Jim Boeheim, the men’s basketball coach from Syracuse, questioned a reporter’s credibility based on his height and perception of his lack of basketball experience following a 64-54 home win over Clemson on Wednesday night.
On Monday, Matthew Gutierrez, who covers Syracuse basketball for The Athletic, wrote on Twitter that Orange would be “somewhere at 17-5 overall” and in field 68 if reserves Jesse Edwards and Kadary Richmond had recorded more minutes. The duo combined to score 12 points in a 72-70 victory over North Carolina that day.
Gutierrez posted on Twitter on Tuesday that he and Boeheim were “all good at it” after having a conversation about his remarks. On Wednesday, however, Boeheim seemed to respond to Gutierrez’s original tweet when asked after the game.
“But if I played Jesse and Kadary, I would probably be 22-2 now,” Boeheim said after Wednesday’s victory. “I just didn’t see that. I couldn’t figure it out on my own after 45. I need a reporter to figure it out … who has never played basketball and is 5 feet 2.”
Edwards (1.9 points per game) and Richmond (6.9 PPG) combined to score five points on Wednesday.
Syracuse is a team of bubbles listed in ESPN’s “Next Four Outings” by Joe Lunardi.
Wednesday night was not the first time Boeheim’s remarks drew attention this season. Last month, on his radio show, following the decision of double student Jalen Johnson to give up preparation for the NBA draft, Boeheim said that the projected lottery selection “hurts” the Blue Devils, who had become a better team in their games. subsequent without him.
After facing criticism, including from ESPN commentator Jay Bilas, Boeheim tried to drop his comments.
“This is not a scatter, throwing scatter on Jalen Johnson,” Boeheim told a post-game press conference last month. “I didn’t even see Jalen Johnson playing this year, to be honest. He’s a great player. He’s probably a great professional. I just remarked, in my opinion, that I thought they played better without him. In those two games, Jay Bilas said I said I was a better team without him, all the time. I didn’t say that. I didn’t mean that. “