Jim Boeheim stood up for his colleague Rick Pitino after Syracuse’s 78-73 win over Louisville on Monday night.
During Boeheim’s postgame news conference, the topic of Pitino came up because he is no longer the head coach of the Cardinals since being ousted following the FBI scandal.
Boeheim called Pitino one of the best coaches ever. He also questioned why Pitino was the only coach fired among the programs implicated in the FBI scandal.
Jim Boeheim's full comments on Rick Pitino after tonight's 78-73 win over Louisville. (Sorry about the sound quality. I think I plugged into the wrong place!) pic.twitter.com/h5h3sKLclx
— Eric Crawford (@ericcrawford) February 6, 2018
“He’s a great friend of mine, and I feel bad about the whole situation, but it’s what happened,” Boeheim said. “Interesting the other three coaches are still coaching. I don’t know if that means anything or not.”
Not many are questioning Pitino’s accomplishments as a head coach, but there’s a lot more that goes into his firing. Let’s not also forget that he was already in trouble for the sex scandal at the school too. Between his involvement in both scandals, that was enough for Louisville to decide it was time to move on.
