Pilates, mulligans, general contentment: It works these days for Jim Boeheim
The grind has lessened, notably and in short order, for a content Jim Boeheim.
Syracuse University’s 47-year men’s basketball coach, succeeded last month by long-time assistant and ex-SU player Adrian Autry, was keynote speaker for Monday night’s Greater Binghamton Sports Hall of Fame induction dinner at The Double Tree by Hilton.
Pre-festivities, the Hall of Fame coach carved out a bit of time to field questions from local media members.
“It’s good to be in Binghamton, it’s a great support area for our program, I’ve got a ton of friends down here,” said Boeheim, whose 2002-03 SU squad was NCAA Tournament champion. “We’ve always had great support here.”
As for Binghamton memories, “I can go all the way back to when I graduated from college I played in the ‘Y’ tournament, nobody remembers that probably except for the older people around here. But it was a great experience for me, it was the first time I scored a lot of points.”
Boeheim later spoke to attendees on hand to honor the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2023: Tom Corgel, Ed Folli, Sandy Stone Sestak Forbes, Bobby Gonzalez, Maggie Gray, Lou Howell, Frank A. LoVuolo, Bridget (Baxter) Orchard, William "Bill" Rich, Bill Stepanovsky and Lura R. Wilson. The Class of 2023 also includes Corgel’s Binghamton High School boys basketball state-championship teams 1985 and 1986.
A few topics addressed pre-dinner
** His golf game: “Well, it’s a great time not to be coaching in college. It’s a difficult time and I’m pretty happy to get up every day and not have to worry about NIL, the transfer portal and all that. It’s a good time to be retired.
“I enjoy playing at En-Joie, I played the tournament with Joey Sindelar one year, he’s been a good friend of mine, great player. But the problem is when you get older your golf game isn’t that good anymore so you really don’t want to play that much. I tried to play a lot when I was younger because I was OK then. Now, I sneak out and play nine holes at night, and if I hit a bad shot, I just hit another one. Nobody’s keeping score there.”
** This late-winter/early-spring has freed you up for what decades wasn’t happening?
“Just to be able to get up, I do Pilates and I don’t have to do anything else for most of the rest of the day, or I’ll go in and do a little bit in the office. I’ll still work a little bit with the university over the next few years.
“But (while coaching) you’re constantly worried about the program, it doesn’t matter what day of the year it is, if it’s the last day of the season or the first day after the season, you’re worried about next year. Especially now with the portal you’re worried about who can we keep, who can we get.
“Basketball coaching in college is 365 days a year, it’s not six or eight months, it’s 365 days a year. You’re constantly worried and thinking about, who are we going to get, are our players doing well enough in school, are they taking care of the things that they need to.
“These are 18- and 19-year-old kids, obviously there are going to be crazy things that happen, and so you’re constantly thinking about that stuff. When you go to bed at night my dreams were about basketball. I’d like to dream about catching fish or something. But your dreams for 47 years are about the basketball program. The only way to be successful in college is to do it 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
“I mean, I loved it, I don’t mind that it was that way, but it’s still nice not to have to do that anymore. It’s a huge relief.”
** How odd will it be to see Joe Girard and Jesse Edwards in other uniforms?
“That’s going to be tough, but it’s just the world we live in. They were two great players for us but right now it’s basically free agency for every player. You can’t blame players for getting a better deal someplace else, it’s the way college is.
“NIL was a great idea at the beginning when guys signed autographs, sold T-shirts, made an appearance− but that’s not what it is. Boosters and collectives have taken over and they’re raising huge amounts of money. I don’t blame the players, I blame that we didn’t put a system in place that would be better.”
** The hidden truth: “One thing that happens is players go someplace when they’re in a pretty good place, maybe they get a better NIL deal but maybe it doesn’t work out basketball-wise. Well, people don’t talk about that. But we’ve had guys transfer and basketball didn’t work out for them. It’s not always better someplace else.
“ … If you’re having success in one place, it’s not a bad idea to just stay in that place. But it’s a different landscape and I don’t see any changes that are going for the next few years.
“ .. You’re not getting the ball enough, you’re not getting quite enough shots. I think back to Hakim Warrick, he struggled a little bit as a freshman. In today’s world he’d probably have transferred. He came back and we won the national championship his sophomore year and he made the winning play in the game (a blocked shot to seal the win against Kansas).”
The Greater Binghamton Sports Hall of Fame was established to "Honor and Remember Our Community's Legends of Sport" (past and present), who have made significant contributions to the world of sports as well as being exemplary individuals.
This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: Pilates, mulligans, general contentment: It works these days for Jim Boeheim
