Take it from someone who has been around Jim Boeheim a bit before.
This is about par or the course for the longtime Syracuse basketball coach and Hall of Famer.
In a recent interview with ESPN, Boeheim accused three ACC programs which "bought" players as a testament to the current state of college basketball. Included in those three teams were Pitt, Wake Forest, and Miami.
"This is an awful place we're in in college basketball," Boeheim said. "Pittsburgh bought a team. OK, fine. My (big donor) talks about it, but he doesn't give anyone any money. Nothing. Not one guy. Our guys make like $20,000. Wake Forest bought a team. Miami bought a team. ... It's like, 'Really, this is where we are?' That's really where we are, and it's only going to get worse.
"It's crazy. That's why those guys got out -- that's why Jay (Wright) got out, Mike (Krzyzewski) got out. That's the reason they got out. The transfer portal and everything is nuts. It really is."
Not long after ESPN posted the story -- originally intended as a probing into whether the 78-year-old will retire soon -- Boeheim walked his comments back to ESPN's Pete Thamel, the author of the story. Boeheim claims he "misspoke" about Pitt and Wake Forest and "shouldn't have" included the two:
Update: Jim Boeheim followed up with ESPN to say that he “absolutely misspoke” about Wake Forest and Pitt buying teams, as the only public usage of NIL he knew about was Miami’s, which was highly publicized. He said he “shouldn’t have” included Wake and Pitt in his statement. https://t.co/yQXKRYEAG3
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) February 5, 2023
How does the phrase about people in glass houses go? Remember, in 2015, Boeheim and the program took a massive hit of sanctions for numerous NCAA infractions, including adding extra benefits for his players.
Pitt had four of this year's starters come from the transfer portal this offseason. The Panthers defeated Syracuse 84-82 inside the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse in December.
This will, without question, serve as bulletin-board material for the Panthers for when Boeheim and the Orange visit the Petersen Events Center Feb. 25 -- three weeks from yesterday.
A request for comment from Pitt coach Jeff Capel was denied by a Pitt spokesman on Sunday.
Capel and Boeheim are each scheduled to speak on the ACC coaches' teleconference Monday afternoon. Stay tuned to see what Boeheim has to say to back these words up.
Again, as someone who has been around that program and experienced the Boeheim aura, this is not surprising in the least. He has always and widely been perceived as a villain for his brash, cantankerous, and sometimes -- such as the case here -- misguided rhetoric which lands people on the wrong side of the fence with him.
Take the many examples of him lashing out at Syracuse student reporters -- of which I used to be while at that school, so this hits close to home -- during press conferences. His most recent act of this came on Monday when Sam Corcoran of the student TV station Citrus TV asked about the absence of Benny Williams, a starting forward who was not present at all for the Orange's game against Virginia.
Boeheim was reportedly going to update the press on Williams' status after the game, making this question by Corcoran a fair and timely one for that reason alone, but also for the idea that Williams has started in 20 games and never explained his no-show.
“Is that your question?” Boeheim said to Corcoran. “That’s the most important question you have? Is that your most important question?
“Benny took a personal day, he will be back at practice on Wednesday. That’s it? We have that question, that’s all we have? Typical in Syracuse.”
(It is more typical of Boeheim to respond in that way than it was for Corcoran to ask that perfectly reasonable question.)
