Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim strongly rebutted allegations levied 13 days ago by the NCAA Committee on Infractions at a press conference Thursday.
“I have chosen to appeal the Committee on Infractions’ decision. I believe the penalty imposed is unduly harsh,” Boeheim said in response to the 94-page report that outlined his nine-game suspension to start ACC play next season, 108 wins vacated and three scholarship reduction.
Defiant and terse, Boeheim went line-by-line denying allegations, and spoke in scolding tones when he said former player Fab Melo was completely eligible academically and said critics are mischaracterizing the student-athlete process at Syracuse.
“Syracuse has not admitted anyone who couldn’t do the work,” said Boeheim, who was hired in 1976.
The NCAA passed a bylaw placing blame on coaches for knowledge and total awareness of actions within the program. Boeheim said Thursday that he did his job, and no more.
The NCAA said the infractions involved academic misconduct, extra benefits, failure to follow the drug-testing policy and impermissible booster activity. The alleged penalties are partly related to players receiving money from boosters at the YMCA.
Boeheim said Melo had a C-minus and petitioned to do additional work to bring up his grade. The option is available to all students, and professors are not required to agree to the extra credit. Some outlets have reported Melo had an F. The coach said it was his responsibility, and called it very normal, to find a professor to allow Melo to write a 10-page paper on his life.
Boeheim said he is not allowed to “look at papers or talk to professors,” but said that anybody in academia could have looked at the paper in question and not known the two citations were changed.
“This is important — this is a 10-page paper on his life,” Boeheim said. “The infractions committee asked me, ‘How could he write this paper in two days?’ And I said, I think I could write this paper in four hours. Any of us could write this paper in four hours.”
Melo did his own work, Boeheim said, and turned the paper in early.
“He turned it in Wednesday … we had a game Saturday,” Boeheim said. “I would have liked to have him play. They wouldn’t process it. I called no one. That’s not my job.”
Melo was not cleared to play until the following week, Boeheim said.
Syracuse also disagrees with allegations that student-athletes freely committed academic fraud and that there was not an environment of compliance.
“We did have academic meetings, we did have compliance meetings — every month,” Boehiem said. “I’m not throwing any schools under the bus, but there are programs who don’t have compliance meetings. Ever. We do it every month.”
Boeheim has had 108 wins vacated but with 858 career victories he is sixth all-time in victories among men’s division I basketball coaches. Before the penalties were handed down March 6, Boeheim was second.
“This is it — this is the focus of my life. I had no plans to coach this long,” Boeheim said. “The reason I never thought about retirement is that there was no way to think about it during this (investigation). The Final Four in ’12 would have been a great time. We were not in a position to go out. I love coaching. You can coach as long as you can be effective. If I’m not effective at the end of next year, I will not coach after next year.”
Boeheim said he told recruits that he would be at Syracuse in 2015-16, but made no promises beyond next season. He said he fully expects to leave the program in great shape, even losing 12 scholarships for the next four years, but does not have a say in his successor.
Boeheim said he doesn’t expect a Derek Jeter farewell tour upon announcing he would retire in three years. The coach said he would not be the “58th-highest paid” coach in college basketball if he was making all of the decisions the NCAA and “critics” are citing.
“People tell me every day what to do,” Boeheim said. “It’s a myth that I somehow run things at Syracuse University. I did not really want to go to the Big East in any way shape or form. Oh, we were in the Big East for 30 years. I don’t decide who is hired at Syracuse University.”
Whether he can clear his program and his name by 2017-18 is a matter of debate. Boeheim said he asked the NCAA what more it wanted him to do, and claims he did not get any response.
“We were not charged in the entire first two stages of the issues we have with them, and they never asked me in the earlier interviews ‘Coach what did you do?’” Boeheim said. “That’s probably why I wasn’t charged. … They declined to interview me again on that specific area.”