ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 9, 2022

Jim Boeheim

Cole Swider

Joseph Girard

Barclays Center

Syracuse Orange

Postgame Press Conference

Syracuse - 96, Florida State - 57

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, we're going to begin the Syracuse press conference. We're joined by Coach Jim Boeheim, student-athletes, Cole Swider and also Joseph Girard III.

JIM BOEHEIM: Our defense was good from the beginning. Our rebounding was better, and we handled the ball full court better than we have. I think that our movement was really good on offense. We got a good shot, a really good shot. We passed up a pretty good shot to get an even better shot.

Cole and Joe were really, really on their games today right from the beginning, but I think our defense was good. They missed shots, but we forced them into a lot of those misses. We were playing really good perimeter defense.

Then as the game wore on and they hadn't made anything -- you know, they just couldn't make anything. And that happens once in a while. But our movement was good. Our rebounding was good. Our defense was good.

We've been playing well. Our offense has been good. We've been bad in end game situations and that cost us two or three games, but our offense has been good all year, and today it was good.

Q. Coach, just what you can say about that decision to bring in Cole Swider and just what he's done this season in a big game like this?

JIM BOEHEIM: He's played great. He's been good right from the beginning. He struggled just a little bit early, but he's been really rebounded well all year for us. I think he is getting better at putting on the floor, which he showed today. He's a really good player.

Again, I like our group. It's just unfortunate that we didn't keep up with that four-game winning streak. I think that would have made a big difference for our team.

Q. Coach, how much of a confidence boost is it going up against this team, and if you could comment on what's probably your last matchup with Coach K.

JIM BOEHEIM: We're ready. They've handled us both times with no problem. We haven't been in the game with them. They're particularly difficult for us because of the big guy. They throw it over to the top to him. Ben Carroll's really good in the middle, and they've got great shooters. They're a difficult matchup, really difficult matchup for us in our zone.

We're going to have to play better offensively than we did in the two games with them to be in the game, but they're a very difficult matchup. It is what it is.

We've played everybody in the league tough, either beaten all the other teams in the league or lost by one. They're the one team we haven't been able to play against. So we'll see what happens tomorrow.

Q. Early in the first half, there appeared to be a play where Buddy caught a Florida State player in the midsection.

JIM BOEHEIM: I saw the play. The kid pushed him twice, and he swung around and hit him. I think it was inadvertent, but that's okay. I just watched the play.

Q. (No microphone).

JIM BOEHEIM: For what?

Q. (No microphone).

JIM BOEHEIM: No, I don't think he hit him. He just swung around and there was contact. The kid pushed him twice. You can't just let people push you around. It wasn't -- it was like this.

Q. Coach, I'm watching it right here. It's on ESPN, and it's being shared all over social media. He punched him in his stomach. It wasn't inadvertent. It would have been a flagrant foul.

JIM BOEHEIM: Whatever you say. Whatever you say.

Q. It's right here.

JIM BOEHEIM: Good, you say it. I just gave you my version of what I saw. Okay? Can we disagree? Or do I have to --

Q. We can agree to disagree.

JIM BOEHEIM: I don't have to agree with you, right?

Q. No. I don't have to agree with you either.

JIM BOEHEIM: No, absolutely. Nobody ever does in this room. Nobody in this room ever does. That's okay.

Q. This one's for Cole and Joe. From the sidelines, couldn't help but notice how much you guys were smiling, really having fun on the court. As far as all the games this season, where does this one rank as far as playing as a team and how much fun you guys had playing in this one?

COLE SWIDER: Today was great obviously. We've lost a lot of close games. We've been in a lot of battles this year where we feel like we kind of gave the game away, especially for me. It was great to go out there and just kind of play as a team. Frank played great today, Sy played great today, Jimmy, Joe. It was a great team effort, and we were able to come out with a win and keep ourselves alive and play another game.

JIM BOEHEIM: I can't tell you how important Sy is. We didn't have him in North Carolina and Miami, and the pressure hurt us in both games. And he relieves that pressure, gives us another ball handler. I didn't really want to go that small, but the small lineup worked. It has worked for us at times, and it worked today.

Q. This question is for Cole. Is there anything Florida State did defensively to help you score 20 points the first half?

