Some people STILL do not think that Syracuse should have made the NCAA tourney…but if you are good enough to overcome a double-digit 2nd half deficit against Virginia then you are worthy of a career retrospective. Head coach Jim Boeheim has done just about everything in the world of basketball: an NCAA title in 2003, a Hall of Fame induction in 2005, a national COY award in 2010, and a pair of Olympic gold medals in 2008 and 2012. Last summer he announced that he will be retiring in the spring of 2018, but apparently he is not just walking softly into the sunset, as he has the Orange back in the Final 4 for the 1st time since 2013. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to interview Bob Snyder, the legendary local sportswriter who is a member of the Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame, about how Boeheim played in the 1966 NCAA tourney, how the Orange beat North Carolina in the 1975 NCAA tourney, and how his coaching legacy stacks up against the best.
In the 1960s Boeheim went from freshman walk-on to team captain at Syracuse, and was also a roommate of All-American Dave Bing: how good a player was he back in the day, and how close are he and Bing to this day? Boeheim was good enough to average 14.6 PPG as a senior…albeit for a Fred Lewis-coached team that ran-ran-ran its way to an NCAA-record 99 PPG. He went for 27 against Niagara and 28 vs. Cornell in back-to-back games. His coach would say of the skinny, bespectacled former walk-on: “The greatest catalyst on that club was Jimmy Boeheim.” Boeheim had Bing as his presenter when he was enshrined in the Hall of Fame. The ex-roommates have remained close friends who would always be there for one another. By the way, is there any wonder that Boeheim was less than thrilled to leave Manley Field House for the Carrier Dome in 1979? “We’ll lose home-court advantage,” said Boeheim. “But if we average 15,000 fans a game, I guess it will be worth it.” He was 30-3 at Manley as a player and 55-1 as a head coach at the time the Orange moved to the Dome!
What are your memories of the 1966 NCAA tourney (Boeheim scored 14 PTS [7-9 FG] in a win over Davidson and then scored 15 PTS in a 10-PT loss to Duke)? While Boeheim played well in both games in the East Regional, Bing’s play was a mixed bag. Bing scored 20 PTS and clearly outplayed fellow All-American Dick Snyder of Davidson in a 94-78 win in the semis, but he had probably his worst collegiate game (especially considering it was for a berth in the Final 4) while scoring only 10 PTS in a 91-81 loss to Duke. SU had Duke on the ropes but the favored Blue Devils had 6 players score in double figures. SU’s 22-6 record that season was even more impressive because just a few years earlier the team had lost an NCAA-record 27 games in a row over the course of 2 seasons.
After graduation he played professionally with the Scranton Miners of the American Basketball League and won 2 titles despite being the only player in the league who wore glasses on the court: did he ever think about playing in the NBA or did he always know that he wanted to go into coaching? As the son of a mortician he did not grow up thinking that he wanted to become a coach. After SU he was the final player cut by the Chicago Bulls. He had a fine career in the Eastern League for Scranton while also attending grad school and working on SU’s staff. In 136 games over 6 very full seasons Boeheim averaged 17 PPG (including 20.8 and 23.4 in back-to-back seasons) while dishing out assists at a 4.1/game clip. Coach Paul Seymour offered him a shot in the NBA but Boeheim acknowledged that he was not good enough. He felt it would be better to try the coaching racket: a wise decision!
