Jim Boeheim Team Quotations

Let the assistant coach come up to me and say, 'Gerry McNamara is overrated.' I'd like to see one of those guys come up to me and say that. He's been double-teamed all year, and the coaches voted him first team all-conference. The head coaches, they don't know (expletive), I guess.

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.

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.

We've been way behind against quality teams, but we keep fighting back. This team fights hard. They make some mistakes, but they keep fighting. When you lose four in a row and do what we had to do to win tonight, I'm very proud of them. This is a great lesson for all the guys. They can win without Gerry.

We looked like a team that's been out playing a lot and is tired and is ready to go home.

I think if you can beat the No. 1 team in the country, you should be in.

We've learned some things about our team this week.

We gave them four wide open shots at the beginning of the game. You can't do that against a quality team like Villanova.

This was a heck of a comeback from that kind of deficit against a team that controls the game. You just can't give anybody that kind of lead and expect to come back, but we just keep plugging away and as long as we get Gerry some looks he's going to make his share.

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.

Is he the best player in the league? No, he's not. But he's the most important player on any team in the league. When Allan Ray is hurt, Villanova wins. If one or two guys from Connecticut have bad games, they still win. If Gerry doesn't play for us, we can't be in the game.

This is a team that can beat anybody any night and any place.

A team that can beat anybody, any night, any place. I still think they're the best team in our conference, and I think they're the best team in the country.

Connecticut is a team that can beat anybody, anytime, anyplace. They're the best team in our league, in the country. They've been there. They know what they're doing. They've got veteran guys who know how to play, know how to win.

I'm never concerned about how many players a team has. Some of the best teams we've ever play only had five guys. In basketball, it's not about numbers, you don't need 10 guys, you only need five.

The last two games we've played as well as we have all year. We just want to keep playing well. We've been there (in the NCAA tournament) before. We've got veteran guys that know what to do. I think our league is making everybody a dangerous team it's so deep.