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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, when we are losing the experts come out of woodwork with their diagnoses. The most popular current one is “Boeheim didn’t give the reserves enough playing time earlier in the season and now that we need them they aren’t ready to play.” How much of a player’s development is the product of off the court physical training and practice and how much is the product of on the court experience? If a player isn’t progressing off the court, can you make up for that by playing him extensively in games?“
Second hour:
“Coach, we need more scoring and the most obvious possible source is getting Trevor Cooney back on track. Through the Notre Dame game he was a 44% three point shooter. He’s 26% since. When he comes flying off that screen, he’s moving parallel to the basket, has to turn to catch the ball and then turn again to shoot. Other teams have been having success by penetrating, drawing the defense in and passing back out where the three point shooter is not only open but already squared to the basket. He just has to catch it and go up with the shot. Could it help Trevor to penetrate not just to go to the hoop but also to set up passes like that?”
COACH BOEHEIM
(I have, in some instances, put together statements from different parts of the broadcast on the same subject)
Matt Park: “I can’t believe that it’s the last show.”
JB: “The only guy who’s disappointed is Gomez. No more free food.”
About the slump: “Everybody thinks the world’s collapsing. We knew the back of our schedule was murder. Boston College played their best game times two against us and we could have won it with a lay-up at the end. If you lose at Duke on a call at the buzzer, you’ll take that. (You will, coach?) We were in the Virginia game most of the way and didn’t have one of our best players. Georgia Tech got their best player back and played very well. You can’t focus on 4 out of 5 games. 26-4 is what we are. We lost three great players from last year’s team, a guy who’s averaging 17 a game in the NBA, a four year starter and one of the best shooters in the country from last year’s team. We were picked to win 22-23 games at best. Expectations were raised when we went 25-0 but we weren’t blowing people out.“
“Georgia Tech and Boston College are good teams that have lost a lot of games in our league. Duke lost at Wake Forest. We only beta them by 10 Winning 26 of 30 is remarkable when you lost three top players. Florida State might be our toughest game. They are better than some of the teams that have beaten us. And they need this game to get in the NCAAs.” Matt mentioned that FSU is the biggest team in the ACC and that they’ve won the third most ACC games in the last 7-8 years. JB: “They are a good defensive team. They have three point shooters. They are third in the ACC, which is not typical for them. They go 7-3, 6-11 inside. They have won 3 in a row and 4 of 5. They beat VCU They are a bubble team desperate to win. This is one of the best teams they’ve had. They are extremely tough at home. I remember a couple of times when UNC or Duke were ranked #1-2 and lost down there. They lost some games early because they didn’t play well. Now they are back on track.
“Jerami Grant might play a little to get some rhythm.” 26-5, here we come! “ Our goal is to play as well as we can in the regular season and use the tournament to prepare for the NCAAs. There’s too much emphasis on seeding.”
Dave in Minnesota asked what the source of our consistent success has been, suggesting that having so many former players on the staff is part of it. JB: “We are fortunate to have three guys who know our system, who are excellent recruiters and also excellent coaches on the court. Mike runs the whole thing. We’ve got the top 2-3 assistant coaches in the country. It’s also important that we have guys who can learn the program. We always want to have at least 1-2 veteran players. You are always going to be a little up and down. The last 5-6 years has been our best run. We have a good practice facility, the Dome and a good conference. All those things are part of it.” Interesting that “Mike runs the show”.
Jim talked about one very favorable aspect of that consistency: the growing Syracuse fanbase. “Twenty years ago we’d play in New York, Philadelphia or DC and there’d be 150 Syracuse fans in the stands. Ten years ago it was 1,200-1,500. Now it’s 3-4,000. Players go to these games and look around and see 3-4,000 Syracuse players, it’s got to impress them. We have a lot of fans and a lot of graduates in those cities. It’s a recent phenomenon.” You wonder what we’ve lost in this regard with the move to the ACC.
