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800

By drorzel on November 10, 2009.

Syracuse head basketball coach Jim Boeheim won his 800th game last night. Fittingly, it was a thirty-point win over an overmatched New York school.

Since winning the NCAA tournament in 2003, Boeheim has finally started to get some respect in the college basketball world. Before that, he was regarded as a choker who couldn't win the big games. Which is a little unfair, but that's the coaching business for you. And, of course, everybody regards that 2-3 zone as a bit of a gimmick defense, despite the fact that they consistently win with it. With a title under his belt, though, all of a sudden his career numbers look that much more amazing, and he's getting some recognition as a really good coach.

The most remarkable thing about his 800 wins is that they've all come at the same school. In fact, since coming to Syracuse as a player, Boeheim has never left-- he was a graduate assistant, then an assistant coach, and became head coach in 1976. He's never had a losing season, and has averaged something like 24 wins a year over his 33 years as head coach (this is the start of his 34th season).

Congratulations to Jim Boeheim on a remarkable career, and best wishes for the future. For all the tournament disappointments, he's managed to put himself in a position where he has to be mentioned in the same sentence as Bob Knight, Dean Smith, and Mike Krzyzewski. You don't get much better than that.

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I dunno, he was inducted into the basketball Hall of Fame two years after that title, so I feel like he was getting some respect before that.

I'm usually frustrated by the induction of college coaches into the HOF, especially since they do it while they're still coaching, and often shun very deserving NBA players. It seems like they could wait until their body of work is behind them, but I digress.

Any time you have a program with the success that Syracuse has had, and then note that Boeheim has been primarily responsible for that success over the decades, you have to tip your hat to him.