ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 10, 2022

Jim Boeheim

Buddy Boeheim

Jimmy Boeheim

Barclays Center

Syracuse Orange

Postgame Press Conference

Duke - 88, Syracuse - 79

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim, student-athletes Jimmy Boeheim and Buddy Boeheim.

JIM BOEHEIM: Jimmy and I will talk about the game, and then after we're done talking about the game, then you can ask questions about anything else.

I thought we played with a tremendous purpose today. I can't be prouder of this group. Duke is a difficult team for us. They've completely dominated us two games. Come in today, we tried -- which we haven't used in 24, 25 years -- the triangle and two, which worked for a while. They're going to eventually get it. But I thought it gave us a little bit of an edge, and then we would switch back to the zone.

The purpose was to try to limit Williams and Griffin. They had 49 in Syracuse, and we wanted to limit those two guys. We knew that there's going to be some shots available for Moore and Roach, and Roach ultimately made the key baskets that won the game for them. We just have to help back on Banchero. We have to play that kind of defense.

We practiced it for one minute last night. The last time we used it, it helped us, but we didn't win that game either. That was in 1987. I forgot exactly where that was, but it was a pretty big game.

These guys played great. Joe was off the ball. He's really good off the ball, Sy. Cole was just a little off from obviously last night, but Jimmy wanted to get his little brother another game, and he did everything he could to accomplish that. Duke was all over us. They played tremendous defense, as they do. We put up a lot of points, probably twice as many as we did in the first two games, or as many as we did in the first two games.

So it was an unbelievable effort. Just could not be more proud of my team and how they played and how Jimmy played. He was just tremendous tonight.

Q. Jimmy, could you speak to your mindset coming into the game today.

JIMMY BOEHEIM: I mean, we knew we had to win this game or that was it. I was playing for this kid today. Just wanted to do everything I could to get him one more and to get our team one more.

I knew I was going to have to be aggressive, missing the leading scorer in the conference, so I was trying to pick up there where I could and just do everything I can on both ends.

Q. Jimmy, if you could just speak on how the team ultimately competed today overall, how your brothers did in this game, and Coach, just your overall take about how the team left it all on the floor today.

JIMMY BOEHEIM: I'm just proud of that. Everyone stepped up, gave it everything they had. Symir stepped in and played 40 minutes, 11 assists and 2 turnovers. You can't ask much more from him. He was great. Everyone just gave everything, everything we had the whole game. People counted us out. I think a lot of people who didn't even give us a chance said that was Buddy's last game before the game even started.

So we used all that, and we just couldn't make a couple plays at the end.

JIM BOEHEIM: As Jimmy said, it was a one-point game with not much time left. We had some threes miss, they made a couple, and that was the game. There's no question that for us, playing the game yesterday and Joe and Sy playing 40 minutes and Cole, they were a little worn down at the end. That's to be expected.

But it's an unbelievable effort. It's an unbelievable effort by these guys. Duke had to play well, and they did. They made their shots that they had to make, and they played really well.

Q. Coach, your thoughts on matching up against Coach K for probably the last time.

JIM BOEHEIM: Well, I'm glad I'm not playing against his players anymore, I can tell you that. I wouldn't mind matching up against him. Tough to play against. They're great players. He has great players there. We've had some great games, great battles.

He means more for college basketball than anybody. What he's done for the game, what he's done outside the game, and what he's done for the country's game with the Olympics, you can't really measure that. He has unbelievable understanding of what you have to do and say in working with people. He's a great coach, but he's really better at all the other things that are involved with leadership.

I don't think you can give him too much credit. I don't like to play against him, but we'll have dinner together. That's the only time I want to see him in the future.

Q. Jim, Mike mentioned you getting the chance this season to coach your sons. What has this season meant for you?

JIM BOEHEIM: Well, I'll tell you this, it's the best season I've ever had. I think that says enough.

Q. You say that even though you're finishing the season with a losing record. So I wonder if you could expound on that a little bit.

