Syracuse Basketball: JB May Coach Forever, And Other Media Day Action

The ACC’s annual hoops media day provided a ton of juicy tidbits. ITLH breaks it down from the Syracuse basketball perspective.

Jim Boeheim, the legendary boss of the SU basketball program, says he’ll coach forever if he can.

I’m on board with that.

Boeheim, in an interview with ESPN’s SportsCenter on Wednesday, wants to remain at the helm on the Hill for as long as is realistic. Set to enter his 42^nd season in Central New York in a matter of weeks, JB says that his age, 72, is a non-factor.

I wholeheartedly agree.

He shows no signs of slowing down, that’s for darn sure. His younger son, Buddy Boeheim, will begin his Orange career in 2018-19. So you have to assume that the elder Boeheim will stick around for AT LEAST five more campaigns, if not more.

JB’s comments came in the midst of the Atlantic Coast Conference’s annual media day for its hoops members.

Let’s dive into some key takeaways from Boeheim, along with junior point guard Frank Howard and sophomore wing Tyus Battle, who both participated in the event. The ACC’s official Web site, theacc.com, provided transcripts for interviews with all three guys.

When asked about his assistant from decades ago, Rick Pitino, whom Louisville recently dismissed as its head coach, Boeheim had this to say:

"“Obviously as everybody knows, first guy I hired in coaching when I got the head coaching job. And we’ve been friends for 40 years. I have nothing but the utmost respect for him. I think he’s one of the all-time great coaches in college basketball. He’s as good as anybody I’ve ever coached against. And the game will miss him and what he brings to the game.”"

Coach Boeheim Press Conference via ACC Media Day

JB on Howard:

"“Yeah, I think that Frank is a player that I kind of compare to Scoop Jardine who struggled his first couple of years and then he had two great years for us and took us to the tournament and to a lot of wins. I think Frank struggled a little bit in his first two years. He’s shown signs of what he could do, actually more signs than Scoop did at the same time. So I think Frank’s ready. I think he’ll have a good year this year. Very confident in him.”"

This is encouraging to hear from Boeheim. It’s well documented that Howard disappointed in 2016-17. His vision on the court is strong, but he has seemed to lack confidence. For the ‘Cuse to succeed in this coming stanza, Howard will prove pivotal.

I dig JB’s comparison to Jardine, who brightly shined in the second half of his SU career. Jardine caught a lot of grief from Syracuse fans, and some of it unfairly. But he helped lead the Orange to a record-setting term in 2011-12, which unfortunately ended with a loss to Ohio State in the Elite Eight.

Could the ‘Cuse’s vaunted 2-3 zone give way to sporting a little man-to-man defense in the upcoming campaign? “Yeah, we might,” Boeheim quipped, while adding that “anything’s possible in this world.”

Graduate transfer Geno Thorpe, a guard from South Florida, is a critical cog in the current crew, according to Boeheim:

"“With Geno, we found a guy that can play the point and play the 2. … He’s a much betterMore from Inside the Loud HouseSyracuse Football: Cuse boils Purdue, turns attention to Army on SaturdaySyracuse football only team in country with top-5 scoring offense, defenseSyracuse Basketball: 4-star Elijah Moore not in top 100, and I don’t get thatSyracuse basketball 4-star west-coast recruit, in new rankings, into top 20Syracuse basketball is hitting D.C. market hard in pursuit of 4-stars, 5-starsdefensive player than I knew going in. I knew he could score. But he’s been a very good defensive player in practice in both man-to-man and zone. He’s been a good guy to have on our team. He’s been a very positive influence. … And the difference for our team is we have more experience in the back court with him and Frank and Tyus starting every game last year. And that really is one of the strengths of our basketball team.”"

That JB likes what he sees in Thorpe’s defense is fantastic, as the Orange struggled in that department for much of 2016-17. I don’t want to engage in a lot of criticism here, but, a season ago, fellow grad transfers John Gillon and Andrew White III had their shares of weaknesses in the zone.

Boeheim on the emerging star, Battle: “He’s very important. No question about that. But I think to have a good offensive basketball team you’ve got to have balance, you’ve got to have at least three guys that can score consistently. And you have to get contribution from whatever two other guys are out there in some way, shape or form. But certainly Tyus is going to be a key guy for us.”

JB also notes that Battle and Howard “have been very good every day in terms of the leadership of our basketball team.”

How does Boeheim view his 2017-18 squad?

"“I think we have the potential to be a good basketball team. I think we can definitely be better defensively than last year. We were kind of middle of the league type of defensive team. We’re used to being in the top two or three teams defensively. So we think we can be better defensively. Offensively we lost a lot of weapons. We were a really good offensive team last year particularly in the league. But we need to get better in that area to be a good team. But I think defensively we have a chance to be a much better team.”"

I 100 percent concur with this assessment.

Battle appears to as well. Check out a few of his thoughts here:

"“Well, we’re definitely young, a lot of new guys. But I think we had that time over the summer to really get to know each other and gel well as a team. I think this year we really – I think we really generally like each other. We really gel well as a team. So I think we’re definitely going to surprise people. All the guys get after it every day in practice. Every time they step on the floor, we go hard. I think we really accepted what we have to do to win this year, which is be a defensive stopping team, so I think we’re definitely going to surprise some people. … I think we can go out there and beat anyone we play against. So we’re definitely confident as a team when it comes to that.”"

Bravo, Tyus, bravo. I love his attitude. The national pundits are down on Syracuse for 2017-18, but Battle, Boeheim and the entire bunch don’t seem to care one iota about that.

Battle had this to say about his backcourt mate, Howard:

"“A leader, competitor, and he has a lot of basketball knowledge. He’s one of the guys – one of the only guys on the team that was a part of that Final Four run [in 2016], so we’re definitely going to be looking for him for a lot of knowledge and just being that floor general this year for our team.”"

Howard, meanwhile, says that despite so many new faces on the present roster, “I think we have a great dynamic right now. We’re young, explosive, athletic. College basketball right now is filled with young guys, so I think we’ll adjust well, get a few games under our belt. You know, we understand it’s a process. We have a young group, so we know we probably won’t hit the ground running from the beginning, but we did my freshman year, and you’ve got to see what happens. I think we’ll get it together and got a lot of young guys that’s ready to work hard and learn.”

We’ll end with this quote from Howard, which is just awesome: “We understand what the narrative is of our team, and we play with that chip on our shoulder every day. I feel like even if we came out the No. 1 team in the country, we would still have that chip on our shoulder. We just want to come out, work hard, and just prove our team to ourselves. We’re not trying to prove it to anybody, want to be the best team we can, and I think we will be.”

Absolutely, Frank. I couldn’t have said it better myself.