SWC75
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Jim Boeheim’s radio show is on Thursdays from 7-8 or 9PM on ESPN Radio in Syracuse, which is AM1200 or FM 97.7 on the dial. The show originates from the Cavalier Room at the Marriott in Downtown 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:
Submit a Question!
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: WGVA
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
1st Hour: “Coach, SU fans were so sad to hear about the passing of Fab Melo at the age of 26. Every person deserves more of a chance at life than that. I’ll always remember Fab as the happy warrior that gave us our best ever regular season. Unfortunately, some have taken the occasion to bring up his academic troubles and even blamed him for the NCAA sanctions against the program. To what extent was Fab personally responsible for what happened and to what extent was it the actions of others that created the problem? “
2nd Hour: “Coach, We’ve had two centers die while still in their 20’s of heart problems, Conrad McRae and no Fab Melo. Sometimes these things are due to the accelerated growth rate of tall athletes. Does the university have any protocols for checking for symptoms of any possible current or future heart problems”
COACH BOEHEIM
(I have, in some instances, put together statements from different parts of the broadcast on the same subject. In recent years they have started out doing one hour shows and then shifted to two hour shows in January. When they do 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.)
PART ONE
Matt Park suggested that the Georgia Tech game was going to be a big one. Jim was having none of that. “It’s not a one game deal. That’s where you, (reporters), and the people get crazy. You can’t think about those things. The media gets paid to speculate. Last year they said we were all done after the Florida State game and then again after the Pittsburgh game. I guess we weren’t all done. This year we had a bad loss at Boston College and everybody had given up. We’re playing really good now. We won five games in a row. We could have lost 4 of them. We just have to get ourselves ready and keep getting better.”
Will the layoff help the team? “We’ve had 5 games in ten days or something like that” (actually 13) “ Layoffs are layoffs. You try to use them to get back to full strength. You never know what the impact will be.”
I called in my first question, as amended above. JB: “None. It was not his fault. He may have had some awareness that something may have happened. Some well-meaning people made a mistake. Even if he’d copied the paper himself this was not the time to bring it up. He was a good kid. He improved more in one year than anybody we’ve ever had. He had a very dominant year and became a first round draft choice. He was a good kid. He didn’t make a lot but he bought his mother a new house. That’s easy to do when you make $20-30 million. He wasn’t making much but he did it.“ Matt looked it up and said that Fab blocked 88 shots in one year and 10 in one game and “will forever hold those records”. He noted how many former teammates had expressed grief at his passing, including Kris Joseph and C.J. Fair.
Liam in Pompey said the Louisville game was “a tough loss – you played well enough to win.” Jims said “We really didn’t – we just played well at the end. It was an unbelievable comeback against a good defensive team.” Liam wanted to know why it was “hard to get the three point game going”. JB: “Louisville is a good defensive team. They are hard to score on.” Matt noted that the Cardinals are #1 in the conference in field goal percentage defense and three point percentage defense. But Coach said “we might have forced 3-4 threes. The other 30 were good shots. You’re going to have games like that.”
Andrew White had his 7th straight 20 point game, the most since Hakim Warrick. JB: “He got good shots. He’s been tremendous all year. he’s gotten better at defense, putting the ball on the floor and making plays I can’t say enough good things about him.” (I hate that phrase “putting the ball on the floor”. You are bouncing the ball off the floor.)
Jim said John Gillon “made a good play to get into the lane. He usually get fouled on that play. He’s had great success driving on Wake, Virginia and NC State. It just didn’t work that time.”
Matt made a remark about all the big shots that have bene going down in our wins. Boeheim laughed. “if we didn’t make big shots in the losses we’d have gotten killed. You almost never come back from a 10-12 point deficit on the road. Our comeback in overtime was bigger than the one in the second half. Andrew didn’t get a good look. We wanted to take the three for the win. Tyler got a big rebound. It was a great play,. It was tough to do against Louisville.” (Maybe Jim had heard that he hadn’t praised Robie in a long time.)
