	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FINAL FOUR

March 31, 2016

Jim Boeheim

Houston, Texas

THE MODERATOR: We're joined now, ladies and gentlemen, by Jim Boeheim, the coach of the Syracuse Orange. We'll ask to start with an opening statement.

COACH BOEHEIM: It's exciting to be here and be part of the Final Four again. It's a tremendous experience for our players. I couldn't be happier for what they've accomplished.

THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for Coach Boeheim.

Q. When you look at this run in the tournament, how big of a factor is the play of the two Tylers, and Coleman, have been, and also how important are they going up against North Carolina Saturday night?
COACH BOEHEIM: You know, our team, as I think you know, it's seven guys. We really need all hands on deck. We can't be successful in a game situation that we don't have all our guys. Obviously the frontline guys, even more so, against Carolina with their size, ability that they have.

But we're really a team that has gotten here with all guys. We need something from all of them. They've produced that in this tournament.

Q. Tyler and Malachi won a state title together. Have you ever heard of or coached guys that made a Final Four that also won a state title together in high school? Can you talk about the two of them a little. Also, how would you have reacted if the NCAA told you you were in the tournament, then told you it was a mistake afterwards as they did with South Carolina?
COACH BOEHEIM: I don't know the last part. I'm not familiar with what you just said there.

The first part. I don't know if I've ever had anyone that's been on the same state championship team. I'm sure somebody's done it, but I don't know who.

Q. How have you seen Michael Gbinije evolve as a point guard and a leader? What has your role been in the process?
COACH BOEHEIM: He's done the work. Our coaches have done a great job with him. Gerry McNamara, in the course of practice, all the coaches have an effect on him, what he's doing.

He came in as a small forward, kind of a little two, but small forward that was a good shooter and didn't handle the ball very well.

He's evolved. It's an evolution. It's taken time. He's developed into a very good shooter, very good ball handler, an exceptional leader in that he comes to do it every day. He's there every day.

The players on our team look to Trevor and Mike, two guys that come every day, no matter what's happened. When you lose two, three, four in a row, as we did to start the conference season, those two guys come in every day. They get ready to go.

It's been great for our younger players to see that. I think it's helped them develop that type of attitude, that type of work ethic.

But Mike has really, really worked hard. I mean, his first couple years, we were probably pretty tough on him to get him to understand what he had to do, how much he had to do, how much work he had to do.

He's developed his body. He's worked really hard in the off-season. He's become a very good shooter and ball handler. He's really become a point guard in a lot of ways.

It's been a tremendous evolution. I think he's improved as much or more than any player that I've ever coached.

Q. Mark Coyle made some comments in Syracuse yesterday saying your contract window, which ends in two years, is going to be held up, as expected. You expressed some ambiguity saying you were uncertain when your tenure would end at Syracuse.
COACH BOEHEIM: I disagree. I don't think I've ever said that.

Q. You said nobody knows.
COACH BOEHEIM: Well, nobody knows. It might be this month, yeah, I mean in that way. In other words, it could be.

But I've never had any ambiguity about how long that I was going to coach.

Q. So you have no plan to go further than the two years after this?
COACH BOEHEIM: I have no plans.

Q. Do you have any plans if you win this to walk away?
COACH BOEHEIM: I have no plans on that.

I've always thought you should walk away when you can't win anymore. I never really thought you should walk away when you do win.

Q. Your Final Four appearances have been really spread out. What does it mean now to have a couple of guys like Trevor Cooney that will represent the program by playing in the Final Four twice for the first time, and you've had talented teams that didn't quite make it, then you've had other teams like '96 and this team, that have put together incredible runs at the end of the year?
COACH BOEHEIM: Just like everybody else that's ever coached for 40 years. You have some teams that do a little better and some teams that do a little worse.

I laugh a little bit when they say, You really did a great coaching job this year. In other words, like I'm better this year than I was last year or two years ago. What am I doing better? What's that all about?

I'm doing the best I can every year. Now, that may not be very good, but it's the best I can do every year.

Some years teams do go further, but that doesn't mean that I'm necessarily doing something better. I mean, I'm doing the best I can, whatever that may be.

I think as coaches, hopefully we get better at what we do as we get experiences with different teams. I know my Olympic experience has been tremendously helpful for me in terms of some things, a lot of things that we do, from the coaches I worked with, Mike obviously, the assistant coaches I've been able to work with, Mike D'Antoni, Nate McMillian, Tom Thibodeau, Monty Williams.

Those experiences have all helped me, as well as the players have helped me with some of the things that they've said or done during the course of the time we've been together, particularly a guy like Jason Kidd when he was with us. Those things all should help make you better.

If we're not getting better at what we're doing, whatever we're doing, you know, you're not doing your job. You should get better.