I called in my first question. I joked that if I heard anything good from the experts, I’d pass it on and he laughed at that. But my question certainly lit a flame within the old coach, (although he kept his jacket on).
Regarding the idea of playing the younger players more early in the season: “Yeah, we could have done that. We might have lost 14-15 games but we could have done it. What would those people be saying if we did that?” Would it do any good to play a guy who wasn’t ready? “Absolutely no good at all to put a guy in if he’s not ready to play. If he’s not ready it hurts him. Now they are “Holy Cow!” Players should think that they want to go in and play. But if they commit 4-5 turnovers in 10 minutes of practice, what are they going to do in games? Practice isn’t close to games. It would be the difference between winning by 4-5 or losing by 8-10.”
“You do not get better going into games if you are not a good player. I’ve seen teams play freshmen and lose 15 games and the next year as sophomores they lose 15 games again because they don’t know how to win. They are better off just filing a role so the other guys can carry you. Tyler Roberson was not terrible against Georgia Tech but Trevor Cooney had a bad shooting night so we couldn’t carry him. You only play guys if you think they are ready. You know a guy isn’t ready if he does certain things in practice. If I have to put a guy into a game to see if he’s ready, I can’t do my job. There might be progress but it will be very slow. You need to know if you are a coach.”
When I was an assistant we had a 6th-7th man who insisted that everyone should get a chance to play. He became a successful high school coach and played 5-6 guys every game. I asked him why he doesn’t play more guys. “Because they aren’t good enough, coach.” I told him “See…..!” We don’t have bad players. It’s just that some aren’t ready yet. We had two guys turn the ball over 6 times in a ten minute practice today. You think they won’t do that in a game? “
“Nobody complains when you are winning. When you lose a few, everybody wants changes. These people don’t go to the games or contribute to the program. They just stay home and watch on TV.”
Matt said that “there aren’t a lot of freshmen contributors on good teams”. JB: “Its’ very difficult for a freshman to play on a Top 20 team, aside from very top ones. Florida has 4 seniors. A couple are fifth year seniors. Wichita State has 3 seniors and went to the Final Four last year. Duke has seniors like Sulaiman and Cook. Their one freshman player is special. Kentucky’s freshmen are fabulous but they’ve lost 8 games.
A later caller asked about “the development and progress of the freshmen”. JB: “Ron Patterson is a 2 guard but he can’t shoot as well as Cooney. BJ Johnson is a talent but he’s not physically ready yet. We hoped that Tyler Roberson would have picked things up quicker. I remember players like Scoop Jardine and James Southerland weren’t ready as freshmen but they persevered and kept working.”
George in Syracuse noted that “some of these kids were in high school last year”. JB chuckled. George asked what Jim does with a player who is struggling, like Trevor Cooney. “It’s easier when a player has shown he can make shots. Trevor is not fundamentally doing anything wrong. He’s pressured a bit more and is rushing it. We need him to shoot threes. You wouldn’t believe this kid. He shoots for an hour and a half- with focus. That’s hard to do. Some players claim they shot for an hour and half when they really did it for 20-30 minutes or so. He’ll be OK. We think next year he’ll be able to put it down, (get shots off the dribble) and score better. CJ Fair couldn’t put it down until this year.”
Matt changed the subject to the women’s team, who beat Clemson in the ACC tournament today. JB: “They have really good depth and a lot of freshmen and sophomores. Fortunately, the women don’t jump to the pros so they should be good for some time to come.”
Lou called in to praise Jim’s joint interview with Coach K when Duke came to the Dome. “You both have a passion for preparing for games. Fans don’t realize what goes into it. Coach Knight, (the first “Coach K”), told the Wichita State coach the one thing he would do differently was to not practice so hard late in the season.” JB: That’s a good point. When you play 2-3 games a week you practice hard for short periods. You don’t want to leave your game- or your legs on the practice court. You also work on individual stuff to keep them sharp. You have an intense team practice but keep it short.”