JIM BOEHEIM: I don't need to. It's the best season I've ever had in coaching. That says it all. Sometimes you don't have to say a lot.

Q. Buddy, were you surprised by the ACC's decision --

JIM BOEHEIM: Hold it. We're finishing the game. When we're done with all the questions on the game, we will address that.

Q. This is for Coach and Jimmy. You guys mentioned you practiced the triangle and two for only a minute. Did that affect it in the second half when they started to hit more threes?

JIMMY BOEHEIM: No. I mean, we had to live with something at the end of the day. They've got weapons everywhere. You've got to give them something at the end of the day. Credit to them, they stepped up and knocked them down when they had to. But it was a great move by him. You saw what they did to us the first two games. It definitely messed with them a little bit, messed with their heads a little bit. We went into the half winning largely because of that.

JIM BOEHEIM: Again, we're trying to get matchups on offense to try to take advantage of some matchup situations. They switch a lot. Joe was really good the first half at that. I think he got tired. But defensively we knew we were going to give Roach threes. We were playing, trying to cheat to Keels, but really we wanted to do something with Griffin. He killed us in the two games, and Williams killed us in the two games. They had 49 at Syracuse, probably 40 at Duke. So we felt we had to do that.

And it gave us a chance. That's all you can do in a game like this.

Q. Jim, I know you said in the past you think Duke is the favorite to win the title. Can you just elaborate a little bit on why that is.

JIM BOEHEIM: I don't know. I used to predict these things right, and I haven't made a good Final Four prediction in a long time. I just think they have good shooters, they have good guys you can put on the floor. They're better defensively than I think they've been, and they've got the shot blocker back there.

That doesn't mean they're -- everybody can get beat. We almost beat them. Everybody can be beaten. The thing that's deceptive with our team is other than the Duke game, we played really well. Really well. We could have won at Notre Dame, Virginia Tech. We should have won at Carolina. We could have won at Miami. We could have won all those games. We played good enough, but we didn't win them, but we played good enough.

I like Duke's team. I just think they're big, they've got a lot of options, a lot of different guys can get 20. They've got six guys that can get 20. But Miami's difficult to guard. Miami's really difficult to guard man-to-man. We had a little more success against them with zone because they've got so many guys that can drive.

A lot of the matchups sometimes will matter, but I like Duke's chances.

Q. What do you think it would mean to Mike if they can make a run to the Final Four?

JIM BOEHEIM: He's won five. I think that's enough. I don't think he's worried about winning another one. He'd like to. I think Al Maguire is the only one that wins the last one going out.

Buddy will say what he needs and wants to say.

BUDDY BOEHEIM: First off, let me start off by saying I'm so proud of these guys. Sitting on the bench today, I couldn't be prouder watching my big bro do his thing. It was unbelievable really. I couldn't be prouder of those guys, just let them know I love them. Obviously, I wanted to be out there, but they couldn't have played any better.

First, I just want to say I made a mistake, and I have to own up to that. I've been thinking about the play for the last 24 hours, to tell you the truth, over and over again why I did it. I think it was just the heat of the moment. I thought he might have ran into me, lowered his shoulder, but it was a clean play besides that.

We hit a big three, I got excited, and turned around -- never meant to throw a punch. I don't think I've thrown a punch in my life. But connected with him obviously, maybe tried to get him with my arm or something running back. But never meant to intentionally hurt him or affect him and knock the wind out of him. Luckily that's really the worst thing that could have happened in that situation.

But Wyatt's a really good dude. He's a good player. I would never try to hurt someone, especially him. There was no talking before that, anything that led up to it. It was just an honest mistake on my part. I have to live with that. I have to own up to that. I'm not here to argue whether or not I should have played or if I should have got suspended.

What hurts me the most --

JIM BOEHEIM: I'll take care of that.

BUDDY BOEHEIM: I got it. What hurts me the most is there's a lot of kids, a lot of people that look up to me that want to be like me one day, and I can't tell you how much that means to me. I disappointed them yesterday, and I have to live with that. That's okay because I know I made a mistake. If you know me, if I've known you for ten years, if I've known you for ten minutes, I try to treat you with the same amount of respect and kindness and be the best person I can every day. That's what I've always been about.

