Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim spoke truth to power about the state of college basketball after the Orange defeated Boston College in Chestnut Hill.
He hates the state of the game.
“This is an awful place we’re in in college basketball,” he said. “Pittsburgh bought a team. Okay, fine. My big donor talks about it. But he doesn’t give
anybody any money. Nothing. Not one guy. Our guys make like $20000. 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.”
Hard to argue with a guy, although Syracuse has taken some transfers like Cole Swider of Villanova and his son Jimmy from Cornell to augment its roster. Boeheim said there was no money involved in either case.
College athletics have become an arms race in the high-profile sports like football and men’s basketball. And it won’t be long before most of 350 Division I basketball.
programs are fighting over scraps.
Once the Supreme Court ruled college players can make money off Name, License and Image in Alston case, the genie escaped from the bottle and there is no putting it back. High profile
college athletes are making six to seven figure money these days, particularly in the SEC where Alabama quarterback Bryce Young has deals in place that make him $3.2 million and Kentucky center Oscar Tscheibwe is making close to $2.5 million.
Boeheim went all Nick Saban-Texas A & M with his incendiary comments.
But Boeheim may have gone too far when he mentioned Wake Forest.
“He’s wrong. He’s 1,000 percent wrong,” Wake coach Steve Forbes said in response. “I don’t have one player on my team who got NIL money to come here In fact, I’ve never
had a player. who’s come here for NIL.”
Boeheim has subsequently told ESPN early today he misspoke when he mentioned Wake and Pitt and shouldn’t have included them. As for Miami, their Nil deals have been pretty much publiized.
Ever since Boeheim chided a student reporter for his question following a four point loss to sixth-ranked Virginia last week at the Dome, Jim Boeheim press conferences has been must see.
At least the 78-year-old Boeheim, who is in his 47th year of coaching, took time to clear up his retirement plans.
No, he is not leaving at the end of the season.
“I have no other plans,” he said. “Listen, this has been a question of the day for 15 years. This isn’t a new question. It’s just a calendar going, ‘Well, he’s 78 years old.’ If it wasn’t the calendar, if I was 65, no one
would be saying anything. And I’m not going to retire just because it’s the calendar. Anything can happen. Anything literally, We’ll get see what happens. i don’t say anything because I don’t know.”
The Cuse is 14-10 and 7-6 in the ACC this season but is expected to miss the tournament for a second straight season. Boeheim has been to 35 NCAA tournaments, five Final Fours and has won one national championship in 2003.
“Ninety-five percent of the Syracuse people want me to coach,” he claimed. “Why wouldn’t they? As bad as we’ve been in the last two years we were fun to watch last year and we’re still fun to
watch and we’re competing. We just played three of the top teams in the country. If you’re getting beat by 20 by those teams, then you say, “OK, we’ll see.”
Boeheim feels he has the autonomy over when he walks away.
“I know it’s my choice” he said. “I can do whatever I want. I just don’t know for sure.”
There was some thought Boeheim might retire after he coached his two sons last year. But he likes the nucleus of this young team with freshmen Judah Mintz, Chris Bell and Justin Taylor and said
his two seniors– center Jesse Edwards and point guard Joe Girard has the option of playing another season.