What are your memories of the 1975 NCAA tourney after he became an assistant coach at Syracuse (Jim Lee scored 24 PTS [12-18 FG] in a win over North Carolina, then Jack Givens had 24 PTS/11 REB in a win by eventual national runner-up Kentucky in the Final 4)? Many Syracuse fans think that Orange hoops history began with Boeheim. Big-time hoops, yes, but in the Final 4, no. Jim was Coach Roy Danforth’s top aide in 1975 when SU surprisingly played its way to San Diego along with a trio of other legendary programs (John Wooden’s UCLA Bruins, Joe B. Hall’s Kentucky Wildcats, and Denny Crum’s Louisville Cardinals). Truth be known, SU’s initial road to the Final 4 should have ended with its NCAA opener in the Palestra where 6’10” Joe Bryant (Kobe’s father) had a 5-foot baseline jumper that would have advanced La Salle and ended SU’s season. His shot went around and out and then SU pulled away in OT to win by 4 PTS (87-83). You would think that if North Carolina shot 65.3% (not from the FT line, from the field!) and their backcourt of Phil Ford/Brad Hoffman combined for 44 PTS that Dean Smith’s favored Tar Heels would have won their East Regional semi against SU…but SU shot a lofty 58.3 FG% and guards Jimmy Lee/Jimmy Williams combined for 43 PTS. Trailing by 1 after calling its last timeout, 7-PT underdog SU sought “Divine Providence” in the Civic Center. Danforth wanted his guys to start out on the left side and run the “High 3” but Carolina had it cut off. The ball swung inside to Rudy Hackett and then back out to Lee: from “Rag Man” to “Rat Man”. Rat let it fly from 18 feet with 5 seconds left: final score Syracuse 78, Heels 76. The silence was heard all the way down Tobacco Road. In the East finals SU needed Jimmy “Don’t Call Me Bug” Williams’ 5-second dash up the left sideline and pass to Hackett, who fumbled the ball but somehow managed to get it up/over the rim/in to get to OT vs. Kansas State at 76-all: SU ended up winning 95-87 and it was “California Here We Come”! Cinderella’s slipper got lost in San Diego against towering Kentucky with its twin 7-footers and Jack “Goose” Givens. The heavily-favored Wildcats won 95-79 but lost the title to UCLA in Wooden’s swan song. In the consolation game SU rallied from 18 PTS down to play its 3rd OT game in 5 NCAA contests, losing to Louisville 92-88. Lee led the tournament in scoring and was named to the all-tourney team.
He is famous for playing a 2-3 zone defense: how did he come up with it, and what makes it so effective? Boeheim played in a 2-3 zone during college and knew the fundamentals, so he just tweaked it over the years primarily to reflect changes in the game (most notably of course the 3-PT shot). Initially it was a conventional 2-3, but then he moved it out farther to contend the 3 and made some other subtle changes. Boeheim feels that today’s SU zone is “fairly unique and different from most 2-3 zones.” Teams do not see that many zones and this 1 (having evolved into a bit of a rarity) causes problems. For example, when Oklahoma faced the Orange in the 2003 NCAA tourney (won by Syracuse), the Sooners responded as if they were a deer in the headlights. They dribbled and passed east-west while struggling to move the ball at all north-south. Most teams try to attack SU’s zone from the high-post (for a 12-15’ jumper or a pass to the baseline) or inside-out (for the corner trifecta: see Louisville).
What are your memories of the 1987 NCAA title game (Keith Smart scored 21 PTS and made a jumper with 5 seconds left to clinch a 1-PT win by Indiana)? In light of the departures of 1000-PT scorers Pearl Washington/Raf Addison/Wendell Alexis, nobody thought that SU’s 1st national championship could have (some argue “should” have) come in 1987. However, when they got to the NCAA tourney, down goes Georgia Southern and Western Kentucky…then down goes Florida (Rony Seikaly scored 33 PTS)…and just like in 1975, bye-bye North Carolina (Seikaly had 26 PTS/11 REB). In the Final 4 in New Orleans Rick Pitino (Boeheim’s 1st coaching hire) goes down by 14 PTS and it was time to face Indiana and bombastic Bobby Knight for all the marbles. Once again, 5 seconds to play provided the decisive moment: it had already happened against North Carolina and Kansas State. However, this was not Divine Providence: this was the Left Coast and SU broke a 70-70 deadlock in the final minute on Howard Triche’s jumper in the lane. When Keith Smart missed a shot, Triche rebounded and was fouled by Steve Alford. IU called timeout with 38 seconds left and then Triche made his 1st FT before missing the 2nd. Smart scored in the lane and IU calls a timeout down by 1 PT. Derrick Coleman (who hauled in a freshman-record 19 REB) was fouled and IU called another timeout with 28 seconds to go. Coleman missed the front end of a 1-and-1, the Hoosiers come down the floor, and with 5 seconds left Smart rose/fired from 16 feet while barely avoiding Triche’s outstretched arm…and hit nothing but net to take the lead. SU’s desperation heave was intercepted: IU 74, SU 73, even though Syracuse looked to be the better team. “We outplayed them,” Boeheim would say. “We didn’t have the game won … but we were close.”
