Syracuse Basketball: After Jim Boeheim retires, SU should hire from within

Syracuse basketball head coach Jim Boeheim has roamed the sidelines on the Hill for more than four decades. He’s won a national championship, advanced to five Final Fours and been to countless Sweet 16s.

Sure, there is a contingent of Orange fans that is ready for Boeheim to ride off into the sunset. I’m not in that camp. Boeheim’s ‘Cuse squad reached the regional semifinals a season ago and earned a top-25 national ranking.

Yes, since joining the Atlantic Coast Conference from the Big East Conference in 2013-14, the Orange has struggled through some sub-par regular seasons. But it has also gotten to a Final Four and several Sweet 16s in that time.

Boeheim is second all-time in career victories by a head coach at the Division I men’s basketball level. He’s excited about the 2021-22 version of the ‘Cuse, and I am, too. Let’s see what he can do in the upcoming term with a veteran roster and a ton of offensive firepower.

Syracuse basketball has multiple strong options for when Jim Boeheim retires.

On a recent episode of The Field Of 68 podcast, Boeheim told college basketball insider Jeff Goodman that he feels great and doesn’t plan to retire anytime soon.

Now, when Boeheim is set to call it quits in Central New York, he said on the podcast, “I’ve got great staff. We’ve got guys that could take over at any time. We don’t have to go outside [the program]. Duke and North Carolina have proved this year you bring someone from inside and you move on. That’s the best way to move on in a program,” according to a recent article from our friends over at nunesmagician.com.

This is exactly what I was hoping Boeheim would say on the topic of his eventual successor. I’m all for Syracuse University leaders hiring from within when they search for Boeheim’s replacement.

SU athletics-department officials, I’m sure, will understandably do their due diligence and perhaps conduct a national search for Boeheim’s replacement, and that could include coming up with options who aren’t a part of the ‘Cuse coaching tree. That’s fine.

In the end, though, I sincerely hope that the next head coach, after Boeheim, is one of Mike Hopkins, Adrian Autry, Gerry McNamara or Allen Griffin. All of them are solid coaches and recruiters.

I don’t envision Hopkins necessarily leaving Washington to head back east to the Orange. I would assume Autry is the favorite, followed by McNamara.

I’m glad that Boeheim mentioned the Blue Devils and the Tar Heels. It remains to be seen whether those two blue-blood programs will perform at a level under their new head coaches that is on par with the legends Mike Krzyzewski and Roy Williams.

But both Duke and UNC are recruiting at an exceptional level so far, with Williams in retirement and Coach K about to enter his final season with the Blue Devils.

Syracuse basketball will never be able to fully replace Boeheim. It’s impossible. However, if Autry or McNamara takes over, I think that the ‘Cuse will absolutely be poised for future success.