Syracuse Basketball: Jim Boeheim pessimistic on future of SU-Georgetown

Syracuse basketball head coach Jim Boeheim was very pessimistic after the game about the future of SU-Georgetown. Here are the details.

Saturday’s game between the Syracuse basketball squad and the Georgetown Hoyas was an instant classic. There were five lead changes, a game changing charge call, unorthodox three pointers, and of course Tyus Battle hitting the game winning shot in the final moments.

Despite all of that, head coach Jim Boeheim seemed extremely pessimistic about the future of this series in his post game press conference:

"“The league decided to go to 20 games, we have so many games we have to play, and it’s difficult to play these games. We’ll try to, we’ll look at it, but all those old Big East teams want to play us like Connecticut and Villanova. They must think they can beat us or something. That league is over, we’re done with that league. You know we’re in our league now and we’ve got to be concerned with what’s best for Syracuse. I love Patrick (Ewing) he’s been great and we’d like to play the game if we can, but we already have 26 games accounted for before we even go to the table. We’ll have to see how it all breaks out.”"

Many people thought that if there was a good showing in the last scheduled game between Syracuse and Georgetown (which was this past Saturday in a four game agreement from back in 2014) that would add some additional fuel to getting a new agreement locked in. But again Boeheim wasn’t biting:

"“We can play great games with anyone, it doesn’t have to be Georgetown, Connecticut.”"

The Big East nostalgia obviously hasn’t rubbed off on Boeheim. The tone is clear from Syracuse, this could be the last time we’ve seen Syracuse vs Georgetown.

These two teams have played at least once a year since 1979, the lone exception being 2013 when Syracuse first entered the ACC.

Georgetown head coach Patrick Ewing spoke to the local media after the game and made his case for why this rivalry should continue, per Mike Waters of Syracuse.com:

"“The atmosphere was great,” Ewing said. “The crowd was into the game. The players were into the game. This is something I would love to continue. I think it’s great for both schools,” Ewing added. “It’s great for us to play against Syracuse. It’s great for them to play against us so I would love to see it continue.”"

In all honesty there’s zero reason that the current crop of Syracuse basketball players would have any skin in the game as it pertains to this old Big East rivalry. Heck most of these players weren’t even born yet when these classic games were happening in the 1980’s. Why would they care if this continues?

Yet despite that several players told me in the locker room after the game that there was a buzz in the air and they loved the extra curricular activities that were involved with this game giving it extra juice you don’t normally find in a non-conference game.

Well Syracuse Athletic Director John Wildhack is doing his due diligence kicking the tires on possible future Syracuse Georgetown games, but currently they’re simply preliminary discussions and nothing more.

If this was indeed the last Syracuse vs Georgetown game, it was an instant classic we’ll remember forever and thank goodness Syracuse was the one who pulled it out.