Syracuse Blog: It’s About Time Boeheim Won Coach Of The Year

For the coach with the sixth all-time most wins in college basketball history (and the second among active coaches behind a certain Am-Ex spokesman who hails from Durham), Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim has gotten little respect when it comes to national awards. Until now. And according to SB Nation’s Syracuse blog, Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician, it’s about time:

But “finally” has to be what every Syracuse fan is thinking right now. Jim Boeheim is a Hall of Fame, National Championship-winning coach. Year-in, year-out he has done nothing but win basketball games with whatever group of kids he has convinced to play at Syracuse. He holds the Division I record for most 20-win seasons with 32 of them. Sean has already asked, “What does this award mean,” and I think that is an excellent question. But today at least, I think the answer is vindication. For Syracuse fans, this award is not really about this one fantastic season (though that’s certainly important). It’s really about Jim Boeheim finally getting the national recognition he deserves. Yes, he’s in the Hall of Fame, and yes, he is repeatedly mentioned as a great college coach. But too often his name isn’t mentioned in the same breath as coaches like Dean Smith and John Wooden and Bob Knight, or even Mike Krzyzewski. And God dammit, it should be! Jim Boeheim has almost single-handedly created one of the most successful college basketball programs of all time.

Because the Coach of the Year award is oftentimes given to the coach who outperformed expectations the most, Boeheim has in many ways been a victim of his own success. His record 32 20-win seasons the past 34 years means that the Orange are rarely expected to do poorly, and that in turn makes it difficult for his teams to surprise on the upside. The result has been that more often than not, Syracuse (and Boeheim) gets overlooked comes awards time.

The exodus of their top players from last year’s squad, combined with an exceptional regular season created the perfect storm for Boeheim to get the recognition he deserves this past season, but it’s worth remembering that this is more or less what he’s done for his entire tenure in upstate New York.