Forget basketball. I want to be remembered for being a great person off the court.

I hope this doesn't affect that. I know that it's a mistake I have to live with. I'll grow from it. I'll learn from it. But playing at Syracuse these last four years wearing this jersey, representing this school, my family, myself, it's meant everything to me. I can't put that into words.

Forget how many points I scored. Forget all that, the numbers. Being able to play here and just put a smile on someone's face, being able to interact with fans, every day has been a dream come true, and I wouldn't trade that for anything.

It sucks I had to go out like that, but I'm all about the journey, and the journey has been priceless. There's been so many good moments that led up to this that I'm so thankful for. I wouldn't trade it for anything. Oh, man, I wanted to say this firsthand, though. The tweet is fine, but I want to say personally myself that I apologize to everyone I let down yesterday because I know I did. I'm most disappointed in myself.

Trust me, I know I'll learn from this. I'll grow from this. It's just something I had to say and wanted to get across because I truly try to be the best person I can every day, and anyone who knows me knows that. That's why, if this is the worst thing I ever do in my life, I can live with that. I just want to say thank you to everyone who has supported me on this journey. It's been unbelievable. I'd do anything to wear this uniform. I truly gave it everything I had every day.

JIM BOEHEIM: Thanks, Buddy. I got a couple things to say. Number one, if it was a flagrant two -- and it can be, you can say that. We were up 18 points. Buddy had 8 points. He didn't score any points until we were up 30. So I think it's fairly obvious we would have won the game without him. If it had been handled properly, they would have looked at the video -- they've looked at the video every single time this year. The kid was laying on the floor. Wyatt was laying on the floor.

And they're going to punish those guys? No, they're not punishing those guys. They're punishing this guy right here because they didn't do their job. And the league should have looked at that and said, this would have been out. He would have been out. Don't let anybody tell you, well, he might have been suspended for the game, this game too. That would never have happened. No one in their right mind would say that.

So they didn't do their job, so Buddy got punished. That's what happened.

Now, I'm forever grateful to Leonard Hamilton. He's a great man. He summarized it for everybody. Let's move on. Wyatt, who I've always had great respect for, he's a great player, plays hard all the time, said what our league couldn't say. This is fine. I've gotten hit 30 times harder than that. So I'm at a loss.

Like I said, if it was handled right and they wanted it to be a flagrant two, he'd have been out yesterday. They didn't do it right. So a kid that's given everything to this league for four years -- and just because you're a great kid doesn't mean you shouldn't be punished. He should have been. He should have been out of the game. And then we play today. I'm not sure we play any better. We might not. They may have risen to the occasion. I don't know. We might have lost by 20 today.

That's not the point. That's not the point. It should have been handled yesterday. It wasn't. And the league should not punish this guy. It makes no common sense to me.

There's also something about in all sports I've ever seen, you do something and you've done a lot of shit in your life in the league you're in, they hit you. They give you the maximum, right? And if you've been good, they give you a punishment. Buddy got the maximum punishment today. This is the maximum. I've seen people tackle people, knock them into the stands, and they get a one-game suspension. So he got the maximum for this.

In spite of what Leonard Hamilton said and in spite of what, the player who was involved -- I mean, you look at the video. You all disagree -- said it wasn't a punch. We didn't ask him to do that. I didn't even know he was going to do that. That's what he said. They never asked him what happened. Just like they never listened to him when he said, I got hit. So it wasn't handled right, bottom line, period.

THE MODERATOR: We have time for a few questions.

JIM BOEHEIM: Ask as many as you want. I'm not going home. I'm here till 7:00.

Q. Your dad talked about what this season meant to him. Now that it's over, can you talk about what it meant to you, what you'll take away and remember down the road?

JIMMY BOEHEIM: It's meant everything to me, being alongside this guy on the court and playing for him and just playing for the team that really was my childhood growing up, just being on the court at the time-outs, just looking up to all the players that came before me. I think, once this all settles, I'll remember that.

