I've lived in a few different places, and among the sports fans that are really in to NCAAB, Boeheim is a source of intrigue and amusement. People on the outside of CNY and/or without any connections of the program probably find those antics more amusing than we do, actually.
The people where I live are mixed. Some like him. Some think he's a jerk. I don't know if that's really any different that any other public figure though.
This hasn't been my experience. I live in Kansas City which is an epicenter of Kansas, Kansas State and Missouri alums as well as a chunk of Iowa Staters. To those fans, he's an East Coast Bobby Knight with two fewer rings - a miserable curmudgeon who hung around way too long but was given airtime despite his personal and professional shortcomings because he gave memorable soundbites and was part of the old Big East that the national outlets continue to canonize.
They still mad about SU winning the Big 12 in 2003 as well.
Sounds like you might just live in an area that's still salty over 2003. JB will get eyeballs, and that's the entire point.
I never said he won't get eyeballs; The discussion was about whether people are excited about it.
It wouldn't surprise me if he won some new people over. He'll be much less curmudgeonly when he's part of the media and not sparring with them after a loss or during a challenging season.
I can see this. We have to remember to think outside of our cny bubble and take off our orange colored glasses sometimes. They probably also consider him a cheater due to 2 NCAA penalties. I have mixed feelings on those.
Let's hope so because he wasn't very charismatic in some of those post game press conferences (usually after a loss).
But a guy like Raftery doesn't fit that Lavin profile and neither does Dickie V. I think there are a lot of styles of personalities that can work and the way a guy looks probably doesn't matter that much.
Interesting. I live in Overland Park and don't have that experience at all. I get some teasing about him, but not hatred.
I see your point but they didn't wait until they turned 80 to start this gig
JB would be the youngster with Vitale and Raferty.
I don't see how that really matters. He's not some old demented guy speaking jibberish. If he had done it 10 years ago he would have been the same person he is now. He'll just end up doing it for a few years instead of decades like Raftery and Vitale.
The fact that K State, Missouri and Iowa State fans don’t respect JB is the height of insanity. Before the recent downturn, Syracuse basketball was at the forefront of college basketball during Boeheim’s tenure for 40+ years. He won a national title, won numerous Big East titles, went to six Final Fours, 20+ Sweet Sixteens, made the tourney nearly every year, and had the program regularly among the top 25. None of those schools, save Kansas, can even come close to that. Give me a break. They wish they could have had half as much success as Syracuse had over 4 decades. JB should be respected by those fan bases, despite his personality quirks. Besides, Bobby Knight is on a whole different level of jerkdom from JB.
Most of those times are when he is in the middle of working in a hypercompetitive stressful environment as head coach of a D1 team with a massive fanbase struggling to stay afloat. All our memories of him being "quite mean" are in the middle of that. He isn't to act like he does during a press conference after a 20 point loss. I assume we see a relatively zen version of JB now.
I have reasons to believe there’s a lot of dumb people in those states.
Also a sign of how ignorant most people are about anything beyond the end of their own noses.
I live in STL and most I have encountered think was a good coach and associate him with the zone more than anything else. Friends definitely would razz me about his quirkiness but that’s about it. A few fan favorites were getting kicked out against Duke, wet spot on his pants”in an embarrassing area” etc.
