The Jim Boeheim Show | Syracusefan.com

The Jim Boeheim Show

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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.

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, in the wake of the Duke game a comment I’ve heard over and over is that it should have been a no-call: “Let the players decide the game”. It seems to me that not calling a foul is not a neutral decision. If you let players foul each other than their talent s will not decide the game. If it’s a foul with 10 minutes to go, it should be a foul with 10 seconds to go. Do you think the final minute of a game should be refereed any differently than the first 39 minutes?”


Second hour:


“Coach, everybody says that what counts is how the season ends: how far did we go in the NCAA tournament? There is no official ACC regular season championship. But playing an ACC schedule and coming out with more wins than anybody is still quite an accomplishment. How much would it mean to the players and the coach on the SU team to do that?”



COACH BOEHEIM

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


JB: “It’s cold outside”. Indeed, it is.


The immediately changed the subject and started talking about Virginia. “They are tremendous. With any kind of start they’d be in the top 5. They are playing tremendous basketball. Their defense is great but they are very good on offense, as well. They have a lot of strength inside, some big guards,. When they changed their point guard, everybody got on the same page. The only game they’ve lost since was against Duke in Cameron when a three pointer bounced way up and back in. Otherwise they’d be unbeaten in the conference.” Matt described their loss to Tennessee as a “teaching moment”. JB: “Teams come together and play great and that’s what they’ve done. People are missing the boat. They are a strong defensive team but they are a very good offensive team. They have good shooters and rebound well. They are one of the absolute elite teams in the country. To be 15-1 in this conference you have to be really good.”


Matt commented that Jim had been to Cameron. JB: “For a while.” That led to a discussion of the end of the Duke game and JB’s reaction. I felt it was a block and that’s how you react in those situations. We were never going to be down 2 with ten seconds left. We would have fouled immediately on the in-bounds and Duke, being a good free throw shooting team was more likely to make two than miss two. In fact, they did make two.”


“One thing we could have done better is shoot. The game is so much easier when you make shots. We made shots early against Maryland and got up 10. This team is remarkable for the comebacks we have made. With close games it’s one thing if you have been ahead the majority of the time, as at Maryland . But we were behind against Pittsburgh, Miami and Boston College, (both games) and NC State and Duke and came back to win. There’s a big difference.”


They discussed the game on TV: Arkansas at Kentucky. The Razorbacks needed a big win- probably a couple- to have a shot at the NCAA tournament. “Kentucky is paying some 2-3 zone. They are long and big- bigger than we are, 6-11, 6-10, 6-6 guards. But he gets out of it pretty quick when they make a shot against it. I talked with him about the zone earlier in the year, But you go back to your natural instincts.”


I called in my first question about whether the game should be officiated in the final minute the same way it was officiate din the 39 minutes before that. “Absolutely. It might be a little less. If it’s just a touch. But if it’s just a touch, you shouldn’t call a foul at any time. That play has been a block all year. Mike Gbinije earlier had gotten there earlier than Hood did and got called for a block. CJ started his upward motion. Before if a guy was there first it would be a charge regardless of upward motion. They’ve been calling it a block with upward motion all year. “


“We point things out all year- the calls, the schedule, injuries. But it’s not an excuse. It doesn’t matter. You have to try to win the game anyway.”


Matt said that the SU-Duke game was the highest rated cable TV show of the week. JB said that the two SU-Duke games were the highest rated college basketball games of the year “by a wide margin. Duke had won 30 straight games at home. We didn’t shoot well and still had a chance to win at the end.”


He praised Trevor Cooney’s play in the Maryland game, despite all the shots he missed. “Trevor’s steal when he was the only man back was a great play and I’m told his pass to Tyler in the lane was the #1 highlight on Sports Center.” Matt noted that Tyler was being praised for anticipating that pass. “A great play all around. T hen there was Baye getting back on defense. Think of that play Page made off of a made free throw against NC State and he scored. Maryland got it in transition and Baye made the play. We missed him in the BC game.” Was there a foul at the end of the Maryland game? “No, there was almost no contact.”


