http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=pf-forde_syracuse_boeheim_scandal_missteps_112911 This is part of the article.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – It didn’t take long for the first sign that Jim Boeheim still doesn’t get it.
It came as soon as he walked into a packed postgame news conference after his Syracuse team beat Eastern Michigan on Tuesday night.
“This is the first time I’ve been in the press room where there’s more people here than at the game,” he quipped. “Is there something special going on tonight?”
That was classic Boeheim – a wisenheimer of the highest order. Much of the time, that act is entertaining. This time, it was completely the wrong tone to take in the current context.
As a matter of fact, Jim, there is something special going on at Syracuse University right now. Something especially disturbing. Something that demands a more serious manner from a guy that a good portion of the nation would love to see fired right now.
Your right-hand assistant, Bernie Fine, was fired two days ago amid allegations of child molestation. This was your first chance to stand behind a microphone and defend/explain yourself with live words after a jarring turn of events Sunday.
A third accuser came forward and a surreal audio tape was released indicating that Fine’s wife, Laurie, knew or at least suspected her husband was abusing former Syracuse ball boy Bobby Davis. Those revelations and the termination of Fine suddenly put your vigorous attack of Fine’s accusers – calling them liars in search of a payday – in a new light.
You apologized in a statement Sunday, saying, “I deeply regret any statements I made that might have … been insensitive to victims of abuse.” But Tuesday night, here and now, you needed to turn that stated regret into a living, breathing, believable emotion at the podium.
It didn’t happen.
