Jim Boeheim is known as fiery coach and the was on full display on Wednesday night when he got into a postgame confrontation with ESPN's Andy Katz, calling the reporter an 'idiot' and 'disloyal' while not answering his question.
Syracuse lost to Connecticut 66-58 in an upset, but what really "upset" Boeheim was a question from Katz. The reporter asked a question about the end of the rivalry between Syracuse and UConn when the comments came out.
"I'll answer anybody's question but yours because you're an idiot and a disloyal person," Boeheim said. "There are a few other things I could add but I'm not going to go there."
Why did the coach lash out at him and then answer a similar question to anther reporter? It all likely stems from a report Katz wrote about Bernie Fine and how the coach has a hands off approach when it comes to the program.
According to the Big Lead, the report is likely the main reason, which also as the last time the two spoke. That was when the Bernie Fine sexual abuse story came out. Unnamed sources were used in the story and here is an excerpt:
"It got to the point that Boeheim wasn't recommending Fine for head-coaching jobs. At one point in the early 2000s, Laurie Fine called an ESPN.com reporter to see how Bernie could get a head-coaching job because she was certain her husband wasn't going to get any help from his boss.
The relationship, even among the families, deteriorated. When the Fines moved across the street from the Boeheims, multiple sources say it greatly irritated Boeheim's wife, Juli. She doesn't like Laurie Fine and made no secret of it.
But while they might not have been the closest of friends in recent times, there is no denying that Boeheim and Fine worked closely together for decades - and in the latter years even lived close together."
The website spoke to Katz about the report:
"I had assumed he was not happy with my part of the Bernie Fine coverage," Katz said. "I covered his reaction. I wasn't the investigative journalist on the story. After that, I knew he wasn't taking my calls for benign stories, and then in March when we talked to every coach in the NCAA Tournament, he was the only one who wouldn't speak to me."