The Jim Boeheim press conference that so many people have been waiting for finally came Friday night after the Syracuse Orange defeated the Florida Gators 72-68.
"I believe I misspoke very badly in my response to the allegations that have been made," he said. "I shouldn’t have questioned what the accusers expressed or their motives. I am really sorry that I did that and I regret any harm that I caused. It was insensitive to the individuals involved and especially to the overall issue of child abuse."
"I spent yesterday afternoon at the McMahon/Ryan House talking to people, the director and other people there and although I have been involved with them in terms of raising money, I think it’s important that we and I get involved more in terms of raising awareness.
"What I said last week was out of loyalty, I reacted without thinking, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I’m trying to learn from my mistake and this has been a hard time. That’s all I can say, there’s an investigation going on, that I fully support because we all need to know as much as we can what happened."
SB Nation NY's Jared Smith was at the presser and said it was evident that this was no quick-fix.
It was obvious -- you could just see it in his face and in his voice -- that Boeheim, who had a lot of time to think about what he said over the past few days, was upset at himself.
For some weird reason, SU Athletics doesn't include Boeheim's personal statements in their transcription, which is a shame.