Edition: U.S. / Global


Published: March 21, 1987

Yes, Jim Boeheim revealed yesterday, he is sensitive to criticism. And maybe the tall figure that stalks the sideline in front of the Syracuse bench - arms out, palms up, staying after the officials, eyes squinting behind his glasses, looking for an edge - maybe that character is not the same person that goes home to his wife and daughter when his work is done. ''Just because Clint Eastwood shoots people in the movies,'' said the coach of the Orange, ''doesn't mean he walks down the street in Carmel shooting people. That's my style. A lot of it is an act.'' Boeheim was an experienced chair thrower nearly a full year before Indiana's Bob Knight began to develop his style. He has been known to become argumentative with officials, reporters, and former coaches who are now paid to criticize his work on television. ''Former coaches,'' Boeheim said. His eyebrows started upward. ''Fired coaches.''

Perhaps he has not always been a player's best friend. So maybe Boeheim's delivery, when his tone has turned contentious and his voice has risen to a shrill, could have earned him a role with that comedic family on ''Saturday Night Live,'' The Whiners. So maybe there are people out there in television land, or in the stands, or even in his dressing room, that don't always happen to think Jim Boeheim is a swell guy.

There are those who will insist that those are his good points. His bad points, according to the critics, can be counted on two hands. In the 11 seasons since Boeheim became the head coach at the age of 31, he has won 75.7 percent of his games and has elevated a program with a regional, if intense, following into one with a national reputation. The critics look beyond the 259 victories and focus on eight defeats; all in the national collegiate tournament, and all - in their opinion -much too soon. This Syracuse season has extended into today's regional championship game against North Carolina. The Orange are 29-6, and this is not yet a bad season.

''So much emphasis is now placed on the N.C.A.A., the regular season doesn't matter,'' Boeheim said. ''That's changed in the last seven years. Purdue had a great, great year. Clemson had a great year. If you don't do well in the N.C.A.A. tournament, you've had a bad year.''

If that is the determining factor, this is his first good year. In the eight previous Syracuse appearances in the tournament under Boeheim, the Orange did not win more than once in any tournament. The critics remember a technical foul that became a factor in a loss to Iowa in the 1980 East semifinal. They recall losses to a 1979 Penn team that was humiliated in the Final Four, a little-more-than-ordinary 1983 Ohio State group, a 1984 Virginia squad that no longer had Ralph Sampson and a 1986 Navy team that featured David Robinson surrounded by people with short hair. That is what the critics remember. And those are the people who are on the same side. It is hard to measure how much of the criticism from the outside results from jealousy over the powerful advantage Syracuse holds with its 33,000-seat Carrier Dome, the barn that turns basketball into an ear-splitting experience. The animosity goes back to the glory days of Manley Field House, when its inhabitants renamed the facility The Zoo and reinforced its surly image by coming armed with coins and paper clips to shoot at opposing players.

''Some people say we've never won a big game away from home,'' Boeheim said. ''But we won at Providence this year, and Providence is still playing. I guess that doesn't count. Whenever we win a big game, it's not a big game. We've won at Purdue. We've won at Louisville. We've won at New Mexico. Those games don't count. The game last night doesn't count anymore.''

The East semifinal against Florida was a victory that easily could have been lost. Under someone's direction, the Orange have developed a collective sense of unselfishness. Boeheim was wise enough to hold back on the venom this season when he realized that it was not serving to motivate his younger players. He has supported Dwayne Washington, the point guard who departed to the pros, when some of the same observers who contributed to the ascendancy of the Pearl's overpublicized star have formed a fashionable chorus of criticism. Boeheim has even performed magic, convincing two Los Angeles-area high school stars to spend the winters of their college years not far from downtown Syracuse.

Just after 4 o'clock this afternoon, he will take a seat on the bench opposite the one occupied by Dean Smith, with a chance to answer the critical ones.

''I don't want people to say I'm a great coach,'' Boeheim said. ''I just don't want them to say I'm a bad coach. Kind of neutral. Not good, but not bad.''

And if J. R. Reid ends the Syracuse season by again scoring 16 of the last 17 Carolina points, there will be those who will leave the arena figuring that must have been the coach's fault, too.