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Jim Boeheim’s radio show is on Thursdays from 7-9PM on ESPN Radio in Syracuse, which is AM1200 or FM 97.7 on the dial. The show originates from Delmonico’s Italian Steakhouse on Erie Boulevard in Syracuse. The first hour, hosted by Matt Park, the Voice of the Orange, is on their general network. The second hour, which begins with the conference season, is hosted by Gomez, a local radio personality.
You can call into the show locally at 315-424-8599 or nationally at 1-888-746-2873. For Gomez’s portion, use 315-424-8599. Or you can submit questions from this page:
http://cuse.com/sb_output.aspx?form=4
Or on Twitter at mattpark1 or “askBoeheim”.
The show can be heard in Syracuse on FM 99.5. It’s sometime simulcast on AM 1200 or FM 97.7. You can also get it on: http://tunein.com/radio/WGVA-1240-s29191/
I will be posting my rough transcript the night of the broadcast focusing on my questions, the team and their last and next games and then a second post the next day on other things that were discussed.
MY QUESTIONS/COMMENTS
(Some years they have started out just with an hour show and later shifted to a two hour show. I came up with two questions and sent in the first, which is the question I always like to begin the year with. If it’s a two hour show, I’ll ask the second in the second hour.)
Apparently they are going to have a Jim Boeheim Show during his suspension. I avoided any questions about the games being played during the suspension.
First hour:
“Coach, we keep looking for ways to attack the defense when the three pointers aren’t falling. I notice we seem to have no intermediate target for passes. We either shoot from outside, drive to the basket from the outside or try to pass to someone in the paint. Couldn’t we put someone, say Tyler Lydon, in the high post and have him shoot, pass or drive to the basket from there? Teams seem to have success against us when they get the ball into the high post.”
Second hour: (if they have one):
“Coach, I was looking at a list of Syracuse football players who have played in the Super Bowl. There have been 28 of them. I decided to see how many Syracuse basketball players have played in the NBA Finals. There have been three: Billy Gabor played in the 1950 and 1954 finals against the Lakers and scored 52 points in 9 games. Our former police chief, Dennis DuVal, who played 1 game in the 1975 finals as his Bullets were swept by the Warriors and scored 2 points and Marty Byrnes, who played 1 games for the Lakers against the Sixers in 1980, and didn't score.
With all the success we’ve had in basketball over the years, this is surprising. Is there some reason that our former players don’t wind up playing on teams good enough to play for the NBA title?”
COACH BOEHEIM
(I have, in some instances, put together statements from different parts of the broadcast on the same subject. They are now doing two hour shows. I will do two posts: one on the night of the broadcast on the issues directly relating to the team on the other the next days on other things that were talked about.)
Coach was glad to be back with the team. “The players are fine and we are doing the same things we did before. It was good to be back at practice, to try and get things turned around.” The coach decided to have a meeting right at 12:01 rather than wait the next day because he had “a lot of things that needed to said” and he didn’t want to interrupt practice to do it.
But you can’t really do the same things when you are listening to a different voice. It was always going to be a struggle. The players played well at Pittsburgh. They started slow against Clemson but then came on. We got outplayed but it was a good comeback. We might have lost those three games even if I was coaching. But we could have played better. One year we started 0-4 in the conference and wound up winning ten games, including at Pitt. (He seems to be referring to the probation year of 1992-93, when we started 0-3 and wound up 10-8. Pitt was not the power they alter became. We started 0-4 in 1996-97 wand won 9 games but didn’t play at Pittsburgh that year.)
“North Carolina would still be #1 if Paige hadn’t gotten hurt. Florida State has a tremendous team and they played great and lost by 15 at home to them, (actually 16, 90-106). North Carolina has inside answers, outside answers. They shoot the ball very well and are full of seniors. They are a tremendous basketball team.” Bryce Johnson’s game against Florida State “was unbelievable against a really good team. He missed 2 shots, (14 of 16). Paige also scored 30.” Matt added that he last 30/20, (points rebounds) game by a Tar Hele was Mitch Kupchak in 1976. The five previous such games in North Carolina history were all by Billy Cunning ham, back in the mid 60’s. JB: “They called him the Kangaroo Kid. He could jump out of the building. He made a lot of money after he retired with a bank and investments. Back then I was barely aware of him. Games weren’t on TV and didn’t get written up nationally. You didn’t know what players were on other teams. “
Liam from Pompey got in the first call. He was upset by the officiating at the Miami game, feeling SU “got mugged” while “we couldn’t touch them on the other end of the floor”. JB admitted that there was “a big differential: 35-14, (They attempted 35 free throws to our 14), and you always wonder about that. But there’s not much you can do about it, so you don’t even think about it.” Jim spends a lot of time in games telling the officials that he’s not even thinking about it.