But I think each year you try to do the best you can. You do the things you do. Some years, you know, you put your team in a press. I've done that. We got our ass beat. Some years you put them in a press and it works. It's a matter of the players.

Hubie Brown once told our team and told me a couple times I've heard him talk, It's the execution that the players do, how they execute, that's going to determine how your coach is perceived.

I learned a lesson one year in my early coaching career. We ran a play at the end of the game and it worked. We won by one. Two weeks later we had the same, similar game, same situation, ran the same play, didn't go in, and I was a shitty coach. That's just the way it works. It's what coaching is.

I think somebody said to me the other day, you know, We all have a job, but very few people have jobs that everybody else thinks they can do better (smiling).

Q. What has this year been like for you personally?
COACH BOEHEIM: I mean, that's a long answer. I'll try to give you the short answer.

We knew the start of the year, I thought we were really going to struggle in practice. Then we went down to Atlantis and beat some really good teams. Six NCAA teams were in that tournament. We played great. We played unbelievable, way better than I thought we could play.

Then we came out of that, came home, got beat by Wisconsin, which at that time was a bad loss. We missed three or four foul shots. We could have won, but we didn't.

Then I got a vacation. We didn't play well at all. I think the first two games we just weren't ready. It was a hard adjustment. Then I think the team played well.

But we just had some tough games. We were at Pitt, at Miami, then Pittsburgh, then Clemson came in. They were playing great, beat us in overtime. Then we obviously came back for North Carolina, they're pretty good. So it was a real tough start there. That was tough.

But then we played the best basketball we played all year at Wake Forest and Duke. We played well at Virginia. Then we came home, played great.

Then the end of the year it's simply a matter of we played at Carolina, at Louisville, at Florida State. Those are the three losses. They said we lost five out of six, those were three and the other two, we can't beat that team. What are we going to do?

They were all close. Carolina we were two down with 40 seconds to go, loose ball, tough play.

Florida State, two down, another close play under the basket. Goes the other way.

Louisville, we're ahead for a while. We're tied late.

So we played good through all those games. In my mind, we were a tournament team. That doesn't mean I wasn't worried about. I was worried about getting in. You always worry about that.

But I knew we had three wins away from home, Duke, Texas A&M, Connecticut, that nobody else had. One other team had those wins on the bubble. Of course, I mean, we had some pretty good home wins. Bonaventure was 30th, Notre Dame at home, Florida State at home. Pretty good wins.

At the end of the year it showed that even teams like Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech are good teams.

So we had a lot of good wins, but to sum it up, it was an up-and-down year. We got into the tournament. We lost to Dayton two years ago. I thought they were really good again. I thought we played really well second half against them, played one of our best games.

Middle Tennessee, even though as everybody knows, that was a break for us, not getting Michigan State, even though they won the game, but it still is going to be looked at as a break. We played a great second half against them. Then we played really well at the end of the Gonzaga game. We played really well at the end of the Virginia game.

For us to continue playing, we're going to have to continue to play better. We're not shooting the ball well in this tournament. Our numbers are not good offensively. Our defense has been good. But we have to play better in this tournament if we want to move forward.

But that's kind of the summary of the season.

Q. In Chicago last week you mentioned losing a couple guys maybe a year before you expected to. Given that, what has it been like to have Trevor Cooney stay as long as he did to help you rebuild? Also, did you have to say anything to him after the Michigan game at the end in the Final Four when he was a freshman, that maybe it was a situation where a couple guys fouled out that he wouldn't have been in otherwise?
COACH BOEHEIM: Yeah, he didn't have a good opportunity in that game. I did not put him in a good situation. It really was hard to even get in a good situation there, given the circumstances.

But with Trevor and Mike, obviously those guys were graduates. If they felt something wasn't good in our program, we weren't doing things right, they could have gone, like some other guys do, someplace else. But they stayed with us. They became I think two of the better leaders we've had in terms of setting the example for young guys in a tough situation.

A lot of times your leaders, you go 27-4, how much do your leaders have to really step up? You're having a pretty good year. There's not much adversity. We maybe lost one game we shouldn't have in there.

This team has had a lot of opportunities where they could have gotten real down, been in a tough situation, especially with three freshmen. Our center has not played in three years. Really, it's almost like four freshmen out there.

Trevor and Mike have been unbelievable through this whole thing. Trevor's probably gotten more criticism than any player I've ever coached in terms of people in Syracuse.

But, you know, you have great fans, and you have about 1% of idiots. He knows that. He understands that.

