SYRACUSE - When longtime Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim was ejected from a game Tuesday for the first time in his career, it sure caught his boss off-guard.

Athletic director Daryl Gross was sitting courtside when Boeheim was thrown out of an exhibition game against Division II Saint Rose.

At halftime, a Syracuse trainer said Boeheim wanted to see Gross in the locker room.

“All of a sudden he sees me, and he says, 'I didn't do anything. Why did they throw me out?”'

Gross said. “He's just fit to be tied, and I'm almost ready to start laughing.

“I said to myself, ‘Oh, gosh, Daryl, please don't laugh right now.' And he said, ‘You need to go talk to those guys right now.”'

Gross spoke with the officials and received an explanation he could accept.

Boeheim had been ejected in the final minute of the first half after becoming incensed when Gerry McNamara, Josh Wright, and Darryl Watkins were hit going to the basket and no fouls were called.

Referee Pat Driscoll whistled Boeheim for a technical, but the coach continued to argue.

Mike Kitts, the lead referee, eventually gave Boeheim his second technical and kicked him out.

Boeheim, in his 30th year with the Orange, left to a standing ovation.

“The guy that called the first technical should have because Jim was trying to get a technical to protect his kids,” Gross said.

“But the second guy kind of messed it up, and he said, 'You know what, if I did it all over again, no, I wouldn't have called it. Did I take it personal? Yes, I did.'

“At that point, any kind of animosity I had toward them was just lost,” Gross said.

“I said, ‘I appreciate that, guys. Take care. Do the best you can.”'

Boeheim watched the rest of the game on television and was still perturbed after the game.

“If I ever got thrown out, I always thought it would be for a good reason,” he said.