NCAA upholds Jim Boeheim’s 9 game suspension, but it now begins Saturday at Georgetown

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Jim Boeheim is busy steering the program through stormy NCAA waters and eight final games.

The NCAA on Thursday announced that it has rejected Jim Boeheim’s appeal of his nine game suspension following its lengthy investigation into Syracuse athletics that was released last March, but ruled that the SU coach can begin the suspension immediately.

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Jim Boeheim will not be coaching the Orange Saturday vs. Georgetown after the NCAA rejected his appeal of a nine game suspension, and ruled  the suspension can begin immediately instead of just ACC games.

That means Boeheim will not be on the sideline Saturday when the Orange resume their longtime rivalry with Georgetown at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. (1:00 ET / FOX), and will miss the subsequent eight games before the Orange host North Carolina on Jan. 9.

Assistant coach, and Boeheim successor, Mike Hopkins will make his interim head coaching debut against the Hoyas, as SU meets its one time fierce Big East rival for the first time since 2013.

» Related: NCAA Appeals Committee restores four scholarships to Syracuse basketball

In a statement released by Boeheim’s legal counsel, Dinsmore & Shohl LLP, the SU coach again took issue with the NCAA’s action.

“Needless to say, I am extremely disappointed with the NCAA infractions Appeal Committee’s decision, and in particular, the NCAA Infractions Appeals Committee giving us only two days to make this transition when the appeal was argued weeks ago,” Boeheim said.

“However, I have full faith in the ability of Coach Hopkins, my staff, and our seniors to lead the Men’s Basketball Program through this difficult time, and I look forward to returning to the bench on January 9 against the University of North Carolina.”

SU is now 6-1 after dropping its first game of the season 66-58 in overtime against Wisconsin Wednesday in the Dome.

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About Brad Bierman 848 Articles
Now in his sixth decade of covering SU sports, Brad was sports director of WSYR radio for eight years into the early 1990s, then wrote the Orange Watch column for The Big Orange/The Juice print publication for 18 years. A Syracuse University graduate, Brad currently runs his own media consulting business in the Philadelphia suburbs. Follow him on Twitter @BradBierman.