RALEIGH, N.C. — The NCAA explicitly stated in its report released Friday that Syracuse’s self-imposed postseason ban had no bearing on its final punishment decisions.

And an hour after the report was released, the NCAA’s chief hearing officer Britton Banowsky reiterated that the hearing committee didn’t factor the self-imposed ban into the final report.

But it prematurely ended Syracuse’s (18-13, 9-9 Atlantic Coast) season with a 71-57 loss to N.C. State (19-12, 10-8) at PNC Arena on Saturday. The self-imposed ban, which was announced in early February and widely thought to lessen the eventual sanctions from the NCAA, mostly affected a group of players devoid from the program’s laundry list of violations.

Rakeem Christmas, who had his final collegiate season cut short by the self-imposed ban, said that he didn’t pay attention to the NCAA’s comments about it and was grateful for the season regardless of its length.

His teammates, all of whom are expected to return next season except for graduate student Carter Sanderson, were slightly more expressive when discussing the self-imposed ban and early end to the year.

“It’s really one of those things that you can’t really control,” said forward B.J. Johnson regarding if there was any frustration that the NCAA reportedly didn’t factor the ban into its ruling. “It is what it is.”

When he thought about the loss closing up Syracuse’s season, Michael Gbinije sighed and said, “It’s tough for me to talk about next season.”

In that way, Gbinije was far from alone.

“It does feel weird,” Trevor Cooney said. “… Everyone that comes to Syracuse, you want to make a run and you want to make the Tournament but I mean, things happen and it had nothing to do with any of us.

“So we just come here and play basketball. Like I said earlier, that’s all we want to do.”

Published on March 7, 2015 at 4:40 pm

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse