Steve Forbes responds to Jim Boeheim's claims about Wake Forest on Saturday night

On Saturday night, word had leaked from ESPN’s Pete Thamel that Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim went on an absolute bender, lobbing accusations that different teams in the ACC bought their players, including Wake Forest, Pittsburgh, and Miami. Naturally, Wake Forest head coach Steve Forbes wanted to respond to the accusations that the Demon Deacons “bought a team.” He wasn’t happy, as you might imagine.

Forbes told CBS Sports on Saturday night:

“He’s wrong. He’s one thousand percent wrong. I don’t have my one player on my team that got NIL to come here. That’s a fact. I’ve NEVER had a player come here for NIL.”

Not only did Boeheim accuse several teams in the ACC of buying their players, but he said that he will “probably” return for the 2023-2024 season, which will make it his 48th year with the Syracuse Orange. For the record, for those keeping track at home, Wake Forest and Syracuse are scheduled to play only once in 2023, the last game of the regular season: March 4 at Syracuse.

Jim Boeheim does not want to retire yet

The national championship-winning head coach will be approaching 80 years old but is not showing any signs of slowing down. If he is going to step away from college basketball, Boeheim will do so on his own terms.

“I have no other plans,” Boeheim said in a story with ESPN’s Pete Thamel. “Listen, this has been the question of the day for 15 years. This isn’t a new question. It’s just the calendar going, ‘Well, he’s 78.’ It’s just the calendar. If it wasn’t the calendar, if I was 65, no one would be saying anything.

“And I’m not going to retire just because it’s the calendar. Anything can happen. Anything, literally. We’ll just see what happens. I don’t say anything because I don’t know.”

Boeheim is one of the game’s most legendary coaches, coaching Syracuse for nearly five decades. He was there when the program was an Independent before eventually being a founding member of the Big East Conference. The Orange eventually moved over to the ACC, joining one of the country’s top conferences.

Since the move, Syracuse has made the NCAA Tournament in all but one season. That was a year ago, where the below .500 record was a career first for Boeheim. Results have not been too much better this year, currently sitting at 14-10 and 7-6 in ACC play.

The singular national championship Syracuse won came during the 2003 season, with freshman Carmelo Anthony leading the charge. In total, Boeheim has over 1,000 wins (even with the redacted ones), five Final Four appearances, and 16 different conference championships.

At least one more season of Jim Boeheim will take place in upstate New York. It’s been a great run for him but the Nikes are not being hung up just quite yet. ACC opponents will have to deal with him and the 2-3 zone for just a little bit longer.

On3’s Griffin McVeigh also contributed to this article.