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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 1206435, member: 289"] (I think this year my first post will be what was said analyzing the team and the next opponent and the second post will be aobut other things that were talked about, rather than dividing it into the Matt Park and Gomez segments.) The other things they talked about: They also discussed the success other Syracuse teams have been having. The Cross Country team finished 5th nationally. JB expressed admiration for Coach Chris Fox, who came here from Auburn, saying “he’s a great coach” and that the team was “amazing”. He said that the women’s field hockey team had “had a great season”, despite their loss to (Grrr….) Connecticut in the final and the soccer team is “still going strong”. With Gomez they again discussed the various teams around the country, including those they saw on TV at Delmonico’s. “Miami is very good. They should be one of the top teams in our league. They were down 14 with 8 minutes to go against Florida and came back to win.” Gomez noted that Louisville scored the first 29 points of their game against Savannah State. They won 87-26. (Do you ever hear the name “Savannah State” except when they are setting records for a lack of competitiveness?) Kentucky “will have 4-5 guys drafted by the NBA and have some nice complementary players. This is their best team since they won it all.” (A whole three years ago). “Could they go undefeated? I always say ‘No’ but the SEC is weak this year. Florida is down and has some injuries. If Kentucky gets by Louisville, they have a reasonable chance. But the teams in the Final Four will be tough. Duke and Arizona can beat Kentucky.“ Villanova was extending ahead over VCU, (they won 77-53). “Villanova is really good. They have tremendous shooters. VCU is really good and Villanova is really taking it to them. They made 5-6 three pointers in a row.” (We play them in Philly at 12/20.) The Cleveland Cavaliiers “are having growing pains. It takes a while. They have no shot-blocking center and their guards are scorers.” They noted that Toronto was averaging 107 points a game. “Leo Rautins tweets all the time about the Raptors”, per Matt. They talked about college football’s final four. JB sees “no scenario where Florida State is not in if they are undefeated. But they have barely escaped so man time. Florida will be fired up and Georgia Tech will be difficult. What if Mississippi beat Mississippi State and Auburn beats Alabama again? The SEC might not have any teams, even though they’ve got 1-2 of the best four teams. There would be yelling and screaming. The that could be dangerous if they had something like the basketball tournament. But you can’t play all those games. It would wear down people. “ Seth Greenburg suggested the NCAA basketball committee should issue a 68 team bracket every week like they issue a Top 25 in football to crate interest. JB: “Joe Lunardi basically already does that. Everybody knows the top teams. It’s about the last 4 in and the last four out. “ A caller asked who Jim would want to take the last shot of a close game of all the players he has had. He picked Carmelo Anthony because he could score inside or out and knew how to get to the foul line. “Sherman could make a play or get to the basket as well as anyone. Gerry McNamara and Pearl Washington could do it. Usually you’d go with a guard because he has more options. “ (For me there’s only one player in Syracuse history I want with the ball if we have to go coast to coast at the end of a game: Pearl Washington.) Gomez wanted to know: If Jim Boeheim, Rick Pitino, Mike Krzyzewski and Roy Williams are having dinner together, who picks up the check? “There wouldn’t be a fight for it. But if Mike Fratello was there he’s have already shown them his credit card that afternoon. P.J. Carlesimo is like that, too. “ Gomez noted that ESPN.com had an article on the “Old Guard of Coaches” that feature Jim along with a couple other gray-breads. The question was asked, “Which of these grumpy old men will stick around the longest? JB: “Larry Brown has the most money- he was paid $30 million not to coach by his last two teams- but he loves coach, loves being in the gym. He tells the players to Google him if they don’t know who he is or what he’s done. They don’t have to Google me If they are in interested in coming here, they know who I am. They know all that stuff.” Jim’s friend Gary Williams was among an 8 man class for the College Basketball Hall of Fame. This is not the basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. It’s the College Basketball Hall of Fame in Kansas City. This was opened in 2006 specifically for the collegiate version of the sport. The one