Zach Tomaselli, a former North Country native, took to national TV to defend his claim that he was the third sexual abuse victim of now former Syracuse men's basketball assistant Bernie Fine.

Tomaselli shared with the country how Fine molested him in 2002, a story that has drawn criticism.

"I was dropped off by my father in Syracuse and took a team bus that had a lot of support staff on it, not Bernie Fine," Tomaselli said.

"That bus took me to Pittsburgh, where I met up with Fine."

It was at a hotel in Pittsburgh where Tomaselli says Fine molested him five or six times in one night.

The other two accusers say Fine knew them and, allegedly, molested them for years. Tomaselli says that his case was different.

"With me, he just barely had known me before, he started to touch me," Tomaselli said.

"In fact, it was really the first time we were alone together that he sexually abused me."

To those who have questioned his story this week, Tomaselli says authorities have spent the last couple of days working on proving his claims.

"In the search warrant for his office, they are being able to pull physical evidence from that, that I was at that game," he said.

The scandal has taken its toll on Orange head coach Jim Boeheim, who Tuesday night had to deflect question after question on how this type of thing could take place on his watch.

Tomaselli says the Hall of Fame coach shouldn't be fired.

"I don't think that Boeheim should be fired," he said.

"I think that the only thing Syracuse, to me, needs to do is apologize to any even potential victims because Bernie was an employee of Syracuse University."

Boeheim has changed his stance since new information and Tomaselli's claims have come forward.

The school has publicly backed him and, as of now, has no plans to replace him.