Pat called in and said “People need to look at other programs. Wisconsin won 16 in a row, then lost 5 out of 6 and people there wanted to change everything. Now they’ve won 7 in a row and they are talking about getting a #1 seed.” JB: WE did this last year and went to the Final Four. It’s a good league. This part of the schedule is difficult. We can lose to a Boston College. Duke can lose to Wake Forest. If we’d played well against BC and they hadn’t played so well and we’d lost I’d be concerned. Teams like Michigan State and Pitt have lost 4-5 games but will be tough in the tournament. So will Kansas and North Carolina, who had bad stretches. It happens to most teams. The toughest part of our schedule was at the end last year and it’s at the end this year. You just can’t be shocked when this team defeats that team.”
Matt had seen a preview of the ESPN 30 for 30 show called “Requiem for the Big East”. JB has not yet seen it, although he was interviewed for more than two hours for it. It’s “heavily based on the Georgetown-Syracuse rivalry. There’s a lot about Dave Gavitt.” JB: “It was a crazy idea. Disparate schools with different ideas. What was even crazier was to make it work. Dave forced teams to play in the Boston Garden,. Madison Square Garden, etc., the big arenas. He made it a rule. Nobody wanted to. They wanted to play in their own little gyms. The only team playing in a big arena at the time was Connecticut, in the Hartford Civic Center. When the Providence Civic Center opened with 12,000, it seemed like a huge place.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ESPN 30 for 30 Requiem for the Big East&sm=12
Jake in Liverpool asked a golf question: what does JB think about Tom Watson being named Ryder Cup captain? Jim was instrumental in setting up a celebrity tournament for Tom’s Caddy Bruce Edwards. JB: “The pros love him. He’s a tough-minded guy. He’ll do a great job. The problem is Americans weren’t made for something like the Ryder Cup. The Europeans love it.”
I’ll end with this, which JB said in answer to one fan’s question about what it takes to be a coach.
“The game is with you all the time. You may be playing golf in the middle of the summer. But you are thinking about the players, recruiting, what the alumni is doing. It never stops.”
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, when we are losing the experts come out of woodwork with their diagnoses. The most popular current one is “Boeheim didn’t give the reserves enough playing time earlier in the season and now that we need them they aren’t ready to play.” How much of a player’s development is the product of off the court physical training and practice and how much is the product of on the court experience? If a player isn’t progressing off the court, can you make up for that by playing him extensively in games?“
Second hour:
“Coach, we need more scoring and the most obvious possible source is getting Trevor Cooney back on track. Through the Notre Dame game he was a 44% three point shooter. He’s 26% since. When he comes flying off that screen, he’s moving parallel to the basket, has to turn to catch the ball and then turn again to shoot. Other teams have been having success by penetrating, drawing the defense in and passing back out where the three point shooter is not only open but already squared to the basket. He just has to catch it and go up with the shot. Could it help Trevor to penetrate not just to go to the hoop but also to set up passes like that?”
COACH BOEHEIM
(I have, in some instances, put together statements from different parts of the broadcast on the same subject)
Matt Park: “I can’t believe that it’s the last show.”
JB: “The only guy who’s disappointed is Gomez. No more free food.”
About the slump: “Everybody thinks the world’s collapsing. We knew the back of our schedule was murder. Boston College played their best game times two against us and we could have won it with a lay-up at the end. If you lose at Duke on a call at the buzzer, you’ll take that. (You will, coach?) We were in the Virginia game most of the way and didn’t have one of our best players. Georgia Tech got their best player back and played very well. You can’t focus on 4 out of 5 games. 26-4 is what we are. We lost three great players from last year’s team, a guy who’s averaging 17 a game in the NBA, a four year starter and one of the best shooters in the country from last year’s team. We were picked to win 22-23 games at best. Expectations were raised when we went 25-0 but we weren’t blowing people out.“
“Georgia Tech and Boston College are good teams that have lost a lot of games in our league. Duke lost at Wake Forest. We only beta them by 10 Winning 26 of 30 is remarkable when you lost three top players. Florida State might be our toughest game. They are better than some of the teams that have beaten us. And they need this game to get in the NCAAs.” Matt mentioned that FSU is the biggest team in the ACC and that they’ve won the third most ACC games in the last 7-8 years. JB: “They are a good defensive team. They have three point shooters. They are third in the ACC, which is not typical for them. They go 7-3, 6-11 inside. They have won 3 in a row and 4 of 5. They beat VCU They are a bubble team desperate to win. This is one of the best teams they’ve had. They are extremely tough at home. I remember a couple of times when UNC or Duke were ranked #1-2 and lost down there. They lost some games early because they didn’t play well. Now they are back on track.
