Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim admits he was ‘unprofessional’ (video)

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim responded to a Pittsburgh reporter Sunday with an expletive when asked about his program’s self-imposed postseason ban.

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim called Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reporter Joe Starkey on Monday to discuss Boeheim’s profane response to a question from Starkey about the Orange’s self-imposed postseason ban.

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After Syracuse lost at Pitt in overtime on Sunday, Starkey asked Boeheim, with this being the program’s second postseason ban during his tenure, how he felt regarding accusations and notions of him running a dirty program.

“I’m not talking about the NCAA investigation,” Boeheim said before fielding another question.

But after he answered that question, he turned back to Starkey.

“And another thing, for your question: I don’t give a s**t what those people think. I know what I’ve done and I know what we do and I’m proud of it.”

Video of the presser is below, with the exchange between Starkey and Boeheim beginning at around 2:45.

Starkey’s immediate response was to write a column saying that Boeheim “as stubborn, arrogant and outspoken a coach as you’ll ever encounter,” and referred to the coach at “Jim Belichick” before self-correcting the last name.

Boeheim often reminds me of college basketball’s own version of this guy:

Monday, however, Starkey said on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh that Boeheim had reached out to him.

“Yes, that was Jim Boeheim on my answering machine,” Starkey said. “We’ve had a couple of cordial conversations today, which is amazing to me. But I respect him for it. He did call me back and say he was unprofessional top drop the expletive at the news conference and a couple of other things.”

This is nothing new for Boeheim. Starkey is right when he says Boeheim is one of the most arrogant and outspoken coaches in the business, but that’s part of what makes him a fun quote.

Boeheim has been the head coach at Syracuse for 39 years. He was an assistant coach there before that and a player at the school prior to that, so at this point he basically is Syracuse basketball.

But Starkey brings up a reasonable point to ask if there are concerns about the perception of the program after a second NCAA investigation during his tenure.

And the manner by which the school “punished” itself doesn’t exactly pass the smell test, either. Rather than imposing a postseason ban for next season, so that current players in the program could decide whether they wanted to ride it out or not, Syracuse created an atmosphere where those players can’t opt out without having to sit out an entire season.

It’s a loophole in the NCAA rulebook that needs to be closed. If a school is going to impose penalties upon one of its own programs, it can’t be done in such a manner that the current athletes on scholarship get completely screwed over.

No one on the current Syracuse roster was part of the violations that have Syracuse in the NCAA’s crosshairs again. That’s an unfortunate but true fact about the NCAA enforcement system—future generations of players end up being asked to pay the price for the misdeeds of their forebears.

But the school gaming the system to make sure no one can bolt without having to pay for it with a lost year via transfer is just unconscionable.

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim responded to a Pittsburgh reporter Sunday with an expletive when asked about his program’s self-imposed postseason ban.

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