SWC75
Bored Historian
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
- Messages
- 32,880
- Like
- 63,298
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, when your team won the Battle 4 Atlantis, someone mentioned that Syracuse has won a lot of such tournaments over the years. I decided to look it up. Prior to your tenure, Syracuse had one exactly one in-season tournament: the 1963 Hurricane Classic. Since you became coach we’ve won 36 of them. 21 were Carrier Classics, which were held in the Dome. But 3 were Pre-season NITs, 3 Maui Classics, 2 Coaches vs. Cancer, two Rochester Classics, a Lobo Classic, a Great Alaska Shoot-out, an NABC Classic, am O’Reilly Auto Parts Classic, a Legends Classic and the Battle 4 Atlantis. Your overall winning percentage in these tournaments (87.6%) is higher than your overall winning percentage (74.8%). We’ve had many good teams but we’ve also played many good teams. And some of our tournament winners, such as 1998-99 and 2001-02 didn’t have strong seasons after they got back from those tournaments.
My question is: do you have some special knack for winning these tournaments, even when you don’t have one of your better teams? “
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 bene two: Our former police chief, Dennis DuVal, who played 14 minutes in the 1975 finals as his Bullets were swept by the Warriors, scoring 7 points with 3 rebounds and 3 assists and Marty Byrnes, who played 8 minutes for the Lakers against the Sixers in 1980, scoring 6 points and getting a rebound and an assists.
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)
(Note: due to the schedule and Holidays, there will be a show next week but it will be on Wednesday and the following week the show will be on Monday. After that, they will return to their regular Thursday nights.)
Jim again started off with a lengthy monologue on the recent games:
“We didn’t shoot well and they did. It’s hard to sum up a game that way but that’s what happened. We’ll lose every game we go 5 for 26 from the perimeter. We can’t go inside- we have no inside attack. We knew that from the beginning of the year. That’s why we structured the team the way we did. It would be one thing if we weren’t getting good shots but we are. Nobody said anything about taking too many threes when we made them… We needed to try to drive to the basket and we did. We attempted 31 free throws. We didn’t make enough of them…We can’t have key guys being inconsistent. We can’t go 1 for 8 from the foul line. It doesn’t have to do with coaching. It’s up to the player. …we definitely played the worst defense we played all year…..It’s a good thing we’ve still got three non-conference games and a couple of weeks to work on this. It will take a lot of hard work. …Everybody would have bene happy with (a non-conference record) of 10-3, 11-2….We’d like to shoot a little better but we have no alternative….Mike and Trevor are the strength of the team Malachi had a couple of bad shooting games, as freshmen will do.”
For emphasis, I'll use caps for this next sentence:
JIM SAID THAT, FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HIS LIFE HE WENT ON LINE BUT TURNED IT OFF AFTER A COUPLE DAYS. He knows what we’ve beem saying about his team!!!!
Liam from Pompey said the team had not performed well in recent games, with poor rebounding, shooting and free throws. “it looked like they didn’t show up.” That proved a poor choice of words: JB: “We showed up. We didn’t play well, but we showed up.” Liam suggested that they zone “a lot” and he might want to “change it up with some man for man”. JB: We don’t play zone a lot. We play it all the time.” That was the end of that conversation.
I called in my question about tournament success. When I mentioned that the Carrier Classic was played in the Dome, Jim joked “Those don’t count. They were in a Dome. We’re supposed to win those.” I told him “Coach, you’re supposed to win all of them!” He laughed. I made reference to Dave Bing, Rick Barry and Bill Bradley having been at the ’63 Hurricane Classic with Muhammed Ali in the stands. JB: “Jim Boeheim was there, too!” Another laugh. Matt Park thanked me for the research.
“We try to get ready as everybody else does. We might be a little better in back to back to back games. Teams don’t have time to prepare for our zone, although Kevin Ollie of Connecticut has played us and he knows how to attack the zone….You can’t generalize about how we win tournaments…..We’ve been favored in quite a few. Every tournament is different. Beating Kansas in Kansas City was big win. We were six point underdogs in Atlantis to both Connecticut and Texas A&M. I don’t think we’ve ever bene that big underdogs before. Sometimes you play well in a shorter tournament.” Matt suggest the fact that JB doesn’t have his team do a shoot-around like the other teams, instead allowing them to rest more, might have helped.
