The Jim Boeheim Show

[SWC75]

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 Big East season, is hosted by Gomez, a local radio personality.

The first hour is eventually, (it can take weeks) podcasted on the SU Athletics website on this page:

http://suathletics.com/podcasts.aspx


You can call into the show locally at 315-424-8599 or nationally at 1-888-746-2873. For Gomez’s portion, use 315-437-7644. Or you can submit questions from this page:

http://www.suathletics.com/sb_output.aspx?form=4


I will be posting my rough transcript of the first hour the night of the broadcast and will probably do the second hour the following day.


MY QUESTIONS/COMMENTS


First hour:


“Coach, the St. John’s game was not a shooter’s game. The two teams were a combined 2 for 23 from the arc and scored just 20 points between them outside the paint or the free throw line. We got no points from our “shooting guard” position”. What did the two teams do strategically to each other to shut down their outside games so much and what can we do to counter this when other teams try to do the same thing to us in future games? “


Second hour:


“Coach, Baye Moussa Keita has never been a “stat filler” type of player: he does a lot of things that don’t show up in the box score. But in recent games, he’s virtually disappeared from the stat sheet: 8 points on 6 shot attempts and 7 rebounds in 6 games in which he played 79 minutes. Is something holding him back? Is he injured or ill?”


COACH BOEHEIM

(I have, in some instances, put together statements from different parts of the broadcast on the same subject)


With Matt Park:

Coach said that so many people are at Delmonico’s that he could get a parking space- he had to park in their “alternate lot”. I guess he gets no special privileges there.


He said that it’s been a difficult couple of weeks for the team, concentrating on exams and having to practice a lot but not play much. They want to get through the holidays and focus on basketball. (At least the coach does).



They talked about tomorrow night’s opponent, High Point who has John Brown, “a quality player who can play for anywhere. He’s got a really good chance at the NBA.” He’s 6-7 and is averaging 20 points and 6 rebounds a game. They might have had a 1-2 punch with Allan Chaney but he had to give up the sport due to a heart problem. He transferred from Virginia Tech after he had an episode there and played well for High Point but then collapsed again. “He was playing well but you don’t want to take a chance….They get good guard play and are better than their record indicates.” That record is 3-6, including four straight losses to Stephen F. Austin, (remember them from 2009?), Georgetown (remember them?- that was by 35 points), James Madison and Morgan State.


It’s too bad about Kobe Bryant, who broke a bone in his kneecap. “He’s 39 and started early. He’s probably played more minutes than anybody. He’s also been in the playoffs and Olympics. At a certain point, your body breaks down.”


I called in my question about shutting down the outside game. “They face-guarded Trevor every minute and didn’t help off of him. They stopped Trevor but we got a lot of lay-ups because nobody was helping in the low post. It’s a five man game and if nobody’s helping we’ll get lay-ups. It doesn’t matter how we score as long as we score.” Matt asked about spacing. “Spacing doesn’t matter if they are going to face-guard. He can be on the bench than they’ll be guarding him. We could have run a couple more screens. We could work a little harder to get him shots. He could work a little harder to get them. The real problem is if he’s getting shots and missing them. We didn’t take him out of the game because he wasn’t scoring. We took him out because he wasn’t playing well on defense. Mike did a great job defensively. He’s still trying to figure out how to score after sitting for two years and playing a new position. “


“We had a slow start to the second half. Tyler stopped going to the basket. Our big guys need to be more active. We needed to get a few more turnovers. We had 7 in the first half and only 2 in the second half. We need turnovers to get our fast break going. In the first half we were good on both ends of the court. In the second half, we were bad on both ends until the end. We did have bad defense on the last play of the first half, first on the perimeter and then Baye didn’t get in front of him. In the end Tyler drove in and CJ got the jump shots. …Jerami got a great block and a steal. He dunked off the wrong foot and got a two hand block off a potential NBA draft pick…We made the plays down the stretch. St. John’s is much better but we should have controlled that game much better than we did. I we made our foul shots we would have won by 8-10 points. …St. John’s lost to Wisconsin in the Dakotas and had Penn State beat but let them off the hook. This was a game they really wanted.”


Matt asked if other teams had guarded us this way in the past. JB sited Connecticut and Georgetown and the way they used to get in GMAC’s face constantly.


