Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim called a CBS Sports report about an NCAA investigation against the Orange a repeat of previous stories during a press conference Wednesday evening.
“Same story they had last year at this time,” Boeheim said. “That’s annual. I guess next year, we’ll get it again.”
According to the CBS report, SU has received a letter of preliminary inquiry from the NCAA for an investigation. The school has been under investigation for a period of “years” according to the report. Boeheim was referring to a Yahoo! Sports report last year about violations of an internal drug policy.
» Related: Report says SU under investigation
The moderator then instructed the media on hand not to ask any more questions about the topic.
“That’s fine,” Boeheim said. “You can ask 100 of them.”
Last year, Syracuse was dealing with a bigger problem—the absence of Fab Melo, who was ruled ineligible prior to the start of the NCAA tournament. That had far more of an impact than the Yahoo! Sports report, Boeheim said.
“Last year was completely different. Last year, we didn’t have Fab Melo,” Boeheim said. “That was not a distraction. That was an absence and they handled it as well as they could.”
The timing of the release of the two stories were similar. The report last year came out as Syracuse prepared to play in the Big East tournament.
This year, the story came before the start of the NCAA tournament.
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“Doesn’t bother me. Not at all,” Boeheim said of the timing. “We’re concerned about playing Montana. What people write or say, you know, there’s 30,000 people at the (Carrier) Dome yelling at me all of the time.
“People yell at their television sets. I tell them I can’t hear them, but they still yell at their television sets. There’s no distractions for me or these players. There’s no distractions for them.”
Other than that, Boeheim offered little insight into the story.
Said Boeheim: “I can’t comment about something that’s just talk.”
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