ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Jim Boeheim has known Bernie Fine for 50 years, and says he doesn’t believe the allegations made by Bobby Davis, that Fine molested him over a period of years while Davis worked as a ball boy for the Syracuse program.
“It was investigated by the Syracuse newspapers, by ESPN, and by the University. All of the people that were questioned and talked to, there was nothing there,” Boeheim told the Gomez and Dave show on WTKW radio in Syracuse.
Davis says that during SU’s 1987 trip to the final four in New Orleans, Boeheim entered Fine’s hotel room and saw him sitting on a bed. Boeheim specifically denied that claim.
“I never saw this guy at anytime in anybody’s room. I never went in Bernie’s hotel room. I’ve known Bernie for 50 years and I don’t believe this.”
Syracuse players are also questioning the allegations made against Fine by Bobby Davis and his step-brother, who also says Fine molested him while he worked as a ball boy for the Orange.
Ryan Blackwell, a standout player at Pittsford Sutherland in the early 90’s was recruited by Bernie Fine and played three years at Syracuse from 1997-2000. He thinks the sexual abuse scandal at Penn St. influenced Davis to come forward, again.
“The fact that he brought it up so long ago (in 2003) and with everything at Penn St., it’s shocking because you bring it up now and it seems fitting that people will give him more attention because of what is going on there. It’s surprising that it’s even being brought up again and it seems like it’s for money, like there’s a hidden agenda behind it.”
Blackwell, speaking from Japan where he now coaches a professional basketball team, remembered seeing Davis around campus when he played at the school, and that nothing ever seemed out of place.
“Bobby was a happy kid, and he was always coming around and if something was really going on, why was he still around? It seemed like nothing ever happened, and it’s kind of fishy, kind of suspect. I can’t speak for him because I have never experienced something like that, but you think he would disassociate himself from what happened. But he was always around.”
Blackwell says he is standing by his former coach, like many of his former teammates.
“We’re all the same, we stick behind Bernie, and he’s been there whenever one of us has needed him.”