Will Jerami Grant be able to play against Virginia? “We’ll see about Jerami. He has some soreness. He’s not going to play if he’s got no movement. If your back is hurt you can’t jump and run. We think he can play. But we want to keep him healthy.”


Matt went to the questions he’d received via Twitter, “which is always a crap shoot”. An S. Revette asked for a comparison of the ACC to the old Big East. JB: “Similar physical, a lot of physical teams. Close, tough, physical games. Tough home courts. Nothing has come as a surprise.”


Someone else wondered why we don’t “keep going to the basket when we are ahead”. JB: “In the last 4-5 minutes we are going to take time off the clock. If we hadn’t made tow really bad turnovers against Maryland we’d have been ahead by 4-5 points at the end. You can’t plan strategy based on turnovers. They had only 10 seconds at the end instead of 25-30 seconds. That doesn’t mean you don’t try to score. Somebody on the radio said I told Trevor, (did he mean Tyler), not to fast break. He was 1 on 2 and it would have been poor clock management. The clock is your best friend in the game. If you are up 4 with a minute and a half to play and there are no turnovers, you are going to win.” (Better make your free throws, too. )


Chris in Rome wanted to talk Xs and Os with the coach. He wondered why we never run high screens for Trevor Cooney, just low screens, saying that Gerry McNamara and Andy Rautins scored a lot off of high screens. JB: “We call it the ‘2’ play and still use it. We have a couple of other middle screen plays. Teams have seen that and are jumping it. We got Trevor 10 good looks against Maryland. He made his first two and we thought he was going to make 5-6 of them but he missed 8 in a row, then made a really tough turn-around. We have a few penetration and kick-out plays. Trevor doesn’t get his shot off as quickly as Gerry or Andy. Gerry had the quickest release we ever had. Andy was 6-7 so he could shoot over people. Trevor needs to be better putting it on the floor and driving so he can get to the foul line. He’s our best free throw shooter. There are some benefits to them playing him tough- it opens things up for other players. If we get him 10 shots, he should hit four and could hit six. His defense is good. Tyler and Trevor are leading the league in steals.”


Arkansas had a 12 point lead over Kentucky. “This is college basketball- it’s crazy.” They talked about how the teams we played in Maui were doing. Baylor had a four game winning streak. Minnesota “could be a tourney team”. California “is funny- they’ve slipped a bit. All three are right on the edge of the tourney.”


Jim in Syracuse liked “Tyler Ennis’ faster pace and more aggression.” He said it opens things up for Trevor Cooney., JB: “He needed to score with Jerami out, CJ in foul trouble and Trevor missing shots. He’s a very capable scorer. “


Jim, (the caller), thought the call at the end of the Duke game was “gutless. It cheated everybody. I’m glad you reacted as you did. The right call would have been a no call.” JB: Thank you. It was disappointing. Sometimes games end like that. You don’t want the game to end on a call- you want it to end on a play. We could have had it end on Duke’s possession or in overtime.” Matt said that many fans said they were doing the same thing in their living rooms that the coach did on the court. Jim laughed at that. He wondered if Jim was “sticking it to the old guard of the ACC”. “Not a chance.” Did he get a text after the game from Gary Williams. Another chuckle. “Referees try to be fair and objective. No referee is going to try to get Duke calls. I’ll reserve judgment until we have a few games with Duke. They got a little bit better of the refereeing. But that’s normal on the road.”


Arkansas was up by 12 late in the first half. “Both teams are playing zone now.”


Will Wichita State win out? “They are a tremendous team. They went to the Final Four last year and could have beaten Louisville. And they may be better this year. I don’t care who they’ve played. They are an elite team. “ Arizona has “figured out who they are without Ashley. NC State would be in the NCAAs but for two plays. The Big Ten is really good. It’s just that they are all beating each other. “



Next week’s show will be the last of the season.
 
