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Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim blasts reporter following loss at Connecticut (UPDATED)

Michael Carter-Williams, Jim Boeheim

Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim, right, speaks with Syracuse’s Michael Carter-Williams after Carter-Williams received his fourth foul during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Connecticut in Hartford, Conn., Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013. Connecticut won 66-58. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

AP

Much was made about Wednesday’s meeting between No. 6 Syracuse and Connecticut being the last one between the two schools for the foreseeable future with the Orange headed to the ACC at the end of this academic year.

But in the aftermath of the Huskies’ 66-58 win the biggest story was neither the end of a rivalry nor Kevin Ollie’s Huskies showing one more example of the resolve that has resulted in a season more successful than anyone anticipated.

It was the fact that Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim lit into ESPN reporter Andy Katz at the postgame press conference.

Andy Katz: “Jim, what has the series with UConn meant to you and to Syracuse?”

Jim Boeheim: “I’ll answer anybody’s question but yours.”

Brief pause.

“Because you’re an idiot,” Boeheim then continued, “and really a disloyal person. And a few other things that I can add, but I’m not gonna go there.”


Why did this happen? There are a few theories that have flown around the internet in the hours following the brief exchange but nothing concrete. In an interview with the
Post-Standard on Thursday, Katz stated that the pregame conversation between he and James Southerland rumored by some to have caused this was on the record so it couldn’t have been that.Boeheim did reveal the reason to Bud Poliquin of the Post-Standard, pointing to a one-on-one interview done in November 2011.

“It’s really simple,” he explained. “I went to New York last year to play in the (NIT Pre-Season Tip-Off) Tournament in November and he (Katz) asked if he could interview me about the tournament. And I said, ‘Yeah, but I can’t talk about the (Bernie Fine) investigation.’

“We got in the room and he put me on camera — there were several witnesses there — and he asked me what I’d told him I couldn’t answer. I kept telling him, ‘I can’t answer that.’ And he asked me, like, 10 times on camera. He never took the camera off me.”


To say the least Boeheim’s had his moments at postgame press conferences, using the platform to offer his thoughts on gun control back in December. And who could ever forget the 2006 Big East Championship, when he defended star guard Gerry McNamara after an anonymous poll declared him to be the most overrated player in the conference?

Wednesday night’s press conference simply joins the list.

Raphielle also writes for the NBE Basketball Report and can be followed on Twitter at @raphiellej.