Obviously, growing up so close to it, I know what this program is about, and I know the standard that comes with it. Obviously, we didn't live up to that this year. I'm going to carry that with me too. It weighs on me more than anything. So it's about trying to overcome that at some point and just appreciating those things that I talked about in the beginning.

BUDDY BOEHEIM: Yeah, going out, obviously not the season we wanted. It's obviously going to hurt forever. Besides that, there's so many good things that I got out of this season, especially this season playing with my big brother, who helped me get here, pushed me to be better every day. He never let me win growing up, and I appreciate that, as much as I hated it.

I mean, the little things I'm going to miss the most, man. The bus rides, talking to my dad after games, working out with G. Mac before practice for an hour every day. I wouldn't miss a workout for anything. Just getting close with the managers, getting close with the guys, going out to different restaurants. All the little stuff, playing in front of the best fans, taking pictures with them after games, before games, whatever it was. It's truly been amazing, and I can't put it into words how much it's meant to me to play here. I've worked my whole life to play here, the last eight years of my life. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Q. Just what this entire ride has meant to you. And for Jimmy and Buddy, just what you want to say to your father as this may be the last time we get to see this obviously.

JIM BOEHEIM: They'll be nice. They still have my credit card. You see these kids growing up, and Jimmy always was the smartest one in the family. He said, I'm going to go to an Ivy League school. I think that's where I should play, my level. It was hard for him to even get an offer. Cornell gave him one and at the end of the day, when somebody decommitted at the end. I told him, I said, let's go down there and take that.

And he became one of their best players or arguably their best player and developed himself into a really good college player. I don't think there's any doubt about that now.

Buddy always wanted to come to Syracuse. He watched tapes with me when he was 4 years old after the games. I'd come home. He'd watch the tapes with me or on his own. I didn't think he'd ever get here. I didn't think he would. It's hard. How many guys get to play at Syracuse from upstate New York. Not many. We've had a handful in my 46 years. So I didn't think he would get there. He wouldn't take no for an answer. He just kept working at it, working at it.

I'll never forget at Peach Jam they played Penny's team, Penny Hardaway, they were Number 1 in the country and Buddy had 7 threes and Joe had 5, and they win the game. And two things happened. Roy Williams walked by and said, you'd better take that kid. And this coach from Penny came by and said, what was that about? What were they doing? I said, well, you didn't guard him.

But that's when I decided we were going to take Buddy. I didn't know what would happen. I thought he would be a good shooter. His freshman year he was, but then he became a really good player his sophomore year, and these last two years, he's been a tremendous player.

I'm proud of them because all coaches, there's great talent in the world, there's guys that are really talented that work, but they've just got the talent you have to have. These two guys didn't have that much talent. They got not much from me, and they got size from their mother. But they worked with it, and they made themselves into really, really good basketball players. They were called Division II and III players by the social media in Syracuse. I think we dispelled that part.

So I'm really proud of how they got here. Not that they're good, but how they got here. And Jimmy doubled my grade point average at Cornell, and it's a little harder at Cornell than it is at Syracuse.

Q. This question is for Buddy. I know this season ended the way you didn't want it to, but do you have any favorite memory from this season you're going to look back on?

JIM BOEHEIM: Last year.

BUDDY BOEHEIM: Dad (laughter). Man, that's tough.

JIM BOEHEIM: Probably playing with your brother.

BUDDY BOEHEIM: Yeah, definitely one that sticks out to me, Indiana game early on, Jimmy had a big game. It was one of his first big games against a real good team. We won in double overtime, one of the best games I've been a part of. Just a lot of emotions really kind of sunk in, that I was playing with my brother out there and just a special moment, having fans back, especially after last year. Last year was tough with no fans. But that's one that will always be a special one.

There's still so many memories that I really appreciated from being with all these guys and these coaches.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you all so much.

JIM BOEHEIM: I'm going to miss you guys. These guys, you'll miss a lot, you won't see them, but unfortunately, you'll see me next year.