Jim Boeheim, Sort Of, Speaks About NCAA Investigation Into Syracuse

Jim Boeheim, Brandon Triche and James Southerland held a pre-NCAA Tournament press conference Wednesday night, a few hours after CBS' Dennis Dodd and Syracuse.com published articles about a NCAA investigation into the program, and if you were looking for fireworks you came away a bit disappointed.

Despite not living up to the overhypeage it still was a Boeheim presser, which means it was still fun. Here's how it played out:

When initially asked about the CBS article, Boeheim said:

"It is the same story they had last year at this time. I guess that's the annual. I guess, next year we will get it again."

When asked if he was aware of the investigation, Boeheim responded:

"I just made my comment."

That's about when the NCAA mediator stepped in and said they will no longer taking any questions about the CBS/Syracuse.com stories. However, Boeheim interrupted and said:

"I don't mind, you can ask 100 of them."

Challenge expected, coach!

Queue, Mike Waters of Syracuse.com asking does this distract the players (seeing how they dealt with off-the-court stuff last year, at this time, involving Fab Melo)?

"I seriously don't know if they know about it. Last year was completely different, we didn't have Fab Melo, that's a little different. That wasn't a distraction that was an absence. And they handled it as well as they could."

After being distracted by questions about the Big East Tournament and Boeheim rambling on for about five minutes about how tough Syracuse's conference schedule was, the NCAA investigation topic came up again via a question about the timing of the CBS article.

Again, Boeheim responded with very little spunk.

"It doesn't bother me. Not at all. We are concerned about playing Montanta. What people write or say...There's 30,000 people in the Dome yelling at me all the time. People yell at their television sets, I tell them I can't here them, but they still yell at them. There's no distractions for me. These players, there's absolutely no distractions for them. They're here to play Montana, and that's it."

A feisty Mike Waters, decided to "piggyback" off the last question and asked if anything in the NCAA investigation is a concern to him.

"I can't comment about something that's just talk."