Syracuse University men’s basketball head coach Jim Boeheim notched his 900th career win Monday night with the Orange’s victory 72-68 win over Detroit. With three more wins Boeheim will pass Bobby Knight for second on the all-time wins list for a men’s college basketball coach, behind only Duke coach and long-time friend Mike Krzyzewski. Boeheim reached the 900-win mark the only way a coach can reach such an epic milestone: with longevity and consistency, not to mention a whole lot of loyalty.
Boeheim first came to Syracuse University in the fall of 1962, 50 years ago, from nearby Lyons, NY. After a four-year college career and a few years playing professionally, Boeheim returned to Syracuse in 1969 as a graduate assistant, and he hasn’t left since; by all accounts, he’s never considered leaving. In 1976, Boeheim took over as head coach for Roy Danforth, and the rest, as they say, is history, as in one of the greatest coaching careers in the history of the sport.
Boeheim inherited a program from Danforth that had made four straight NCAA tournament appearances, including a national championship game appearance in 1975. Boeheim took that small flicker of success and turned it into one of the most storied college basketball programs of all time. Under Boeheim, Syracuse has become the definition of consistency in college basketball, as the team has failed to reach the 20-win mark just twice in the last 36 years. The program lows have been few and far between while the accomplishments under Boeheim keep rolling in, among them 29 NCAA tournament appearances, 16 sweet-16 appearances, three final fours, nine Big East regular season championships, five Big East tournament championships, and the 2003 national championship; all at one school, and all occurring on his way to 900 career victories.
The cynics will say that Boeheim has been able to reach 900 wins by feasting on the so-called “cupcakes” of college basketball. But when you’ve built the kind of powerhouse program that Boeheim has built, just about every other team in the country is going to seem like a “cupcake” compared to the caliber of team Boeheim assembles at Syracuse year after year. If winning 900 games were as easy for Boeheim as his critics would have you believe, then wouldn’t there be more coaches at or near that mark? In fact, many of Boeheim’s critics are washed up coaches that have fallen well short of most if not all of the feats that Boeheim has accomplished in his career.
A big part of Boeheim’s success, and one of the biggest reasons why he’s made it to 900 wins, is his longevity, with 36 years and counting as a head coach, and all at the same school. In a world in which coaches are constantly switching jobs and looking for new challenges, abandoning both their players and employers along the way, Boeheim has never come close to leaving Syracuse. In the ever-changing landscape of college athletics, Boeheim has been one of the few constants.
Boeheim has been so consistent over the past 36 seasons that its easy to take what he does year after year for granted, and so in some ways his arrival at 900 wins seems almost effortless, but nothing could be further from the truth. Boeheim has had to face the same challenges as any other coach, and then some. Along the way Boeheim faced a battle with prostate cancer, beat it, and then went on to help raise millions for cancer research. The second biggest challenge of Boeheim’s career, next to cancer, came last year when serious accusations were levied against his long-time assistant Bernie Fine. It was a scandal that would have buried most coaches, but not Boeheim. With an onslaught of media descending on Syracuse and many calling for his job, Boeheim withstood the head, deflecting all the attention from the scandal away from his team and onto himself, allowing his players to play distraction free. The result was another Big East championship, another trip to the elite eight, and a 34-3 record, the best of Boeheim’s career. In a year where most coaches and programs would have folded and settled for mediocrity, Boeheim had one of his best teams and did arguably the best coaching job of his career.
What last season showed, perhaps more than anything, is that Boeheim is still at the top of his game as a coach. At a stage in his career where most guys would be a shell of what they once were, Boeheim is thriving, with some of his best seasons being his most recent seasons. Over the last four seasons, Syracuse has averaged 30 wins per season and has made three trips to the sweet sixteen. Boeheim also took home several national coach of the year awards in 2010, as he coached a team, much like the 2012 team, that appeared destined for an appearance in the national championship game until the loss of their starting center just before the start of the NCAA tournament. It’s almost as if Boeheim is continuing to get better with age. He continues to bring in talented recruiting classes, and with each passing year there is an increased level of excitement surrounding his team.
Perhaps the most amazing thing about Boeheim is not that he’s reached 900 career wins as a head coach, it’s that he’s still coaching with the fire and the passion of a much younger coach. Even during his 900th victory, Boeheim could be seen coaching from the bench, as animated and intense as ever; he still wants nothing more than to coach the team he has and win the game he’s playing. Most guys that are 36 years deep into a coaching career would appear tired, worn out, and clearly on the verge of retirement, but not Boeheim. He shows no signs of slowing down or wanting to stop, and the results on the basketball court over the last few years back that up.
After Monday’s win, Boeheim was genuinely happy; he enjoyed the moment with humor and humility. But now, as all of his players, both past and current; his assistants, both past and current; and all the Syracuse fans celebrate his 900th win, Boeheim will simply go back to work, go about his business, and focus on getting win 901; it’s a method that’s worked 900 times before, so why stop now? In the midst of his 37th year at the helm of Syracuse basketball, and with 900 wins already under his belt, there’s no telling how many more wins there are to come; even with so much accomplished, the sky is still the limit.
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