There were other sordid claims to come out, including that Fine's wife had sex with players and that Boeheim knew, or should have known, of his assistant's behavior.
While his No. 1-ranked Orange continued to rack up wins — they wouldn't drop their first game until Jan. 21 — Boeheim endured criticism and scrutiny and was questioned during news conferences about the case.
Boeheim, who just completed his 36th year coaching Syracuse, vehemently supported his longtime assistant when the accusations broke and said Davis was lying. "The Penn State thing came out, and the kid behind this is trying to get money," he told the Syracuse Post-Standard.
Amid criticism from victims' rights advocates, Boeheim apologized and said he spoke out of loyalty and was basing his comments on a 2005 university investigation that failed to corroborate Davis' claims.
Boeheim referred questions to the university's press office. University spokesman Kevin Quinn said that Syracuse appreciated the work done by the U.S. attorney's office and that the decision to fire Fine was appropriate.
"It was made in the best interest of the university," Quinn said.
Davis and Lang sued Boeheim and the university for defamation, but a judge dismissed the lawsuit, saying Boeheim's defense of his friend was clearly opinion.
Attorney Gloria Allred, representing the two men, said, "The DOJ's decision does not indicate that there is or is not merit to the allegations against Mr. Fine, and it does not vindicate him."
Fine, who put his Syracuse home on the market in March, has been in Florida and was recently hired as a consultant for an Israeli basketball team.
Laurie Fine has sued ESPN, alleging defamation and claiming the network knew that Davis was lying and ruined her life. That suit is pending.
The university's prompt response to the allegations was done in good faith but was flawed because, among other things, there was no direct contact with law enforcement, a special committee of the university's board of trustees said in a report released in July.
Davis met Fine in the early 1980s at a park that was a basketball hangout for kids in a working-class neighborhood. After he became a ball boy in 1983 around age 11, Davis said, he went everywhere with Fine.
Fine turned into a father figure, and as Davis spent more time at the older man's house — actually living there sometimes — the abuse escalated from touching outside the pants to inside, according to Davis.
During an interview in December with The Associated Press, Davis said the abuse would sometimes occur in Fine's campus office with secretaries just beyond the closed door, at Syracuse basketball camp and at a fraternity house.
Some of the abuse would occur in Davis' bed in Fine's basement while Fine's wife was home, Davis said.
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Associated Press writer David Sharp contributed to this story from Portland, Maine.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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