This launched JB into talking about something he’d read on the internet. “I really laugh at the theory that the guards are tired. Nobody said anything about that in the Bahamas, where we finished games strong. Trevor Cooney was 1 for 6 in the first half and Mal Richardson 0 for 7. Were they tired in the first half? It has nothing to do with being tired, believe me.” That said, I wonder if playing zone in back-to-back-to-back games gives us an edge over teams that are running around in man for man defenses for three days in a row.
“We played well in the Bahamas and gotten good ball movement. The shots have been good. Our offense has not been as good since. We haven’t made shots. Our perimeter defense has been pretty good. We’re not as strong in the interior defense as we have been in many years. We haven’t gotten off to great starts defensively, although we were pretty good against Wisconsin. Against Georgetown and St. John’s, the defense was bad. We can’t win if we don’t shoot well. We depend on the perimeter and have to make shots. We also can force turnovers if we play good defense.”
A 92 year old woman asked to have her picture taken with Jim and he obliged. JB said “She looks better than Gomez, 9their producer). Matt pointed out that she was already 52 when Jim started his 40 year career as coach. JB: “We all hope to live that long.” Matt said he’d read about a 99 year old man who got his second ever hole in one. JB: “there’s hope!” Matt said the man refused to play from the gold tees. JB: I’ll play form the gold tees. I’m not proud.”
Dave called in about Tyler Roberson’s performance against St. John’s – not just his missed free throws but his missed dunks and layups at the end that could have gotten us back into the game. JB: “He didn’t use the backboard- he tried to just get it over the rim. I stopped practice once because he was trying to dunk over our 7-2 guy. These are things you can’t do if you’re a junior. He’s not a great free throw shooter but he’s not THAT free throw shooter. He looked like he was going to miss them. He had no confidence. They were not guarding him. He should have had a monster game against St. John’s…. But we’re not going to win many games with Trevor and Mal going 1 for 19. Even if they are not going in, what are we going to do- take 15 foot shots? Those aren’t really that much easier.” (Ouch!) “This team can make shots- I know they can. We need to go get long rebounds. We got after the ball better in the Bahamas.”
On Mike Hopkins: “Hop’s not coaching his team. He’s coaching my team. If the players had 4-5 weeks to get used to his voice they’d be better off. It’s not easy take over somebody else’s team. People respond differently to different people. They hear different things. “Matt attempted to make an analogy to driving someone else’s car. Jim had a better one: getting a new dog to herd your flock of sheep. Matt asked “But can sheep shoot?” Jim attempted to re-explain his analogy: “you have the sheep and you have the people…” Matt suggested that if a sheep could shoot, he’d be in the starting line-up. Ten he said maybe they should got to a break.
After the break, they discussed all the alumni that were at the St. Joh’s game, especially Pearl Washington, whom Chris Mullin gave a big hug. JB: “Chris is a classy guy, a great player and a good person. Pearl is struggling through his treatments. I hope there’s a light at the end for him. He might be at the Cornell game. Pearl met a lot to the people of Syracuse. He was an exciting player and humble guy.“ Matt noted that there will be two team reunions this year. The 1975 Final Four team will be at the Georgia Tech game and the 1996 Final Four team will be at the Pittsburgh game.
They talked about Cornell. Robert Hatter is averaging 19.5ppg, the same as Mike Gbinije. He’s had three games of 29 points or better. JB: “It doesn’t matter who you play. All the games are important. You have to be ready to play. There are no easy games unless you’re are a dominant team and we are not a dominant team.
Tom from Nedrow called in. He wants us to press more. He figures Tyler Lydon with his long arms, could anchor the press at the back end. He thinks if we had gone to the press earlier against St. John’s, we might have gotten back into the game. JB: “We’ve pressed a little bit this year but we’ve got no depth and no shot-blocker. There’s not much pressing in college basketball these days. Too many teams can handle the ball too well and can attack pressure. When you trap somebody, you leave somebody open. We don’t’ score a lot so we’d have a hard time coming back. We missed 2-3 lay-ups and free throws against St. John’s or we’d have gotten back into that game. Without a shot blocker, we can’t pressure even in the half court or extend the defense. We’re more vulnerable to the inside attack.” Matt asked about 7-2 Paschal Chukwu. “He’s working very hard and we hope he’ll be ready next year.”
A volleyball game was on TV. Matt said he’s seen the women’s volleyball team working out at Manley when he filmed his weekly show with Mike Hopkins and was impressed with their athleticism. They do as much running and jumping as a basketball team. JB: “Those girls are great athletes.”
Pat called in and expressed admiration for the way the Warriors play basketball/ JB: “Wow! They have the best shooting backcourt ever. Klay Thompson can catch and shoot in less than a second- nobody does that. “
Pat assured Jim that “The fans support you.” He wondered if the time off had given him a chance to scout the other teams in the league. JB: I watch all leagues games, even when I’m coaching. I watch the maximum. If they were on in the morning, I’d be watching them then.” (I guess that’s when he got on the internet.) “The bottom teams are much, much, better than last year- and we had problems with them then. We’re capable of getting better but can still lose. Nobody wants to see a great game and lose but we’re going to have some great games…The balance in the country is unbelievable. It’s crazy. Monmouth is a really, really good team. They beat UCLA, USC, Notre Dame and Georgetown. And they only lose two seniors next year. Nobody picked Arizona State to be any good but they beat Vegas. There may not be any great teams like we had last year with Kentucky, Duke and Wisconsin but there are many more good teams.”
Regarding Bo Ryan: “”he was going to retire at the end of the year. he wanted his assistant to have a chance to coach as he wasn’t going to get the job. It’s like when Kevin Ollie took over at Connecticut and won the job. Bo was a great coach. it’s one thing to take over at Kansas, where they expect you to win. It’s harder to do at Wisconsin. He’s won something like 10 Big Ten titles there.” Matt looked it up- it’s 4 regular season titles and 3 Big Ten tournaments as well as two Final Fours. He won 4 D3 national titles at Wisconsin-Platteville before that.
Actually, Dick Bennett, Tony’s father, had a similar career before Ryan, also having great success in the Wisconsin small college ranks and going to a final four in Madison. And the Badgers won the third ever NCAA title in 1941 under Bud Foster and had a great run in the early days under Dr. Walter Meanwell. In 1905 they had a guy, Chris Steinmetz, score 50 points in a game! So Wisconsin has a pretty good basketball history of their own.
Bo Ryan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_Ryan
Dick Bennett: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Bennett
Bud Foster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_E._Foster
Dr. Walter Meanwell: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Meanwell
Chris Steinmetz: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Steinmetz
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, when your team won the Battle 4 Atlantis, someone mentioned that Syracuse has won a lot of such tournaments over the years. I decided to look it up. Prior to your tenure, Syracuse had one exactly one in-season tournament: the 1963 Hurricane Classic. Since you became coach we’ve won 36 of them. 21 were Carrier Classics, which were held in the Dome. But 3 were Pre-season NITs, 3 Maui Classics, 2 Coaches vs. Cancer, two Rochester Classics, a Lobo Classic, a Great Alaska Shoot-out, an NABC Classic, am O’Reilly Auto Parts Classic, a Legends Classic and the Battle 4 Atlantis. Your overall winning percentage in these tournaments (87.6%) is higher than your overall winning percentage (74.8%). We’ve had many good teams but we’ve also played many good teams. And some of our tournament winners, such as 1998-99 and 2001-02 didn’t have strong seasons after they got back from those tournaments.
My question is: do you have some special knack for winning these tournaments, even when you don’t have one of your better teams? “
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 bene two: Our former police chief, Dennis DuVal, who played 14 minutes in the 1975 finals as his Bullets were swept by the Warriors, scoring 7 points with 3 rebounds and 3 assists and Marty Byrnes, who played 8 minutes for the Lakers against the Sixers in 1980, scoring 6 points and getting a rebound and an assists.
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)
(Note: due to the schedule and Holidays, there will be a show next week but it will be on Wednesday and the following week the show will be on Monday. After that, they will return to their regular Thursday nights.)
Jim again started off with a lengthy monologue on the recent games:
“We didn’t shoot well and they did. It’s hard to sum up a game that way but that’s what happened. We’ll lose every game we go 5 for 26 from the perimeter. We can’t go inside- we have no inside attack. We knew that from the beginning of the year. That’s why we structured the team the way we did. It would be one thing if we weren’t getting good shots but we are. Nobody said anything about taking too many threes when we made them… We needed to try to drive to the basket and we did. We attempted 31 free throws. We didn’t make enough of them…We can’t have key guys being inconsistent. We can’t go 1 for 8 from the foul line. It doesn’t have to do with coaching. It’s up to the player. …we definitely played the worst defense we played all year…..It’s a good thing we’ve still got three non-conference games and a couple of weeks to work on this. It will take a lot of hard work. …Everybody would have bene happy with (a non-conference record) of 10-3, 11-2….We’d like to shoot a little better but we have no alternative….Mike and Trevor are the strength of the team Malachi had a couple of bad shooting games, as freshmen will do.”
For emphasis, I'll use caps for this next sentence:
JIM SAID THAT, FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HIS LIFE HE WENT ON LINE BUT TURNED IT OFF AFTER A COUPLE DAYS. He knows what we’ve beem saying about his team!!!!
Liam from Pompey said the team had not performed well in recent games, with poor rebounding, shooting and free throws. “it looked like they didn’t show up.” That proved a poor choice of words: JB: “We showed up. We didn’t play well, but we showed up.” Liam suggested that they zone “a lot” and he might want to “change it up with some man for man”. JB: We don’t play zone a lot. We play it all the time.” That was the end of that conversation.
I called in my question about tournament success. When I mentioned that the Carrier Classic was played in the Dome, Jim joked “Those don’t count. They were in a Dome. We’re supposed to win those.” I told him “Coach, you’re supposed to win all of them!” He laughed. I made reference to Dave Bing, Rick Barry and Bill Bradley having been at the ’63 Hurricane Classic with Muhammed Ali in the stands. JB: “Jim Boeheim was there, too!” Another laugh. Matt Park thanked me for the research.
“We try to get ready as everybody else does. We might be a little better in back to back to back games. Teams don’t have time to prepare for our zone, although Kevin Ollie of Connecticut has played us and he knows how to attack the zone….You can’t generalize about how we win tournaments…..We’ve been favored in quite a few. Every tournament is different. Beating Kansas in Kansas City was big win. We were six point underdogs in Atlantis to both Connecticut and Texas A&M. I don’t think we’ve ever bene that big underdogs before. Sometimes you play well in a shorter tournament.” Matt suggest the fact that JB doesn’t have his team do a shoot-around like the other teams, instead allowing them to rest more, might have helped.
This launched JB into talking about something he’d read on the internet. “I really laugh at the theory that the guards are tired. Nobody said anything about that in the Bahamas, where we finished games strong. Trevor Cooney was 1 for 6 in the first half and Mal Richardson 0 for 7. Were they tired in the first half? It has nothing to do with being tired, believe me.” That said, I wonder if playing zone in back-to-back-to-back games gives us an edge over teams that are running around in man for man defenses for three days in a row.
“We played well in the Bahamas and gotten good ball movement. The shots have been good. Our offense has not been as good since. We haven’t made shots. Our perimeter defense has been pretty good. We’re not as strong in the interior defense as we have been in many years. We haven’t gotten off to great starts defensively, although we were pretty good against Wisconsin. Against Georgetown and St. John’s, the defense was bad. We can’t win if we don’t shoot well. We depend on the perimeter and have to make shots. We also can force turnovers if we play good defense.”
A 92 year old woman asked to have her picture taken with Jim and he obliged. JB said “She looks better than Gomez, 9their producer). Matt pointed out that she was already 52 when Jim started his 40 year career as coach. JB: “We all hope to live that long.” Matt said he’d read about a 99 year old man who got his second ever hole in one. JB: “there’s hope!” Matt said the man refused to play from the gold tees. JB: I’ll play form the gold tees. I’m not proud.”
Dave called in about Tyler Roberson’s performance against St. John’s – not just his missed free throws but his missed dunks and layups at the end that could have gotten us back into the game. JB: “He didn’t use the backboard- he tried to just get it over the rim. I stopped practice once because he was trying to dunk over our 7-2 guy. These are things you can’t do if you’re a junior. He’s not a great free throw shooter but he’s not THAT free throw shooter. He looked like he was going to miss them. He had no confidence. They were not guarding him. He should have had a monster game against St. John’s…. But we’re not going to win many games with Trevor and Mal going 1 for 19. Even if they are not going in, what are we going to do- take 15 foot shots? Those aren’t really that much easier.” (Ouch!) “This team can make shots- I know they can. We need to go get long rebounds. We got after the ball better in the Bahamas.”