Pat called in to find out if coach attributed Trevor Cooney’s improvement this year to “mental or physical reasons”. “It’s really getting a chance to play. He’s a little better physically but he’s getting an opportunity and he’s taking advantage of it.”


He was also asked if Tyler Ennis can improve. “Everybody can improve. You can play 100 years and improve.” (Yes, that’s what centenarians are trying to do: improve), “But nobody expected him to play at this level.” Matt said “He slows it down and doesn’t make mistakes.”


Coach talked about the balance in college basketball this year: “Sub Top 25 teams can beat you. North Carolina has beaten three top 10 teams and lost to 3 teams that aren’t in the Top 40. Two have come on their home court. UNC missed 24 free throws against Texas and 20 vs. Belmont. They also missed a lot vs. UAB”. (They were a combined 50 of 106 in those games). “Massachusetts is unbeaten. They’ve got a lot of seniors, they’ve won on the road and beaten some good teams. Wichita State is tremendous. Connecticut has won four games by one point…Stanford beat Connecticut on their home floor. We should have lost to St. Francis and they are 5-5 now….If you’re not an elite team, you win or loose every game by the smallest of margins.“


Matt mentioned the “transitive property” of college basketball and JB would have none of it. “I’m not playing that game anymore. It used to be more relevant. There was a bigger gap between teams.”


They discussed the end of the Mack Brown era at Texas. “He had a great run. He did the right thing. The program had slipped a bit. They aren’t going to be that good next year. There was too much emphasis on getting Nick Saban. There are other guys out there. Their athletic director is the one that hired Todd Graham to coach Arizona State. He might go to him.” Matt said they might hire a search firm. JB thought that was a good idea. “It’s easier to blame 10 people than one.”


They discussed Mike Woodson and the recent Knicks games. Coach agreed that it was a mistake for Mike Woodson not to call a time-out in the Washington game. “ In the NBA anyone can call a time out but the referees are looking at the coach. Six seconds is a long time from mid-court. But dribbling it up takes too long.” But Andrea Bargnani “just needed to wait until they fouled him- he’s a good foul shooter.”


They were watching Duke play UCLA in the Garden. “Duke usually plays well there. UCLA had to come across the country and teams that had to do that don’t usually play as well. 3000 miles is a long way to go- although not as long as Hawaii.” Coach said that “Arizona is clearly the best team in the country. Michigan is not what they were but that’s a great win. They also beat San Diego State, who has lost only to Arizona. “


Dave called in to ask about “inconsistent officiating”. (I guess that means they are sometimes.) JB: “There were a couple of calls. Where they jumped into us. I tho9ught we had good position and they hurt us at the foul line. (But) our defense slipped just a little while our offense was bad and that’s all it takes.”


Villanova “is a tremendous Top 10 team. They have a lot of options. Really good guards and small forwards. They don’t have a big guy but they don’t play that way. They have depth- 8-10 guys who can hurt you.”


Pittsburgh and Cincinnati was “a Big East war. Mick Cronin commented that eh and Jamie Dixon didn’t know what they were doing when they scheduled that game, that they were going to beat the snot out of each other. It was won on an offensive rebound basket, as it should have been between two low-scoring defensive teams.”


Notre Dame beat Indiana. “There are a lot of good teams in this league. A lot of very capable teams. You don’t hear about a lot of them. There’s a lot of 8-2 and 9-2 teams.


Coach doesn’t tweet but Dick Vitale does and he tweeted a picture of himself with 4 UCLA cheerleaders. This led to a discussion of the V foundation. “They do great work and have raised a good amount of money with very low expenses. They have control over where it goes.”


Matt wondered if the players were motived to win enough to get to play NCAA games in Buffalo and then New York. That put JB in overdrive: “If you need motivation like that, you aren’t a very good player or a very good team. You play to be the best you can and win as much as you can. Everybody wants to win. It’s the teams that play the best that do it.”


The finals will be in Cowboy Stadium. That led to a discussion of the Cowboys. “They seem to find ways to loose more than most teams. The NFL has a bunch of teams that look pretty much the same to me.


UCLA was leading the game. “Duke doesn’t have that inside presence they’ve had in the past. The zone has bother them a little bit.” (But the Blue devils came on to win easily, 80-63).

