Jim Boeheim referred to it as “the paper in question.”

According to the NCAA report on Syracuse Athletics, former Syracuse center Fab Melo — referred to by the NCAA as Student-Athlete 7 — had a chance to write a paper to receive a grade change and restore his eligibility during the 2012 season.

The chance for a grade change, which Boeheim said is offered to all Syracuse students, became a centerpiece of the NCAA’s findings of academic impropriety after it found that Melo received impermissible assistance in writing it.

And after a reporter asked how Boeheim thought Melo suddenly produced a paper capable of restoring his eligibility, the head coach placed Melo’s situation in a bigger context.

“I think there’s a little racism involved when they start talking about not taking this guy or that guy,” Boeheim said. “He’s from a foreign country. We shouldn’t have foreign students at Syracuse University?

“The last I looked there’s well over 2,000 foreign students at Syracuse University. We shouldn’t have somebody here because he’s from a foreign country? I don’t think so. I don’t think that’s the way we want to go.”

In its report, the NCAA wrote that former Director of Athletics Daryl Gross said Melo “needed basketball,” and that Boeheim “stated that if (Melo) were ineligible, he would have been on a plane home ‘the next day.’” Regarding the paper itself, Boeheim repeatedly said that there was no way of telling that Melo didn’t do the work himself.

Still, Boeheim stressed at his press conference that all of his players over the years have been capable of doing their school work. He also touched on senior center Rakeem Christmas, who played his final collegiate game on March 7, saying that Christmas was characterized as “at-risk” coming out of high school but that didn’t turn Syracuse away.

“So we shouldn’t have taken him? And we wouldn’t have had Rakeem Christmas here who graduated in three years and has completed half of his master’s program in one year?” Boeheim said before suggesting that racism could be in play.

“You don’t want to take that guy?”

Published on March 19, 2015 at 12:54 pm

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse