Meet the press: Syracuse University basketball coach Jim
Boeheim (top left) greeted a larger-than-usual contingent of sports
scribes from across the country following the Orange’s Nov. 19 pasting
of Colgate. Although the game provided some headline relief for the SU
squad (including, at top right, Dion Walters, James Southerland and
Scoop Jardine, with ex-Orange great—and now assistant coach—Adrian Autry
sitting at left), everyone was asking about the missing-in-action
Bernie Fine (above, from a previous game), the assistant head coach who
could always be counted on to provide a stone-faced counterpoint to
Boeheim’s often entertaining overreactions. Michael Davis Photos.
Weekends Without Bernie
For the first three games of this season, the talk around the Syracuse University basketball team centered on the team’s deep roster and talented bench. But when the Orange played Colgate on Saturday, Nov. 19, at the Carrier Dome, the focus shifted dramatically from who was on the SU bench to who wasn’t.
For the first time in head coach Jim Boeheim’s 36 years at Syracuse, associate head coach Bernie Fine was not by his side. SU placed Fine on administrative leave Nov. 17, after two former SU ball boys accused Fine of years of sexual abuse. Syracuse police confirmed they have started an investigation into the allegations.
In a statement released Nov. 18, Fine said he was confident the allegations would be discredited. “Simply put, these allegations are patently false in every aspect,’’ Fine said.
Fine and Boeheim first met at SU in 1963, when Fine was a student manager and Boeheim was a member of the basketball team. When Boeheim became head coach in 1976, he offered Fine the assistant coaching position. Fine, 65, entered this season with the longest active streak of consecutive seasons at one school among assistant coaches in Division I men’s basketball.
But when the national anthem was sung this past Saturday and the SU players and coaches lined up on the court, there was a space between Boeheim and assistant coach Adrian Autry: the space normally occupied by Fine. And when the players and coaches returned to the bench, they left the seat to the right of Boeheim open in tribute to Fine, whose primary coaching responsibility is working with SU’s big men.
Sophomore center Fab Melo, who said he considers Fine a father figure, suggested the SU players tap the vacant seat when they exited the game.
SU senior Scoop Jardine said it was like giving Fine a high five. “Yeah, we left his seat open in honor of him,’’ Jardine said. “Everything we did tonight is what coach Fine would have wanted us to do. We just have to keep playing great basketball and keep pushing forward and try to win every game as coach Fine would want us to do.’’
As expected, the No. 5 Orange thumped the Raiders 92-47 to improve to 4-0 (and 45-0 vs. Colgate since 1963 – the longest active winning streak in Division I). SU will resume in the NIT Season Tip-Off at about 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 23, when it plays Virginia Tech at Madison Square Garden. SU is guaranteed to play at the Garden again Friday, Nov. 25, against Oklahoma State or Stanford in the NIT final at 5 p.m. or the consolation game at 2:30 p.m.
In New York City, the Orange will face another barrage of questions about Fine from the Manhattan and national media. This past Saturday, the contingent included media members from USA Today, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Fox Sports, SportsNet New York (SNY) and ESPN, the outlet that first aired the story Nov. 17 about the allegations made by Bobby Davis and his stepbrother, Michael Lang.
Although Syracuse officials requested that post-game questions be limited to basketball topics, the bulk of the questions fired at Boeheim in his post-game news conference were about Fine. Boeheim, who earlier in the week had made strong statements in support of Fine and against Davis, tempered his remarks after the Colgate game.
“I’ve said everything I needed to say, and probably more than most people would like me to say,’’ Boeheim said. “I’m very confident I’ve taken the right stance, said the right things, and now we’ll let this thing play out. And whatever the results are, the results are.
“I am not going to say anything new so I’ll just repeat: I’ve been friends for 50 years with coach Fine and that buys a lot of loyalty from me. It should and that’s what I was talking about.”
SU always opens the locker room to the media after Boeheim’s news conference is over, and to SU’s credit it opened the locker room to the media after the Colgate game. The players soon realized that most of the questions would revolve around Fine and not their 45-point win or their upcoming trip to the Garden.
“We want just want to focus on basketball, so if we can just keep the questions on basketball,’’ Jardine told a collection of reporters. “That’s the biggest thing. No disrespect. I know you all wanna know, but I don’t know just like you all don’t know and I just want to keep it to basketball.
“It’s always great to play basketball,’’ Jardine added. “Get your focus off a lot of stuff that’s going on in your real life. So basketball has always been the thing I can block everything out and play the game that I love with my teammates.’’
Junior guard Brandon Triche, who’s from Syracuse and has an uncle (Howard Triche) and cousin (Jason Hart) who played for the Orange, said SU wants to “play as hard as we can for (Fine).’’
“He’s always been positive, he’s always willing to help people,’’ Triche said. “I couldn’t think of anybody in this program doing anything like {what Davis alleges}, especially him.’’
Whether it was the lopsided score, the absence of the students and pep band because of the Thanksgiving break, or the allegations against Fine, the crowd of 21,084 seemed restrained during the Colgate game. One fan who spotted a reporter remarked about the lack of juice in the Dome and said, “There’s a black cloud hanging over this place today.’’
“The only thing that felt weird was that coach wasn’t there on his seat,’’ Melo said. “I think the whole team missed him, but you have to focus on playing basketball and that’s what we’re doing.’’
The Orange has no other choice. The police investigation is likely to last months. A team with high expectations will likely be tapping an empty seat and answering unanswerable questions for the rest of the season.
“Our program will be fine,’’ Boeheim said. “It’s been pretty good for 36 years and we’ve been through a lot of different things. We’ll get through whatever happens in our program.’’