Could he have switched Roberson and Thompson depending on whether we had the ball so Thompson could have been in there for that last play? “It’s hard to go offense-defense. We had enough offense. Tyler gives us a big edge defensively over Taurean. He’s, (TT) getting better on defense and will get better on offense when he gets stronger. Big guys usually don’t score early and he’s scoring early.”
Georgia Tech “is the surprise team of the league. They are just behind Virginia and Louisville in the conference defensive standings. They have struggled on and off but they have been able to get stops. I don’t know if people expected them to win a game.” Matt repeated a story that the Tech AD, (Mike Bobinski – now at Purdue), told Coach Josh Pastner when he hired him “There’s no pressure. Don’t worry if you don’t win a game this first year.” JB: “He may or may not have said that…” Matt said that Brian Gregory, the former coach “couldn’t quite get over the hump.” JB: “Last year they had 4 games they could have won that would have put them in the NCAAs. “
Jim noted they beat Notre Dame at home. “They did it badly- that the interesting thing”. (Actually, it was 62-60. But they’ve also beaten North Carolina 75-63, Clemson also 75-63, NC State 86-76, and Florida State 78-56, probably the game Jim was thinking of.)
Josh Okogie “is having a better year than almost anybody in the league.” Ben Lammers “was pretty good last year. He’s been great this year. He’s second in the league in rebounding and blocking shots and he’s a good passer.”
Matt asked what the arc of a big player’s development was. “You never know. Fab had a huge improvement. Etan and Arinze struggled early.” Arinze recently visited practice. “It’s a tough battle to get into the NBA. When the kids come back, they talk about how hard it is to get established. Mike Gbinije will be back this week it’s his break. It’s a tough struggle.”
Tyus Battle “was not limited at Clemson. He was just starting to get sick then. The flu wears you down. He’s been cleared to play he’s not back to where he was. Hopefully he’ll be closer to being back on Sunday. He had been playing his best ball of the season.”
Frank Howard played good, made a couple of shots and got the ball into the lane. He’s got a chance to be a really good player.”
Pete in Oneida called in to suggest that Jim might need “Louie and Bouie inside to get to the NCAAs”. Jims aid “They’re gone. We’ve got good balance. Our offense is better. Our defense needs to get a little better.”
Gomez took over for the second hour. Much of his segment was in the “off topic category”, (I’ll transcribe that tomorrow). They did talk about the Louisville game. Gomez said that “the last play in regulation looked like there was contact”. Jim said “he’s been getting that call”. Gomez suggested that If he was stronger, he could have gotten the shot off. Jim: “No. they got the ball or his arm. He scored on the same play against Virginia and Wake Forest and got the shot up and made it. He’s stepped up huge and has gotten to understand the system. He dominated the games against Florida State and NC State and bad two big threes against Louisville”
Was the fact that we came close to defeating a top ten team with a sick players and a poor shooting night encouraging? JB didn’t really answer that but said “We missed open shots. Howard hit some shots. We battled as hard as you can. We let too many games get away, early (in the season). The conference is tough. We are 8-6 and could be 6-8. Clemson is 4-9 and could have won 3 more. Pitt beat Virginia and then lost 8 in a row. ”
Is Jim afraid other players might get Tyus Battle’s flu? “Tyus had a big case of the flu. We isolated him and he couldn’t return to practice until he was healthy.”
I called in my second question in the edited version above. Jim said “All players get an in depth physical every year, including their heart. If there are any concerns, the examination becomes more extensive. Fab’s father died of a heart attack so they had a family history. Some things you don’t find in a test. Fab told his mother he was a little under the weather and went to bed early. He was extremely well liked. He had no enemies. He was an extremely likeable kid.”
Jim was asked the positives and negatives of using Tyler Lydon at center. “He’s our best defensive and rebounding center and he pulls the other team’s center away from the basket. He’s good at any positon we put him in.”
There will be two games prior to the next show. “Georgia Tech is the surprise team in the league. Josh Pastner will be Coach of the year. The Duke game will be a mad house and a great night.”
