Jim Boeheim, Mike Krzyzewski criticize ACC over Buddy Boeheim’s suspension after tournament loss
Neither Jim Boeheim nor Mike Krzyzewski thought that the conference handled Buddy Boeheim’s one-game suspension the right way during the ACC tournament this week.
On Thursday, following Duke’s 88-79 win over Syracuse in the quarterfinals, the two coaches laid into the conference. Buddy was suspended for the game after he punched Florida State guard Wyatt Wilkes in their game on Wednesday.
[Join the Yahoo Fantasy Tourney Pick'Em $25K Best Bracket Contest]
Buddy wasn’t penalized during the game, but the conference suspended him for the “flagrant act.”
"If it had been handled properly, they would have looked at the video — they've looked at the video every single time this year," Boeheim said after their loss to Duke, via the Fayetteville Observer. “The kid was laying on the floor. Wyatt was laying on the floor.
“They're punishing this guy right here because [officials] didn't do their job. And the league should have looked at that and said, this would have been out. He would have been out. Don't let anybody tell you, well, he might have been suspended for the game, this game too. That would never have happened. No one in their right mind would say that.
"So they didn't do their job, so Buddy got punished. That's what happened."
Buddy Boeheim, in the first half of Syracuse’s win over the Seminoles on Wednesday, very clearly hit Wilkes with a gut punch. The act wasn’t noticed in real time, but was very clearly seen on replay.
Jim Boeheim downplayed the act after the game, calling it “inadvertent” and saying that “it wasn’t much of a punch.”
Better angle of the punch that Buddy Boeheim of Syracuse threw in today’s ACC tourney game against FSU. #ACCMBBpic.twitter.com/8ulUr2g01y
— Christopher Boan (@cgboan) March 9, 2022
Buddy said he apologized to Wilkes after the game multiple times.
Though Krzyzewski wasn’t as pointed with his criticism after Duke's win over the Orange, he did say that he thought the punishment should have happened during the game, not after.
“I don’t fault anybody for their judgment. I just wish that it would’ve been done in the confines of the game,” he said, via The Athletic’s Matt Fortuna. “Once it gets outside of the game, then the punishment has to be outside of the game, and that was very unfortunate.”
Either way, there’s nothing either Boeheim can do about it now. Syracuse’s season officially ended on Thursday, and the elder Boeheim finished it with a losing record for the first time in his decades-long coaching career.
Buddy, though, sat next to his dad following the loss at the Barclays Center and was again apologetic.
"I've been thinking about the play for the last 24 hours, to tell you the truth, over and over again why I did it. I think it was just the heat of the moment. I thought he might have ran into me, lowered his shoulder, but it was a clean play besides that," Buddy said, via the Observer. "We hit a big three, I got excited, and turned around — never meant to throw a punch. I don't think I've thrown a punch in my life. But connected with him obviously, maybe tried to get him with my arm or something running back.
“But never meant to intentionally hurt him or affect him and knock the wind out of him … Forget basketball. I want to be remembered for being a great person off the court.”
