Coaches, Players Talk About ‘Cuse’s Embarrassing Loss

First up, we yield the floor to the man of the hour, head coach of your Division II LeMoyne Dolphins, Steve Evans:

“We’ve got an experienced group,” Evans said. “Did we ever think that a day like this would happen? Probably not. But we put together a game plan. We didn’t want to play Syracuse’s way. We wanted to play our way. It was just one of those days for Le Moyne basketball. The kids will remember this forever.” […]

“I feel bad that the story tomorrow will be, ’What’s wrong with Syracuse basketball?’ I don’t think there’s anything wrong,” he said. “They’ve got tremendous players. It’s an exhibition game. They’re young. They’re going to be terrific.”

Nice try, coach. We see what you’re doing there. Not wanted to take credit away from your guys and all. But really, what’s wrong with Syracuse basketball? Jim Boeheim, your thoughts?:

“Le Moyne really outplayed us from the beginning of the game to the end,” Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. “They (the Orange) are very, very young mentally. They really have got to grow up. We couldn’t stop them on the dribble. That’s something we’ve been looking at in practice.”

One of the two not-so-young guys on the team, senior Andy Rautins, called it “embarrassing”:

“It’s just embarrassing the way we played,” said Rautins, born and raised in Syracuse. “It’s embarrassing to ourselves and our fans. It wasn’t luck that they won. They came out and beat us fair and square.”

’Cuse now has five days to correct whats wrong and avoid further embarrassment to another fellow upstate team — they open the real season against Albany next Monday. Then, two short weeks from now, they face a test slightly tougher than your average D-II school when they travel to Berkeley to play No. 12 Cal.

All quotes via AP