Syracuse’s vaunted 2-3 zone was no match for Georgetown on Saturday as the Hoyas beat their former Big East rival, 89-79. It was their third big non-conference victory in a row.
Mac McClung carved up the Orange in the first half, scoring 21 points in the first 20. In the second half, Georgetown went inside to Omer Yurtseven. Jahvon Blair and Jagan Mosely hit timely three pointers. The multi-pronged attacked kept the Orange off guard for much of the game.
Maybe… just maybe… Syracuse would’ve had a better chance at winning the game if the Orange attacked Georgetown as hard as, Jim Boeheim attacked James Akinjo. Mind you, Akinjo wasn’t even in the building on Saturday.
Mind you, the subject of Akinjo or any of the other Georgetown transfers weren’t brought up by the media. So anyone who wants to play the “it’s the media’s fault” card might as well gets-a-steppin’. This was all Boeheim who said “They get rid of a guy (Akinjo) who wouldn’t pass the ball to anybody and shot every time.”
At that point there was a little bit of a “this could be interesting” feel in the interview room. But Boeheim went back to talking about his players and the game. And, to be fair, the questions were aimed at talking about who was in the building not who wasn’t.
Ultimately he couldn’t stay with concentrating on his team. He circled back around to take another shot at Akinjo. “If we had played them the way they were playing earlier in the year… we would’ve won the game.”
The practice coaches commenting on other team’s players should follow one old time rule. If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. There was no reason to comment on the Georgetown situation.
Yet we’ve seen this out of Boeheim before. Just ask Andy Katz. When the long time coach needs to deflect, all level of rudeness is in play.
In 2015, Boeheim received a nine game suspension and was sanctioned for the Orange being guilty of having any control over their program. Yet he felt compelled to preach from the pulpit about a player who never played for him nor was playing for the school that just handed him that “L”.
One would think Boeheim would compliment Georgetown’s players who were actually on the floor. But, maybe, the frustrated Boeheim thought this was enough. “They’ve got seven guys that are as good as anybody. Two guys weren’t really contributing at all. The other guy was throwing the ball up all the time. I know Patrick can’t say that but I can. I watched him play 3 games. He lost 3 games for them. Two games by himself.”
The Hoyas have shown a brand of toughness over the past two weeks. For head coach Patrick Ewing, he will need it as the Blue and Gray are moving forward with seven scholarship players.
In the meantime, the basketball program will continue to move forward with the guys who are there… maybe Boeheim should do the same.
