OT: Syracuse basketball dirty

Submitted by Vivz on

Charles Robinson and Pat Forde posted a new article over at Yahoo.

In it Syracuse is accused of ignoring its own drug policy, and allowing ineligible players to play, or go unpunished.  If the NCAA agrees, they could be "willful violators" and have punishments that go all the way back to the 2001 season (which includes their National Title)

Just another item to add to Syracuse's growing issues (Bernie Fine, Fab Melo)

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=ys-syracuse_basketball_investigation_drug_violation_030512

justingoblue

March 5th, 2012 at 5:10 PM ^

It seems like he might need to be, considering he's battling a lawsuit that originated from him making statements that gave the school a huge black eye, and he's apparently now at the helm of a team charged with committing willful NCAA violations.

Edit: 2001? Goodbye to any records he's had; this is a good reason not to induct anyone into a hall of fame while they're still active.

maizedandconfused

March 5th, 2012 at 7:06 PM ^

1. this is all hearsay until proven otherwise. See accuser #4, accuser #3; Bernie Fine investigation.

2. The information states 

" 4 anonymous sources with intimate knowledge said that over the course of 10 years 10 players have tested positive for a banned recreational substance." I believe anonymous sources when they become sources. 

Later in the article, they show the Syracuse guidelines for suspending a player, and there are only apparently 2 examples of players who should have been suspended. The numbers game here doesnt add up

" A former syracuse basketball player said he was questioned by the NCAA about Syracuse's drug testing policy". They fail to expound on what the player went on to say, or when that was. 

Finally, Syracuse self-reported said violations. This means this is not a "bomb" that the NCAA is caught blindsided by. If a University WAS ignoring positive drug tests, im guessing they would do their damndest not to have anything come out about it.

All in all, with everything that went wacky with the Bernie Fine case, im willing to believe things only when everyhting is all said and done. (Initially a 4-accuser sexual assault case has turned into a 2 accuser slander case against an entirely different entity after stating "Im not after money". Seems Jim Boeheim might have called it right in the first place).

 

JHendo

March 5th, 2012 at 5:22 PM ^

I only use Yahoo! for my homepage.  While they have an absurd amount of articles with pointless content written by guys who would struggle getting a position as a reporter for a middle school newspaper, they're pretty quick to break important news and have an occassional gem of a piece as well.

elaydin

March 5th, 2012 at 5:14 PM ^

meh... not sure I care if a team's players all smoked weed before a game.  Imagine how good they would have been if they hadn't been on drugs.

Tater

March 5th, 2012 at 7:38 PM ^

Since 'Cuse teams have almost always played with a lot more finesse than strength, PED's are sorta out of the question here.  For example, I can't possibly see anyone making Derrick Coleman or Carmelo Anthony a poster child for "roid rage."  

I'm sure someone can find one or two very strong players from 'Cuse, but there is no way anyone is going to find a pattern of cover-ups concerning PED's.  As for other drugs, "College kid smokes pot" isn't a "man bites dog" story.  

Recreational drugs make most athletes play worse: not better.  Even if these kids were turning basketball into their own personal "X" games, they still didn't cheat to gain a competitive advantage.  

This is much ado about nothing.

LSAClassOf2000

March 5th, 2012 at 5:17 PM ^

"Big East associate commissioner for compliance Joseph D’Antonio told Yahoo! Sports last week that he doesn’t even know what the drug policies are from school to school within the league. Syracuse is a member of the Big East." - from the article

 

That's more than a little disquieting,  especially given who said it. Hopefully, one of the lessons learned here is that there should be some shared standards so that teams can't exactly, well, go and do their own thing as Syracuse seems to have done. You would hope that schools within conferences, if not the whole of the NCAA, would be  willing to come up with a unified policy on drug use. 

mGrowOld

March 5th, 2012 at 5:21 PM ^

Does anybody else find it somewhat ironic that this story breaks one day after we celebrate winning a share of the B1G title for the first time since 1986?

For those of you too young to remember like I do our 1986 team was likewise known for......um.. ...um   well.....partaking in the same "recreational drug use" that the Syracuse squad is now being accused of.

BlueLotCrew

March 5th, 2012 at 6:29 PM ^

So this is a shame. I always liked Boeheims teams and they are entertaining to watch. Their uniforms are sweet, and when they pack the dome against Georgetown, it's quite a scene. The game has changed so much since he started coaching there, that it's probably a very tough thing to run a clean program when you're going against the likes of scumbags like Bob Huggins and John Calipari. (sp). Oh well, I still look back at that incredible run when McNamara was a senior and they shot through the Big East tournament to get a last min bid in the dance.. And who can forget when they were one of only 2 teams to ever lose to a 15 seed as a 2 when Richmond beat them?

BlueLotCrew

March 5th, 2012 at 6:43 PM ^

I didn't realize that kicking some major knowledge pertinant to the topic that was being discussed was "trolling", but I digress. HAIL!

mackbru

March 5th, 2012 at 9:39 PM ^

Syracuse? Who woulda guessed? That program has had the whiff of scumbaggery for as long as I can remember. And Boeheim has always seems like quite the humanitarian.

Steve in PA

March 5th, 2012 at 9:58 PM ^

I'll never forget a crack Derrick Coleman made back in the 90's while a member of the 76ers.  While they were discussing a player signed to one of those ridiculous 10 day NBA contracts he quipped, "I made more than that in college".

I don't know if it made national news, but it certainly was on the regional sports channels.  That was my confirmation that Syracuse is dirty.

maizedandconfused

March 5th, 2012 at 11:38 PM ^

http://blog.syracuse.com/orangebasketball/2011/11/pat_forde_jim_boeheim_syracuse.html

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=pf-forde_syracuse_boeheim_scandal_missteps_112911

Totally disregards the situation to burn Boeheim. I wont lie, there is almost no one who, when blindsided by something that big, would "know" how to act.