On Mike Hopkins: “Hop’s not coaching his team. He’s coaching my team. If the players had 4-5 weeks to get used to his voice they’d be better off. It’s not easy take over somebody else’s team. People respond differently to different people. They hear different things. “Matt attempted to make an analogy to driving someone else’s car. Jim had a better one: getting a new dog to herd your flock of sheep. Matt asked “But can sheep shoot?” Jim attempted to re-explain his analogy: “you have the sheep and you have the people…” Matt suggested that if a sheep could shoot, he’d be in the starting line-up. Ten he said maybe they should got to a break.
After the break, they discussed all the alumni that were at the St. Joh’s game, especially Pearl Washington, whom Chris Mullin gave a big hug. JB: “Chris is a classy guy, a great player and a good person. Pearl is struggling through his treatments. I hope there’s a light at the end for him. He might be at the Cornell game. Pearl met a lot to the people of Syracuse. He was an exciting player and humble guy.“ Matt noted that there will be two team reunions this year. The 1975 Final Four team will be at the Georgia Tech game and the 1996 Final Four team will be at the Pittsburgh game.
They talked about Cornell. Robert Hatter is averaging 19.5ppg, the same as Mike Gbinije. He’s had three games of 29 points or better. JB: “It doesn’t matter who you play. All the games are important. You have to be ready to play. There are no easy games unless you’re are a dominant team and we are not a dominant team.
Tom from Nedrow called in. He wants us to press more. He figures Tyler Lydon with his long arms, could anchor the press at the back end. He thinks if we had gone to the press earlier against St. John’s, we might have gotten back into the game. JB: “We’ve pressed a little bit this year but we’ve got no depth and no shot-blocker. There’s not much pressing in college basketball these days. Too many teams can handle the ball too well and can attack pressure. When you trap somebody, you leave somebody open. We don’t’ score a lot so we’d have a hard time coming back. We missed 2-3 lay-ups and free throws against St. John’s or we’d have gotten back into that game. Without a shot blocker, we can’t pressure even in the half court or extend the defense. We’re more vulnerable to the inside attack.” Matt asked about 7-2 Paschal Chukwu. “He’s working very hard and we hope he’ll be ready next year.”
A volleyball game was on TV. Matt said he’s seen the women’s volleyball team working out at Manley when he filmed his weekly show with Mike Hopkins and was impressed with their athleticism. They do as much running and jumping as a basketball team. JB: “Those girls are great athletes.”
Pat called in and expressed admiration for the way the Warriors play basketball/ JB: “Wow! They have the best shooting backcourt ever. Klay Thompson can catch and shoot in less than a second- nobody does that. “
Pat assured Jim that “The fans support you.” He wondered if the time off had given him a chance to scout the other teams in the league. JB: I watch all leagues games, even when I’m coaching. I watch the maximum. If they were on in the morning, I’d be watching them then.” (I guess that’s when he got on the internet.) “The bottom teams are much, much, better than last year- and we had problems with them then. We’re capable of getting better but can still lose. Nobody wants to see a great game and lose but we’re going to have some great games…The balance in the country is unbelievable. It’s crazy. Monmouth is a really, really good team. They beat UCLA, USC, Notre Dame and Georgetown. And they only lose two seniors next year. Nobody picked Arizona State to be any good but they beat Vegas. There may not be any great teams like we had last year with Kentucky, Duke and Wisconsin but there are many more good teams.”
Regarding Bo Ryan: “”he was going to retire at the end of the year. he wanted his assistant to have a chance to coach as he wasn’t going to get the job. It’s like when Kevin Ollie took over at Connecticut and won the job. Bo was a great coach. it’s one thing to take over at Kansas, where they expect you to win. It’s harder to do at Wisconsin. He’s won something like 10 Big Ten titles there.” Matt looked it up- it’s 4 regular season titles and 3 Big Ten tournaments as well as two Final Fours. He won 4 D3 national titles at Wisconsin-Platteville before that.
Actually, Dick Bennett, Tony’s father, had a similar career before Ryan, also having great success in the Wisconsin small college ranks and going to a final four in Madison. And the Badgers won the third ever NCAA title in 1941 under Bud Foster and had a great run in the early days under Dr. Walter Meanwell. In 1905 they had a guy, Chris Steinmetz, score 50 points in a game! So Wisconsin has a pretty good basketball history of their own.
Bo Ryan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_Ryan
Dick Bennett: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Bennett
Bud Foster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_E._Foster
Dr. Walter Meanwell: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Meanwell
Chris Steinmetz: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Steinmetz
