Jim Boeheim on critics claiming Syracuse Basketball does not play hard: “It’s a bad look.”

A weekly podcast appearance turns into an uncandid conversation in which the head honcho of Orange basketball comes to the defense of his players.

During his customary once-a-week conversation with Brent Axe of Syracusedotcom, coach Boeheim passionately defended his team saying his players have played with effort all year – it is the execution and moreover, a missing key ingredient that has cost this team and will continue to cost Syracuse Orange basketball going forward.

“We played really hard at Clemson and got beat by 20,” Boeheim said. “We were down 20 and we won the second half. So obviously the players kept competing. I think it’s a really bad look to say that ‘this team hasn’t played hard.’”

The Orange has lost the rebounding battle in all six of its losses this season – the largest differential being 17 which occurred twice – against the Tarheels and in Syracuse’s most recent loss at Clemson.  The stat spells trouble for Syracuse and it exposes a glaring weakness this team has had to deal with for much of the season.

“As a team, because of the center position, we are flawed,” Boeheim said. “Some games we are just overmatched on the court. I don’t believe the effort was better, (in the win against NC State) it’s just that the results were better.”

Boeheim went on to defend two of his most scrutinized players this season in Buddy Boeheim and sophomore guard Joe Girard.

“Buddy is the (15th) leading scorer in this league and last year was top-15 in the ACC which is a pretty good league,” Boeheim said of his son. “And you are going to say he shouldn’t play? I mean, this is nonsense. I really don’t like it anymore,” the coach exclaimed.

As for Girard, who showed true potential his freshman season, coach Boeheim helped put the guards' season in perspective.

“People throw him under the bus,” Boeheim said of Girard. “He was one of the most effective freshman point guards in the country last year. He is still in the top seven in the league in assists and steals. Joe has been (shooting) 34% from three this year, Kadary (Richmond) is shooting 15%. People are throwing out facts and ignoring other facts that are important to our team.”

If the Orange are going to hit their stride in the latter part of this season, it is not going to be through one guy carrying the load, especially at the guard position where Syracuse has a plethora of talent which can work well together on the court.

“The bottom line is, we need all three guys (Buddy Boeheim, Girard, and Richmond) to play well,” Boeheim said.

When those three guys are on, Syracuse can be a tough match-up for any team in the Atlantic Coast Conference. However, with a desperate need for a big presence in the paint which they have been yearning for the entire season, the team must find other ways to win.

“We need somebody at the center position,” Boeheim said. “We have not found that. Although I have great optimism for this team, our struggles are there. We have not been able to correct our rebounding on a consistent basis.”

The optimism Boeheim is referring to can be credited to his team’s defense. The Orange have the second-best turnover margin in the ACC, forcing opponents to give up the rock 15 times a game with Richmond and Girard ranking in the top seven in steals per game (third and seven, respectively) in the league.

“The main reason we won at North Carolina State was that we forced them into 20 turnovers. That was the difference in the game. And we scored off their turnovers.”

Jim Boeheim’s patented zone defense has been effective this season and it has a chance to get better as one player is still getting accustomed to the intricacies of the zone.

“It takes time,” Boeheim said of learning the zone, especially with limited time this summer due to the coronavirus pandemic. “He (Allan Griffin) is just now learning the rotations at the forward spot. He is a tremendously valuable scorer – that’s what he does. We are trying to get him to make better decisions, but he’s learning that.”

Syracuse is missing an intricate part of the game without center Bourama Sidibe, who came back to play against Clemson but was clearly not his old self. With that said, the team is gelling at the right time. If the Orange can notch up its defensive intensity even more (which can help build momentum on the offensive end), this team still has a chance to make the dance. ... At least one guy believes so.

“We’re not dead,” Boeheim said in the locker room after the win against NC State. “We are a long way from dead.”