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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: DETROITMarch 16, 2018Jim BoeheimTyus BattleFrank HowardDetroit, Michigan Syracuse - 57, TCU - 52 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Syracuse. Coach, an opening statement. COACH BOEHEIM: I thought that our defense was really good tonight, the whole game. We just had trouble getting things going on offense. And the last three possessions we just decided to go with Oshae. We thought he had an advantage there. He wasn't having a great game, but it turned out to be the right move. He made three almost impossible shots. But it was our defense. Our defense was tremendous. They're one of the better shooting teams in the country from the 3-point line. And these guys just played. They didn't get any easy shots the whole game. And I thought that was the difference. We did a good job on the boards and didn't turn the ball over. It was a really good win. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the players. Q. Frank, there were a lot of lulls down the stretch, both teams struggling on offense. What did you tell your teammates to keep them in the game, keep them focused? FRANK HOWARD: We just wanted to stay poised down the stretch. We didn't want to get frustrated or start to force anything. They did a great job of keeping our guards out of the paint, kind of levelling up in the paint with the help side. And Marek had a great game today. And Oshae, he was great down the stretch, passed guys, some big free throws again. And kudos to TCU. They played a hard game. But I just think our confidence and poise got us through. Q. You're used to games like this, slow scoring, sometimes a little struggle. Was this the type of game that you were hoping to get with the pace of play and kind of mucking it up? FRANK HOWARD: Nah. No, this wasn't ideal for us. This team is going to fight. Whatever situation we're in, if the pace was a little different, we have to adjust. So Coach did a great job of putting some new schemes in, getting the ball moving better, and putting guys in the right spots. And guys made plays. TYUS BATTLE: Just like Frank said, we would like to score a little bit more than that. They made it tough. They kept us out of the lane. When Frank, Oshae and I all struggled to score the ball, we still come out with a win, that shows you how much guys can step up tonight. And Marek played huge tonight. Q. First couple minutes, the ball was really moving on offense, passes every few seconds. Then it slowed down. Is that something TCU or is that something you guys, just have to keep the ball moving the whole game? TYUS BATTLE: I think it was a mental lapse on our players' fault. We should have kept moving the ball. Once we started moving the ball in the second half we started getting easy shots, easy buckets, cuts to the basket, stuff like that. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach. Q. TCU went 3-of-5 from deep in the first five minutes of the game, didn't make another 3-point shot. Did you adjust how you were playing them from deep? COACH BOEHEIM: No, we just got lucky. We played the same way the whole game. Q. You were talking yesterday about parity in basketball and maybe 16 over 1s. Did you happen to catch the UMBC score? COACH BOEHEIM: I saw the score. This tournament just breaks your heart. The better you are, the more it breaks your heart. And I've been there. I've been in that position. I was looking today through some recount of all the upsets. And I don't know, they didn't have us in there. I was really happy. But all the great teams that get beat, you know, I mean, it's a heartbreaking tournament. That's what it is. That's the only way to describe it. Our league was really hard this year. Virginia could have been 18-0. They had several chances to win that one game they lost. So you know, it's unfortunate. But everything revolves around what you do in this tournament when you're good. When you're not so good, it's good just to get in it. Q. All three of the big guys were struggling to score today, including Oshae. What did you see there at the end when you wanted to go to him? COACH BOEHEIM: Nobody else had done anything. We thought he had a good matchup there. And he had gotten shots. He got a lot of shots. But he really -- really I didn't probably realize it at the time that we decided to make that decision, he was 1-for-13. If I had known that fact I might not have done that. But, really, Frank was struggling and Tyus was struggling to get by. Our best player, Marek, was out of the game so we had to make an adjustment. Marek was unbelievable tonight. The only reason we were in the game was the way he played early. He made some really hard shots, probably two or three really hard shots, the 3 at the shot clock buzzer. You know, I mean, he was unbelievable today. I mean, you can't play better than that as a freshman. But we go with Oshae a lot late in the games because we think he can get to the foul line. And I thought he would have gotten to the foul line on all three of those plays, but that didn't happen. But he's the guy we usually try to go to late in those situations. Q. What does it say about the resiliency of your team that you were able to overcome your best player in the game fouling out with several minutes left? COACH BOEHEIM: I just made the decision to go with him. I think he got his fourth with 12, 13 -- I don't know what it was -- he lasted five or six minutes. I thought if we had taken him out early -- he's smart. Generally he's able to stay out of foul trouble. Close call on the one he got caught on there. But Matt went in, Matt did a good job. He played good defense and made a foul shot for us. But it's a little gamble when you go with guys. But he was good there for a long period of time. This was just a defensive game. Our defense was -- we didn't give them good looks from the 3-point line. And then at the very end of the game, when you're trying to shoot a 3, it's really hard to make one when you haven't made any during the game. It was a great effort. Our defense was fabulous. We just held two teams that averaged 80s, well in the 80s, to 56 and 52. That's pretty good. Q. Given where Marek started the year, he was coming off the bench early and was struggling early in ACC play. Was there a moment where you noticed his game kind of change at some point in the season? COACH BOEHEIM: You know, he had some good games early. And he had a little struggle the first couple of ACC games. But then after that he was good. He's a good defender. He's capable of scoring if he gets in the right situations. And everybody that we play is worried about the other three guys. And he gets into some really good situations. He gets the ball open 10 feet a lot. And he's gradually been able to figure that out. And, again, he was great tonight. I mean, he was fabulous. Q. How important going into this one was pace of play going to be for you -- COACH BOEHEIM: Well, we're going to play the way we play. And we're not running up and down. Couple times we try to go for the fastbreak, we missed, completely screwed up. The end of the first half, Frank thought he had a fastbreak, and we had the ball up 3. He holds the ball. If we just hold the ball and don't take a shot we're up three at halftime. It was a bad clock-management situation at the end of the half. He thought he had it, but you can't take that opportunity when you just think you have it. You have to know you have it. That was a really bad end of the first half. And fortunately we were able to overcome it. Q. You had some great battles with Coach Jamie Dixon over the years, whether in the Big East or the ACC. Was this kind of the typical game that you expect? COACH BOEHEIM: Yeah, he's a tremendous coach. He's really -- you know, he beat us with his defense most of the time at Pittsburgh. The games were like this. And most of the time we were underdogs or even. We were never really -- he had really good teams for that stretch and we weren't so good. The year we went to the Final Four -- yeah, the Final Four team, we beat them twice. But the other years they were pretty good. And they played really well against us. But their defense was really, really good. He had the best defensive teams in the Big East for a number of years. And that's what really carried them through, I thought. Their defense was tremendous. This team is more of an offensive team, I think. But, I mean, they play good defense but they're really a tremendous offensive team. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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