Syracuse (23-13, 9-9 Atlantic Coast) arrived in Houston for the Final Four on Wednesday and head coach Jim Boeheim addressed the media on Thursday. The Orange will face No. 1 seed North Carolina (32-6, 14-4) on Saturday at 8:49 p.m. at NRG Stadium in Houston. Syracuse is 4-0 against the last four No. 1 seeds it has faced in the NCAA Tournament.

Here are three things Boeheim talked about:

Michael Gbinije is one of the most improved players he’s ever coached

All season, Michael Gbinije has lead Syracuse, especially on the stat sheet. He’s yet to score under double digits this season — 36 games going strong. It hasn’t always been that way. When he got to Syracuse, Boeheim said he had to be tough on Gbinije.

“He’s developed his body,” Boeheim said. “He’s worked really hard in the off-season. He’s become a very good shooter and ball handler. He’s really become a point guard in a lot of ways.

“It’s been a tremendous evolution. I think he’s improved as much or more than any player that I’ve ever coached.”

On Saturday, the Orange will need him against a team it has lost to twice. In the two games, Gbinije played against the Tar Heels this season, he shot just 9-of-29 (31 percent) and scored a combined 27 points.

Losing wins hurts Boeheim the most of all the NCAA sanctions

Boeheim was once again asked about the NCAA sanctions and said that the most frustrating punishment of all was the vacated wins.

“Losing the games is the most irritating thing to me because there’s many situations and past cases where similar things, exact same things happen,” Boeheim said, “and games were not taken away.

“We presented all that stuff. But, you know, nobody listened. But that was the thing that probably bothered me as much as anything.”

Earlier this season, Boeheim sat out nine games and Mike Hopkins served as Syracuse’s interim head coach. SU went just 4-5 and suffered its worst loss of the season against St. John’s. The program was given back one scholarship per year in its appeal of the NCAA’s penalty. The governing body had initially taken away four per year for three years.

“I thought the words of one of the ex-members of the committee said the other day were good,” Boeheim said. “I thought they’re not trying to punish, cripple you, they’re giving you a punishment. If it hurts you, it hurts you. That’s life.

“I was surprised to read this a little bit. They’re not trying to intentionally do that. I’m not entirely sure that’s true, but that’s what he said.”

Later in the press conference, Boeheim lamented that he wasn’t a cheater despite the tags applied to the program because of the NCAA penalties.

“But when they say ‘cheating,’ that’s not true. Rules being broken is a lot different. Cheating to me is intentionally doing something, like you wanted to get this recruit, you arranged a job for him, or you went to see him when you shouldn’t. You called him when you shouldn’t to gain an edge in recruiting, to get a really good player. That’s cheating.

“I think if something happens that you’re not aware of, it doesn’t really affect the recruit, I don’t look at it the same way. It’s a violation. I think when rules are violated, there should be a punishment.”

Roy Williams and the 2003 national championship game

Williams and Boeheim are two of the preeminent college coaches of the last decade. Both have been dealt with NCAA investigations, even though the organization hasn’t handed down North Carolina’s punishments yet.

Back in 2003, before Boeheim faced those penalties and before Roy Williams gave “a sh*t” about North Carolina, the two met in the national championship game. A Hakim Warrick block prevented Williams from getting his first national championship while giving Boeheim his.

“I said, ‘You’ll win one.’ Didn’t tell him he’d win two. I hope I didn’t make him think he could win three. Same thing Bob Knight said to me,” Boeheim said. “He said, ‘You’ll win one of these one of these days,’ in ’87. He didn’t tell me it was going to be 16 years, but he did say that to me.

“You know, when you win the national championship, as far as me, everybody is different, everyone has their own thoughts, but I think if you can win a national championship in coaching, I don’t care if you coach 50 years, it’s good. Everything’s good.”

“It’s kind of like if one of you guys could win the Pulitzer prize, you’d be happy, wouldn’t you? Would you have to win two? I probably shouldn’t bring that up in this room.”

Published on March 31, 2016 at 6:54 pm

Contact Chris: cjlibona@syr.edu | @ChrisLibonati