Jim said that the people in Greensboro are mad at him and he didn't say anything bad. "Ask 10 people in North Carolina if they'd rather be in NYC or Greensboro and the only one who would want to be in Greenboro is the mayor. If they are going to be mad at me for that they will be mad at Jim Boeheim for the rest of his ACC career. I don't care where the tournament is. I'll be spending most of my time at the arena and the hotel and then just go home anyway."
"We're not leaving the Big East we were a member of when it was founded is no longer there. This is nothing new in college ahtletics. This has been going on for 50 years. We are leaving a 17 team Big East conferecne with teams in Texas or Wisconsin. A couple of people who criticized this are people who could have saved the Big East- Notre Dame by joing it for football, those who voted against the TV package. The Chancellor and the Board of Trustess make these decisions - I make decisons about who to recruit. If we were elaving the old Big East I would be upset. I would be upset if we were leaving a 10-12 team conference. The fans that go to the game want to see good games. SU-Duke, UNC, Wake Forest, Maryland- those will be great games. What abut the other sports- lacrosse, soccer, volleyball. This is an East Coast conference. This will help our recruiting"
He told Brent that "We never lost that recruit you said we lost three weeks ago. I can't mention the name of the recruit but we didn't lose him."
"We are going to a great basketball conference. All the moves in theast 20 years have been driven by football. When Mike was commissioner, he was all about football. If we were going to a bad basketball conference, I'd be upset but this is a great basketball conferecne. These are all short short trips. This has shortened the travel time."
Brent noted that Dr. Gross will try to retain some of the old relationships. JB: " What was our biggest game before the Big East? St. Bonaventure. We could play Georgetown the same number of times as we are going to play them this year anyway."
Brent asked about style of play. JB: "Very similar. Duke is physical man to man like PItt. UNC runs more than some teams. Florida State is man to man. It's college basketball."
JB said that Marinatto's threat to hold SU and Pitt to the 27th month ruile is a "ploy. What good would it do to keep Syracuse for another year? They will want to move new school into the conference."
Brent asked Jim if he'll ever coach in the ACC. JB: "This move will have zero % input into my decision to reitre. If I could go less than zero I will. Actually, Brent, you will have more input into my decision to retire than this will."
The interview will be on their podcast before the afternon is over:
http://www.espnradio1260.com/showdj.asp?DJID=44208