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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 1661479, member: 289"] PART 2 Gomez wanted to talk about Jim’s interview with Seth Davis: [URL]http://www.syracuse.com/axeman/index.ssf/2016/02/jim_boeheim_ive_never_broke_an_ncaa_rule_and_5_things_he_said_to_seth_davis.html#incart_m-rpt-1[/URL] Jim said that an edited version of it would appear on TV at some point, “on some college show”, about 30 minutes long. But the clip Syracuse.com had was 53 minutes long, (worth watching or listening to but very similar to the interview he had a couple year ago on Michael Kay’s show: [URL]http://web.yesnetwork.com/media/video.jsp?content_id=31230893[/URL] (The best I could find is that one clip.) Many of the same topics, old stories and jokes came up. Jim admitted it was fun watching his kids play basketball and his daughter swim. But the swimming completion takes all day. “She might swim at 10 in the morning and her next swim would be at 6 at night.” Gomez wanted to know if John Wooden really would have had as hard a time as Mike Hopkins in taking over Jim’s team. Boeheim acknowledged Wooden as the greatest ever coach but “It’s my team, my system and we do things my way. We had a very tough schedule early, (in the conference) and probably would have lost those games, (to Pitt and Miami), no matter who was coaching.” “When we start out in coaching it’s not about the money. I started coaching basketball for free. They paid me $2,000 to coach the golf team. As an assistant I got $10,000 per year. When I became head coach I made $25,000. I don’t know what that would be now. (Per the Inflation Calculator: [URL]http://www.westegg.com/inflation/[/URL] …that would be $105,159.17 in 2015 money.) Now we get paid so much money because so much was at stake. No coach ever though of being paid this kind of money. “ At this point, Jim repeated his objections to Bernie Sanders becoming President he first voiced last week: “I wouldn’t want to work 80 hours a week and have the government take 80-90% of what I earn. I’d rather give the money to charity. I wish you could do that (instead of paying taxes).” (I think you can, Jim.) Last week he said if that happened, he’d rather quit and coach a high school team. Next week I might ask him: If Bernie Sanders is elected President, would you resign at Syracuse University basketball coach? Is a vote for Bernie Sanders a vote against Jim Boeheim? Gomez was interested that Jim played a lot of bridge, which eh said helps with memory. “I’m not as good as I should be. It’s a very complex game. The really good ones know every card.” Does it translate somehow in to coaching basketball? “No. It’s just a good way to pass the time.” Has Jim ever serious considered leaving Syracuse? “Ohio State was the only school I interviewed with. I wasn’t going to go. It was 1986 and we had Derrick Coleman coming in.” Davis and Boeheim had talked about Lyons, New York. Gomez suggested they do a show from there. JB: “I think all the good restaurants in Lyons are closed.” Gomez said he had a connection to Lyons. The major league outfielder Mel Hall was born there, even though he wound up playing for Port Byron. Gomez was a high school pitcher at the time and struck Hall. Out “The first two pitches were foul ball home runs and the third one was a pretty questionable strike. “ Jim suggested that Hall “must have been sick and blindfolded” and that “your mother was the umpire.” Gomez took a moment to acknowledge a personal accomplishment. He left OCC in 1981 to take his first job in the broadcasting industry. He’s been taking courses and will finally graduate on May 14th, 35 years after he began. Jim acknowledged that as “a pretty good achievement”. They watched the SU women against Florida State on the TV at Delmonico’s. Jim said that he’d been at their last game. “When they are shooting well, they are a great team. Coach Q. has good seniors. They trap a lot and make three pointers. ” Matt noted that they’d forced 68 turnovers in their last two games and they shot all those three pointers, saying it was “a little bit like Rick Pitino when he was at Providence and Kentucky”. Jim said “they were the first team to press and shoot three pointers. We had good man-to-man players and beat them all three times the year he took Providence to the Final Four.” Craig Forth will be honored at the Hardwood Club dinner. He was a great 4 year starter who won a national championship here. He was a great screener and passer and played great defense. He had a 3.9 GPA and was a two time Academic All-American. He will do well in anything he tries to do. His father Murray Forth laid the courts in the Melo Center.” The 1996 team will be honored at the Pittsburgh game. “We were big and really good in the zone. Kentucky was a great, great team. We could have beaten anybody in the country but them. We beat #3 Arizona in their place on our way to Hawaii. We were up 15-20 points most of the game and it never got close.” We won 79-70 after having beaten them in the Dome 94-84 the year before. Then we beat 12th ranked Illinois in Hawaii 75-64 before losing 47-65 to UMASS in the finals of the Rainbow Classic- the only game we’ve ever lost in Hawaii. Later we lost to #5 Connecticut, #6 Georgetown, #6 Villanova#3 Connecticut in the BET and then to Kentucky in the NCAA Finals. But we also beat #20 Boston College, #8 Georgetown and #4 Kansas along the way. Coach said that David Patrick, the guy who recruited Ben Simmons for LSU will be there but, unfortunately, Donovan McNabb, who was a walk-on for that team, (and helped us beat Georgetown) will not. Gomez noted that this is also “the fiftieth anniversary of the Texas Tech team that beat Kentucky in the NCAA finals.” This is news to UTEP, then known as Texas Western, who actually did that. JB: We were really close to getting there but just didn’t quite make it.” Penn State beating