Liam said that Richardson’s missed free throw after the time out “kills me”. (But he was still alive enough to call the Jim Boeheim Show. ) JB admitted it was a tough loss, then discussed the issue of fouling on the last play. “You can’t foul at 18 seconds and once the clock is playing down its tough. You are afraid of fouling the shooter. You want to foul with 8-10 seconds left, (I would think less than that). Some coaches don’t foul at all Mike Krzyzewski doesn’t foul. In the heat of the game sometimes players make mistakes. Wisconsin also got an open three pointer to send it into overtime.”
I called in my question about using Lydon in the high post. Before hand I described my favored scenario for the Clemson game: that it would have gone 6 overtimes with the last one beginning at 12:01 and then Coach would come out dramatically, sit in his chair and then lead us to victory. JB chuckled and said It probably would have to have gone 8 overtimes.
Regarding Lydon: “We have that play and we use him high a lot, (he didn’t say “high post”, which is the top of the key). “He attempted four threes and passed up a lot more. What we do is exactly what Duke and Oklahoma do. UNC has low post guys so they can do it. So does Kansas. Villanova plays it that way even though they have a big guy. They have four guys who can shoot. That’s what we want. We want to open it up and shoot and drive. We just haven’t shot well after the Bahamas. Richardson is shooting well. Cooney has picked it up. We want balance. We play Tyler high a lot. We’re asking him and Malachi to do a lot for freshmen. The conference is difficult. Virginia Tech just beat Virginia. Any time we have a bad night, we’ll be in trouble.
Lou In Oswego wanted to know if Jim would have done anything differently over the last 9 games. JB: “Nothing- absolutely none. Clemson made a lot of good plays. On the foul with four seconds left , he hardly touched him. (I’m not sure what foul he’s referring to.)
Ken in Elbridge wondered why the player who went inside after the pass with 10 seconds left didn’t foul his man. JB: “We had a freshman guarding the post. It can be a danger when you wait, (he could be fouled when shooting). The alternative is to foul while they are bringing the ball up. They could make a a 1 and 1 and you could miss and now they can win it with a two pointer. I remember one year a team started fouling with 25 seconds left and we’d make free throws and they’d make free throws.” (He might have been talking about the 1987 Western Kentucky game where there were so many fouls it took about half hour to play the last minute of the game). “There’s no guarantee you’ll get the rebound if they miss. Two guys played the ball. If they ahd stayed open we’d have been OK with the match-ups. Even then the chances of making that shot are less than 50%, even less because the game was on the line.” (As Cooney could tell you.)
Matt pointed out that we have two losses at home, both in overtime.
Pat from Syracuse called in and said that things had been “in disarray” but would be great now that the coach was back. JB disagreed that things were in disarray. It took a game or two to get adjusted and then we played pretty well. I was coaching last year when we played Pitt, Miami and Clemson and we lost those games. We have no way of knowing what the record would have been had I been coaching. The players might have been sued to my getting on them and maybe relaxed a little bit. I would have changed some things on offense and a couple of defensive things. It might not have worked.” I think one of the limitations Hopkins operate under was that he wasn’t really in positon to change much, especially since he couldn’t consult with his head coach. With Jim there, he could have made some changes if he wanted to. “The players listened to the coaches and played hard and tried to do what we wanted. Pitt and Miami are better than they’ve been and we almost beat them.”
Pat also said that “our screens are not getting results or we aren’t taking advantage of them”. JB: We use screens on the high pick and roll, curl plays, down screens, two guard screen plays, 1, 2 and 3 off screens. Every play will work even if well defended: we’ll get options but if the shots don’t go in, we’ll struggle. At St. John’s we got all the shots we needed: we just didn’t make them. A combination of not making shots and not playing defense is a bad combination. Pitt, Miami and Clemson play some of the best man-to-man defense in the conference.”
Mike in Oswego praised Mike Hopkins for doing a “phenomenal job”. He asked about using high post screens vs. Clemson. “Clemson was doubling the ball and that disrupted guard play. Miami did the same thing. When we passed from the guard to the forward he was momentarily open . We got a couple of lay-ups but not enough. When you double-tam a team’s best player the other guys can score. You’re really playing 4 on 3 and the other guys have to score as well.”
An E-mail asked about screening the middle defender in the high post. JB: “People do that. More of them screen the guards We haven’t been effective in the low post defense. It’s a big weakness. We would have won 2-3 more games with Baye Keita. Next year we will have a defensive presence there.”
