He was the son of Jim Boehm, who had been around long enough to know better, but Buddy Boehm went ahead and checked the Internet at one of the low points of Syracuse basketball’s 2020-21 season. And, of course it was growing. Perhaps, it was ugly, but he only shared the annoying stuff with us.
“If I can be honest, after the Georgia Tech game, I saw a lot of things on Twitter, talked about it, just crazy stuff,” Buddy told reporters in a Sunday evening zoom call. “How he has not been doing well for the last 10 years.
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“Do you know how many people dream about going to two Sweet 16s, two Final Fours and an Elite Eight? In 10 years, I think it’s great. He continues to do. He is one of the best coaches in all sports. there’s no doubt about it.”
Buddy spoke on the occasion of Syracuse’s elevation to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16, his first but 20th in his father’s permanent career. The Orange earned their second consecutive March Madness, 75-72 over No. 3 seed West Virginia, and advanced to the Midwest Region semifinals. Buddy played a big role in the win, scoring 25 points and hitting 6 of 13 from 3-point range. During the last four matches – Orange has required two to be selected for the tournament, and two that advance them to the following weekend – they have scored 28.3 points.
“I can not explain it. This is something I had dreamed about my whole life, ”Buddy said later. “To win two games, both were in doubt. . . It means everything. If you asked me a month or two ago where we would be, I don’t think I’d say Sweet 16, that’s sure. This team never gave up. “
Buddy knows his father’s history, so he also had a little doubt, right?
This is the story of Jim Boeheim’s deterioration over the years as Syracuse coach. However as long as he continues, he is definitely nearing the end of his career from the beginning. And it has been less spectacular the past eight seasons, as the Orange edged out the Big East Conference for the ACC.
He has earned the top four NCAA seeds since the first season in the ACC. They were number 10 in 2016, an 11 in 2018, and 11 this year. And yet it almost seems to empower Syracuse basketball. They enter the tournament and also meet championship level teams when faced with Boehm’s unique 2-3 zone defense. In 2016, Orange scrambled to a Final Four appearance. In 2018, it was a hard-earned Sweet 16 finish. This time, we do not know where it will end. But it did not end against the Mountaineers.
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“I think our defense helps us a little bit,” Jim Boehm said. “It’s different. People don’t see it. So it’s a little bit of an adjustment. But our offense has been really good. We’re playing two very good defensive teams, and we’re shooting over 50 percent.
Nothing to take away from the achievement, but West Virginia is not a good defensive team. According to KenPom.com, it ranks just 66th in the nation in defensive efficiency. The climbers needed to go to the offensive end to thrive and Boehm’s field took care of it.
West Virginia shot 37 percent from the field. The attack was very disappointing, with the Mountaineers converting only 34.1 percent from inside the 3-point arc.
The Boehm zone has developed a habit of allowing exceptional players to perform brilliantly in the most important games. In 2018, Michigan State was the 30-4 and regular-season champion of the Big Ten and earned the No. 3 seed. Freshman Jarine Jackson, leading 6-11, was just three months ahead of being the third player selected in the NBA Draft.
In a second-round game against the Orange, Spartans coach Tom Izzo decided to use senior Ben Carter for an average of less than one game for 23 minutes. Carter scored two points, caught two rebels and passed two assassins. Jackson played just 15 minutes in what would become the final game of his college career, missing every shot from the field.
On Sunday evening, it was reported missing West Virginia big man Derek Klaver. An All-Big 12 first-team selection, he played only 21 minutes against the Orange. It was long enough to shoot 2 out of 10 from the field, but his impropriety and ineffectiveness were signs that Syracuse’s approach was working brilliantly. He was replaced for the second half by Gab Osbauhen
Boehm said that getting Kuller out of the game was a problem for Syracuse, as the Mountaineers were better off with their substitutes. This was true, but removing Kalevar meant that climbers were no longer climbers. This is what the Syracuse zone works, always is. It not only makes you less than yourself, but it makes you less than anyone else.
There was a time in this season when it seemed that the Orange would not reach the NCAA tournament. When they were 13-8 at the end of February following consecutive losses to Duke and Georgia Tech, their opportunity to reach the tournament seemed modest.
They survived as they won home victories over both NCAA Tournament teams, North Carolina and Clemson. It looked like he would have to do something exciting in the ACC tournament to gain an NCA bid, but all that happened was a NC State team win and a loss to the league champions Virginia at the buzzer. However, this was enough, as so many people pulled back with a damaging defeat in the last few bids.
“We were bad this year for a long time. We were getting 25 marks. We Were Not Defeating 10. Clemson and Pittsburgh and Virginia. . . We were killed, ”said Jim Boehm. “And they just kept walking, practicing, trying to get better.
“And then we got a little better, and in the end, we were playing really good basketball. but it’s hard. You can play good basketball at the end of the year, but it is not always easy to take it to the tournament. There are some teams that were playing really well at the end of the year that are no longer in this tournament. It is difficult to win in this tournament. “
What Boehm does not find difficult is ignoring the criticism of his coaching. If he does not hear from his athletic director or chairman about the recent regular-season decline – and he convinces everyone that he is not – he will continue to operate more or less as it has since 1976.
“I don’t listen to it because it’s from people who are inconsistent,” he told a student reporter. “I’m sure you will go to Syracuse, don’t you? You know what that means? All that stuff on the Internet – not once a sentence on Internet matters.”
“If you’re a coach in Syracuse for 45 years – everyone has an opinion on what we should or shouldn’t do, or whether we should be better or not. Maybe the next coach will be better. I’d be happy to see that. But I am not worried about what someone says.
“I learned it long ago. In eighth grade my guidance counselor said to me, ‘Jim, you are not going to please everyone.’ He would know that I was going to be a coach. “
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