As always, thanks so much for posting these shows. You do a great job.

"Next week’s show will be the last of the season."
Wow, how sad is that. In a month or so, we'll be stuck with NBA only! Ugh
 
I can't believe how fast this season has gone! I keep trying to slow it down with my super space/time powers, but before we know it, spring will be here. DAMN.
 
As always, thanks so much for posting these shows. You do a great job.

"Next week’s show will be the last of the season."
Wow, how sad is that. In a month or so, we'll be stuck with NBA only! Ugh

Actually, I'm looking forward to Thursday night being just another night of the week.

I can't believe how fast this season has gone! I keep trying to slow it down with my super space/time powers, but before we know it, spring will be here. DAMN.

Look out the window! You don't want spring to be here?!?
 
The Wolfies will go crazy when they hear about JB's comment.

"NC State would be in the NCAAs but for two plays."
 
WITH GOMEZ

Gomez had been on vacation last week.

Gomez: I missed you last week.
JB: I didn’t miss you. How can you just take off and go to Florida in the middle of a basketball season.
Gomez: It was tough.
JB: Before this show you probably never even went to games.
Gomez: I went to 2-3 a season.
JB: That ‘s pretty good.

After that start, Gomez suggested they go to the phones. Sheena praised Jerami Grant for his defense, his offense and his rebounding. “It’s like Wow!. If he keeps doing that..” JB said he hoped he would.

With that, they went back to conversation.

Gomez asked if foul calls could be reviewed the way Tyler Ennis’ shot against Pitt was reviewed. Jim said no, “You can only review timing and who knocked a ball out of bounds.” Would he want foul calls reviewed? “No, you can’t reverse a foul.”

The Virginia will be followed by a lacrosse game, also between SU and Virginia, also down there. The teams will be traveling together but the basketball team will depart right after their game, not stay to watch the lacrosse. “We considered it but we have a gamer Tuesday.” Gomez described how excited the Virginia people are about having a game this big after all these years of mediocrity. JB: “I hope they get too excited.” Gomez asked if Jim is willing to have his team play the role of the “northern bad guys” trying to invade the south. “I don’t think about that. The league has changed so much. Now we’ve got teams in Boston, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Florida and, next year, Louisville.”

They went to Facebook questions: Do coaches outbursts work? (I guess the questioner meant: Do they effectuate change?) JB: I knew when I did it that it wasn’t going to do anything. You might fire up a team with a technical early in the game. I haven’t had a technical in years. If it had happened with 10 minutes to go, I wouldn’t have gotten one. I’ve probably had 3-4 technicals in the last 6 years, (if that).

Another Facebook ‘friend’ named Bill wanted to know which was the bigger challenge for their team: their offense or their health. JB: You can’t really do anything about health. We are trying to get better defensively and offensively. There is still a long way to go before getting to the NCAAs. Good health is going to happen or not happen. “

Do fans emphasize the three point shot too much? JB: They get excited about dunks, too. You want to stop the other team from getting threes. Gomez asked about the proposal for a four point shot in the NBA. JB: “That’s crazy. it makes no sense. Maybe they could look at making the court bigger. There’s not a lot of room on an NBA court.” Jim was asked about other r=proposed rule changes in sport. Football wants a penalty if you snap the ball less than ten seconds into the play clock. “There’s not much support fort that”. Baseball wants to avoid home plate collisions so a catcher can’t block the plate without the ball. “I thought they already had that rule.” Gomez thought maybe it just hadn’t been enforced and now they will. “Pete Rose claims Ray Fosse didn’t have the ball when he ran into him”. I would agree:


Al they have to do is eliminate the rule that a tagged player is safe if he can knock the ball out of the catcher’s hand- and enforce the long-standing rule that a catcher cannot block the plate without the ball.”

Arkansas was still up 6 over Kentucky. “You don’t usually win on the road at Kentucky. It’s do or die for Arkansas. This would be a huge win. They need a couple.”