Matt asked about the interview with Jay Bilas, who asked him if the suspension was “harder at the start”. JB: “It’s hard all the way through. People don’t realize that even five minutes (away from the team) is crushing. With even the most fanatical fans, their desire is 1/100th of what a coach feels. It’s our life blood. During the season I make time for my family and my kid’s games and that’s it. When I’m coaching I might feel Ok after a good day but with this I’m on edge 24 hours a day. In a coach’s mind, it’s always about basketball, even at 2 in the morning. The TV might be on but basketball is all consuming all the time. The fact that I’ve done this in one place for so long makes it worse. I’ve I’d moved from place to place every 3-4 year it might be different. But I’ve been here for 50 years….Punishing the coach is OK. But they should allow some contact with the coaches and players. Maybe I could say something to make them feel better. Losing the games and practices is still a major punishment... Larry Brown and I are the first coaches to go through this. SMU had an easy early schedule and their line-up is all seniors and juniors. “
Matt asked if the rest of the film of Jim and Jay watching the game would be shown. “It would be unremarkable. Just a lot of why didn’t he make that shot? They have an hour and a half -2 hours of tape. Jay asked good questions. Jack McCallum is doing an article for Sports Illustrated, too.”
Tom in Pulaski was “grateful the coach was back to lead us to the NCAA tournament.” JB: “We’re going to do everything we can. There’s a lot of basketball to be played against a lot of good teams. Anything can happen.”
Gomez asked Coach is watching on TV gave him a different perspective on the game. JB: “When you are coaching you see things in practice. You see things during games. You see things on tape. There are ten guys so you can’t see everything that happens. Your eyes usually follow the ball. You can’t do anything about it and don’t know if anything would have worked. You do the best you can to get better as a coach. If you practice with a team for 3-4 weeks it can be your team but you can’t just take over and it becomes your team. You’re not going to be able to change things. You just have to get through it.”
“We don’t have a great team. We were picked to be 10th in the league. The margin of victory or defeat is so close. If we’d shot like this in the Bahamas, we’d have lost a couple of games. Four guys were shooting well. We’ve got to get back to that. The last part of the ACC schedule will be easier than the first.”
Al told the coach that “It hasn’t been the same without you.” JB: I miss it for sure.” Al added “What you mean to the Orange Nation can’t be put into words.” JB: “There’s a lot of work to do.” Al: “If any coach can do it, you can do it.”
You can call into the show locally at 315-424-8599 or nationally at 1-888-746-2873. For Gomez’s portion, use 315-424-8599. Or you can submit questions from this page:
http://cuse.com/sb_output.aspx?form=4
Or on Twitter at mattpark1 or “askBoeheim”.
The show can be heard in Syracuse on FM 99.5. It’s sometime simulcast on AM 1200 or FM 97.7. You can also get it on: http://tunein.com/radio/WGVA-1240-s29191/
I will be posting my rough transcript the night of the broadcast focusing on my questions, the team and their last and next games and then a second post the next day on other things that were discussed.
MY QUESTIONS/COMMENTS
(Some years they have started out just with an hour show and later shifted to a two hour show. I came up with two questions and sent in the first, which is the question I always like to begin the year with. If it’s a two hour show, I’ll ask the second in the second hour.)
Apparently they are going to have a Jim Boeheim Show during his suspension. I avoided any questions about the games being played during the suspension.
First hour:
“Coach, we keep looking for ways to attack the defense when the three pointers aren’t falling. I notice we seem to have no intermediate target for passes. We either shoot from outside, drive to the basket from the outside or try to pass to someone in the paint. Couldn’t we put someone, say Tyler Lydon, in the high post and have him shoot, pass or drive to the basket from there? Teams seem to have success against us when they get the ball into the high post.”
Second hour: (if they have one):
“Coach, I was looking at a list of Syracuse football players who have played in the Super Bowl. There have been 28 of them. I decided to see how many Syracuse basketball players have played in the NBA Finals. There have been three: Billy Gabor played in the 1950 and 1954 finals against the Lakers and scored 52 points in 9 games. Our former police chief, Dennis DuVal, who played 1 game in the 1975 finals as his Bullets were swept by the Warriors and scored 2 points and Marty Byrnes, who played 1 games for the Lakers against the Sixers in 1980, and didn't score.
With all the success we’ve had in basketball over the years, this is surprising. Is there some reason that our former players don’t wind up playing on teams good enough to play for the NBA title?”
