Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim calls lack of fan support 'sickening' after home game vs. Oakland

Chris Bumbaca | USA TODAY

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His team won, but Jim Boeheim was still upset after Syracuse defeated Oakland 74-62 at the Carrier Dome on Wednesday.

The 75-year-old coach's ire was not only pointed toward his team, which had lost four of its last five, but also the fans and their perceived lack of enthusiasm.

"I had to cheer to try to get somebody to make some noise. It’s sad, sickening really, to see that we can’t get some help here," Boeheim told reporters. "We desperately need it and it picked up our defense just enough. We got a couple deflections, made a couple plays out of it. But we have to have some help there. That’s the whole purpose of playing at home and I’m a little too old to try to be a cheerleader here."

Coach Boeheim says the lack of crowd support played a factor in today’s game. He calls it “sickening”.



What do you guys think? pic.twitter.com/cIima0T9np — Claudia Bellofatto (@CBellofattoTV) December 19, 2019

A potential reason behind the tame environment is that no one is on campus. Syracuse students wrapped up finals last Friday and have begun their winter break, according to the school's academic calendar.

A 8 p.m. tip time against an opponent such as Oakland didn't make for the most exciting matchup. The Orange's .500 record entering Wednesday wasn't much of a draw, either.