Jim Boeheim Is The Greatest Coach Who Never Fit The Part

[CaptainJ]

What this thread needs? ...Townie!

 

[tipphill]

my son (15?) and i were in manley one day just walking around. andy saw boeheim . he asked him for an autograph. jb invited him into his office and let andy video tape him while they talked for 15min. while i was outside. jb signed a poster of the upcoming team. very gracious.
years later andy and i went to a game at rutgers, which ended being cancelled because of a snow storm. jb and bob wenzel were standing in the corridor talking as we walked by with our syracuse stuff on. andy walked up to them to say hello. jb remarked didn't i see you before? andy told him yes and jb thanked him for coming out to the game.
thats the kind of guy he is!!!! by the way bob wenzel very cordial as well.

 

[A Clockwork Orange]

I'll repost this, because JB does actually have an interesting coaching lineage, if you know anything about Northeast basketball, and the history of college basketball in the city. Posted this last year. Took me about 20 minutes of research on the Boeheim front. So while Coach B can't trace his lineage back to Naismith (who can?), his lineage is incredibly interesting and historic in its own right.

I mean, if Williams gets to count Naismith, why wouldn't JB get to count Clair Bee? Here's what I wrote last year on this:

I'm always interested in the history of college basketball (not to the extent of SWC, of course) and I'm interested in coaching trees. I find it fascinating that you can connect the dots of certain coaching trees right back to the inception of the sport.

For instance, UNC's coach Roy Williams.

Williams was taught in the vagaries of the game by Dean Smith. Smith played under Phog Allen. Allen learned the game from Naismith. So Williams coaching tree links directly back to the man who invented the game.

Coach Boeheim's lineage is nearly as interesting. He was coached by Fred Lewis, an amazing coach in his own right who believed in fast break basketball. Lewis also played a lot of zone defense, but also was a proponent of full court pressure.

Lewis went to Long Island University, where he was coached by Clair Bee. Bee has the highest winning percentage in Division I hoops history (.824). Bee created the 1-3-1 zone, and also was instrumental in the 24 second shot clock in the NBA. Bee was also familiar with the 2-3 zone defense (and probably taught it as a result of it being used against him).

In 1914, Cam Henderson essentially created the 3-2 zone defense while at Bristol High School to stymie Bee's Grafton YMCA team. Later, when Bee was coaching LIU, Henderson again got the best of him. Now coaching at Marshall University, Henderson subtly adjusted his 3-2 into a 2-3 zone defense to snap Bee's 40 game winning streak in 1938.

So in a way, Boeheim's use of the zone can be traced back to the 1930s, and Clair Bee. So while Roy boy can claim Naismith, Boeheim can claim he is a part of the Clair Bee coaching tree.

Just a nugget I thought was interesting.

 

[SWC75]

I don't disagree with the idea that JAB didn't learn from anyone great and had to learn everything on his own.

From JB's radio show last week:

"Pat called and asked where Jim got his leadership abilities. JB: “My father was a very organized and disciplined man. My high school coach was a great coach and really understood the game. But you learn from everybody. People in a leadership position have to listen to people and learn other ideas….We play the zone but we change it all the time. You never know it all. The key to leadership is adjusting. “

 

[DoctorBombay]

I'll go on record as being a great fan of one James Arthur Boeheim, but I also have major issues with how he does some things.
As we head into the meat of another season, it pays to reflect on what drives our often enigmatic HC.
Found this great read on JB's motivations. (sorry if already posted)
Interesting to say the least!

Jim Boeheim Is the Greatest Coach Who Never Fit the Part