Syracuse barely survived an angry defeat to Bryant on Friday night in a game coach Jim Boeheim said he should never have played, provoking a sharp reaction from his counterpart Jared Grasso.
Syracuse had to stop basketball activities after 76-year-old Boeheim contracted the novel coronavirus two weeks ago and the rust was showing.
“You can’t play basketball if you don’t train,” said Boeheim after Orange won an 85-84 win over the Bulldogs in Carrier Dome for both teams in the season opener. “It’s a fundamental thing that everyone knows. We played very well two weeks ago. For 14 days, the players kept themselves in order. We practiced yesterday and some guys died. Then we play against a really good team, a smart team, a well-trained team, we couldn’t run, we couldn’t shoot …
“But that’s my fault. We should never have played this game. We should have come back next week and practiced and played. Bryant couldn’t really put it off. So 100 percent my fault. “
Grasso, who is in his third season as Bryant’s head coach, tore up Boeheim’s remarks after his squad ran out of great supply, saying his school gave them several options to abandon the game.
“Should I give an honest response?” Grasso told the Providence Journal. “Let me be honest – we’ve given you five options to cancel the game. They wanted to play it. We asked to postpone the date five times. We felt the same way. You came out of quarantine. They asked to play it. They wanted to play us. We should have beaten her in place. If that will be your excuse, so be it. Now I got mad because we’d spoken to them a dozen times about moving the date.
The 40-year-old Grasso, who was 1-22 in his first season as Fordham head coach in the 2009-10 season, said he knew he was “a nobody” and that he could get a tough setback if he did He criticized a Hall of Fame coach but reiterated that his version of the story is the truth.
“They decided not to move it,” said Grasso. “In reality we were trying to change the date and give them the option to change the date. They decided against it. Is that why we should have hit her? If you want to use that as an excuse, you can. But we came here and should have hit Syracuse in Syracuse. I find it hard not to be dull. I apologize. I would have wanted to quit the game if I’d been in her shoes. They didn’t want to stop the game. You made that decision. We came here to play and we came here to win and we deserve to win. We haven’t done enough plays.
“You are a very good team. He is a hall of fame trainer. I have nothing but respect for him. But to say they wanted to cancel the game is just completely wrong. ”
Chances are that Grasso, whose team has just suffered a bitter loss, misunderstood the comments when they were forwarded to him. Boeheim took the blame for playing the game but was potentially inartistic when he said, “Bryant couldn’t really put it off.”
Whatever the case, Boeheim can thank his son Buddy and Marek Dolezaj for ensuring that Syracuse did not suffer an embarrassing opening loss.
Boeheim made four 3-point points and finished with 23 points. Dolezaj had 20 points – including two free throws 22 seconds ahead – as Syracuse caught up from 13 points behind in the second half to claim victory.
– with AP
.
