Jim Boeheim says that he wasn’t ‘trying to downgrade Jalen Johnson’

Syracuse basketball head coach Jim Boeheim has received a lot of criticism in recent days for comments that he made on his weekly radio show about Duke freshman forward Jalen Johnson, including from ESPN analysts such as Jay Bilas.

The Orange is preparing to travel to the Blue Devils this Monday night. On Saturday afternoon, following his team’s monumental comeback victory at home over Notre Dame, Boeheim spoke about Johnson during his post-game Zoom call with media members.

The 6-foot-9 Johnson, a five-star recruit coming out of high school, has decided to opt-out of the remainder of the 2020-21 season to prepare for the upcoming NBA Draft. He is a potential lottery pick in the 2021 NBA Draft and has dealt with injury in this stanza.

Boeheim, on his weekly radio show this past Thursday evening on TK99, said this about Johnson, per a report by Mike Curtis of Syracuse.com. “That guy was hurting them so they actually are much better now without him. He was just doing some things and keeping other people from playing that are good. They’ve had two monster wins since he’s opted out and they’re playing good basketball. They’ve got very good talent. You knew they were going to play out of this thing and now they’re playing well. Every game we play is a very difficult game, a great challenge and we look forward to it.”

Boeheim said in his virtual call after the Notre Dame contest that he “was not trying to downgrade Jalen Johnson in any way, shape or form, and Jay Bilas is flat wrong if he thinks I did that. I didn’t. I made an honest evaluation. We’re playing Duke Monday [and] this is Thursday, that I think Duke is playing the best that they’ve played. Period. That’s all.”

Syracuse basketball head coach Jim Boeheim discusses his recent comments on Jalen Johnson.

On ESPN’s College GameDay this past Saturday morning, Bilas said that he didn’t agree with Boeheim’s take on Johnson “at all.” Bilas also noted that nobody, including Boeheim, said anything about the Blue Devils being better without Johnson before the freshman chose to opt-out.

Boeheim said he wasn’t “casting aspersion” on Johnson. “I haven’t even seen Jalen Johnson play this year, to be honest,” Boeheim added. “He’s a tremendous player, probably will be a great pro. I just made the observation … that I thought they played better without him in those two games” against Wake Forest and N.C. State.

Boeheim also said that he supports Johnson “with whatever he decides to do. I just said Duke looks better, to me. That’s it. Nothing against any player. I may be wrong. They may play terrible now. But they were good in those two games.”