 

[RealSUFan]

“They face-guarded Trevor every minute and didn’t help off of him. They stopped Trevor but we got a lot of lay-ups because nobody was helping in the low post. It’s a five man game and if nobody’s helping we’ll get lay-ups. It doesn’t matter how we score as long as we score.” Matt asked about spacing. “Spacing doesn’t matter if they are going to face-guard. He can be on the bench than they’ll be guarding him. We could have run a couple more screens. We could work a little harder to get him shots. He could work a little harder to get them. The real problem is if he’s getting shots and missing them. We didn’t take him out of the game because he wasn’t scoring. We took him out because he wasn’t playing well on defense. Mike did a great job defensively. He’s still trying to figure out how to score after sitting for two years and playing a new position. “

Just more ignorant BS from a member of "Trevor's Army." </sarcasm>

 

[longtimefan]

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 Big East season, is hosted by Gomez, a local radio personality.

The first hour is eventually, (it can take weeks) podcasted on the SU Athletics website on this page:

http://suathletics.com/podcasts.aspx


You can call into the show locally at 315-424-8599 or nationally at 1-888-746-2873. For Gomez’s portion, use 315-437-7644. Or you can submit questions from this page:

http://www.suathletics.com/sb_output.aspx?form=4


I will be posting my rough transcript of the first hour the night of the broadcast and will probably do the second hour the following day.


MY QUESTIONS/COMMENTS


First hour:


“Coach, the St. John’s game was not a shooter’s game. The two teams were a combined 2 for 23 from the arc and scored just 20 points between them outside the paint or the free throw line. We got no points from our “shooting guard” position”. What did the two teams do strategically to each other to shut down their outside games so much and what can we do to counter this when other teams try to do the same thing to us in future games? “


Second hour:


“Coach, Baye Moussa Keita has never been a “stat filler” type of player: he does a lot of things that don’t show up in the box score. But in recent games, he’s virtually disappeared from the stat sheet: 8 points on 6 shot attempts and 7 rebounds in 6 games in which he played 79 minutes. Is something holding him back? Is he injured or ill?”


COACH BOEHEIM

(I have, in some instances, put together statements from different parts of the broadcast on the same subject)


With Matt Park:

Coach said that so many people are at Delmonico’s that he could get a parking space- he had to park in their “alternate lot”. I guess he gets no special privileges there.


He said that it’s been a difficult couple of weeks for the team, concentrating on exams and having to practice a lot but not play much. They want to get through the holidays and focus on basketball. (At least the coach does).



They talked about tomorrow night’s opponent, High Point who has John Brown, “a quality player who can play for anywhere. He’s got a really good chance at the NBA.” He’s 6-7 and is averaging 20 points and 6 rebounds a game. They might have had a 1-2 punch with Allan Chaney but he had to give up the sport due to a heart problem. He transferred from Virginia Tech after he had an episode there and played well for High Point but then collapsed again. “He was playing well but you don’t want to take a chance….They get good guard play and are better than their record indicates.” That record is 3-6, including four straight losses to Stephen F. Austin, (remember them from 2009?), Georgetown (remember them?- that was by 35 points), James Madison and Morgan State.


It’s too bad about Kobe Bryant, who broke a bone in his kneecap. “He’s 39 and started early. He’s probably played more minutes than anybody. He’s also been in the playoffs and Olympics. At a certain point, your body breaks down.”


I called in my question about shutting down the outside game. “They face-guarded Trevor every minute and didn’t help off of him. They stopped Trevor but we got a lot of lay-ups because nobody was helping in the low post. It’s a five man game and if nobody’s helping we’ll get lay-ups. It doesn’t matter how we score as long as we score.” Matt asked about spacing. “Spacing doesn’t matter if they are going to face-guard. He can be on the bench than they’ll be guarding him. We could have run a couple more screens. We could work a little harder to get him shots. He could work a little harder to get them. The real problem is if he’s getting shots and missing them. We didn’t take him out of the game because he wasn’t scoring. We took him out because he wasn’t playing well on defense. Mike did a great job defensively. He’s still trying to figure out how to score after sitting for two years and playing a new position. “


