One-on-one with Syracuse guard Quadir Copeland
Syracuse defeated Daemen, 81-68, it its exhibition opener on Friday evening.
Orange sophomore guard Quadir Copeland led the way, stuffing the stat sheet with 12 points, nine assists, five rebounds and four steals.
We caught up with him after to talk about his performance, the highlight reel alley-oop to Benny Williams, and his role on this year's team.
The Juice Online: You have a knack for showing off on the court. How do know when to turn it off and on?
Quadir Copeland: My Dad has been telling me forever, 'you have to dumb your game down.' You can't just want to be flashy every time. I just try to pick and choose. I know the times when we need a spark, and I know how open passes are for me to do stuff like that. I just take my time and get one, two, three things in there. Get the crowd in it, get our energy going and get us feeling good. Sometimes it's unnecessary, I'm not going to lie. It's for to be able to pick everybody else up. Get somebody else a shot, get somebody else a lob, get them going.
TJO: Do you feel like it's your responsibility, something that can turn the game around?
QC: I feel like it's a responsibility. My role on the team is to be able to play defense, rebound and bring energy. Anything else that goes with it, I'm just blessed to be able to do it. I'm focused on playing defense, being able to rebound, being able to get guys involved and just bring energy. We have a lot of good players. You didn't even get to see Judah play tonight. So just really being able to just do the things that I know not a lot of other people can do, such as bring energy. I know that's what I'm going to do every day.
TJO: Tell me about that alley-oop off the backboard.
QC: I got to. I heard Benny telling me the whole way telling me 'throw it off the glass, throw it off the glass.' I thought I had a chance. I made sure I looked behind me, nobody was there, and I threw it to him, I trusted him. He's got a 40-inch vertical so if he misses it, there's only so much blame I can take.
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