Jim Boeheim started off Syracuse’s annual media day with a press conference. And although his team looks very different than it did last year — four freshmen and a graduate transfer make up more than half of the scholarship players — most of the questions Boeheim answered, especially early, weren’t related to the on-court product.

Instead Boeheim spoke publicly for the first time about the bribery scandal involving many college programs and the shoe company Adidas, most notably tied to conference foe Louisville and the former head coach there, Rick Pitino. Pitino, as well as top Adidas executives have all lost their jobs as a result of the scandal.

Boeheim said there was always a fear that representatives from top sneaker companies such as Nike, Adidas and Under Armour could influence recruits to go to certain schools.

“It was a surprise to me the involvement of the assistant coaches, I think it was a surprise to everybody,” Boeheim said. “There have always been outside influences, shoe companies or agents, but it’s the first time that I think there was found to be an involvement of assistant coaches. That’s obviously troubling. That’s not what we need in our game.”

Boeheim predicted that the one result of this scandal would be eliminating coaches access to summer basketball tournaments. He said that it probably wouldn’t stop the issue since there are so many other events throughout the year. That would hinder his ability to recruit since Boeheim prefers to do so mostly during the summer and not during the season. He also criticized the FBI’s role in the investigation.

“First of all I think the FBI could be doing a lot better investigating criminals and terrorists than investigating college basketball,” Boeheim said. “I’d sure as hell rather have them looking into terrorism and not spending three years investigating AAU programs or shoe companies. That’s the least of our concerns.”

Additionally, Boeheim commented for the first time on the end result of NCAA investigation into North Carolina. It was announced last week that after the years-long probe into academic fraud, that UNC wouldn’t have any punishment handed down to it by the NCAA.

Three seasons ago, Syracuse was suspended from postseason play because of an ongoing investigation by the NCAA. Even with that, Jim Boeheim had 101 wins vacated and the program suffered a loss of scholarships. Boeheim initially said he wouldn’t comment on the UNC decision before getting into it in depth.

“… Coach responsibility,” Boeheim said, “that didn’t apply to North Carolina. Screamingly obvious.

“I’m supposed to know about a 10-page paper,” Boeheim added, “and they don’t know about 18 years of As.”

Additional notes from the teleconference:

• Boeheim said that all the freshmen — Oshae Brissett, Howard Washington, Marek Dolezaj and Bourama Sidibe — have contributed and played against each other, but that they all still need to see real action to determine how much each can contribute.
• Based on the makeup of this year’s team, Boeheim thinks it can be a stronger defensive unit albeit a weaker team on offense.
• Boeheim expects to play three guards in certain situations this season. In those scenarios, he said there’s a chance that Tyus Battle plays the small forward spot on defense. He also said the team might show a man-to-man if three guards are on.
• Boeheim said that graduate transfer Geno Thorpe wouldn’t play in tonight’s Orange vs. White scrimmage because he tweaked his ankle.

Published on October 20, 2017 at 8:25 pm

Contact Tomer: tdlanger@syr.edu | @tomer_langer