Jim Boeheim
Jim Boeheim
James Arthur "Jim" Boeheimis the head coach of the men's basketball team at Syracuse University. Boeheim has guided the Orange to nine Big East regular season championships, five Big East Tournament championships, and 28 NCAA Tournament appearances, including three appearances in the national title game. In those games, the Orange lost to Indiana in 1987, on a last-second jump shot by Keith Smart, and to Kentucky in 1996, before defeating Kansas in 2003 with All-American Carmelo Anthony...
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth17 November 1944
CityLyons, NY
This was a heck of a comeback from that kind of deficit against a team that controls the game. You just can't give anybody that kind of lead and expect to come back, but we just keep plugging away and as long as we get Gerry some looks he's going to make his share.
We're not leaving out teams that can only win one game or no games. Now the reality is that we're leaving out teams that can win two and three and four games.
This team showed more heart and guts than any team I've ever coached. And Gerry had as good a four days as anyone I've ever seen.
This year has proven that teams that just got in, or maybe didn't get in, can win games.
We just played three teams I consider to be Top Ten teams and, right now, we're not a Top Ten team.
We just played three teams I consider to be Top 10 teams and, right now, we're not a Top 10 team. It's sad we have to play great teams back-to-back ... that's not the right way. Nobody else has to do that, play back-to-back Saturday and Monday games two weeks in a row with three of four on the road. That's too much to ask.
None of these games are really upsets, like Wichita State or George Mason winning, because if you watch them they are really good teams. There's so much equity it's scary. Remember back in November when we said how good Drexel was and couldn't believe that was the sixth or seventh place team in the Colonial? Well, that's where they finished.
I have a number in mind, I think it should probably be about four to six, somewhere in there. This year, more than ever, has proven that there are teams that might not get in, or might just barely get in, that can win games.
Let the assistant coach come up to me and say, 'Gerry McNamara is overrated.' I'd like to see one of those guys come up to me and say that. He's been double-teamed all year, and the coaches voted him first team all-conference. The head coaches, they don't know (expletive), I guess.
I think if you can beat the No. 1 team in the country, you should be in.
I think this year more than ever has proven there are teams that might not get in or just barely get in that can win games. In the past, years ago, I think there were always teams that maybe wanted to get in, but you really knew they couldn't win any games in the tournament if they got in.
I don't want a doubling-type thing. I think there should be some teams added. I'm not looking at it like one or two. I'm not looking at 20 either. I think there should be an expansion of the tournament. Whatever seems to fit.
We're pretty good, and we're getting better. I can't say we're one of the top three or four teams in the country, but we're definitely better than we were last year. Our problem is overly physical teams give us trouble.
We've been way behind against quality teams, but we keep fighting back. This team fights hard. They make some mistakes, but they keep fighting. When you lose four in a row and do what we had to do to win tonight, I'm very proud of them. This is a great lesson for all the guys. They can win without Gerry.