COLE SWIDER: They come off of shooters sometimes. They really focus on gap defense, helping in the gap. They got a couple steals on us in both matchups before doing that. So Florida State, North Carolina, they do it as well. So we emphasize in practice all the time moving without the ball and making sure we get to the open spots.

I think I was able to get on the offensive glass and get a couple of easy ones. As a shooter, once you see the ball go through, your eyes widen up. It was definitely good. These guys found me. Sy did a great job getting everyone involved, and it was a great game.

Q. Cole, you had 13 rebounds today and you rebounded a little bit at Villanova, but you've really picked up your rebounding game this year. What is it about pursuing the ball this year? How have you been able to do that as well as you have?

COLE SWIDER: In the zone, it's about reading the ball off the rim and going up and getting it. At Villanova, I was on the perimeter a lot going out and -- they call it tagging on the perimeter, making sure you get your guy. That leads to Jeremiah Robinson-Earl getting 15 rebounds a game.

I think Coach put a lot of emphasis on me and Jimmy rebounding because it's hard to rebound from the center spot sometimes. So just a conscious effort.

JIM BOEHEIM: I think that Cole has rebounded all year. He's fought in there. Early in this game, he missed one, I thought he should have gotten. We talked about it, and I thought from then on in, he really was better.

I can't understand -- I can't explain Frank. I don't know what -- I don't know what's with him. He's disappeared. He played Virginia Tech, and he's really basically been AWOL ever since the Virginia Tech game. Tonight he's active and rebounding. I can't place my -- any understanding on what that's about, what that is. Maybe he's just young and he's just not there yet, I don't know.

Q. Coach, I know you talked on it a little bit earlier, but specifically with guarding Mark Williams, what did you learn through the first two games that you can use?

JIM BOEHEIM: He's good. He hurts you on defense, and he hurts you on offense because he's right at the basket. We're going to play these other guys, and you have to get up on Ben Carroll in the lane or whoever's in the lane, and he's right there underneath, and you can't get back to get him. They throw the lob pass to him extremely well. He hurts you on both ends.

Q. This is for Joe and Cole. Just to come here to the Barclays Center, put up 96 against Florida State, how fun was this for you? It seemed like you guys were genuinely just having a good time out there, especially towards the end.

JIM BOEHEIM: Winning is always fun.

JOSEPH GIRARD III: I think Coach kind of hit it on the nail. Whenever you're winning, you usually smile and have a positive attitude. I think, like they said, we kind of ended the regular season on a note we didn't like. Then we came into the practice the next few days preparing for this, just like we did any other game, staying positive and working hard.

I think just staying positive when you're in practice and having confidence is a big thing. Like Cole said, when you see the ball go in early, it draws a lot of confidence not only for yourself but for the rest of your team, and guys feed off that.

JIM BOEHEIM: I think one thing with Joe, I think he's off the ball. When he's off the ball, he's, I think, more dangerous because he's not worrying about making plays. He's just worrying about getting his opportunity to score, and he still makes plays out of that. But I think he's really good when he's in that position. This year we have somebody at that position, but next year is different.

Q. Coach, I was just wondering if you had any update on John Bol after his injury in the second half?

JIM BOEHEIM: He didn't look good. Did you see?

JOSEPH GIRARD III: He just kind of jumped, and I think it was --

JIM BOEHEIM: It didn't look that good. It's his bad knee, and he had some pain in it.

Q. I guess how impactful could that be tomorrow especially considering the effectiveness he had in the last Duke game?

JIM BOEHEIM: John has helped us when he's in there, but if he's not able to go, it hurts. We'd have to go small, which is not ideal against Duke.

Q. For Joe, aside from being able to move off the ball, why else was that small lineup so effective today?

JOSEPH GIRARD III: I mean, Florida State went pretty small too at times, and it allowed us to get some matchups on the offensive end that we kind of liked, whether it was Cole, Buddy, myself, Symir, Jimmy. It allowed us to go out there and make plays for each other. Like Cole said, they kind of come off of shooters at times, and if you get into the paint, it makes the job easier for the rest of us.

JIM BOEHEIM: It's hard to beat a team like Florida State like that because we played exceptionally well today. When they did get some open shots, they didn't make them. So it just kind of snowballed.

Q. This question is for Cole or Joe. The clip of Buddy is really circulating on Twitter. I wonder if you guys have seen it. There's a clear consensus that it was purposeful. I was wondering if you had any sort of defense of his character or this being uncharacteristic of him.

JOSEPH GIRARD III: I can tell you it probably wasn't on purpose, just knowing the way Buddy is. He's never been really an aggressive kid, if you want to say it like that, in terms of hitting anybody or fighting anybody. If I had to bet -- I didn't see it yet. I didn't see it even during the game, and nobody really made a ruckus about it, because I didn't think it was that big of a deal. Like I said, I haven't really seen it. I know Buddy as a kid, and he wouldn't hurt a fly, I guess you could say.

JIM BOEHEIM: He got pushed, and he retaliated. He shouldn't have done it, but he did. He swung around, and contact was made. If the referee had seen it, it would have been a flagrant one. That would have been it.

COLE SWIDER: I think Buddy is probably the nicest kid on the team. Everyone would say it. Everyone loves being around Buddy, his classmates, his teammates. Anyone who he comes into contact with, Buddy treats him like family members. That question kind of hurts just because of how good of a teammate he is to us, who he is as a person, and how he treats everybody around him. His character will never be in question with us even if it was purposeful.

Q. Joe and Cole, this is for you guys. Obviously, the Duke matchup is a big one with the team that they have but obviously the significance of Coach K's last tournament. How do you as players approach such a significant game that has a lot of outside noise and outside implications and kind of focus and stay in the moment?

JOSEPH GIRARD III: I mean, you just play your game. Not to really talk about another team, but I think last week we saw what North Carolina did when there was all that hype around their game. So we're just kind of going in, taking it day by day. This is the ACC tournament. Anything can happen. We know that. We're staying positive just like we did coming into today.

Not to say it's just like another game, but we know it's do or die at this point. But we're still taking it day by day and making sure we're going into this game positive and confident and just going to do what we do.

COLE SWIDER: Obviously Coach K has had an amazing career and everything like that. We're going to focus on us. We're going to focus on our team. We're focused on trying to get the win tomorrow, and that's it.

Q. Joe, just what you can say, when you're out there with Sy, how you play off each other and how that can be a positive moving forward to take on Duke? Cole, what you can say about the team and the environment this year?

JOSEPH GIRARD III: Sy came in and did a great job like these guys both said. He came in and facilitated and found guys, not even myself. But like Coach said, it kind of allows me to pick my spots a little bit easier because I'm not trying to set up as many guys. But at the same time, it allows me to go make plays. Because, when I go look for my stuff, sometimes it draws attention from others and gives these guys open shots or someone down low. He does a great job of coming in and facilitating. He's a good defender as well. He's active and brings a lot of energy to our team.

COLE SWIDER: The environment of this team has been amazing. Coach sets a culture that's unlike any other. These guys, Joe, Jimmy, Buddy, Jesse -- all these guys on the team have been nothing but first class to me, my family, and everything in between. I think it's the highest character group of guys I've ever been around, and I've just been blessed to be here.

JIM BOEHEIM: These guys have done a great job. This team has hung in all year. We've had some tremendous adversity from the beginning of the year through the end. We played really well on the road at Notre Dame. Notre Dame is a tough place to play. I think Kentucky -- they beat Kentucky. Duke is the only team that beat them there. We played great at North Carolina. They turned around and beat Duke on Saturday.

This team has played great, home and on the road. Usually when you have a bad record, you get blown out on the road a little bit. This team has just really hung in there in spite of late game situations where we just didn't handle the ball the way you have to in three games and cost us three games. It's as simple as that. We played more than well enough to win all three games that we lost. We were ahead most of the way, and we didn't handle the ball in late game situations.

It's just something you think back on and you're disappointed. If we'd gone to North Carolina and got beat by 12 or Notre Dame got beat by 15, then you'd have a different feel. But the way they played in those games and at Virginia Tech and at Wake Forest, it wasn't like we were struggling the whole game or behind a lot. We were ahead most of those games and certainly you still have to finish the game, and we didn't.

I'm really proud of what they've done, how they played, and how they've hung together. These are crushing losses that we've had, and it would be very easy to let that get to you, and they haven't done that.

On the other hand, we've got a tremendous challenge tomorrow. Duke, I think, is a great team. They're particularly good against our defense, and we're just going to have to try to see if we can make some adjustments and try to play a little better tomorrow.

THE MODERATOR: Perfect. Thanks so much guys. Congrats on the win.