Syracuse Basketball: Current ACC coaches are an exquisite collection

Bosses at Syracuse basketball and other Atlantic Coast Conference crews are elite.

Syracuse basketball head coach Jim Boeheim is undeniably the best coach to ever grace the sidelines on the Hill. He’s led the Orange for more than four decades, won in excess of 1,000 games (whatever, NCAA), captured a national title, and advanced to five Final Fours.

There’s really no reasonable argument against Boeheim having the description as the greatest coach ever at the ‘Cuse. But in taking a look at other Atlantic Coast Conference programs, a handful of them are also presently coached by the finest boss in their respective squad’s history, according to a report.

CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander delved into this interesting topic in a recent article, although he examined the situation at numerous conferences beyond the ACC.

For our purposes, though, let’s primarily focus on the league where Syracuse is now a member. Norlander has a half-dozen ACC head coaches, including Boeheim, on his list, and we are solely talking about men’s basketball here.

They are Boeheim, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski (duh), Florida State’s Leonard Hamilton, Miami’s Jim Larrañaga, Notre Dame’s Mike Brey, and Virginia’s Tony Bennett.

These selections are totally logical, however, you’ll see that North Carolina’s Roy Williams is missing. That’s a tough call, as Williams has claimed three NCAA championships with the Tar Heels, but Dean Smith is a coaching legend himself who guided UNC to 11 Final Fours and a pair of national titles in 1982 and 1993.

In case you’re wondering, this is what Norlander had to say about Boeheim. “This human being coach is more synonymous with his program than any man in college basketball history. Whereas Coach K attended and coached at Army, Boeheim has been roaming the athletic buildings at Syracuse since he was 18 years old, dating back to 1962. There’s only a three-year gap when he briefly played minor-league hoops after graduating from SU, in the late 1960s. He’s been the head coach since 1976 and won 964 games (vacated victories included) in 44 seasons. He won the 2003 national championship and made four other Final Fours. Boeheim is Syracuse basketball and will likely hold the majority of the program’s coaching records a millennium after all of us have left this mortal coil.”

Syracuse basketball is among multiple ACC schools with top-flight coaches.

You can read in-depth about the other ACC guys by checking out Norlander’s story, but I’ll mention a few nuggets of my own. Krzyzewski needs no introduction. He has the most triumph in Division I men’s hoops, along with five NCAA titles and a dozen Final Fours reached.

Hamilton’s Seminoles ended the 2019-20 term with the ACC regular-season crown, and he took FSU to an Elite Eight in 2018. At the helm of the Hurricanes, Larrañaga has made several Sweet 16s and helped Miami earn some strong seeds in the Big Dance.

Brey’s Fighting Irish went to Elite Eights in 2015 and 2016, and UVA’s Bennett cut down the nets in 2019. As far as units that the Orange previously competed with in the old Big East Conference, Norlander is also featuring Villanova’s Jay Wright and West Virginia’s Bob Huggins.

An absolutely tremendous assortment of collegiate basketball’s premier head coaches is in place today. And that’s pretty darn cool.