in Springfield is for all levels of basketball. JB was part of a massive initial class: [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Collegiate_Basketball_Hall_of_Fame#Inductees[/url] He said that someday Gary “will be in the big Hall”. So I guess there’s a Big Hall of Fame and a Little One. They also discussed the Frozen Dome Classic. JB wasn’t there but recorded a piece that was shown there and watched some of it on TV. “It’s not easy to get all that ice down. It’s amazing a pipe didn’t burst. It’s a good thing it wasn’t 70 degrees like it was today. ” I’m surprised they weren’t booing me after New York. “New York wasn’t much fun for me. Both games were disappointing . We had one good stretch against Iowa and no good stretches against California. We’ve got to put the ball in the basket better. “ Jim was amazed that we never got touched by the big snow storm. “We’ve skipped the big snow storms for two years now”. Gomez asked if an SU basketball game had ever had to be rescheduled because of the weather. “We’ve had a couple games moved back one day”). I recall Marv Albert complaining back in the 80’s that “Georgetown was here, (at Georgetown), NBC is here but Syracuse isn’t here.” Nice. Gomez said one of his greatest moments was being there when the US Hockey team got their gold medals at the 1980 Olympics. He noted that the Russian coach just recently died. Jim said “He really died that night. I’ll bet he never coached again.” Gomez asked Jim what he was doing at that time. “Probably preparing for a game.” (We beat BC 85-77in Boston the next night). Did he watch the game on TV? “Maybe some of it. I don’t like to watch games where I already know who won.” (It was shown in prime time on a tape delay basis.” A caller asked about the confrontation with Dick Vitale after Vitale had said some things about the program that Jim didn’t like in the wake of the previous NCAA investigation. “Everybody should know how you took him apart.” Jim: “He was not a great player so it wasn’t much of an achievement. He does a good job promoting the game and has raised a lot of money for charity.” Basically Vitale is a loud guy but a good one. The Odell Beckham catch was “a pretty good catch. He has gigantic hands. His father was Shaquille O’Neal’s roommate at LSU.“ Did the Bills 38-3 trouncing of the Jets tell you anything about the importance of practice, (which the Bills couldn’t do because of the snowstorm). JB: “I think it tells you something about the Jets.” A caller praised Jim’s zone, saying that there are so few good shooters in college basketball and “you’ve got to make them shoot”. He asked why JB has so much success diagraming plays after time-outs. JB: “We use those plays every day in practice. During time outs we like to use one that’s a little different than what we’ve been using in that game. We used to run plays for Gerry McNamara or Andy Rautins. Now we try to go inside. I called in my second question. “I would be against the NBA rule because then we couldn’t play our 2-3 zone. But we need the referees to call the offensive three seconds. They wait until 5-6 seconds. “ Unless they are Tim Higgins: then they wait 13 seconds- or more: [MEDIA=youtube]99g_aa499XY[/MEDIA] Jim didn’t say if one ref is assigned to make that call but the commentary on the clip said that the guy behind the basket is supposed to be keeping track of that. Frank in Syracuse asked about Jim’s golf game. Coach said he’d gotten out exactly twice this year. He hurt his knee and had to have surgery on it, (thus the rehab mentioned previously. It’s then fewest times he’s played since maybe the age of 6. “I didn’t miss it as much as I thought.” He did have one good day fishing- catching walleyes. “But there’s no golf or fishing during the basketball season.” He discussed his book signings. The crowds have been large. He signed 600 books in Oswego and 1200 at Wegman’s. “It’s keep your head down and write.” Matt suggested that their weekly in jury report should include the coach, whose arm must be limp. Coach said that many people came with multiple books to sign and list of [people to dedicate them to. “I don’t think a lot of those books are going to be read until Christmas. The fans were great. I met people who have been season ticket holders for 20-30 years. There’s the ones I appreciate. I don’t listen to those who yell at their television sets.” Jim had been asked what he orders at Delmonico’s. “Chicken marsala. I usually stick with my favorite thing at each restaurant I go to. I’ve probably eaten chicken marsala here 200 times.” When I called in, I told him “That’s what you’re known for coach- the zone defense and chicken marsala.” He said “I don’t like change.” [/QUOTE]

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