. If you watched the game, you know why he wasn't in the game. Gerry could not make plays.

I think some kids will get to college and realize it might be good to be here for two years or three. It's a good rule. I think it will prove to be beneficial to everybody in the long run.

We just didn't do a good job on the boards in the first half. We did a better job in the second half.

We've got some really good teams. It's going to take a major upset for somebody to beat Connecticut. And three or four of our other teams are good enough to make a Final Four, maybe five.

We didn't do a very good job on the offensive glass.

We're not really doing a good job of getting our offense going, getting rhythm and getting the ball to our shooters.

We feel that we can play with them, we feel we can play with anybody. They're as good as anybody.

We're not a high turnover team. We take care of the ball well in games. I think we're a little bit unsure offensively and everyone's trying too hard to make something happen. But we have to get better movement. In the second half, we got a little better movement and a little better spacing and we got some real good possessions.

The top teams are always going to have a rivalry. Connecticut is more of a big rivalry for us now because they've been so good. Now Georgetown's coming back, they'll be good again and that'll be a big rivalry game. It's the good teams that are rivals.

The good thing about New York was that we had good balance. That's something that we didn't have last year. With Hakim and Gerry, we just didn't have the balance that we do this year.

We didn't have quite enough patience on offense. When we got shots and really we got some good ones, and in the second half we got a lot of good ones. We just didn't make anything.

Roy was a great motivator, a guy with great energy, ... He was a very good practice coach. He had a way of keeping everybody enthusiastic and fired up every day, and that's important when you are dealing with a long season like you do in basketball.

Defensively, we did a good job, as well as you could expect at this stage of the year. We really helped each other. Our inside guys did a nice job. We really didn't give them too many open looks. We were very good.

They did a good job on him. They made him work for everything. He couldn't get any penetration.

They could be in third place with a little luck. That's how close the league is. The difference is so minute between teams. Look at West Virginia, (they've had) one after the other of close, tough games, and as good as Connecticut is, against Pitt, it's a one-point game late at home. It makes for great games, I guess.

In the old days, when the Big East and ACC had nine teams, we'd get six in. That's 66 percent. I'm not good at math, but nine out of 16 is less than 66 percent.

Gerry had as good a four games here as anybody I've ever seen. He just wanted to win.

Gerry has a pretty badly bruised thigh, but I think the rest will be good and he'll be able to come back next week.

Gerry's got a pretty badly bruised thigh, but I think this rest will be good and he'll be able to come back next week.

It's nice to be back for such a good cause. There's no question it's nice to be back to work.

You can't let him get loose. He showed what he can do when it gets open by hitting those two threes in the second half. For the most part, we did a good job of not letting him get set.

You can't let him get open. When he got open he made two (three-pointers). I thought we did a good job of finding him and not letting him get set.

It will be a great tournament to watch. It's always been good, but never this good ... There will be some unbelievable games in the next few weeks.

We had to give it a lot tonight. We've played a lot of basketball. We're just going to have to get ready and be ready to play Monday night. West Virginia's playing as good as anybody. It's a tremendous test, a tremendous game for us.

This team showed more heart and guts than any team I've ever coached. And Gerry had as good a four days as anyone I've ever seen.

They're a very good defensive team, and they deserved to win the basketball game.

I believe his achievements are more than many people realize. He's going to finish his career in some pretty good company.

I don't think the overall identity of the conference has changed. We've been a good conference, and we are a good conference. There's more teams, I guess that's the change. The only thing that people really think about conferences is who the best teams are. We're going to have a lot of the best teams, like we always do.