This morning, as I’m typing this, Jimmer Morgan on the Bud and the Manchild show, said that he didn’t care about winning a conference regular season championship. “The only thing that counts is April 7th”. That’s the date of the national championship game. We have a basketball program that would be the envy of 99% of the schools in the country. And yet, by this measure, we’ve had 1 successful season and the rest have all been failures. I called in my second question to the coach, suggesting once more that we need to have multiple goals, not just a national championship or even a final four and that playing everyone in a major conference for two months and winding up with a better record than anyone else is probably a better measure of a team’s abilities than what happen s in a single elimination tournament.

Jim was shocked that there is no official regular season ACC championship. Matt Park noted that Virginia has banners that indicate when they’ve finished in “First Place”. JB: “We want to win every game, to do well at every stage of the season. If we win it, (the conference regular season title), I’m going to put a banner up whether they send us one or not. You don’t have to win a national championship. Some years I’m thrilled to just get into the tournament. Every year the expectations are different. The Sweet 16 is pretty good. After that it’s about the expectations. We were underdogs against Indiana. Making the Final Four is really great. It’s good to do well in the league but people don’t remember it. If I had a choice, I’d rather win the regular season than the conference tournament. We will be in the NCAAs if we win the conference. Winning the conference would be great. Don’t worry. We’ll get a banner.”

I’ve always thought that a season is special, by Syracuse standards if we win the conference regular season outright, win the conference tournament or make the Final Four. It becomes historically great if we win the national championships. 1975, 1981, 1987, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1996, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2012 and 2013 were all “special” seasons. 2003 was historically great because we won it all. I might add another criteria- 30 wins, which would allow in the 1988-89 season, possibly our best team ever but one which did none of the above except to go 30-8. Remembering those season fondly seems a better options than to consider all but 2003 as “failures”. And Jim made the point that having a team exceed expectations is fun even if they just make the tournament. Every season has its highlights, its great players, games and moments. You can’t just say that all that counts is what happens on April 7th

Gomez asked about the importance of getting a #1 seed. JB: “I’m not even thing about a #1 seed. You just don’t know what is going to happen. It’s a bad use of your time and energy thinking about things you have no control over.”

They talked about the amazing job Larry Brown is doing at SMU. They’ve beaten Connecticut twice and have the #1 guard recruit in the country coming in. Meanwhile Arkansas was still up by 9. “They are hanging in there.”

Jay Bilas had listed four teams that could be dangerous in the tournament: Virginia, New Mexico, Wisconsin and St. Louis. JB: “I could name several more: San Diego State, Michigan State, Iowa State, Texas, North Carolina. There are two teams with a high change, (of winning the national championship), in every league except the Big Ten has four. There are 16 teams that I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they are in the Final Four.

They talked about losing kids to the NBA. “College kids don’t have a big impact on an NBA team. Michael Carter-Williams is having a great year but the Sixers aren’t winning. So are Burke and Oladipo but Utah and Orlando aren’t winning, either. A Tim Duncan made an immediate impact. Seth Curry took a while. Fans expect an immediate impact but it’s not going to happen. People don’t get how good NBA players are. I love Tyler Ennis and Seth Allen of Maryland are very good but Kemba Walker would have scored 40 points in that game. And he’s probably the 20th best point guard in the NBA. The players are bigger and stronger and they can hit 18 out of 20 treys if you don’t guard them. TV distorts everything. You look at a football game and think you can make that tackle.” Gomez said he loves the mobile overhead camera because it shows how little time a quarterback or running back has to make decisions. JB: “It’s very hard to do anything at the highest levels of sport- look at skiing. But TV makes it look easy. It’s so hard to do what they do. “

I think it’s the performers that make it look easy.

Jeff in Oswego told Jim that his basketball program was “the envy of the country, especially with all the former players on the staff”. He said he had a question for his partner. “Don’t make it hard.” But Jeff didn’t mean Gomez. He meant Matt Park, who he then snitched on. “Against Boston College, he said that the game was over when it was 33-20. He said we were “headed to 26-0”. JB: It just took a couple more games”. Matt said “Well somebody who gets in a car accident was headed somewhere. He just didn’t get there.”

