Syracuse Basketball: Jay Bilas, PTI hosts reflect on career of Jim Boeheim

Without question, in the coming days and weeks, the tributes will come pouring in regarding the historic, legendary career of Syracuse basketball head coach Jim Boeheim.

Actually, that’s former head coach, as it was announced by SU Athletics on Wednesday that Boeheim’s remarkable 47-year run as the Orange boss is over.

Boeheim is being replaced by former ‘Cuse star player and associate head coach Adrian Autry as the squad’s next head coach. It’s the end of an era on the Hill, and the final game for Coach B, unfortunately, proved a heartbreaking loss in the ACC Tournament’s second round.

And experts in the sport of college basketball, and the sporting world in general, are weighing in on the illustrious career of Jim Boeheim, which was only slightly dinged by a couple of sub-par seasons in recent terms.

Analysts discuss what Jim Boeheim has meant to Syracuse basketball and collegiate hoops.

On Wednesday evening, not long after the news broke that Jim Boeheim was done leading the Orange program, ESPN analyst Jay Bilas talked about Boeheim on “SportsCenter.”

Bilas, to me, is the best college basketball analyst out there in the sport. He said that he wasn’t surprised that Boeheim is hanging up his whistle.

Bilas was quick to add that he feels grateful that we all had Jim Boeheim roaming the sidelines for such a long period of time. The ESPN analyst said that Boeheim recruited him when he was a 17-year-old high-school player growing up in the Los Angeles area.

Bilas noted that Jim Boeheim had an “amazing career” and is one of the greatest head coaches in the history of the sport.

In discussing Boeheim’s legacy, Bilas said that he is one of the sport’s “truly great coaches, strategists and innovators.” Boeheim took the 2-3 zone defense and “made it into an art form,” according to Bilas.

“Jim Boeheim is synonymous with basketball,” Bilas says.

On Wednesday, Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon also discussed Jim Boeheim on their extremely popular ESPN show, “Pardon The Interruption.” Both Kornheiser and Wilbon, prior to joining ESPN, had long careers at The Washington Post.

Wilbon said that he had a front-row seat to many, many battles between Syracuse basketball versus Georgetown and others during the heyday of the Big East Conference in the 1980s.

Wilbon said that he felt quite grateful that he got to watch those Big East bruisers, with Jim Boeheim obviously being an integral part of that conference’s explosion in the 80s.

In summation, Wilbon said that Boeheim has had one of the greatest coaching careers ever – in any sport, let alone college basketball.

Kornheiser added that Jim Boeheim certainly had a “remarkable career” given that he won a national title, went to five Final Fours, and has the second-most wins ever as a head coach in Division I men’s basketball.

But Kornheiser also alluded to Boeheim’s ridiculous longevity at one singular program – the ‘Cuse, where he was a player, then an assistant, and then the head coach for 47 seasons.

Doing all of this, putting forth so many victories over so many years, at the “same spot,” is a tremendous achievement, Kornheiser says.