Sports coach Jim Boheim said Syracuse survived an uncomfortable loss to Bryant on Friday night, saying he should never play, which was a sharp response from his counterpart Jared Grasso.
Syracuse had to stop basketball activities two weeks after the 76-week-old Bohem contracted the novel coronavirus two weeks ago, and showed rust.
“You can’t play basketball when you don’t practice,” Boeh said after a 85-84 victory over the Bulldogs over the Brier Radogs in the season opener for both teams. “It’s a basic thing that everyone knows. We were playing really nice two weeks ago. Go 14 days, the players kept themselves in exactly the same shape. We practiced yesterday and some people were dying. Then we play against a really good team, a smart team, a team with a good coach, we can’t run, we can’t shoot.
“But this is my fault. We should never play this game. We should come back, practice, play next week. Bryant couldn’t really rearrange it. So, 100 percent my fault. “
Grasso, who is in his third season as Bryant’s head coach, tore up Bohem’s comment that his team’s big upset bid soon fell, saying his school had given him too many chances to stop the game.
“Am I responding honestly?” Grasso said Journal of Providence. “Let me give you an honest response – we gave them five chances to cancel the game. They wanted to play it. We asked to move the date five times. We felt the same way. They were coming from quarantine. They asked him to play. They wanted us to play. We should beat them in their place. If it becomes their excuse, be it. Now I got angry because we had this conversation with him a dozen times about moving the date.
The 40-year-old Grasso – who was 1-22 in his single season as Fordham’s head coach in the 2009-10 season – said he knew he was “none” and had been hit hard for criticizing Hall Hall of Fame. Coach, but reiterated that the version of his story is true.
“They decided not to move him,” Grasso said. “But the reality is that we tried to change the date and give them a chance to change the date. They didn’t make the decision. Is this the only reason we should beat them? If they want to use it as an excuse, they can. But we have come here and we must defeat Syracuse on Syracuse. It’s hard for me not to be rude. I’m sorry. I would have wanted to cancel the game if I had been in their shoes. They did not want to cancel the game. They made that decision. We came here to play and came here to win and deserve to win. We haven’t done enough plays.
“They are a very good team. He is a Hall of Fame fame coach. I have nothing but respect for him. But it is completely wrong for them to say that they want to cancel the game. ”
Chances are that Grasso, whose team had just lost a lot, took the criticism the wrong way when critics approached him. Bohheim took the blame for playing the game, but when he said “Bryant couldn’t really rearrange it, it could be relentless.”
Whatever Boehme may be thanks to his sons Buddy and Marek Dolejaz for the fact that Syracuse did not suffer the loss of the embarrassing opening.
Boehme made four three-pointers and finished with 23 points and Dolejaz had 20 points – including 22 seconds left in two free throws – as Syracuse picked up a 13-point second-half loss to pull off the win.
– With AP
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