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
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.
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 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 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.
I think if you can beat the No. 1 team in the country, you should be in.
The top teams have been able to show they're the top teams. Everybody else is beating each other up.
Connecticut is a team that can beat anybody, anytime, anyplace. They're the best team in our league, in the country. They've been there. They know what they're doing. They've got veteran guys who know how to play, know how to win.
It's certainly a tremendous challenge. I don't know if it'll be any tougher than when we had three Final Four teams and two teams get to the Sweet Sixteen. It can't be much tougher than that, but it'll be difficult.
The Big East, I think, we belong here. Even though we've added some teams from outside, we're still fundamentally the Big East. And I think we're better off than we would be in a southern conference.
I just don't think you can have four teams not go to your tournament. It's not healthy. I tried to convince the people in the league and our coaches. We had a halfhearted fight about it. This year, it'll be an all-out fight.
The last two games we've played as well as we have all year. We just want to keep playing well. We've been there (in the NCAA tournament) before. We've got veteran guys that know what to do. I think our league is making everybody a dangerous team it's so deep.
He got guys like Dave Bing to come to Syracuse at a time when the program was really down, ... He made me realize that the foundation for any good team is good players. There isn't a coach in the Hall of Fame who didn't have good players on his teams.
These (conference) tournaments are so underdog-oriented. Teams that have to win, they're playing their hearts out. . . . You're going to beat teams that maybe are better. The real truth is, the teams that are better maybe aren't that much better.
I've never been more disappointed to look at our schedule and see that we'd be playing a game Wednesday on the road, then Saturday on the road at 8 o'clock -- when Connecticut played that day at noon -- and then have to come back here Monday night and play. Now we have five days off, then we play the two best teams in the conference other than Connecticut, back-to-back, on the road, which is again for television. That's just crazy to have to do that.