“We had a slow start to the second half. Tyler stopped going to the basket. Our big guys need to be more active. We needed to get a few more turnovers. We had 7 in the first half and only 2 in the second half. We need turnovers to get our fast break going. In the first half we were good on both ends of the court. In the second half, we were bad on both ends until the end. We did have bad defense on the last play of the first half, first on the perimeter and then Baye didn’t get in front of him. In the end Tyler drove in and CJ got the jump shots. …Jerami got a great block and a steal. He dunked off the wrong foot and got a two hand block off a potential NBA draft pick…We made the plays down the stretch. St. John’s is much better but we should have controlled that game much better than we did. I we made our foul shots we would have won by 8-10 points. …St. John’s lost to Wisconsin in the Dakotas and had Penn State beat but let them off the hook. This was a game they really wanted.”


Matt asked if other teams had guarded us this way in the past. JB sited Connecticut and Georgetown and the way they used to get in GMAC’s face constantly.


Pat called in to find out if coach attributed Trevor Cooney’s improvement this year to “mental or physical reasons”. “It’s really getting a chance to play. He’s a little better physically but he’s getting an opportunity and he’s taking advantage of it.”


He was also asked if Tyler Ennis can improve. “Everybody can improve. You can play 100 years and improve.” (Yes, that’s what centenarians are trying to do: improve), “But nobody expected him to play at this level.” Matt said “He slows it down and doesn’t make mistakes.”


Coach talked about the balance in college basketball this year: “Sub Top 25 teams can beat you. North Carolina has beaten three top 10 teams and lost to 3 teams that aren’t in the Top 40. Two have come on their home court. UNC missed 24 free throws against Texas and 20 vs. Belmont. They also missed a lot vs. UAB”. (They were a combined 50 of 106 in those games). “Massachusetts is unbeaten. They’ve got a lot of seniors, they’ve won on the road and beaten some good teams. Wichita State is tremendous. Connecticut has won four games by one point…Stanford beat Connecticut on their home floor. We should have lost to St. Francis and they are 5-5 now….If you’re not an elite team, you win or loose every game by the smallest of margins.“


Matt mentioned the “transitive property” of college basketball and JB would have none of it. “I’m not playing that game anymore. It used to be more relevant. There was a bigger gap between teams.”


They discussed the end of the Mack Brown era at Texas. “He had a great run. He did the right thing. The program had slipped a bit. They aren’t going to be that good next year. There was too much emphasis on getting Nick Saban. There are other guys out there. Their athletic director is the one that hired Todd Graham to coach Arizona State. He might go to him.” Matt said they might hire a search firm. JB thought that was a good idea. “It’s easier to blame 10 people than one.”


They discussed Mike Woodson and the recent Knicks games. Coach agreed that it was a mistake for Mike Woodson not to call a time-out in the Washington game. “ In the NBA anyone can call a time out but the referees are looking at the coach. Six seconds is a long time from mid-court. But dribbling it up takes too long.” But Andrea Bargnani “just needed to wait until they fouled him- he’s a good foul shooter.”


They were watching Duke play UCLA in the Garden. “Duke usually plays well there. UCLA had to come across the country and teams that had to do that don’t usually play as well. 3000 miles is a long way to go- although not as long as Hawaii.” Coach said that “Arizona is clearly the best team in the country. Michigan is not what they were but that’s a great win. They also beat San Diego State, who has lost only to Arizona. “


Dave called in to ask about “inconsistent officiating”. (I guess that means they are sometimes.) JB: “There were a couple of calls. Where they jumped into us. I tho9ught we had good position and they hurt us at the foul line. (But) our defense slipped just a little while our offense was bad and that’s all it takes.”


Villanova “is a tremendous Top 10 team. They have a lot of options. Really good guards and small forwards. They don’t have a big guy but they don’t play that way. They have depth- 8-10 guys who can hurt you.”


Pittsburgh and Cincinnati was “a Big East war. Mick Cronin commented that eh and Jamie Dixon didn’t know what they were doing when they scheduled that game, that they were going to beat the snot out of each other. It was won on an offensive rebound basket, as it should have been between two low-scoring defensive teams.”


Notre Dame beat Indiana. “There are a lot of good teams in this league. A lot of very capable teams. You don’t hear about a lot of them. There’s a lot of 8-2 and 9-2 teams.