(I suspected this might be the penultimate show but Matt didn't say that next week would be the alst show of the season so there might be two more.)
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:
Submit a Question!
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: WGVA
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
1st Hour: “Coach, SU fans were so sad to hear about the passing of Fab Melo at the age of 26. Every person deserves more of a chance at life than that. I’ll always remember Fab as the happy warrior that gave us our best ever regular season. Unfortunately, some have taken the occasion to bring up his academic troubles and even blamed him for the NCAA sanctions against the program. To what extent was Fab personally responsible for what happened and to what extent was it the actions of others that created the problem? “
2nd Hour: “Coach, We’ve had two centers die while still in their 20’s of heart problems, Conrad McRae and no Fab Melo. Sometimes these things are due to the accelerated growth rate of tall athletes. Does the university have any protocols for checking for symptoms of any possible current or future heart problems”
COACH BOEHEIM
(I have, in some instances, put together statements from different parts of the broadcast on the same subject. In recent years they have started out doing one hour shows and then shifted to two hour shows in January. When they do 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.)
PART ONE
Matt Park suggested that the Georgia Tech game was going to be a big one. Jim was having none of that. “It’s not a one game deal. That’s where you, (reporters), and the people get crazy. You can’t think about those things. The media gets paid to speculate. Last year they said we were all done after the Florida State game and then again after the Pittsburgh game. I guess we weren’t all done. This year we had a bad loss at Boston College and everybody had given up. We’re playing really good now. We won five games in a row. We could have lost 4 of them. We just have to get ourselves ready and keep getting better.”
Will the layoff help the team? “We’ve had 5 games in ten days or something like that” (actually 13) “ Layoffs are layoffs. You try to use them to get back to full strength. You never know what the impact will be.”
I called in my first question, as amended above. JB: “None. It was not his fault. He may have had some awareness that something may have happened. Some well-meaning people made a mistake. Even if he’d copied the paper himself this was not the time to bring it up. He was a good kid. He improved more in one year than anybody we’ve ever had. He had a very dominant year and became a first round draft choice. He was a good kid. He didn’t make a lot but he bought his mother a new house. That’s easy to do when you make $20-30 million. He wasn’t making much but he did it.“ Matt looked it up and said that Fab blocked 88 shots in one year and 10 in one game and “will forever hold those records”. He noted how many former teammates had expressed grief at his passing, including Kris Joseph and C.J. Fair.
Liam in Pompey said the Louisville game was “a tough loss – you played well enough to win.” Jims said “We really didn’t – we just played well at the end. It was an unbelievable comeback against a good defensive team.” Liam wanted to know why it was “hard to get the three point game going”. JB: “Louisville is a good defensive team. They are hard to score on.” Matt noted that the Cardinals are #1 in the conference in field goal percentage defense and three point percentage defense. But Coach said “we might have forced 3-4 threes. The other 30 were good shots. You’re going to have games like that.”
Andrew White had his 7th straight 20 point game, the most since Hakim Warrick. JB: “He got good shots. He’s been tremendous all year. he’s gotten better at defense, putting the ball on the floor and making plays I can’t say enough good things about him.” (I hate that phrase “putting the ball on the floor”. You are bouncing the ball off the floor.)
Jim said John Gillon “made a good play to get into the lane. He usually get fouled on that play. He’s had great success driving on Wake, Virginia and NC State. It just didn’t work that time.”
Matt made a remark about all the big shots that have bene going down in our wins. Boeheim laughed. “if we didn’t make big shots in the losses we’d have gotten killed. You almost never come back from a 10-12 point deficit on the road. Our comeback in overtime was bigger than the one in the second half. Andrew didn’t get a good look. We wanted to take the three for the win. Tyler got a big rebound. It was a great play,. It was tough to do against Louisville.” (Maybe Jim had heard that he hadn’t praised Robie in a long time.)