He had a 2-PT OT win over Puerto Rico to win a bronze medal as assistant coach of team USA at the 1990 FIBA World Championship after Kenny Anderson made 2 FT with no time on the clock at the end of regulation: where do those FTs rank among the most clutch that he has ever seen? Clutch FTs for sure…but for the bronze, not the gold. That team included SU star Billy Owens. If you are looking for clutch FTs, how about the 1990 regular-season finale with a top-10 matchup against Georgetown? There were more than 33,000 fans in the house for the very 1st time. Sam Jefferson inexplicably fouled Owens more than 40 feet from the basket with 1 second remaining in regulation. Owens canned both FTs en route to a 2-PT OT win in a game that was highlighted by Coach Thompson’s 3 technical fouls (1 from each of the 3 officials!) that triggered a 10-PT play and saw Big John banished from courtside.
Take me through the 1996 NCAA tourney:
After Jason Cipolla made a 16-footer at the end of regulation, John Wallace (30 PTS/15 REB) dribbled up the court and made a 3-PT shot with 3 seconds left for a 2-PT OT win over Georgia: where does that game rank among the most exciting in school history? Wallace to Cipolla for a 16-footer forced OT as Cipolla slid on the seat of his pants in the left corner. Boeheim opted not to call a timeout as Wallace dribbled over mid-court and threw up a last-gasp shot in OT: good! SU wins 83-81. That buzzer-beating combination made the Orange “Kardiac Kids” the Cinderella story of the 1996 NCAA tourney. Among the top-5 heart-stoppers in Syracuse annals, Boeheim said of that West Regional semi in Denver: “such a classic … really one of the great tournament games ever.”
Wallace had 15 PTS/9 REB and Jacque Vaughn missed a 3-PT shot at the buzzer in a 3-PT win over #2-seed Kansas: did you start to get the sense that the team was going to go all the way? SU was the best in the West and headed to the Meadowlands for the Final 4. Mississippi State (which upset Kentucky in the SEC tourney) fell to SU by 8 in the national semis but Kentucky would be the country’s last team standing.
Tourney MOP Tony Delk scored 24 PTS (7-12 3PM) in a 9-PT win by Kentucky in the title game: how devastating was that loss, and what was the feeling like in the locker room afterwards? Pitino’s Wildcats were double-digit favorites in the final. I wrote in my newspaper that the Cats would cut down the nets but Cuse would cover the point spread: both happened. Wallace carried SU on his back throughout the tourney and scored 29 PTS in the title game. SU had a legit shot (they were down 5 PTS with the ball in the final 5 minutes), but Delk’s 7 threes keyed the Cats, who were loaded with potential pros. SU had overachieved in the tourney but it was a somber/disconsolate dressing room following the heartbreak. “Not many times has a team not picked in the top-40 gotten to the Final 4,” suggested Boeheim. “This year, it was more fun just getting this team there.”
What are your memories of the 2003 NCAA title game (Carmelo Anthony had 20 PTS/10 REB in a 3-PT win over Kansas)? Hakim Warrick’s in-flight block ruined 4th-ranked Kansas’ bid for OT in the Superdome: that is a vision etched in Orange hoop annals. One Shining Moment to be sure. When you think of the 2003 championship game (SU 81, Kansas 78), Hak soaring has to be #1. Carmelo was tourney MOP but Warrick put a lock on SU’s (and Boeheim’s) 1st national championship.
In 2002 the school named the Carrier Dome floor “Jim Boeheim Court”, and in 2005 he was inducted into the Hall of Fame: where did these two moments rank among his career highlights? His Hall of Fame induction in Springfield was the maraschino cherry atop the whipped cream for Boeheim. The guy whose name used to be mispronounced on national television, who critics said came up short in late-game situations, who was known more for whining than winning, had finally joined the fraternity’s elite. Naming the Dome floor after him was also a proud moment for him, but not in the same league with the Hall of Fame or the NCAA title.