Coach doesn’t tweet but Dick Vitale does and he tweeted a picture of himself with 4 UCLA cheerleaders. This led to a discussion of the V foundation. “They do great work and have raised a good amount of money with very low expenses. They have control over where it goes.”


Matt wondered if the players were motived to win enough to get to play NCAA games in Buffalo and then New York. That put JB in overdrive: “If you need motivation like that, you aren’t a very good player or a very good team. You play to be the best you can and win as much as you can. Everybody wants to win. It’s the teams that play the best that do it.”


The finals will be in Cowboy Stadium. That led to a discussion of the Cowboys. “They seem to find ways to loose more than most teams. The NFL has a bunch of teams that look pretty much the same to me.


UCLA was leading the game. “Duke doesn’t have that inside presence they’ve had in the past. The zone has bother them a little bit.” (But the Blue devils came on to win easily, 80-63).

Re: face guarding--

It's possible to take almost anyone out of a game in many sports. In lacrosse, it's called "shutting off" the player. It can even be done in hockey. Many years ago, someone asked Wayne Gretzky how he would react if they tried the tactic on him. He gave two options--One was moving to the puck handler (basically setting a pick, as much as can be done in hockey), so that the defensive players might get tangled up in the traffic, freeing either him or the puck carrier. His preference was the other--just moving off by himself, dragging the defender with him, and creating a 4-on-4 for his team.

In Cooney's case, it's a moot point, because his problem was on the defensive end, as the coach said.

 

[realorange]

Re: face guarding--

It's possible to take almost anyone out of a game in many sports. In lacrosse, it's called "shutting off" the player. It can even be done in hockey. Many years ago, someone asked Wayne Gretzky how he would react if they tried the tactic on him. He gave two options--One was moving to the puck handler (basically setting a pick, as much as can be done in hockey), so that the defensive players might get tangled up in the traffic, freeing either him or the puck carrier. His preference was the other--just moving off by himself, dragging the defender with him, and creating a 4-on-4 for his team.

In Cooney's case, it's a moot point, because his problem was on the defensive end, as the coach said.

I think JBs show pretty much deleted the Cooney thread.

 

[Sgt Cuse]

I think JBs show pretty much deleted the Cooney thread.

I don't understand your logic. The Cooney thread developed because people said he did not have a good game. Even if you believe JB when he says Cooney was pulled for defense, how is being pulled for poor defense twisted into Cooney having a good game. And there is no way to say Cooney had a good offensive game. People have said that his affect may have helped others but Cooney himself did not have a good offensive game (c'mon zero points).

And did you conveniently miss the part about this happening to GMac?

 

[Jack Hall]

I think your first question is a good one but my guess is Coach will answer - "Miss shots. Make shots"

 

[SoBristol]

I don't understand your logic. The Cooney thread developed because people said he did not have a good game. Even if you believe JB when he says Cooney was pulled for defense, how is being pulled for poor defense ...

...

Cooney's defense was not that bad -- he allowed penetration two times by a real good player (Harrison). It was also at least half way through the second half, so the time was right to sub in Gbinije. Then, it turned out Gbinije played pretty well so JB stayed with him.

Looking forward to Cooney lighting up Nova.

 

[Oakland]

I don't understand your logic. The Cooney thread developed because people said he did not have a good game. Even if you believe JB when he says Cooney was pulled for defense, how is being pulled for poor defense twisted into Cooney having a good game. And there is no way to say Cooney had a good offensive game. People have said that his affect may have helped others but Cooney himself did not have a good offensive game (c'mon zero points).

And did you conveniently miss the part about this happening to GMac?

JB agreed with both sides of the TC discussion - he just didn't venture an opinion if TC had a good game or not.

 

[realorange]

I don't understand your logic. The Cooney thread developed because people said he did not have a good game. Even if you believe JB when he says Cooney was pulled for defense, how is being pulled for poor defense twisted into Cooney having a good game. And there is no way to say Cooney had a good offensive game. People have said that his affect may have helped others but Cooney himself did not have a good offensive game (c'mon zero points).

And did you conveniently miss the part about this happening to GMac?

Not going to be sucked into the vortex of this conversation again.

 

[RealSUFan]

I don't understand your logic. The Cooney thread developed because people said he did not have a good game. Even if you believe JB when he says Cooney was pulled for defense, how is being pulled for poor defense twisted into Cooney having a good game. And there is no way to say Cooney had a good offensive game. People have said that his affect may have helped others but Cooney himself did not have a good offensive game (c'mon zero points).

