Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim has three games left in his nine-game NCAA-sanctioned suspension. He spoke on his weekly radio show on TK99 on Monday night at Delmonico’s Italian Steakhouse. During the suspension, he cannot speak with players or coaches for the Orange (10-3), but can still appear on his radio show. He discussed a number of topics including SU’s shooting, its recent game against Texas Southern and its next opponent, Pittsburgh, which the Orange faces on Wednesday at 9 p.m.

On Syracuse’s shooting and offense as a whole

“I don’t think anybody thinks we’ve shot it as well as we need to. I think if you exclude the Atlantis tournament, we’re probably shooting below 30 percent from the 3-point line and that’s not good. We’ve got to get that percentage up. I think we’re moving the ball, I think we’re getting open looks at the basket and we got to keep getting those, but certainly we need to shoot the ball a little better from the perimeter with this team.”

On Texas Southern’s Derrick Griffin and Tigers’ defense

“He can jump and he can dunk. That’s all I know. I don’t know if he can do anything else. … Everyone once in a while you’ll face that 6-8 guy. … Great athlete and wasn’t much of a factor on defense. A couple times I thought he could have come over and helped or blocked shots. Their defense wasn’t the best, we should have shot a very high percentage against them. They let you shoot and when you play a team like that and don’t make them, they can hang around for a little.”

On Dajuan Coleman’s 82.6 free-throw shooting percentage

“In the off time in the last two years, he’s spent a lot of time in the gym where he couldn’t do much except shoot. He couldn’t even really move so he just worked on his release. I think early in the year I think I was surprised because he hadn’t been making a lot of them in practice. When he started out, I forget which game it was, whether it was in Atlantis where he made four in a row and then had a streak from that of six or eight at one time. It was a little bit of a surprise because he hadn’t been shooting that well. He’s got a good release. It’s one thing he’s been able to work on the last two years … and I think that has helped him for sure.”

On Atlantic Coast Conference scheduling

“We’re playing the seven best teams in the conference (Duke, Virginia, Louisville, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Miami and Florida State) on the road this year. Nobody else is doing that. Obviously so that’s just a tremendous challenge and some great opportunities, chances to beat really good teams. … The top of the league is better than it was last year, the bottom of the league is better. So it’s a real challenging year this year in the ACC. Just sometimes it works out when you have some of your games on the road against the best teams.”

On Pittsburgh, Syracuse’s next opponent

“They’re a bad matchup for anybody. They’re a very good rebounding team, they’re a very good shooting team, they’re a very good defensive team. And it doesn’t matter what our team is. Those things are always hard to play against. They’ve got experience, they’ve got a couple seniors, they’ve added a couple senior transfers. Not many teams start two senior guards, one a fifth-year player, two junior forwards and then a senior center, fifth-year center. So there aren’t many people who have that kind of experience and talent so it’s a tremendous challenge for us for our first conference game.”

Published on December 28, 2015 at 9:14 pm

Contact Paul: pmschwed@syr.edu | @pschweds