COACH BOEHEIM
(I have, in some instances, put together statements from different parts of the broadcast on the same subject. They are now doing two hour shows. I will do two posts: one on the night of the broadcast on the issues directly relating to the team on the other the next days on other things that were talked about.)
Coach was glad to be back with the team. “The players are fine and we are doing the same things we did before. It was good to be back at practice, to try and get things turned around.” The coach decided to have a meeting right at 12:01 rather than wait the next day because he had “a lot of things that needed to said” and he didn’t want to interrupt practice to do it.
But you can’t really do the same things when you are listening to a different voice. It was always going to be a struggle. The players played well at Pittsburgh. They started slow against Clemson but then came on. We got outplayed but it was a good comeback. We might have lost those three games even if I was coaching. But we could have played better. One year we started 0-4 in the conference and wound up winning ten games, including at Pitt. (He seems to be referring to the probation year of 1992-93, when we started 0-3 and wound up 10-8. Pitt was not the power they alter became. We started 0-4 in 1996-97 wand won 9 games but didn’t play at Pittsburgh that year.)
“North Carolina would still be #1 if Paige hadn’t gotten hurt. Florida State has a tremendous team and they played great and lost by 15 at home to them, (actually 16, 90-106). North Carolina has inside answers, outside answers. They shoot the ball very well and are full of seniors. They are a tremendous basketball team.” Bryce Johnson’s game against Florida State “was unbelievable against a really good team. He missed 2 shots, (14 of 16). Paige also scored 30.” Matt added that he last 30/20, (points rebounds) game by a Tar Hele was Mitch Kupchak in 1976. The five previous such games in North Carolina history were all by Billy Cunning ham, back in the mid 60’s. JB: “They called him the Kangaroo Kid. He could jump out of the building. He made a lot of money after he retired with a bank and investments. Back then I was barely aware of him. Games weren’t on TV and didn’t get written up nationally. You didn’t know what players were on other teams. “
Liam from Pompey got in the first call. He was upset by the officiating at the Miami game, feeling SU “got mugged” while “we couldn’t touch them on the other end of the floor”. JB admitted that there was “a big differential: 35-14, (They attempted 35 free throws to our 14), and you always wonder about that. But there’s not much you can do about it, so you don’t even think about it.” Jim spends a lot of time in games telling the officials that he’s not even thinking about it.
Liam said that Richardson’s missed free throw after the time out “kills me”. (But he was still alive enough to call the Jim Boeheim Show. ) JB admitted it was a tough loss, then discussed the issue of fouling on the last play. “You can’t foul at 18 seconds and once the clock is playing down its tough. You are afraid of fouling the shooter. You want to foul with 8-10 seconds left, (I would think less than that). Some coaches don’t foul at all Mike Krzyzewski doesn’t foul. In the heat of the game sometimes players make mistakes. Wisconsin also got an open three pointer to send it into overtime.”
I called in my question about using Lydon in the high post. Before hand I described my favored scenario for the Clemson game: that it would have gone 6 overtimes with the last one beginning at 12:01 and then Coach would come out dramatically, sit in his chair and then lead us to victory. JB chuckled and said It probably would have to have gone 8 overtimes.
Regarding Lydon: “We have that play and we use him high a lot, (he didn’t say “high post”, which is the top of the key). “He attempted four threes and passed up a lot more. What we do is exactly what Duke and Oklahoma do. UNC has low post guys so they can do it. So does Kansas. Villanova plays it that way even though they have a big guy. They have four guys who can shoot. That’s what we want. We want to open it up and shoot and drive. We just haven’t shot well after the Bahamas. Richardson is shooting well. Cooney has picked it up. We want balance. We play Tyler high a lot. We’re asking him and Malachi to do a lot for freshmen. The conference is difficult. Virginia Tech just beat Virginia. Any time we have a bad night, we’ll be in trouble.
Lou In Oswego wanted to know if Jim would have done anything differently over the last 9 games. JB: “Nothing- absolutely none. Clemson made a lot of good plays. On the foul with four seconds left , he hardly touched him. (I’m not sure what foul he’s referring to.)
Ken in Elbridge wondered why the player who went inside after the pass with 10 seconds left didn’t foul his man. JB: “We had a freshman guarding the post. It can be a danger when you wait, (he could be fouled when shooting). The alternative is to foul while they are bringing the ball up. They could make a a 1 and 1 and you could miss and now they can win it with a two pointer. I remember one year a team started fouling with 25 seconds left and we’d make free throws and they’d make free throws.” (He might have been talking about the 1987 Western Kentucky game where there were so many fouls it took about half hour to play the last minute of the game). “There’s no guarantee you’ll get the rebound if they miss. Two guys played the ball. If they ahd stayed open we’d have been OK with the match-ups. Even then the chances of making that shot are less than 50%, even less because the game was on the line.” (As Cooney could tell you.)