And did you conveniently miss the part about this happening to GMac?

Nobody said he had a good game. That's what was so ridiculous about that whole discussion: The posters who were branded as "Trevor's Army" weren't even trying to stick up for him. They were just stating the obvious.

 

[SWC75]

With Gomez:

Gomez wanted to know if it was any different playing St. John’s in the Garden as a non-league opponent. It was not. “They usually get 6,000. For us they got 16,000.”


Jim had made some comment about the team being 7-3 without Tyler Ennis. (We wouldn’t have won 10 ….games without him!). JB: “Sometimes you exaggerate to make a point. Maybe we’d be 10-0. I don’t know.” That led to a discussion of the rant Southern Illinois Coach Barry Hinson had after a recent game:


JB: “Coaches are emotional if the effort isn’t there. It’s teaching but it’s a different kind of teaching. You can’t just give the player and F and he just wasted an opportunity. You’ll be losing and out of a job….People don’t want to work hard. You have to push them to work hard. But you have to keep things in the locker room. I pull guys aside to talk to them. And there’s no touching or grabbing…..I try not to point out guys in press conferences.” (Yes, coach, you are very good about that!) “If somebody plays 25 minutes and doesn’t have a rebound, you can point that out. But keep it general in nature. You can say ‘My wife could make that shot.’ Or you can say that even a dead man could get a rebound if it falls on him.” (And you should know about that, Jimmy!) Gomez asked if Julie had ever played basketball. “No, but she’s from Kentucky so she knows the game.”


They got into the subject of coaches who never played the game. Jim could think of Louie Carnesecca, who was a baseball player and Bruce Pearl , who, like Bernie Fine, was a team manager.


Gomez had seen a game involving South Carolina, (not sure which one), in which a basket was disallowed became the player caught it and shot it with 3/10 of a second left. There’s a rule that that can’t count because it’s not possible. Yet the clock didn’t show zeroes until the ball had left his hand. JB: “It’s not possible. The problem there was that they started the clock late. You can’t catch and shoot with 3/10 left. You have to go for the tip.” Christian Laettner’s shot vs. Kentucky was recently voted the “greatest shot in college basketball history”. JB: “It’s one of them. You can get a lot done in a short period. It doesn’t go by that quickly.”


Ed called in to ask what we can do to improve our free throw shooting. JB: “Go to Hawaii.” Ed wondered if we’d get a higher percentage if we tried to back it off the backboard. JB: “We’ve had good free throw shooters try that in practice and it doesn’t work. In Hawaii, everything that hit the rim stayed there. A lot of arenas have tight rims. In some the ball bounces out to the three point line. In Hawaii there was no bounce.”


They talked about the Miami-Indiana game which is becoming a new rivalry in the NBA. “Indian can challenge the heat if Wade is hurt. But Indiana is getting better.” Lebron James and Mario Chalmers had had a brief confrontation during a time-out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj1LIqGv1A0

JB: “ Chalmers should just shake his head, (YES, I presume), when Lebron talks- he’s earned it.” Gomez asked if Jim likes it when his players instruct their teammates. “I like it to a certain extent . When an upper classman sees something he should say something.”


About the ACC possibly splitting into divisions for basketball as well as football, JB is concerned about having a balanced schedule. What if you have 2-3 top ten teams in your division? You should play everybody in basketball and everybody over a period of time in football to get a balanced schedule. If you can’t play everybody twice, you’ll want to play them at least once.” (Then there’s my proposal: rank the teams from one to 14 based on the previous season and have the divisions for the following season be the 1-3-5-7-9-11-13 teams and the 2-4-6-8-10-12-14 teams. You play everyone in your division once in football and twice in basketball. The teams can then schedule who they want in the other division to get to 8 games in football and 16 in basketball and keep rivalries going. That’s as balanced as you’ll ever get.)


Rob had an idea to work Mike Hopkins into the picture and prepare JB for retirement: Have Mike coach the non-conference games and Jim can coach the conference games. “You might think that’s weird and crazy or both.” JB: “Yes I do, Rob. You have to take it all the way and not just coach some of the games. You don’t make that decision until the time comes. I did think at age 50 that I probably wouldn’t be coaching at 60 but other than that I never had a time for retirement. But I want Coach Hopkins to be the next coach.”