Q. There's so much attention and pressure put on coaches to either get to the Final Four or get that national title. You and Roy both had Final Four appearances before your First National titles. What does that mean for a coach? Also, do you remember what you said to Roy after the 2003 championship game?
COACH BOEHEIM: Yeah, I said, I remember, I said, You'll win one. Didn't tell him he'd win two. I hope I didn't make him think he could win three. Same thing Bob Knight said to me. He said, You'll win one of these one of these days in '87. He didn't tell me it was going to be 16 years, but he did say that to me.

You know, when you win the national championship, as far as me, everybody is different, everyone has their own thoughts, but I think if you can win a national championship in coaching, I don't care if you coach 50 years, it's good. Everything's good.

It's kind of like if one of you guys could win the Pulitzer prize, you'd be happy, wouldn't you? Would you have to win two? I probably shouldn't bring that up in this room (laughter).

Q. I was wondering if there was a moment where Richardson and Lydon, where everything clicked for them in terms of fitting into the rotation?
COACH BOEHEIM: I wish I could tell you. They start out the year in Atlantis like seniors. They played really the best they played all year. Tyler Lydon was, I think, 15-8 in Atlantis. I'm thinking, We got a superstar here right now. Malachi did about the same thing. Then Tyler came back and took about four shots in the next 10 games or something.

But I think the last 12 to 14 games, whatever it was, Tyler Lydon averaged 14 or close to that, averaged good numbers, blocked a lot of shots. I'm sure he blocked more shots in this tournament than any player we've ever had. If he didn't, it's got to be close to it. 17, I don't know, crazy numbers for a skinny kid that everybody said in Syracuse said he can't play center. I guess he proved them wrong.

But Malachi has been good all year. He's had his ups and downs like most freshman. He had a bad tournament going until we needed him. When we needed him, he was there. He had arguably one of the best halves of basketball that any player's had in this tournament or many other tournaments, what he did.

Q. Your players have been talking throughout the tournament about proving people wrong. They seem to really enjoy that. How much have you enjoyed this run in that regard?
COACH BOEHEIM: Honestly, I don't think about that anymore. I probably did 20 years ago or 10 or whatever. I just want these guys to keep winning, have fun, enjoy it. It's great for them. I think it's always great for your program when you win.

I mean, you talk to recruits. They listen a little bit more when you're winning, when you're going places.

But, you know, I stopped trying to prove people wrong a long time ago.

Q. When you look back at the sanctions that you underwent, what do you feel the impact has been or will be going forward, and what is your evaluation of that situation as you review it?
COACH BOEHEIM: I thought the words of one of the ex-members of the committee said the other day were good. I thought they're not trying to punish, cripple you, they're giving you a punishment. If it hurts you, it hurts you. That's life.

I was surprised to read this a little bit. They're not trying to intentionally do that. I'm not entirely sure that's true, but that's what he said.

I think the punishments are real. Losing scholarships is never a good thing. You need guys. We may only play eight or nine guys, but we usually have 12 or 13 and try to figure out who. It's a guessing game in recruiting sometimes.

But that hurts.

I think being out nine games is a severe punishment for a coach. If you don't think that, you just don't know it, you haven't been through it. It's a severe punishment.

Losing the games is the most irritating thing to me because there's many situations and past cases where similar things, exact same things happen, and games were not taken away.

We presented all that stuff. But, you know, nobody listened. But that was the thing that probably bothered me as much as anything.

Things can happen in your program. You have to take responsibility for them. You have to go on.

I've coached 40 years. Yeah, you know, that's something that I regret. I'm not happy about. I don't think we gained any competitive advantage at any time in this whole case that we've been through for 10 years. I think it weighed on us for 10 years and affected recruiting for 10 years. That's just part of the punishment.

But when they say 'cheating,' that's not true. Rules being broken is a lot different. Cheating to me is intentionally doing something, like you wanted to get this recruit, you arranged a job for him, or you went to see him when you shouldn't. You called him when you shouldn't to gain an edge in recruiting, to get a really good player. That's cheating.

I think if something happens that you're not aware of, it doesn't really affect the recruit, I don't look at it the same way. It's a violation. I think when rules are violated, there should be a punishment.

You can always disagree with how an interpretation is made by a committee in this case that's different from this case that's different from this case over here. That's one of the problems.

It's an imperfect system. Someone who is on the committee came to me and said, We have a horrible, horrible model here.

That's not from me, so...

Did I answer that? Okay.

Q. Playing in your dome, how much do you think that will help you playing in this dome? Do you think zone helps playing in the big buildings?
COACH BOEHEIM: I don't think so. I've seen people come into our building and shoot 60%. I saw a kid from Charlotte come in and make 11 threes against us in the dome. Guys that can shoot can shoot anywhere. They can shoot outdoors. It doesn't matter.

I don't think it matters. We've all played in big buildings. Yeah, I don't think that makes a big difference.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much, coach.

COACH BOEHEIM: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297