The firing of Bernie Fine, former associate head coach of the men’s basketball team, left students and Syracuse residents alike buzzing Sunday night, but it also prompted conversation about the future of head coach Jim Boeheim.

For the first time in Boeheim’s 36-year tenure as coach, he may be on the hot seat, as it is unclear how much he knew of Fine’s alleged molestations.

‘It would be interesting to find out what Boeheim actually knew about this because if he knew all that we know now, then I think he is in deep trouble,’ said Jake Reiner, a junior broadcast journalism major.

Boeheim expressed his ‘full support’ for Fine in a Nov. 17 statement after two former ball boys, Bobby Davis and Michael Lang, accused Fine of sexual molestation.

On Sunday, Zach Tomaselli, 23, stepped forward with a third accusation. A 2002 tape-recorded telephone conversation between Davis and Fine’s wife, Laurie, was also published that day. In the recording, Laurie admitted she was worried her husband molested Davis.

Syracuse resident Kevin Carpenter said Boeheim should not have supported Fine so definitively in that statement, especially when many of the details were unclear to the public.

‘The statement that Jim Boeheim made, he shouldn’t have made that, saying that he supported him 100 percent, because he didn’t know exactly what happened,’ Carpenter said.

‘Now that his wife, Bernie Fine’s wife, done gave him up, that’s pretty much saying that you support a child molester,’ he said.

Although the statement may have reflected poorly on Boeheim’s quick backing of Fine, Will Boucher, a junior entrepreneurship major, said it does support the argument Boeheim was unaware.

‘If he did know everything that we know now, then I don’t think he would have jumped out to defend (Fine) immediately,’ Boucher said.

Boeheim issued a second statement Sunday in which he apologized for any ‘insensitive’ statements and maintained he ‘never witnessed any of the activities that have been alleged.’

But some have a hard time believing that Boeheim was in the dark.

Zach Schotz, a sophomore sport management major, said he is skeptical Boeheim really had no idea about the potential molestations.

‘He seemed like he had a good relationship with Bernie Fine,’ Schotz said. ‘It’s hard … it’s the same thing with Paterno and Sandusky. How can you not know?’

For the university, Schotz said, the ‘bigger blow’ could come if Boeheim is fired. It would end the career of one of the greatest coaches of all-time and stain his legacy, he said.

‘The guy’s a legend and that’s the biggest nightmare for Syracuse,’ Schotz said. ‘Although it’s already really bad right now, that’s the worst case scenario.’

sebail01@syr.edu

 

Published on November 28, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Stephen: sebail01@syr.edu | @Stephen_Bailey1