Bernie Fine Allegations: The More We Hear, The Less We Understand

Bobby Davis and Mike Lang have done a lot of interviews since announcing that they were filing a defamation lawsuit against Jim Boeheim and Syracuse University over his comments following the Bernie Fine allegations.

I'm no legal expert but I'm pretty sure the more these two talk, the weaker their case is going to be. Not because I believe they're lying. But they're just not good at talking about all of this. They're mumbly. They're vague. And even if they're not lying, they're opening up a lot of cracks in the allegations that I'm sure they'd rather not.

Take Davis' interview with WSYR yesterday. Davis didn't do anything wrong, per se. But there were some tweaks in the way he shared some details that do nothing to help him and only reinforce that feeling that not everything adds up cleanly.

When asked if he thought Jim Boeheim knew whether or not Bernie Fine molested him, Davis said, "All I know is, I was around the program for a long time. Boeheim's seen me everywhere. I don't know what Boeheim knew but...I was there all the time."

That's a fair statement that covers Davis' bases. It's also way different than Davis' initial statement, which was extremely specific about how Boeheim saw he and Bernie together in Fine's hotel room. You could make the case the former statement says the same as the latter, but there's a lot of specificity in the new version.

Zach Tomaselli's story fell apart when his Pittsburgh bus story changed twice and a lot of folks are probably going to latch on to Bobby Davis' New Orleans bus story in the same way.

Davis said in this interview that he was on a bus with the Syracuse team, including Jim Boeheim, en route to the 1987 Final Four in New Orleans. I'm going to assume that SU didn't take a bus to Louisiana. Now...he could be talking about the bus from the hotel to the Superdome, but then there's this from the original story:

She said when Davis was young, he "was with Bernie Fine quite a bit." She said he traveled with the team extensively, though she said he did not go on trips when an airplane flight was required because he didn't like to fly. The 1987 Final Four, where Davis said he went with Fine, was in New Orleans.

Again, it's not a massive contradiction...but it does need to be clarified.

We could probably sit here and poke holes in the stories of all four accusers all day and its value would be up for discussion.. The point is that all of these claims, all of these stories and all of these details need to be confirmed and clarified.

I'd say that I understand it must be hard for the accusers to talk about it except all four seem more than willing to talk about it. So, please, talk about it. I'm beating an old drum here but everything about this whole situation remains murky. The timelines, the details, the specifics. Maybe it's not our right to own all of that information but it would sure be nice if someone could lock down a story once and for all.

Not to mention stop confusing everyone by saying that you "hope" Jim Boeheim doesn't lose his job while you sue him in order to "make him pay" for what he's done.

I don't mean to sound callous. I understand what these guys have allegedly gone through, especially Davis whom I believe above the rest. I don't want to shut them up. Just the opposite. I want them to speak and clarify and prove it. Maybe you can blame Zach Tomaselli for this, but everyone and everything needs to be vetted thoroughly. And that starts with everyone getting their story down pat.