Matt pointed out that we have two losses at home, both in overtime.
Pat from Syracuse called in and said that things had been “in disarray” but would be great now that the coach was back. JB disagreed that things were in disarray. It took a game or two to get adjusted and then we played pretty well. I was coaching last year when we played Pitt, Miami and Clemson and we lost those games. We have no way of knowing what the record would have been had I been coaching. The players might have been sued to my getting on them and maybe relaxed a little bit. I would have changed some things on offense and a couple of defensive things. It might not have worked.” I think one of the limitations Hopkins operate under was that he wasn’t really in positon to change much, especially since he couldn’t consult with his head coach. With Jim there, he could have made some changes if he wanted to. “The players listened to the coaches and played hard and tried to do what we wanted. Pitt and Miami are better than they’ve been and we almost beat them.”
Pat also said that “our screens are not getting results or we aren’t taking advantage of them”. JB: We use screens on the high pick and roll, curl plays, down screens, two guard screen plays, 1, 2 and 3 off screens. Every play will work even if well defended: we’ll get options but if the shots don’t go in, we’ll struggle. At St. John’s we got all the shots we needed: we just didn’t make them. A combination of not making shots and not playing defense is a bad combination. Pitt, Miami and Clemson play some of the best man-to-man defense in the conference.”
Mike in Oswego praised Mike Hopkins for doing a “phenomenal job”. He asked about using high post screens vs. Clemson. “Clemson was doubling the ball and that disrupted guard play. Miami did the same thing. When we passed from the guard to the forward he was momentarily open . We got a couple of lay-ups but not enough. When you double-tam a team’s best player the other guys can score. You’re really playing 4 on 3 and the other guys have to score as well.”
An E-mail asked about screening the middle defender in the high post. JB: “People do that. More of them screen the guards We haven’t been effective in the low post defense. It’s a big weakness. We would have won 2-3 more games with Baye Keita. Next year we will have a defensive presence there.”
Matt asked about the interview with Jay Bilas, who asked him if the suspension was “harder at the start”. JB: “It’s hard all the way through. People don’t realize that even five minutes (away from the team) is crushing. With even the most fanatical fans, their desire is 1/100th of what a coach feels. It’s our life blood. During the season I make time for my family and my kid’s games and that’s it. When I’m coaching I might feel Ok after a good day but with this I’m on edge 24 hours a day. In a coach’s mind, it’s always about basketball, even at 2 in the morning. The TV might be on but basketball is all consuming all the time. The fact that I’ve done this in one place for so long makes it worse. I’ve I’d moved from place to place every 3-4 year it might be different. But I’ve been here for 50 years….Punishing the coach is OK. But they should allow some contact with the coaches and players. Maybe I could say something to make them feel better. Losing the games and practices is still a major punishment... Larry Brown and I are the first coaches to go through this. SMU had an easy early schedule and their line-up is all seniors and juniors. “
Matt asked if the rest of the film of Jim and Jay watching the game would be shown. “It would be unremarkable. Just a lot of why didn’t he make that shot? They have an hour and a half -2 hours of tape. Jay asked good questions. Jack McCallum is doing an article for Sports Illustrated, too.”
Tom in Pulaski was “grateful the coach was back to lead us to the NCAA tournament.” JB: “We’re going to do everything we can. There’s a lot of basketball to be played against a lot of good teams. Anything can happen.”
Gomez asked Coach is watching on TV gave him a different perspective on the game. JB: “When you are coaching you see things in practice. You see things during games. You see things on tape. There are ten guys so you can’t see everything that happens. Your eyes usually follow the ball. You can’t do anything about it and don’t know if anything would have worked. You do the best you can to get better as a coach. If you practice with a team for 3-4 weeks it can be your team but you can’t just take over and it becomes your team. You’re not going to be able to change things. You just have to get through it.”
“We don’t have a great team. We were picked to be 10th in the league. The margin of victory or defeat is so close. If we’d shot like this in the Bahamas, we’d have lost a couple of games. Four guys were shooting well. We’ve got to get back to that. The last part of the ACC schedule will be easier than the first.”
Al told the coach that “It hasn’t been the same without you.” JB: I miss it for sure.” Al added “What you mean to the Orange Nation can’t be put into words.” JB: “There’s a lot of work to do.” Al: “If any coach can do it, you can do it.”
