Syracuse vs. DePaul
January 7, 2009
Carrier Dome/Syracuse, N.Y.
Andy Rautins, Junior Guard
On his stretch of the last four games:
“I’m just going out there and not thinking of anything and just playing my game. My teammates have confidence in me. They find me in good position and shoot the ball well and I just knock it down.”
On the game being tough because of a lack of energy in the building:
“We kind of had to bring our own energy. At the beginning of the game we came out with a little slow start, same as the second half. But we beat them by almost 20. It is good to know that on a night where you do not have that much energy, we can come together as a team. Everybody gets on the board and we play well together.”
On still getting good shots:
“It is tough to get the shots. I think in bigger games they will put a guy on me and face guard me the whole game. Other than that, I think that my teammates do a great job of getting me screens so I can get around that and open shots. I give all the credit to them.”
Arinze Onuaku, Junior, Guard
On comments from the team about taking the ball down the court:
“I mean they see that from me in practice though so it is kind of funny for them. When we do like three on two the big men push the ball a lot so it was something they have seen before. It was just funny to see it in a game.”
On having a good bounce back game since the second half of the South Florida game:
“Coach has been harping on us. We have been playing good in the first half. We just have to come out in the second half and keep it going so that we can build the lead and be comfortable.”
On whether this was a dominating win:
“Not really. We did not think we played particularly well in this game. There are a lot of areas we can correct such as with the rebounding, the turnovers and with our offense. There are areas we can be a lot better in. We just want to get better as a team.”
On having Paul Harris back in the line-up:
“It’s always good. It was good for him to get his style point tonight. He is a hard worker so it is always good to have him back in the lineup.”
Jonny Flynn, Sophomore, Guard
On having Paul Harris back:
“It is good to have him back out there. It gives us another rebounder, another good defender and another player that is going to give us energy. I think that is what we were missing in that second half in the South Florida game. A guy who when some of us are down to pick us up, and that is who Paul Harris is.”
On the turnovers in the game:
“It is not a concern. I think when we play a good team, it is bad to say it, but we cut down on things like that. There are a lot of other things we need to worry about. We have to look at the whole outcome of the game. We have to look at defense and executing on offense. We do not want to pinpoint one thing. We want to get better as an all around team.”
On the fun attitude the team had tonight:
“It is fun playing like that, when everyone is out there clicking in their role and everybody feeling like they can’t miss a shot. You have Arinze [Onuaku] pushing. You have the big guys acting like guards. When everybody is having fun out there it makes the game a lot more fun. If I could just come out for the rest of the BIG EAST and get 12 points and a lot of assists, I would take it.”
On Eric Defendorf’s play after last game:
“He really got in with our trainer and was doing a lot of treatment, almost like I was doing with my hip flexor. I knew that he was going to get out here and be good, especially when the adrenaline starts kicking. He is a basketball player and you really do not think about that when you are on the court.”