Iowa was a “shocker” Gomez had some numbers about Jared Uthoff of Iowa, the nation’s leading shot blocker He’s the second player ever to have 50 three pointers and 70 blocked shots- Shane Battier was the first. Gomez found a site that keeps track of a player’s distance from the basket when he blocks a shot and all the other top shot blockers were within 4 feet. Uthoff’s average distance is 10 feet- he’s blocking jump shots. “That’s unusual”. Villanova “is legit. They are good every year. But s big team could give them some trouble. You can win 30 and lose in the second round. The NCAA basketball championship is the hardest championship to win. You don’t get 7 games against each opponent but you have to win 6 of them. Football is one and done but they don’t have to win as many games. It used to be the first 2-3 games in the NCAAs were relatively easy if you were really good. But here aren’t many super teams any more. Teams at the top are pretty beatable. Notre Dame lost to us and then beat North Carolina and Duke.” (Actually Duke was before we beat them.) They talked about Roy Williams’ dilemma at the end of the Duke game, when he had three time outs with 19seconds to go and elected not to call one. Roy Williams said he’d do the same thing again. JB: “To play on is a common thought. If you take time out, they can set up their defense. We used to do that. We take more time outs these days. It’s a 50-50 deal. More coaches take times outs so they won’t be criticized for taking time outs.” Does Roy Williams feel pressure to coach like Dean Smith? “He plays the same way he did at Kansas. You coach what you know and what you feel comfortable with.” Katie in Liverpool asked Jim to compare collegiate coaching to coaching the Olympic team. JB: “The best players in the world know how to play the game. All you have to do is to get them organized and playing like a team.” (Not like what we saw last Sunday in the NBA All-Star game.) “In college you are working on the ABC’s. In the pros you work on X, Y and Z.” There’s a headline suggesting that Mike Krzyzewski might not be available to coach the Olympic team this summer for health reasons: [URL]http://www.si.com/nba/2016/02/17/mike-krzyzewski-health-duke-usa-basketball-rio-olympics-jerry-colangelo[/URL] Jim said “There’s nothing wrong with him. It’s a false report about his health. Besides if we get the guys we’re talking about, Gomez could probably coach the team. Gomez pointe dout that Coach will be having knee surgery before the Olympics: [URL]http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2016/02/18/duke-mike-krzyzewski-surgery-health-coaching-olympics/80579000/[/URL] JB: “I hadn’t heard that. It would be done quickly and shouldn’t impact the Olympics.” The back-up plan would not be to have JB coach the team . Jerry Colangelo would ask Greg Popovich, who is set to replace Coach K for the 2020 Olympics come in early. JB: “I’ve known Jerry Colangelo for 12 years and even before that. I’ve bene down to see Coach Popovich. My best friend, P. J. Carlesimo, is on his staff. He had dinner with us in London. We were sitting outside a restaurant and marveling at how the coaching profession had put us where we were.” What about the Zika virus? “I hope that gets straightened out. We’ll be on a boat with our own water. And besides, I’m not a pregnant woman.” Susan in Florida marveled at “how the players have responded to you.” JB: “The players love Coach Hopkins. It’s a comfort level for the players when they know what to expect…. The focus in the college game is on the coaches because they stay and the players come and go. The NBA is a player’s league- it’s star driven.” “Canning Frey could help Cleveland. He’s a shooter.” Other than that the NBA deals were unremarkable. Would JB submit to an interview during a game? “No. It’s just not the way to do things. The leagues suggest it but it’s up to the coach at the end of the day.“ (I couldn’t agree more. I saw John Cailipari trying to do an interview and breaking it off because ”I’ve got to go coach my team”. Even halftime interviews are insipid: “We’ve got to play better defense and make some shots”. Thanks, coach. Interviewing a coach during a game is like interview a surgeon during an operation: “Why did you cut that off, Doctor?”) Mike in Syracuse lauded SU fans for showing up in bad weather and getting 20,000+ for the FSU game. “It’s part of the charm of basketball in February. JB: “Our fans are second to none.. Louisville and Kentucky get big crowds, too but it’s only 50 degrees there.” Mike wanted to know if Coach Boeheim had to scrape off his car when he leaves the Dome, just like the rest of us do- or does he have a special parking place in an enclosed area? JB: “Oh, yeah. I scrape it off just like anyone else. We come back from road trips and there’s two feet of snow on my car. For years I lived in apartments and always parked out doors. I remember back in the 60’s we had 30 straight days below zero… I might be exaggerating.” (I suspect so.) “Believe me, a garage makes all the difference. “ Nick in Manlius wondered if JB had contacted Jim brown to congratulate him on his 80’s birthday. Coach was invited a birthday party being held in San Francisco but couldn’t make it. ”He came in and talked to our players this year before the Clemson game. There’s only one Jim brown. No school has had three guys like the three we had with Jim, Ernie Davis and Floyd Little. Every time Floyd got the ball I thought he would go all the way.” Has coach seen the movie “Concussion”. JB: “I didn’t see it.” Would he want his sons to play football? “I didn’t want them to play. They’re tall and if they hurt their knees, it would have ruined their basketball career. I wanted to play when I was young but I only weighed 140 pounds so the coach didn’t let me. I could have played but it wouldn’t have bene pretty.” [/QUOTE]

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