Kentucky had wrested he lead from Arkansas. “Usually Kentucky will find a way to win this game. Arkansas needed a little more separation”. Gomez commented that Coach Cal “looks just as upset with a lead as when his team was behind.” The Razorbacks would go on to get the win in overtime, 71-67.

Ed in Syracuse congratulated JB on “An amazing season introducing the team to the ACC. When I saw the rant I thought Rollie Massimino.” JB laughed and agreed “It was a little bit like him.” He said he was looking forward to the ESPN 30 for 30 on the Big East, which will premiere March 11th. “It was a great league. So much great stuff happened. it was fun and it was a privilege to build it up from scratch into the bets league in the country.” Gomez wanted to know if Jim had been interviewed or did they just us past interviews. Jim said they interviewed him for more than two hours. “A lot of things happened in the history of that league.”

A fan calling himself “Donnie Skipper” said that when the call was made against CJ he “Broke a glass and spilled beer all over my wife’s favorite rug.” JB: “You’re in more trouble than I am.” Donnie said that he didn’t care what people around the nation thought, JB did the right thing. Gomez said that “everybody in bars and restaurants” gave Jim a standing ovation. Jim was suitably impressed.

Gus called to announce that the ACC was the best conference in the country. He recalled the 2003 team as “offensive-minded: If they got 70, we’d get 72. If they got 80, we’d get 83.” He also said that pearl Washington was the jewel that “put us on the map”. JB: “Pearl was one of the most entertaining players ever. He, Ewing and Mullen put us on the national scene. The 2003 team had a guy who’s averaging 28 points a game in the NBA, GMAC, Kueth Duany and two of the best drivers in the country in Pace and Edelin, as well as Warrick ,a 10 year NBA man. We got 50 points in the first half against Kansas in the national championship game. Teams are holding the ball. Everybody just played in 2003. You can’t speed them up when you’ve just got 6 guys. Even Louisville doesn’t press as much as they used to. You’re not going to be able to run a lot if the other team is holding the ball.”

Dan in Adams thanked the coach “for what you do for cancer. I’ll leave the other questions for the experts. Thank you for Syracuse basketball.”

Pat, one of the experts, praised JB: “What you did left the game undecided.” (Meaning that it wouldn’t let the controversy over the call die and caused people to realizer maybe we should have won that game). “All the locals understood that, not the national people. They basically exaggerated our chances of victory.” JB: “If you complain after the game, they ignore it. You don’t want to go crazy but I’m not sure I wouldn’t do the same thing.“

Gomez asked if Jim had any superstitions. “All coaches have superstitions. But we don’t talk about them.”

John in Syracuse talked about the first Duke game when we made 75% of our three point shots but only attempted 4 of them. JB: “They were the first team that pressured us and let us get drives to the basket. We are one of the worst three point shooting teams in the league. If they are playing a zone or a soft man to man, we’ve got to take some threes. We aren’t looking for threes. If we can attempted 12-14 and make 5-6, that’s a good game. We want Trevor to attempt 6-8 of them, a coupe for CJ, a couple for mike, etc.”

John asked if coach had any “travel plans for early April.” JB: “Not this year. “
 
Look out the window! You don't want spring to be here?!?[/quote]

I was being tongue in cheek. Why do I have to choose between basketball and spring??? It's so cruel!

Obviously, like many (all?) of us, when basketball is over we can console ourselves with the reality that spring is around the corner. Still, I have to work very hard on my scheduling of vacations and other fun things, as well as my inner zen state, so that I have a great time the whole rest of the year until it's basketball time again. Otherwise, I will just be wishing my life away and the older I get, the less I want to do that! Enjoy every month and every season to the fullest. And when winter approaches, woo hoo! Basketball is here.
 

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