In early February, Syracuse University announced self-imposed sanctions on their men’s basketball program. The Orange would not compete in any postseason this season including the ACC, NCAA, or NIT tournaments. The announcement came after years of academic issues and heat coming from the NCAA. The strategy was simple: Throw away a pretty average season this year to save the brighter future from any negative impact. The NCAA considered Syracuse’s self-ban, and was deciding whether to add more to it. A month later, we got our answer.
It was on Friday afternoon that official reports finally surfaced. Syracuse’s punishments read as such:
- Head Coach Jim Boeheim suspended for nine ACC games
- The taking of 12 scholarships over four years
- Recruiting restrictions limiting number of off-campus recruiters to two for two years
- 108 wins vacated
You can easily separate the three punishments into three different categories: past, present, and future.
The 108 vacated wins hurts the program’s past history, Coach Boeheim being suspended for nine ACC games hurts the present, and the 12 lost scholarships obviously hurts the future.
Is this the way the NCAA is going to handle these scandals from now on?
It’s impossible to tell, but it sure beats throwing all the blame on one or the other.
In a way, the past, present, and future is how you can evaluate Coach Boeheim.
Before becoming the head coach at Syracuse University, Jim Boeheim was a walk-on player for the Orange. By his senior year, he was a team captain and helped lead his team to the NCAA tournament. After a short-lived professional career as a player, Boeheim started coaching. He was hired in 1969 as a graduate assistant coach. By 1976, Boeheim would find himself as the head coach of the Orange.
By the mid-80s, Syracuse basketball became a national power, and Coach Boeheim gained a ton of national respect for what he was able to do with a team from little Syracuse, New York. That respect has stayed true throughout the years. His use of the 2-3 zone made the Orange a team to watch. He has stubbornly stuck with the zone defense through thick and thin, but that stubbornness ultimately won him a championship in 2003.
Today, Coach Boeheim still utilizes his famous 2-3 zone, and still loves to grill the media members just as much as they love to grill him. He has evolved with the game — recruiting more length, three point shooters, and potential — to stay as one of college’s top coaches. He uses the length in his zone, which can be a suffocating nightmare for opponents that don’t feature great athletes.
That said, the Orange’s season wasn’t exactly one to remember. They finished the season 18-13, and has many moments where they just played bad basketball. Other than Rakeem Christmas’ breakout season (who is a senior), there were little bright spots during the course of the season.
The sanctions made things worse as it came right before their last game of the season. North Carolina State beat Syracuse by a score of 71-57, and Boeheim didn’t attend the postgame press conference. He had issued a statement on the sanctions that read:
“Initially I would like to express relief that the NCAA’s unparalleled eight-year investigation of the University and the men’s basketball program is finally over. As I expressed at the committee on infractions hearing, I acknowledged that violations occurred within the men’s basketball program, and as the head coach of the program, I take those violations very seriously. That being said, I am disappointed in many of the findings and conclusions as stated in the infractions report. The committee chose to ignore the efforts which I have undertaken over the past 37 years to promote an atmosphere of compliance within the men’s basketball program. Instead they chose to focus on the rogue and secretive actions of a former employee of the local YMCA and my former director of basketball operations in order to impose an unprecedented series of penalties upon the university and the men’s basketball program. Much is made in the infractions report regarding the actions of a former employee of the local YMCA. As I explained to the committee, this individual was not someone who was allowed unique access to the men’s basketball program. This was a highly regarded individual who worked for one of the most respected organizations in the country. I cannot think of a place where I would rather have my student-athletes spend their free time than a community YMCA. My coaches and I knew and trusted this man, and he was thoroughly vetted by the office of athletic compliance before he was permitted to interact with our student-athletes. If the committee is correct that this individual abused the trust that had been placed in him by the YMCA, the university, and me, then I am deeply disappointed”
Take the statement any way you would like, but I think one thing is clear: Jim Boeheim is not happy, and he is not backing down from the NCAA.
What the future holds for Coach Boeheim is the most intriguing question here. The scholarship reductions are a big burden, but especially for the 70-year-old Boeheim. Recruiting has become more and more year-round for coaches, and that means a lot of traveling time. It would be understandably hard for Boeheim to stay efficient in this department. Also, his quest to 1,000 wins to a step back now that he has to make up for 108 of them. That’s equates to about 5 extra seasons if Syracuse was to average 22 wins a season. That’s not an easy task by itself.
Even at an old age, it is hard to imagine anyone else roaming the Orange sideline. If history has shown us anything, it’s that Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim won’t back down from a challenge.
Thank you for reading. Support LWOS by following us on Twitter – @LastWordOnSport and @LWOSworld – and “liking” our Facebook page.
Have you tuned into Last Word On Sports Radio? LWOS is pleased to bring you 24/7 sports radio to your PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone. What are you waiting for?
