Rob Guyette On Jim Boeheim's Career - Guest Article

A guest column from Rob Guyette about the Syracuse coach's retirement.

Hello everyone, Noah here. Today I am happy to share a guest article written by Rob Guyette with his opinions on Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, who “retired” yesterday. Without further ado, I’ll let Rob take over.

Jim Boeheim’s long career has come to an end.

Those who know me well are keenly aware that Jim Boeheim is not one of my favorite people.

Sure, I vehemently disagree with his 2-3 zone defense, but most of the dislike is personal. While working for the Daily Orange, the Syracuse student newspaper, from 1988-1991, I crossed paths with the former SU men’s basketball coach on multiple occasions.

He was rarely kind.

Boeheim would not take questions from student reporters seriously, even if they were fair. I still remember the time he embarrassed me in front of a gaggle of reporters after an NCAA Tournament game in Dallas. He would not grant us interviews but then have all the time in the world for national writers and radio shows. In his mind, he was better than we were, and he treated us as being below him.

He was the only SU coach who was like this. Even the football and lacrosse coaches would grant us one-on-one interviews for our preview sections. Heck, I had a better chance calling John Chaney at Temple or Rick Pitino at Providence to get an interview than I did going down the road to the SU basketball office.

The vibe trickled down to his players. After home losses, he would let his star players leave through the back door and be unavailable to the media after games. On more than one occasion, I remember going into the locker room after a defeat and seeing only bench players – no Sherman Douglas, no Derrick Coleman, no Billy Owens – available for interviews.

After a win, it was different. That doesn’t sit well with the media.

Beyond that, though, was the attitude that he brought to his press conferences. The media was always dumb. They didn’t know anything about basketball. He was by far the smartest person in the room, and because he ran the show for the biggest gig in town, he could sit on his perch and belittle anyone who questioned him. He was the king and we were the jesters.

His NCAA investigations were the media’s fault, not his. Anything that went wrong off the court was a result of biased media coverage or stories written by people who know nothing about the game or have a vendetta against his success.

All the way to the end, he was taking shots just this past month at Syracuse radio stations where callers were upset with the direction of the program, saying that only season-ticket holders should be allowed to comment. It was the media’s fault.

Also last month, Boeheim blamed other conference schools for buying players and skirting NCAA rules in order to get better players. It was the NCAA’s fault that he couldn't compete anymore.

Accountability? Um, no.

Moving onto the court, my personal disdain for zone defense made me actively cheer against the Orange. Seeing good basketball players sit lazily in a zone defense for 40 minutes offended me as a basketball fan. It’s a terrible product to watch, similar to a pickup game at the YMCA where everyone is just chucking three-pointers.

Hopefully Adrian Autry, who was a freshman during my last year at SU, will revitalize the program. My guess is that he will treat people with respect, coach some defense, and bring a positive vibe to Syracuse basketball.

If so, then I will cheer for the Orange for the first time in 32 years.

Thanks to Rob for sharing his thoughts. We’ll see you back here tomorrow with Brett’s weekly article. Thanks for reading!