Syracuse Basketball: Top 8 Jim Boeheim coaching jobs in history

2011-12

Unless I’m reviewing Boeheim’s tenure at Syracuse incorrectly, his most-prolific regular season occurred during this stanza, when the Orange went 30-1, and 17-1 in the Big East (securing the conference crown), and fell just one time, at Notre Dame.

By the time that the NCAA Tournament rolled around, SU had a mark of 31-2 and got slotted as the No. 1 seed in the East Region. The ‘Cuse also collected the number-one national ranking for close to a dozen weeks. All in all, as dominant as you can get for a JB-led squad.

This outfit had ridiculous talent: Brandon Triche, Scoop Jardine, Kris Joseph, C.J. Fair, Dion Waiters (a future lottery pick, who came off the bench for Syracuse), Rakeem Christmas, James Southerland, Michael Carter-Williams and the late Fab Melo, among others. Wowsers.

Sadly, Melo got ruled ineligible right before the Big Dance began. We still managed to squeak by No. 4 seed Wisconsin to reach the Elite Eight, however, in that contest, versus No. 2 seed Ohio State, SU got pummeled inside. Not having Melo clearly proved a big difference in a 77-70 defeat. Similar to the 2010 March Madness, I thought the ‘Cuse had a ticket punched to the 2012 Final Four, but some unfortunate circumstances arose yet again. Regardless, the Orange in 2011-12, which ended its term at 34-3, is one of Boeheim’s best bunches in program history.