After his team stumbled in the ACC men’s basketball tournament Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, was asked a simple question regarding his future with the team. “As I’ve said from Day One when I started working here, the university hired me,” Boeheim said. “It’s their choice what they want to do. I always have the choice of retirement. It’s their decision whether I coach or not.”
The administration at Syracuse had an answer in just under three hours when they announced Boeheim would no longer be at the helm and that he was being replaced by assistant coach Adrian Autry. That portion of the process was clear, however everything leading up to and thereafter has been nothing but muddied waters. Chris Carlson of Syracuse.com succinctly addresses many of the issues in his article, ‘Jim Boeheim said Syracuse University had a choice to make. It didn’t take long’.
When reading Carlson’s article you get a distinct impression the relationship between Boeheim and the school had become contentious. That wouldn’t be too surprising considering the coach’s reputation and perhaps the reluctance of an administration to deal with an iconic, long-time employee in a straight-forward manner. No one wants to rock the boat.
Boeheim
Carlson hits it squarely on the head with this comment. “It was an ugly end to a beautiful partnership, engineered by a difficult coach and a school that always opted to empower him, ignoring reasonable questions about the inevitable until it finally blew up in their face.”
Uncensored Basketball NCAA Bracketology | Amazing ’23
The question remains was he or wasn’t he. You be the judge on whether he was retired or fired. As more or less information rises to the surface around this story we’ll get some but likely not all of the answers we seek.
For now, we know that Jim Boeheim departs Syracuse (the official statement) after a 47 year run and a somewhat testy relationship with the City of Greensboro.
Time moves forward and often doesn’t have a seat for everyone to ride along. The train has left the station in Syracuse.