“Jerami Grant might play a little to get some rhythm.” 26-5, here we come! “ Our goal is to play as well as we can in the regular season and use the tournament to prepare for the NCAAs. There’s too much emphasis on seeding.”
Dave in Minnesota asked what the source of our consistent success has been, suggesting that having so many former players on the staff is part of it. JB: “We are fortunate to have three guys who know our system, who are excellent recruiters and also excellent coaches on the court. Mike runs the whole thing. We’ve got the top 2-3 assistant coaches in the country. It’s also important that we have guys who can learn the program. We always want to have at least 1-2 veteran players. You are always going to be a little up and down. The last 5-6 years has been our best run. We have a good practice facility, the Dome and a good conference. All those things are part of it.” Interesting that “Mike runs the show”.
Jim talked about one very favorable aspect of that consistency: the growing Syracuse fanbase. “Twenty years ago we’d play in New York, Philadelphia or DC and there’d be 150 Syracuse fans in the stands. Ten years ago it was 1,200-1,500. Now it’s 3-4,000. Players go to these games and look around and see 3-4,000 Syracuse players, it’s got to impress them. We have a lot of fans and a lot of graduates in those cities. It’s a recent phenomenon.” You wonder what we’ve lost in this regard with the move to the ACC.
I called in my first question. I joked that if I heard anything good from the experts, I’d pass it on and he laughed at that. But my question certainly lit a flame within the old coach, (although he kept his jacket on).
Regarding the idea of playing the younger players more early in the season: “Yeah, we could have done that. We might have lost 14-15 games but we could have done it. What would those people be saying if we did that?” Would it do any good to play a guy who wasn’t ready? “Absolutely no good at all to put a guy in if he’s not ready to play. If he’s not ready it hurts him. Now they are “Holy Cow!” Players should think that they want to go in and play. But if they commit 4-5 turnovers in 10 minutes of practice, what are they going to do in games? Practice isn’t close to games. It would be the difference between winning by 4-5 or losing by 8-10.”
“You do not get better going into games if you are not a good player. I’ve seen teams play freshmen and lose 15 games and the next year as sophomores they lose 15 games again because they don’t know how to win. They are better off just filing a role so the other guys can carry you. Tyler Roberson was not terrible against Georgia Tech but Trevor Cooney had a bad shooting night so we couldn’t carry him. You only play guys if you think they are ready. You know a guy isn’t ready if he does certain things in practice. If I have to put a guy into a game to see if he’s ready, I can’t do my job. There might be progress but it will be very slow. You need to know if you are a coach.”
When I was an assistant we had a 6th-7th man who insisted that everyone should get a chance to play. He became a successful high school coach and played 5-6 guys every game. I asked him why he doesn’t play more guys. “Because they aren’t good enough, coach.” I told him “See…..!” We don’t have bad players. It’s just that some aren’t ready yet. We had two guys turn the ball over 6 times in a ten minute practice today. You think they won’t do that in a game? “
“Nobody complains when you are winning. When you lose a few, everybody wants changes. These people don’t go to the games or contribute to the program. They just stay home and watch on TV.”
Matt said that “there aren’t a lot of freshmen contributors on good teams”. JB: “Its’ very difficult for a freshman to play on a Top 20 team, aside from very top ones. Florida has 4 seniors. A couple are fifth year seniors. Wichita State has 3 seniors and went to the Final Four last year. Duke has seniors like Sulaiman and Cook. Their one freshman player is special. Kentucky’s freshmen are fabulous but they’ve lost 8 games.
