Detroit -- Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim spent a good portion of his press conference the day before his team plays Michigan State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament taking up for two of his peers in the coaching profession, including his upcoming opponent.

Boeheim defended Michigan State coach Tom Izzo and then, in a lengthy answer, defended Virginia coach Tony Bennett, both of whom have come under criticism over the course of this season.

The criticism of Bennett is fresh, stemming from overreactions to Virginia becoming the first No. 1 seed in NCAA Tournament history to lose to a No. 16 seed on Friday night.

That loss continued a trend in which the Cavaliers have been exceptional during the regular-season results before falling in the postseason. Virginia has won three of the last five regular-season ACC titles but has not made a Final Four.

Boeheim's response touched on Bennett, included references to Pittsburgh's Jamie Dixon and Kevin Stallings, as well as a discussion about the unfairness of judging coaches by NCAA Tournament results:

That group of people, if there really is a group like that, probably are unemployed or idiots, never went to school. Or they're really, really smart lawyers and doctors that think they know everything and really, in reality, probably know what they're doing and know nothing else.

And Tony Bennett is in my top two or three coaches in the country by far. Unfortunately, in our business, it's all about the tournament when you're a good team. When you just get in, like now I'm a great coach. I'm, shit, I'm no better than I was two weeks ago. But, oh, you won two games, he must be really -- no, nothing to do with that.

I've seen coaches win games in this tournament, two, three, four games and they're terrible coaches. Things just went right. And it's what you do over the course of 35 games that determines what kind of coach you are. You win 17 games in the ACC, win the ACC Tournament? He's got -- I think he's got one guy who was hurt that will be an NBA player. The other guys are -- they're pretty good. There's a couple. They may sneak in. I don't know. They may sneak in there.

But he's won the ACC against Duke and North Carolina what four or five years? I don't know what it is. It's beyond even trying to understand it. With maybe two recruits in the top 40. And he's playing against 15 guys on each team over those period of time that were in the top 20 or top 10 or top 5 in wins? Come on. It's one game. It's one game.

I can, no, I can't -- but a reasonably good player on the pro tour can beat Tiger Woods in one round. When he was in his peak he got beat a lot.

This is college basketball. I saw the Spurs get beat in their first game of the playoffs one year. They won the championship. Golden State, I think, got beat in the first game. They won the championship. It's one-and-done. You're off your game a little bit, you know, and it's not that, like, people will say, they're just good in the regular season they're not good -- that's just stupid. That's just stupid.

You look at every year they've lost -- and I'm not going to recite the whole thing, but they lost to Michigan State in the Garden when Michigan State had a great team. I don't remember all the other ones. But, I mean, you play in this tournament, you're going to get beat.

Pittsburgh, they didn't like their coach because he didn't win the tournament. They're doing really good now, aren't they, in Pittsburgh? I know all those people were yelling, too. They wanted him out.

They pay this guy about $10 million, which they're trying to renege on, which is great for a university to do, you have a signed contract with a guy and then say, well, he yelled at his players. That's -- 350 coaches are going to get fired tomorrow for that.

Come on, the tournament is -- I've lost in this tournament, everybody has. I've looked at the list of bad losses, and I couldn't believe we weren't even on it. But Mike Krzyzewski has lost, I've lost, Roy Williams has lost, Bill Self has lost. Dean Smith lost. There's nobody that hasn't lost.

I think you could easily make the case that Tony Bennett's way overachieved in the regular season and they played like they probably are in the tournament. You could possibly make that case. This year's a little aberration, obviously. That was a bad -- but the other losses, you know, it's a tough tournament.

And really good coaches, good teams get beat. Tom Izzo is one of the best tournament coaches ever, and I sat there two years ago and watched Middle Tennessee beat them. They played a perfect game. We beat Middle Tennessee the next game by 30, by 30. It's just basketball.

We lost to Vermont and the next day Tom Izzo, next game Tom Izzo beat Vermont by 20. It's just the game. It's a crazy game and the tournament's a crazy thing. We all know that. We all say that, but then we don't follow through on that.

If I could hire a coach in this country and I could get Tony Bennett, there would be nobody in second place. Nobody. He's kicked our ass every time we've played him except we got lucky once.

Boeheim was also asked about Izzo, his opponent on Sunday. The question revolved around Izzo's success building the Michigan State program but Boeheim took the time to speak his friendship with Izzo and discuss his character.

For context, Izzo was included in an ESPN story that questioned Michigan State's handling of disciplinary practices within its athletic department in the wake of the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal and the school's failure to stop it.

His star player, Miles Bridges, was also named in the Yahoo!Sports report last month after his family had dinner with an agent. Bridges ultimately paid a small reinstatement fee and did not have his eligibility impacted.

The ESPN allegations regarding Izzo in the report questioned his handling of incidents involving student-assistant coach Travis Walton.

Walton was allowed to continue coaching with the Spartans after he was accused of punching a female in the face. He was later accused of committing a sexual assault with two Michigan State players. Shortly after the second accusation he left his job at MSU to play professionally in Europe.

The alleged punch was pleaded down to littering, and the sexual assault never resulted in criminal charges. Walton has denied either taking place, and Michigan State has said it believes there are inaccuracies in the ESPN report.

Izzo has largely avoided commenting on specifics about the accusations but has said he believes the basketball program handled every incident appropriately.

Here's what Boeheim had to say about Izzo:

I knew him when he was an assistant coach. I knew Tom when he was an assistant coach. He knew the game. He was a hard-charging guy. I knew when he took over Michigan State, he'd do a great job. I loved Jud Heathcote. Jud was a great coach, but he wasn't the kind of recruiter that Tom would be and has become.



But there was never any doubt that he'd be a great coach. He's an absolutely -- one of the great coaches we've ever had. And I think he's even better off the court. He's one of the nicest people I know. I've known him -- I've been on the board with him. I've been around him for 40 -- probably close to 40 years now, and -- from when he was an assistant.



And there's no guy that has better character that you would want to be your head coach more than Tom Izzo. I've seen countless situations where I've been around him where he always does the right thing, 100 percent of the time. Tom Izzo would never do the wrong thing. And anybody that thinks other than that, they don't know Tom Izzo. I know him.



I've been involved in stuff -- you're not supposed to say things -- but Tom Izzo is not going to do things that aren't right, 100 percent of the time -- on the basketball court, off the basketball court. He's a great guy. He's a great leader. And I'm very proud that he's a friend of mine.

Contact Chris Carlson anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-412-1639