Orange Slices: Senior forward Kris Joseph is expected to play Wednesday, Nov. 23, after sitting out the second half of the Colgate game with a sore knee. Joseph, who scored four points in 13 minutes in the first half, had off-season surgery on one knee and now the other knee is acting up.
“Kris Joseph hurt his knee a little bit in practice,’’ Boeheim said after the Colgate game. “He could have played in the second half but it was sore and stiff, so we’re just going to try to get him healthy for next week.’’
—Matt Michael
Hi-Yo, Silver!
There’s little doubt that, when it comes to minor-league sports, Syracuse is a hockey town, with the Crunch one of the area’s main draws. If the owners of the Syracuse Silver Knights have their way, though, soccer may grab some of that spotlight.
On Wednesday, Nov. 23, soccer revelers have the chance to experience what a European match feels like, as the city’s newest franchise, the Silver Knights, hold a March to the Match. At 6 p.m., soccer fans will be parading from Armory Square to the Onondaga County War Memorial before the Knights’ rematch with the Rochester Lancers. The game begins at 7 p.m.
Knight watch: Soccer fans will parade from Armory Square to Wednesday’s game at the War Memorial.
“This is the vision,” said Jon Ramin, the team’s general manager and brainchild of the event. “I’ve been doing some research on the Major League Soccer team in Seattle, and they do this all the time. It’s become tradition for fans to pile into bars before the game, then march and sing in the streets on the way to the game.”
And considering the cutting-edge town that is Seattle, other MLS markets are jumping on the parade bandwagon, including Syracuse. The Silver Knights are working with seven Armory Square establishments to help March to the Match catch on here.
Each of the bars has 40 free tickets to hand out to fans of their choice, as well as scarves and other team schwag. Beginning at 5 p.m., the establishments will be offering food and drink specials before everyone spills out onto the street and follows the bagpipes and drums to the War Memorial, 515 Montgomery St.
“Growing up around here, I frequented a lot of those places,” Ramin added. “They all decided they wanted to help start a new tradition around here. And it’s probably the best day of the year to do something like this.” That’s because Thanksgiving eve is widely considered one of the biggest party nights of the year, as just about everyone has the following day off from work and most everyone is home visiting relatives.
David Hoyne, a native of Ireland, owns Kitty Hoynes, one of the participating bars. With an endearing Irish accent, Hoyne spoke about his love for soccer, and related this event to one that happens often in Europe. “This is such a great community event,” he said. “Soccer is huge in this area on every level, from youth on up. At our bar, we show quite a lot of soccer on TV, as I think it helps boost the establishment. But growing up in Ireland, I became quite the soccer fan of Manchester United. {The march} is going to bring back a lot of memories.”
The Armory Square pub has been a supporter of the Knights since talk surfaced about soccer in Syracuse earlier this year. Anyone who attends any home game can bring the game program into the bar before the next home game to receive a free appetizer. “This has the ability to be one of the great parts of a truly vibrant downtown,” Hoyne concluded.
Silver Knights head coach Tommy Tanner owns Woody’s Jerkwater Pub, and he is taking the party one step further. Tanner has hired a bus to transport fans who get a ticket at his Mattydale bar (located in the Kmart plaza) to the game. Tanner opened the pub in 2003, and described it as a sports bar during the week, and a nightclub on the weekend. He said that Woody’s broadcasts every Knights game on a big screen television and that he feels the fan base is steadily growing. He couldn’t contain his excitement for the march.
“It’s something Syracuse has never experienced, and I think it will turn a lot of people on to our team,” he said. “Hopefully if it works out, we can do it before every game, depending on the weather.”
For the true soccer fan, the Silver Knights are not to be missed. With their thrilling opening night 16-15 come-from-behind victory over the Lancers, the Knights have already started building a regional rivalry. Since that game on Nov. 4, Syracuse has been on fire, winning its next two games by a combined score of 41-14. With a 3-0 record, the Knights sit atop of Major Indoor Soccer League’s Eastern Division.
“Some fans are turned on by the two- and three-point goal lines,” Tanner said, explaining a key difference between indoor and outdoor soccer. “You get these high-scoring games that are exciting for everyone. The word is already out, but the March to the Match, I think, is going to get a whole bunch of people who wouldn’t normally be interested involved.”
Fans should gather 60 minutes prior to kickoff in Armory Square and march to the War Memorial, following bagpipers, drummers and street performer/acrobat Wacky Chad on pogo stick performing extreme stunts and tricks. These participating bars will have drink specials for March to the Match ticket holders: Al’s Wine & Whiskey Lounge, 321 S. Clinton St. (703-4773); Limerick Pub, 134 Walton St. (475-1819); Kitty Hoynes, 301 W. Fayette St. (424-1974); Black Olive, 316 S. Clinton St. (399-5599); and Bar, 400 S. Clinton St.
The bars will start offering specials at 5 p.m., two hours before match time and an hour before the march begins. Each bar listed has 40 tickets, to be distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis. An hour before the game, those at the bars will spill out into the Armory Square streets to convene before heading up Jefferson Street. Sing, chat and march, and don’t forget to bring a friend.
—Neil Benjamin Jr.
Hey, hey, hey!: The Landmark Theatre, 362 S. Salina St., officially reopened for business following more than a year’s worth of stage renovations on Nov. 19, with a long line of customers out front (top) to watch iconic comic Bill Cosby (above), decked out in a Syracuse-emblazoned hoodie, take the stage. Cosby also wore the same outfit earlier that afternoon during an autograph session at the DeWitt Barnes and Noble for his new book I Didn’t Ask to Be Born (But I’m Glad I Was). The line snaked around throughout the store as the Cos calmly signed every book and greeted each admirer with a grin, a joke or a laugh, sometimes a combination of all three.
