WASHINGTON -- Let the posturing and politicking begin. Jim Boeheim and, to a lesser extent, Jamie Dixon, are about one step short of robo-calling the NCAA selection committee.
Good luck to them both. To be fair, though, Boeheim needs more, because Syracuse is going home to wait with a knot in their stomachs until Selection Sunday, while Pittsburgh is playing for another chance to take it out of the committee’s hands.
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Cooney's shot rims out, as does Syracuse's tournament hopes. https://t.co/Rrv8vYf6FD
— Troy Machir (@TroyMachir) March 9, 2016
That’s what happens when you lose a certifiably must-win game to fellow bubble-dweller Pittsburgh, 72-71, in your ACC tournament opener. It's what happens when you blow a double-digit first-half lead, let the other team build a double-digit lead of their own, then (according to Boeheim himself) mess up the potential game-winning play in the final seconds and lose a virtual NCAA play-in game.
What happens is, you start lamenting your fate … because now, it’s out of your hands.
So, after Syracuse lost Wednesday afternoon in Verizon Center, Boeheim was asked how he thought the committee would regard them.
“No comment,’’ he said. “No comment.” He paused, then repeated, “No comment.’’
Then, he commented.
“It’s up to them. I don’t know what they’re going to do. You don’t know,’’ he directed at the questioner. You don’t know what they’re going to do, and I don’t either.’’
Later, he was asked if he thought the punishments the school had received in the past year for NCAA violations — a self-imposed postseason ban last year, then a nine-game suspension of Boeheim this season — would play into whether Syracuse would get in or not.
“I’ve always thought the NCAA (selection) committee was not the infractions committee,’’ he said. “I thought it was the NCAA basketball committee. I thought their job was to pick the best teams for the tournament.
“The players on this team didn’t do anything wrong, they weren’t involved in anything,’’ he continued. “They should be evaluated on how well they played when they played their best.’’
It’s a valid argument. It’s just one that doesn’t help Syracuse, because the Orange weren’t as good as Boeheim claims they are.
They certainly weren’t anything special against Pittsburgh, who beat them all three times they played them, including Wednesday. They were about as firmly on the bubble as a team could be, and after Trevor Cooney’s final three-point try hit rim and bounced away, that bubble probably popped.
(Boeheim said afterward that the play was designed for forward Michael Gbinje, but the execution was off and Cooney rushed the shot.)
At 19-13, 9-9 in the conference and a one-and-out in the tournament, Syracuse needs a lot of losing to take place the rest of the week to save them. Bohemia's plea won’t save them.
Pittsburgh (21-10) may have only gotten a reprieve. Beating top-seeded North Carolina Thursday would help a lot more. Even after Dixon boasted of how great his team’s strength of schedule was — highlighted by, he kept repeating, three wins over a Syracuse team that probably is out — who knows who will really fight to get another .500 ACC team into the field?
The two middle-of-the-road traditional powers were left pleading their cases, even after one won.
There was no chance Boeheim was really going to not comment. But now, with a loss they couldn’t afford, commenting isn’t going to help them at all.