When he wants: Amid grumblings of retirement, Boeheim remains steadfast in position at helm of SU

People close to Syracuse basketball have no trouble putting into words what Jim Boeheim means to the program.

In fact, there was one all-encompassing word that did the job. Scoop Jardine, Bernie Fine, Dave Bing, Roosevelt Bouie, Leo Rautins and more all picked that single word to sum up Boeheim's place in Orange basketball lore.

When it comes to SU basketball, Boeheim is simply:

"Everything," Rautins said. "A lot of people don't realize that Jim Boeheim bleeds orange. This isn't just a job, this is a passion. It's a lifelong experience. There are very, very few coaches in the history of the game that have had the type of experience he's had."

Since the Orange's legendary head coach came to Syracuse as a freshman walk-on to the basketball team in 1962, he has only been away from the program for three seasons.

After graduating, he played professionally for the Scranton Miners of the Eastern Professional Basketball League. Three years later, he came back to SU to coach while playing for the Miners on the weekends. Roy Danforth, the SU head coach from 1968 to 1976, appointed him a graduate assistant in 1969. And when Danforth left for Tulane seven years later, Boeheim took over the program.

Thirty-five years down the road, the coach ranks fifth all-time in Division-I history with 856 career wins. He also leads Big East coaches with 338 regular-season conference wins and has taken SU to three Final Fours, including 2003, when Syracuse won its lone national championship.

But questions now arise at the end of every season about how much longer Boeheim will coach. He turns 67 this month and has accumulated plenty of accolades throughout his career. Some speculate that his departure will come shortly after the Orange leaves the Big East for the Atlantic Coast Conference. Others believe that change could provide a new challenge that will ignite Boeheim's competitive nature, and, ultimately, make him coach longer than he planned.

Those close to him feel it will take a loss of his competitive edge or his passion for the game to finally call it quits.

And as for the man who has been a part of Syracuse basketball for the last 50 years, that decision to come back has always been an easy one.

"I've never really gotten to that point," Boeheim said. "I don't know when that point will be. I'm pretty open-minded at the end of every year. I look at it and think what's going on and think about what I want to do. It's never been close. I've never come close to thinking I wouldn't come back."

The story begins

It's possible 1962 is the most important year in the history of Syracuse basketball.

At that point, the Orangemen had one NCAA Tournament berth on their resume. They went a combined 6-41 the previous two seasons, resulting in Fred Lewis replacing Marc Guiley as head coach.

But in 1962, two of the most important people in SU basketball history joined the program. The first was Dave Bing, the Washington, D.C., native who would go on to have one of the most illustrious careers in Syracuse history.

The second was Boeheim, an unknown walk-on from just an hour's drive away in Lyons, N.Y.

"Syracuse was starting to rebuild," Boeheim said thinking back. "They had hired a new coach. They had not had much success in basketball and were rebuilding. I thought that Syracuse was going to be an up-and-coming program, and I wanted to be a part of it."

And he did so, despite lacking the typical basketball player's physique.

Bing's first impression of Boeheim was that he was a gangly, 6-foot-4 guy with glasses who looked nothing like an athlete. But when the two played together on the freshman team, it became clear that not only could Boeheim shoot, but he also always found a way to get open. Bing learned quickly that when defenses collapsed on him, Boeheim would be waiting in the open area and could knock down the shot.

That formula on the court carried over for the next three years on the varsity team. And off the court, the two became close friends and roommates. Syracuse went 52-24 during its three years, and they led Syracuse to its second NCAA Tournament berth as seniors.

Bing scored 24.7 points per game through his three years, which remains the highest career average in Orange history. Boeheim's scoring rose each of his three years on varsity, culminating in a senior season in which he averaged 14.6 points per game.