Jim Boeheim unofficially kicked off the season with a 22-minute press conference at the start of Syracuse’s annual media day on Friday afternoon. Boeheim discussed this year and last year’s team, all nine players in his rotation for the upcoming season and a bunch of other topics.

Below are the three most notable things he said during his press conference.

Dajuan Coleman update 

Syracuse’s center hasn’t played since Jan. 7, 2014, and is expected to shoulder the load as the Orange’s starting center this season. Boeheim said Coleman has been fully participating since the team started official practices on Oct. 2, and that he is encouraged by the progress he’s seen from the big man.

“DaJuan has practiced every day and has not missed any days. And obviously you don’t play in two years, you’re going to be a little rusty. He’s rusty, but he’s up and down the court. We haven’t rested him. We haven’t changed anything, made it easy, nothing. He’s been at practice every day full speed.”

Coleman shared similar thoughts about where he’s at physically, saying he feels 100 percent and isn’t playing with any hesitation.

After Coleman, Syracuse’s backup center is Chinonso Obokoh, who played sparingly last season and has limited college experience. The Orange also has the option to play three forwards in the frontcourt, and Boeheim said freshman Tyler Lydon would be the center in that lineup.

Point guard situation

Earlier in the week, CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein reported that Boeheim had named senior Michael Gbinije his starting point guard. On Friday, Boeheim said he “might have” said that to Rothstein but is still deciding who will start there for the Orange.

“I didn’t realize I had named him yet,” Boeheim said, smiling. “… I’m not saying (Gbinije won’t be the starter). I’m not really saying he will be.”

Gbinije, standing 6 feet 7 inches, played a mix of point guard and forward last season while then-freshman Kaleb Joseph made the transition to college basketball. Boeheim said it wouldn’t be out of the question, based on last year, for Gbinije to start at point guard. The head coach was also highly complimentary of Joseph throughout the press conference, saying he gained 16 pounds and has made substantial improvement to his outside shooting.

It seemed as if the Gbinije holds the current edge at the start point guard spot, but it also sounded like Boeheim will be non-committal until the team’s season opener against Lehigh on Nov. 13.

Looking ahead to nine-game suspension

Pending the NCAA’s answer to an appeal, Boeheim will be the suspended for the first nine games of Atlantic Coast Conference play this season.

He expressed confidence in the team and coaching staff’s ability to prepare for and succeed in that nine-game stretch, but expressed displeasure for the NCAA rule that he would be unable to attend practice or talk to the players during the suspension.

“But it’ll be difficult because you can’t talk to the players, which I think that’s crazy but you can’t talk to the players during those nine games,” Boeheim said. “It’s one thing to punish the coach and that’s OK, I mean I get that, but then you punish the players because I brought them all here, they want to listen to me and they can’t talk to me for nine games, which is a month.

“So it’s a pretty harsh penalty. The games are bad enough but the practices, too, a lot of people don’t realize that’s part of the punishment and I think it’s a very severe punishment.”

Before addressing that NCAA rule, Boeheim said the suspension would be much more difficult at the start of the season when the team is still figuring things out.

“If you have a good system and a good plan, there aren’t a lot of changes that happen and I would say after the first 13 games,” Boeheim said. “I doubt if we’ve ever changed anything from then on in. There might be a little change or a little something that we might do, but there’s really not a lot of changes that occur after that.”

Asst. copy editor Paul Schwedelson contributed reporting to this article 

Published on October 16, 2015 at 6:25 pm

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse