The Daily Orange

MIAMI - Syracuse's head coach weaved his way through the locker room crowd to the back corner to take a seat next to his assistant coach, Mike Hopkins. An hour had passed since his team had advanced to its first Sweet 16 in five years, but Jim Boeheim wasn't done coaching yet.

As the crowd dispersed from American Airlines Arena locker room, the attention turned away from postgame questions to the TV above the doorway exit, which featured Pittsburgh in a tight contest with Oklahoma State for one of the remaining Sweet 16 spots.

Forward Paul Harris asked Boeheim if Pitt would win. For Boeheim, the focus returned to coaching.

"I think Pitt will be fine," Boeheim said, nodding with confidence.

Not surprisingly, the head coach, in his 33rd year, got it right. Pittsburgh triumphed over Oklahoma St., 84-76.

"He knows so much about basketball," Harris said. "Even if we're not practicing or playing, he's always watching and he can name any school any player. He just knows so much about basketball, he just loves the game."

Boeheim's most recent win not only advanced his team to the regional semifinals, but it was also the coach's 799th win, one away from a prestigious plateau.

No. 800 would propel him into an elite fraternity that only seven coaches have joined in their careers.

Boeheim could become the eighth on Friday when his team takes on Oklahoma. But staying true to form, he avoided the question regarding No. 800, and focused on his opponent.

"It doesn't mean a lot," Boeheim said. "We're going to play the team that's the No. 1 seed in this tournament if it weren't for (Blake) Griffin getting injured. If he hadn't got hurt, they'd be the No. 1 seed. That's enough to worry about."

The coaches already in the pantheon of 800 wins include some of the great college basketball coaches of all time. Bob Knight tops the list with 902 victories, while Dean Smith isn't too far behind, earning 879 wins. Over the last couple years, the club has nearly doubled with Eddie Sutton (2008), Mike Krzyzewski (2007), and Jim Calhoun (2009) all accomplishing the feat.

"Seven hundred ninety-nine, that's a big thing," Harris said. "He's catching Calhoun."

And as Boeheim continues to move up the wins list passing legends, his players have taken notice.

"We realize," SU guard Andy Rautins said. "We know the kind of stature he has in the game of college basketball is number of wins. He's a Hall of Fame coach, but we really don't consider the wins as we play. We just go one game at a time. I think that's what he does and I think that's why he's so successful."

Continued...

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