Jim Boeheim is the winningest coach in Syracuse University history — second in all-time wins in division one college basketball behind former Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski. Boeheim coached his final season of his 47-year tenure with the Orange.
"Given the realities of college athletics today, it is highly unlikely there ever will be another person at Syracuse or at any other school who will replicate Jim's achievements," Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud said.
College basketball is a different game since Boeheim took the reins as head coach in 1976. The Big East, where Boeheim spent the majority of his tenure, did not exist. The slam dunk would be reinstated his first season after a ten-year ban. Ten years later, in 1986, the three-point shot would be introduced for college basketball.
Matthew Andrews, an American history professor who specializes in the links between sports and race at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, said most people weren't watching the NCAA tournament until Magic Johnson and Larry Bird faced off in the 1979 championship game. ESPN would also launch the same year.
"He's not just luckily, along for the ride — I think it's his great Syracuse teams that are part of the way," Andrews said. "He enters college basketball right at a time, where the game is about to explode. Coaches are about to be able to really monetize themselves and make a lot of money, so it's excellent timing for Boeheim."
On the court Boeheim saw success — winning five Big East tournaments, reaching five Final Fours, reaching the national championship game in 1987 and 1996, and winning the 2003 NCAA Championship. That championship team featured Carmelo Anthony and Andrews credits Boeheim's relationship with Anthony in playing a large role in the one-and-done movement.
"Carmelo Anthony comes to Syracuse out of Baltimore, just plays one season," Andrews said. "He's the most successful one-and-done player in the history of the one-and-done movement. He's one of the guys who changes people's ideas about what freshmen can accomplish in basketball."
But some of the highlights, according to Boeheim himself, were getting to stay in Syracuse his whole life and that he got to coach his sons Buddy and Jimmy.
"I've been just unbelievably fortunate to keep this job," Boeheim said after the team's last game in the ACC tournament. "Mike Brey is thrilled that he was at Notre Dame 23 years, he's a puppy. I've had 47 years. I got to coach my sons. Two years ago we were in the Sweet 16 and last year I got to coach my sons. I had a great team. I loved that team."
Syracuse joined the ACC conference a decade ago in 2013. David Glenn, a North Carolina-based ACC sportswriter and creator of the ACC Sports Journal, said expectations were high.
"Everybody in ACC country knew that they were getting a national championship coach, a Hall of Fame coach and a guy who took his teams to the NCAA tournament," Glenn said.
But the team had struggles in the ACC — making the NCAA tournament 5 times in the last 10 years.
Glenn said Boeheim will likely be remembered most in his time in the ACC for what happened off the court. An NCAA investigation into rules violations resulted in 101 of Boeheim's wins being vacated, and he was suspended for 9 games.
"I think the typical ACC fan remembers him more for the Denny's references and saying, 'There's no value to playing the ACC tournament in Greensboro, North Carolina,' and taking other shots at the ACC culture," Glenn said.
Glenn credits the use of zone defense leading to some of the success the team saw in a competitive ACC.
"Some of their NCAA tournament success, including when they made the 2016 Final Four as a member of the ACC, is a byproduct to some degree of the unfamiliarity that most programs have with the Syracuse zone," Glenn said. "Your conference opponents get used to it after a while, but most of the time in the NCAA tournament it's something different and very hard to prepare for on short notice."
Adam Zagoria, a freelance sports writer for the New York Times, said it will be interesting to see if new head coach Adrian Autry sticks with that style of play.
“Syracuse has been synonymous with the zone defense on Jim's watch," Zagoria said. "He got a lot of criticism in recent years for sticking with the zone even when it wasn't working at times.”
Whether he'd stick with the zone was one of the very first questions new head coach Adrian Autry faced at his introductory press conference.
"We’ll be versatile, we'll do whatever it takes to win the game," Autry said. "That's the main goal is to win the game. So whatever that may be, that's the way."
Boeheim is not the only long-tenured head coach to recently step away from the game. North Carolina's Roy Williams and Duke's Mike Krzyzewski retired from their programs. In all three ACC schools, the new head coach is a former player for their school and coached under the Hall of Famer they took over for. As for whether any of them will have as lasting a tenure as their predecessor? Zagoria said that era may be over.
"It's all driven by, ‘Can we win? Can we get back to the NCAA tournament?’ and ‘Can we generate dollars and revenue from being in the NCAA tournament?’" Zagoria said. "In the end, wins and losses, determine how long a coach is going to stay."
While Boeheim won't be coaching anymore he is sticking around in a new position — listed as Special Assistant to the Director of Athletics on the Athletics Directory.
