Boeheim has exit plan from Syracuse
Longtime coach will resign in three years; A. D. is out
Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim will retire in three years and the university’s athletic director has resigned, the school announced Wednesday after a scathing NCAA report that imposed sanctions for violations that lasted more than a decade.
Chancellor Kent Syverud said Wednesday that Boeheim, a Hall of Famer and head coach for 39 years, decided to make the announcement to “bring certainty to the team and program in the coming years” and to allow for a smooth transition.
Longtime assistant coach Mike Hopkins, a former star for the Orange, is in line to succeed Boeheim. Athletic director Daryl Gross will take another marketing position with the school, while Pete Sala will serve as interim athletic director.
The violations involved academic misconduct, extra benefits and the university’s drug- testing policy, according to a March 6 report by the NCAA Committee on Infractions. Boeheim, 70, is already suspended for the first half of the next Atlantic Coast Conference season, a total of nine games. Syracuse will also have three scholarships taken away for four seasons and all wins vacated in which an ineligible player participated during five seasons between 2004 and 2012. The total wins removed from records could be as high as 108, depending on what happens in the appeal process. Syracuse already has vacated 24 wins.
“Coach Jim Boeheim has been a mainstay at Syracuse University for more than one- third of our entire 144year history,” Syverud said. “He enrolled as a student here in 1962 and has never left. He has been the embodiment of Orange pride.”
Boeheim has scheduled a news conference for Thursday, the school said.
TODAY’S GAME
Women’s NIT: USF ( 19- 13) at Fresno State ( 22- 9, 7 p. m.
NCAA tournament First Four games: Lucky Jones scored 21 points, including a key free throw, to lead Robert Morris back from a 14- point second- half deficit to beat North Florida 81- 77 in Dayton, Ohio. The Colonials ( 20- 14) now meet top- seeded Duke in the second round on Friday in Charlotte, North Carolina. … Kendall Pollard scored 17 points, and Dayton rallied for a 56- 55 win over Boise State on its home floor. The Flyers ( 26- 8) will play sixth- seeded Providence on Friday in Columbus, Ohio. It was the first time since 1987 that a school has played an NCAA tournament game on its home court, an anomaly resulting from Dayton hosting the opening games.
Kansas keeps Alexander home: Freshman forward Cliff Alexander was not with the Kansas basketball team when the Jayhawks stepped off a bus at their downtown Omaha, Nebraska, hotel, two days before their opener against NewMexico State. Alexander, who remains sidelined while the NCAA investigates his eligibility, was not expected to play this weekend, according to Kansas coach Bill Self.
NIT: Shaq McKissic scored 22 points as Arizona State ( 18- 15) knocked out 2014 NCAA champion UConn ( 20- 15) in the first round of this year’s NIT 68- 61 in Storrs, Connecticut.