Gomez shared some personal information. His radio partner, Dave, once played for High Point. Also, Gomez recently visited Milwaukee and the Bloody Mary he ordered there had a garland of celery, sausage and cheese. “They put cheese on everything there!” This led to a discussion of how the Bucks want a new facility to play in or they might move. JB: “Anything can happen. Everybody wants a new building with luxury suites. But that takes public money and the public doesn’t want to pay for those things as much as they used to.”


A Facebook poster had asked Jim to compare the top freshmen in the country: Wiggin, Randle, Parker, Gordon. “They are all very talented guys. Parker is out in front at this stage. But Randle and Wiggins are very talented. Gordon doesn’t shoot it really well. He’s a great athlete but the others are too and they can shoot better.”


They talked about Alan Chaney, the High Point player who had had to stop playing because of a heart condition. Gomez wondered if the SU team always has medical assistance available for a player in case the was a problem. “We have a trainer with us for every practice and every game.”


Someone claiming to be “Steve in North Syracuse”, (probably because his name is Steve and he lives in North Syracuse or some other silly reason), asked Jim to compare “Pearl Coleman, the 2000 team to Dave Bing and Roy’s Runts.” JB: “Dave Bing was as great as any player in college. He was more athletic than anybody. He could put his elbows on the rim…Roy Danforth took that team to the NIT when it
meant something because there were only 24 teams in the NCAA tournament.”


I called in my second question and Gomez proclaimed me “The Real Steve from North Syracuse”. I suggested the other fellow was probably real and probably Steve. “There are Steves everywhere- we have them in every suburb.” Regarding Baye: “He’s healthy. His minutes are down a bit. He does things that they have no stats for. He discourages people and alters shots even when he doesn’t block them. Rebounds have not been coming into his vicinity. He dropped a couple of balls and missed a couple of lay-ups. It would be helpful if he were more productive.” Gomez said we’d been getting 12 points and 12 rebounds a game from the center position. JB said that’s a bit deceiving because we sometimes play them together. “We probably get about 10 points and 8 rebounds from the centers.”


Michael Carter-Williams is out with a “knee infection”. (A “lower body illness”.) Jim hasn’t talked to him since and doesn’t know how long he will be out.


Ty in Baldwinsville was “impressed with the defense and how it comes together”. Jim thanked him and was asked if we practice man-to-man defense. “We play man to man while working on our man-to-man offense. But we’re more concerned with the offense.”


Richard in North Syracuse, (We’ve got a few of them, too), was pleased we got the ball inside and passed the ball around so other guys could score. . JB: “We want good balance but we need to work to get better inside.”


Another Facebook poster asked who was the smartest and who was the toughest player Jim has coached.

Smartest- “Z Sims was very cerebral. John Wallace was a very smart player. There are a number of guys.”

Toughest- “Gerry McNamara, Sherman Douglas and a few other guys.”

It’s interesting how prominent the point guards are in both categories.


Gomez had read that, as a response to a football lawsuit, the NCAA had “denied that it has a legal duty to protect student athletes.” JB: “There are a lot of issues: concussions, the images of players. EA sports settled. The NFL paid a lot of money and now college guys are going after the NCAA.”


A caller was a Ron Patterson fan, saying “He’s always going to be able to shoot from the outside, has a great work ethic and is a ball hawk. If he gets hot- he’s hotter than a pistol.” JB: “The three freshmen are not getting opportunities to play in the big games. They are not completely ready at this level. I don’t really know at this stage if we can get help from these guys. Ron Patterson can get red hot sometimes and sometimes he can’t hit the rim.”

 

[stuckinbig11]

Thanks, Real Steve. Now I can drive to Syracuse for the game tonight feeling whole.

 

[OttoMets]

Agree with the "rank the teams from one to 14 based on the previous season and have the divisions for the following season be the 1-3-5-7-9-11-13 teams and the 2-4-6-8-10-12-14 teams. You play everyone in your division once in football and twice in basketball. The teams can then schedule who they want in the other division to get to 8 games in football and 16 in basketball and keep rivalries going." proposal. Best option offered so far.