With Boeheim’s Departure, A College Basketball Coaching Era Nears its End

Late Wednesday afternoon in Greensboro, North Carolina, Jim Boeheim’s tenure as head coach of basketball at Syracuse came to a befuddling and resoundingly ignominious finish. Or it came to the most appropriate end imaginable, depending on your perspective and home address. Confusing, because it remains uncertain whether Boeheim retired, was retired or forced out, parted ways or was effectively fired. (This may remain a mystery). Fitting, because his last public appearance, in the postgame press conference after a 77-74 loss to Wake Forest in the ACC Tournament, was prickly and cryptic in a way that many will see as classically Boeheimian – giving no quarter and revealing little, stubborn and borderline immature (no small feat at the age of 78), almost funny, but not quite. (It was appropriate that all of this happened in Greensboro, a place where neither Syracuse nor Boeheim ever belonged, in a conference with which he won’t be enduringly associated).

Also: The passage of time will render all of these details insignificant, likely sooner than later. They will be replaced by more enduring ones: Boeheim arrived as a walk-on player in Syracuse in 1962, and eventually coached his alma mater for 47 years and 1,557 games. These are preposterous numbers.  His teams went to the NCAA Tournament 35 times, reached five Final Fours, won the national championship in 2003 and on two other occasions lost in the championship game. It’s a fool’s errand to rank coaches across eras, but Boeheim is on whatever short list you might construct. He was deservedly elected to the Hall of Fame 18 years ago.

It is worth noting the moment of Boeheim’s departure, not just as a passage of great and unmistakable importance in Syracuse, but as another