Could he have switched Roberson and Thompson depending on whether we had the ball so Thompson could have been in there for that last play? “It’s hard to go offense-defense. We had enough offense. Tyler gives us a big edge defensively over Taurean. He’s, (TT) getting better on defense and will get better on offense when he gets stronger. Big guys usually don’t score early and he’s scoring early.”
Georgia Tech “is the surprise team of the league. They are just behind Virginia and Louisville in the conference defensive standings. They have struggled on and off but they have been able to get stops. I don’t know if people expected them to win a game.” Matt repeated a story that the Tech AD, (Mike Bobinski – now at Purdue), told Coach Josh Pastner when he hired him “There’s no pressure. Don’t worry if you don’t win a game this first year.” JB: “He may or may not have said that…” Matt said that Brian Gregory, the former coach “couldn’t quite get over the hump.” JB: “Last year they had 4 games they could have won that would have put them in the NCAAs. “
Jim noted they beat Notre Dame at home. “They did it badly- that the interesting thing”. (Actually, it was 62-60. But they’ve also beaten North Carolina 75-63, Clemson also 75-63, NC State 86-76, and Florida State 78-56, probably the game Jim was thinking of.)
Josh Okogie “is having a better year than almost anybody in the league.” Ben Lammers “was pretty good last year. He’s been great this year. He’s second in the league in rebounding and blocking shots and he’s a good passer.”
Matt asked what the arc of a big player’s development was. “You never know. Fab had a huge improvement. Etan and Arinze struggled early.” Arinze recently visited practice. “It’s a tough battle to get into the NBA. When the kids come back, they talk about how hard it is to get established. Mike Gbinije will be back this week it’s his break. It’s a tough struggle.”
Tyus Battle “was not limited at Clemson. He was just starting to get sick then. The flu wears you down. He’s been cleared to play he’s not back to where he was. Hopefully he’ll be closer to being back on Sunday. He had been playing his best ball of the season.”
Frank Howard played good, made a couple of shots and got the ball into the lane. He’s got a chance to be a really good player.”
Pete in Oneida called in to suggest that Jim might need “Louie and Bouie inside to get to the NCAAs”. Jims aid “They’re gone. We’ve got good balance. Our offense is better. Our defense needs to get a little better.”
Gomez took over for the second hour. Much of his segment was in the “off topic category”, (I’ll transcribe that tomorrow). They did talk about the Louisville game. Gomez said that “the last play in regulation looked like there was contact”. Jim said “he’s been getting that call”. Gomez suggested that If he was stronger, he could have gotten the shot off. Jim: “No. they got the ball or his arm. He scored on the same play against Virginia and Wake Forest and got the shot up and made it. He’s stepped up huge and has gotten to understand the system. He dominated the games against Florida State and NC State and bad two big threes against Louisville”
Was the fact that we came close to defeating a top ten team with a sick players and a poor shooting night encouraging? JB didn’t really answer that but said “We missed open shots. Howard hit some shots. We battled as hard as you can. We let too many games get away, early (in the season). The conference is tough. We are 8-6 and could be 6-8. Clemson is 4-9 and could have won 3 more. Pitt beat Virginia and then lost 8 in a row. ”
Is Jim afraid other players might get Tyus Battle’s flu? “Tyus had a big case of the flu. We isolated him and he couldn’t return to practice until he was healthy.”
I called in my second question in the edited version above. Jim said “All players get an in depth physical every year, including their heart. If there are any concerns, the examination becomes more extensive. Fab’s father died of a heart attack so they had a family history. Some things you don’t find in a test. Fab told his mother he was a little under the weather and went to bed early. He was extremely well liked. He had no enemies. He was an extremely likeable kid.”
Jim was asked the positives and negatives of using Tyler Lydon at center. “He’s our best defensive and rebounding center and he pulls the other team’s center away from the basket. He’s good at any positon we put him in.”
There will be two games prior to the next show. “Georgia Tech is the surprise team in the league. Josh Pastner will be Coach of the year. The Duke game will be a mad house and a great night.”
(I suspected this might be the penultimate show but Matt didn't say that next week would be the alst show of the season so there might be two more.)
