The Daily Orange

Media Credit: Court Hathaway

Jim Boeheim broke away from the television cameras and into the orange masses at half-court. Without respite, his family, players and assistant coaches mobbed him and presented him with a uniform stitched with No. 800 to commemorate a milestone victory.

As video tributes streamed on the scoreboard commemorating his career at Syracuse, the man of few words gripped a microphone and mulled over what he would say to the 15,707 in attendance at the Carrier Dome wielding signs that read "800 wins," while chanting: "Thank you, Boeheim."

"Thank you so much," Boeheim said. "I appreciate you staying up so late - it's way past my bedtime. I just want to thank all the players that'd been here over the years and all the coaches."

By then, the game details of the Orange's 75-43 thrashing of Albany (0-1) were hazy. No one remembered Arinze Onuaku's 14 points to lead the team, or a 10-point, five-rebound performance from Rick Jackson that rounded out the frontcourt's dominant night. Wes Johnson's put-back slam to open the second half would headline the highlight reel - after any other game.

But tonight was about Boeheim, who joined the ranks of just two other active coaches in Division I - Duke's Mike Krzyzewski and Connecticut's Jim Calhoun -- in the 800-win club. Just eight coaches in total - Bob Knight, Dean Smith, Adolph Rupp, Krzyzewski, Jim Phelan, Calhoun, Eddie Sutton and Boeheim - hold the honor.

"Obviously, it's a big milestone for any coach to get, and I'm proud of all the players that we've had," Boeheim said. "The coaches and players that have been here and have been consistently good for a long time."

Over the course of Monday's game, it was easy to see a metaphoric timeline of how the coach became an institution. There was the live-wired, 100-and-200 win Boeheim of his younger years on display, who kicked the scorer's table and threw a player's warm-up jersey to the floor after a botched alley-oop early in the first half.

There was the 700-win Boeheim, who had been patrolling the same sidelines for so long, that he could sub a player out of the game just by looking at him - just like he did after a sloppy Brandon Triche pass led to one of the team's 21 turnovers.

After the play, the freshman point guard looked to the sidelines and immediately began jogging off the court.

"He knows exactly what he's doing," Triche said. "A lot of us try and go against what he says, and it doesn't work. At the end of the day, he knows exactly what he's doing. That's why he's won so much."

Continued...

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