Big East Morning Five: Single Story Edition — Syracuse and Bernie Fine
Posted by mlemaire on November 18th, 2011
We were going to start this morning’s post with a throwaway news piece about the newly published Jim Boeheim book and probably wish Boeheim a half-hearted happy 67th birthday. Then ESPN‘s Outside The Lines dropped a bombshell on Boeheim and the entire Syracuse University basketball program by reporting that longtime Orange assistant coach Bernie Fine was being investigated by Syracuse police for allegedly molesting two former team ball boys for more than a decade.
Bernie Fine is a Longtime SU Assistant and Close Boeheim Friend (credit: SU)
Syracuse isn’t taking any chances in light of what’s happened in State College the last few weeks. The school announced Fine has already been placed on administrative leave and just about everyone from the university has issued a statement expressing how seriously they take the charges. The immediate rush was to compare these allegations to the recent scandal still going on at Penn State. But there appear to be several very distinct differences those following the story should consider before they rush to judgment.
First — as Yahoo! columnist Dan Wetzel pointed out on Twitter — the police opening an investigation into an alleged incident is much different from a grand jury bringing criminal charges against someone in a presentment. The grand jury had eyewitness accounts and evidence from official police investigations rising to the level of confessions of inappropriate touching by Jerry Sandusky. The Syracuse police are basing their investigation of Fine from the testimony of the alleged victims — Bobby Davis and his stepbrother Mike Lang — and a previous investigation into the same crime in 2005 that Syracuse Senior Vice President for Public Affairs Kevin Quinn said, “included a number of interviews with people the complainant said would support his claims. All of those identified by the complainant denied any knowledge of wrongful conduct by the associate coach. The associate coach also vehemently denied the allegations.”
Second, both ESPN and the Syracuse Post-Standard knew about Davis’ allegations in 2003 because they investigated them then and decided not to publish the story because neither organization could apparently find a second source to corroborate the account. Now, eight years later, apparently inspired to speak out because of the high-profile coverage of the charges against Sandusky, someone else came forward and said Fine molested him.
Third, whereas Penn State officials seemed to know they were in trouble and wisely kept their opinions out of the news, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim — who first met Fine in 1966 — has firmly entrenched himself in Fine’s corner. It wasn’t long after the allegations broke that Boeheim was asked about these allegations, and much to everyone’s surprise, he didn’t just deny knowing about them — he flat out said the accusers were “lying.”
We spoke to the people [Davis] asked the university to talk to. Not one person would corroborate his story. Why wouldn’t he come to the police [first this time]? Why would he go to ESPN? What are people looking for here? I believe they are looking for money. I believe they saw what happened at Penn State and they are using ESPN to get money. That is what I believe. You want to put that on the air? Put that on the air.
Davis also mentions that there were numerous instances where Boeheim would enter Fine’s room and see Davis laying on the bed and he insinuates that Boeheim should have known better. Boeheim, for his part, roundly rejected this story when asked about it calling it an “outright lie” and saying that he had never been in Fine’s room “in my life.”
Say what you want about the intelligence of taking such a defiant stance this early in the story but that sounds to me like a man who has conviction in his belief that his assistant coach is innocent. He also raises a number of good points and isn’t just defending his statements with platitudes about knowing Fine for dozens of years. He is calling the accusers liars and he is backing it up with strong words about the previous investigation that the program, Boeheim included, already were a part of.
Boeheim Came Out Strongly in Support of His Assistant Coach
Make no mistake, the alleged crimes may be the same, but this story is a completely different animal although equally as fascinating to watch unfold. There will undoubtedly be a lot more to come from this story. In the wake of the Penn State scandal, the national media is likely going to jump all over this story and make sure they squeeze every drop out of it before they let go. We will obviously try to keep everyone apprised of the latest information, but let’s just say this is not at all how I expected to be beginning my Friday.
It will be interesting to see just how large this story swells in the coming days and how much of a distraction it is for Boeheim’s club. We aren’t talking about an assistant coach who retired ten years ago. We are talking about a current SU assistant and longtime friend of the head coach. This isn’t something that is going to go away quickly either. The details will continue to come out slowly, and all the while the players will have to answer questions, read about their coaches on the news, and oh yeah, try to win basketball games.
