Syracuse Basketball: Top 8 Jim Boeheim coaching jobs in history
By Neil Adler
2009-10
By far and away, this is one of my favorite SU teams in history. Widely projected to finish the campaign in the middle of the league, the Orange captured the Big East regular-season title, achieved its first No. 1 ranking in the AP Poll dating back to 1989-90, and wrapped up this stanza at 30-5.
Boeheim received several national coach of the year honors, and he absolutely deserved them. Among the standouts on this roster are Arinze Onuaku, Andy Rautins, Wes Johnson, Rick Jackson and Brandon Triche.
The No. 1 seed in the West Region of the NCAA tourney, I honestly thought this bunch would get JB his second national championship, but Onuaku suffered a most-unfortunate injury in the quarter-finals of the Big East Tournament. In the Sweet 16 against the No. 5 seed Butler, Syracuse had a small, yet late, lead versus the Bulldogs, but the ‘Cuse couldn’t hold on, losing by four points.
What might have been if Onuaku didn’t go down? We’ll never know, and although SU “only” reached the regional semi-finals, Boeheim did a masterful job guiding a group with middling expectations that managed to generate one of the most-prosperous regular seasons in his career.