The first round of the NIT will feature a matchup between the Syracuse Orange and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. It is a game that pits KenPom’s No. 50 team against KenPom’s No. 120 team. Under essentially all circumstances, this game would not pique anyone’s interests.
But thanks to some comments that Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim made during the ACC Tournament, this is a brilliant piece of trolling by the NIT. This year’s tournament took place in Brooklyn. This is a change of pace from the Greensboro Coliseum, which has hosted the tournament more than any other venue.
After Syracuse fell to Miami in the conference tourney, Boeheim had this to say about Greensboro.
“There’s no reason to play in Greensboro,” Boeheim said Wednesday. “The only reason they play there is because the league offices are there, it’s always been there, and there are like 150 people who like to have meetings. It should not be there.”
…
“The media centers, the recruiting centers are Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and New York,” he said. “How many good players are in Greensboro? New York made the Big East.”
Boeheim also claimed that he said this because he doesn’t “give a sh*t.” This statement was so fiery that Greensboro’s official Twitter account responded, because 2017 is the strangest year.
https://twitter.com/greensborocity/status/839563546518294530
Greensboro, by the way, thought that the NIT making a joke at Boeheim’s expense with how it seeded its tournament was funny.
Kudos #NIT on having a sense of humor. Well played!
— City of Greensboro (@greensborocity) March 13, 2017
So in the last week, Jim Boeheim has gotten trolled by a city in North Carolina and the second-largest college basketball postseason tournament. This very well may end up being sports’ silliest story of the year.
(Via ESPN)