A later caller asked about “the development and progress of the freshmen”. JB: “Ron Patterson is a 2 guard but he can’t shoot as well as Cooney. BJ Johnson is a talent but he’s not physically ready yet. We hoped that Tyler Roberson would have picked things up quicker. I remember players like Scoop Jardine and James Southerland weren’t ready as freshmen but they persevered and kept working.”
George in Syracuse noted that “some of these kids were in high school last year”. JB chuckled. George asked what Jim does with a player who is struggling, like Trevor Cooney. “It’s easier when a player has shown he can make shots. Trevor is not fundamentally doing anything wrong. He’s pressured a bit more and is rushing it. We need him to shoot threes. You wouldn’t believe this kid. He shoots for an hour and a half- with focus. That’s hard to do. Some players claim they shot for an hour and half when they really did it for 20-30 minutes or so. He’ll be OK. We think next year he’ll be able to put it down, (get shots off the dribble) and score better. CJ Fair couldn’t put it down until this year.”
Matt changed the subject to the women’s team, who beat Clemson in the ACC tournament today. JB: “They have really good depth and a lot of freshmen and sophomores. Fortunately, the women don’t jump to the pros so they should be good for some time to come.”
Lou called in to praise Jim’s joint interview with Coach K when Duke came to the Dome. “You both have a passion for preparing for games. Fans don’t realize what goes into it. Coach Knight, (the first “Coach K”), told the Wichita State coach the one thing he would do differently was to not practice so hard late in the season.” JB: That’s a good point. When you play 2-3 games a week you practice hard for short periods. You don’t want to leave your game- or your legs on the practice court. You also work on individual stuff to keep them sharp. You have an intense team practice but keep it short.”
Pat called in and said “People need to look at other programs. Wisconsin won 16 in a row, then lost 5 out of 6 and people there wanted to change everything. Now they’ve won 7 in a row and they are talking about getting a #1 seed.” JB: WE did this last year and went to the Final Four. It’s a good league. This part of the schedule is difficult. We can lose to a Boston College. Duke can lose to Wake Forest. If we’d played well against BC and they hadn’t played so well and we’d lost I’d be concerned. Teams like Michigan State and Pitt have lost 4-5 games but will be tough in the tournament. So will Kansas and North Carolina, who had bad stretches. It happens to most teams. The toughest part of our schedule was at the end last year and it’s at the end this year. You just can’t be shocked when this team defeats that team.”
Matt had seen a preview of the ESPN 30 for 30 show called “Requiem for the Big East”. JB has not yet seen it, although he was interviewed for more than two hours for it. It’s “heavily based on the Georgetown-Syracuse rivalry. There’s a lot about Dave Gavitt.” JB: “It was a crazy idea. Disparate schools with different ideas. What was even crazier was to make it work. Dave forced teams to play in the Boston Garden,. Madison Square Garden, etc., the big arenas. He made it a rule. Nobody wanted to. They wanted to play in their own little gyms. The only team playing in a big arena at the time was Connecticut, in the Hartford Civic Center. When the Providence Civic Center opened with 12,000, it seemed like a huge place.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ESPN 30 for 30 Requiem for the Big East&sm=12
Jake in Liverpool asked a golf question: what does JB think about Tom Watson being named Ryder Cup captain? Jim was instrumental in setting up a celebrity tournament for Tom’s Caddy Bruce Edwards. JB: “The pros love him. He’s a tough-minded guy. He’ll do a great job. The problem is Americans weren’t made for something like the Ryder Cup. The Europeans love it.”
I’ll end with this, which JB said in answer to one fan’s question about what it takes to be a coach.
“The game is with you all the time. You may be playing golf in the middle of the summer. But you are thinking about the players, recruiting, what the alumni is doing. It never stops.”