He won a bronze medal as assistant coach of team USA at the 2006 FIBA World Championship after losing to Greece in the semifinals despite having a roster that included Carmelo Anthony/Chris Bosh/Dwight Howard/LeBron James/Chris Paul/Dwyane Wade: how on earth did a team with so much talent not win it all? The loss to Greece was inexplicable/embarrassing, so much so that Team USA boss Jerry Colangelo made certain that it was not going to happen again come the 2008 Olympics. Player selection and preparation has paid off, as the US has not lost a game on the world stage since. Under head coach Mike Krzyzewski, Boeheim, and the rest of the braintrust, Team USA (including the addition of Kobe Bryant/Jason Kidd, among others) won the 2007 FIBA Americas Championship and beat Spain for the Olympic gold medal in Beijing and again in London.
Jonny Flynn had a game-high 34 PTS/11 AST in 67 minutes in a 10-PT 6-OT win over UConn in the 2009 Big East tourney (the longest game in the history of Big East conference play): did it reach a point where you thought that evening would never end? The Orange and 3rd-ranked UConn went through the night and into the next morning before SU won 127-117, and then SU came back to the Garden and beat West Virginia in the semis by 5 PTS in OT before a tired Orange bunch bowed to 5th-ranked Louisville by 10 PTS in the title game. The 6-OT shirt has become a collector’s item: hundreds of thousands of Orange faithful will swear to you that they were at the Garden on March 12, 2009, when SU had 103 field goal attempts plus another 51 shots from the free-throw line!
He won a gold medal as assistant coach of team USA at the 2010 FIBA World Championship after MVP Kevin Durant set a USA World Championship scoring record with 22.8 PPG: how good was Durant at age 21? Durant (22.8 PPG) was MVP while leading the 2010 team to its 1st World Championship gold medal since 1994. After beating host Turkey in the championship game, he went on to pan Olympic gold in London 2 years later as Team USA beat Spain in the title game. Durant has a chance to be among the 10 best players of all-time, possibly the top-5…but you need to have at least 1 “crowning” moment in the NBA (and I do not mean a scoring crown).
He served as an assistant coach for Team USA at the 2008 Olympics and reprised his role at the 2012 Olympics: how does he like coaching in the Olympics, and what kind of a relationship has he developed with Coach Krzyzewski? Boeheim has thoroughly enjoyed his Olympic experiences and international head coaching/assistant coaching assignments: how could you not? He and Coach K are great friends. They have never wanted to coach against each other and never scheduled games against one another before Syracuse joined the ACC. They met in the 1998 South Regional semis in St. Petersburg, where #2 Duke topped unranked SU by 13 PTS. Their other big coaching confrontation came in the 1989 ACC/Big East Challenge in Greensboro, with #1 SU topping #6 Duke by 2 PTS. Of course, now they regularly face each other as conference opponents.
He currently has the 2nd-most wins among active D-1 coaches (behind only Krzyzewski) and the most wins of a coach at a single school (just ahead of Dean Smith): where do you think that he ranks among the best coaches in history, and did he ever come close to leaving Syracuse? He is second in all-time victories on the court…but for the NCAA stripping him of more than 100 wins. There was a Big 10 job he could have had in the late 1980s but he has never really been serious about leaving central New York. There was also a rumored NBA job but Boeheim has said there was nothing to that. The fact is that James Arthur Boeheim came here more than a half-century ago and has never really left. Boeheim will go down somewhere in college basketball’s coaching top-10: after all he is #2 on the all-time wins list. If he can win a 2nd national championship, he likely would be thought of by some as belonging in the top-5 with Wooden/Krzyzewski and then fill in the blank with 2 of Knight/Rupp/Smith/Pitino/Calhoun/etc. The jury is still out but Boeheim just coaches on, and on, and on. While he will always have his critics, the back-to-back double-digit comebacks vs. Gonzaga and #1-seed Virginia speak to two things: how hard his players compete right to the end (despite a lack of depth) and Boeheim’s Hall of Fame feel for when (and for how long, considering that lack of depth) to apply the press.