Jim Boeheim has a reputation for being a bit ornery, especially when it comes to dealing with the media. That was on full display in the press conference after Syracuse’s win over West Virginia.
With his team having lost six of eight, criticism has become more prevalent in some of the Syracuse papers. Over the weekend, he apparently was upset with the way that Syracuse Post-Standard beat writers (Mike Waters and Donna Ditota) handled a preview of the Louisville game where it was mentioned that the Cardinals have beaten Syracuse six (now seven) straight times. Best I can tell, this is the preview that Boeheim references.
Full video of the presser can be found here, but read on for the highlights:
-"When we lose a couple, we’re not playing right. People think the season’s over. The season’s over when we play 18 games in the league. We have four more games left by that count. People start talking about the end of the world around here when it starts raining. It rains a lot here. I think we need to keep prospective a little bit.”
-"There are some coaches in the hall of fame that I’ve beat 80 percent of the time. And you’re going to look at a couple of coaches that beat me? I’ve coached against Rick Pitino when he was at Providence five times and once at Kentucky where we were 6-0 against them. One of his teams went to the Final Four, we beat them three times. So now we’re all the sudden going to put in the paper that I’ve lost six straight to Rick Pitino? Why don’t we put that I beat him six straight? Go ahead. That’s really good. Why don’t you keep doing that? That’s really good. I appreciate that.”
- “I don’t think it’s fair to take a snapshot. You write, what, a 100 articles a year for the paper? 150. 200. Someone looks at six or seven of them and says, this is bad. Is that a good judgment of your career? No. I don’t think so. I don’t think that’s how you judge people, or coaches or players. I don’t think that’s what you do. But that’s the way it’s done around here. Doesn’t mean I’m going to like it. Doesn’t mean I’m not going to stand up here and let it go. Because when I let thing go like that, it will be time for me to leave.”
- Boeheim then had the following exchange with Ditota and Waters, first asking if they knew what his record was against former West Virginia and current Michigan head coach John Beilein:
“No idea,” Ditota said.
“Well, then you don’t know your business,” Boeheim said.
“Why would I know that? Why would I know John Beilein’s record against you? When is the last time you played John Beilein?” Ditota said.
“This year,” Boeheim said. “Mike, you know?”
“I don’t think he’s ever beaten you,” Waters said.
“Yeah, you don’t think,” Boeheim said. “You’re right. That’s the way they work here. They think that’s cute.”
Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @ballinisahabit.