Jim Boeheim has always been an interesting figure in the spectrum that is college basketball. Never been as successful in the postseason over the last 20 years as his peers Coach K and Roy Williams, but he is the second-winningest head coach of all time for a reason. Compared to other coaches like Jay Wright, who did the opposite of Boeheim, and retired on the younger side while still at the top of his game, and after multiple national championships, one more than Syracuse’s 47th-year head coach.
Bill Self has two national championships, but no one is comparing Self and Boeheim. Same thing with John Calipari, who outside of one national championship has not done much in the postseason. But, there’s no real comparison for Boeheim right now. Bob Huggins might be the closest, he’s in the Hall of Fame, but never won a championship. It’s a tough line to draw.
With all that said, Boeheim is in the top-whatever of college basketball coaches of all time, but his image is going to be permanently tarred over what has been building in Syracuse for the past few seasons, and now exploded over the past month. Attacking reporters is nothing new, but the manner in which Boeheim has done it has put people on edge. Then, giving an interview to a national ESPN reporter accusing other teams of buying players when SU, not even a week ago, secured a commitment from a 2024 recruit, Elijah Moore, who got an NIL deal from Adam Weitsman.
So all that brings us to the negative media attention Boeheim has been getting from all around the media landscape. After the comments to Pete Thamel, Boeheim had to walk back his claims, apologize both publicly and privately to those coaches, and release multiple statements saying that he misspoke in multiple facets.
The story has been picked up all around the country, appearing on Sportscenter with Scott Van Pelt, podcasts with multiple big-name college basketball reporters like Jeff Goodman and Rob Dauster, and more. Boeheim is garnering a lot of disrespect, and a lot of it is warranted because of the way he’s behaved over the last few weeks.
Not to mention the fact that Boeheim basically said he has full autonomy over his job, a big slap in the face to John Wildhack and Kent Syverud, his direct superiors. Maybe this will finally be the wake-up call they need to listen to the paying supporters of the team and realize what the people want may not be what Boeheim wants anymore.
