Jim Boeheim steps down as Syracuse head coach after 47 years | CBS Sports
And we got some breaking news out of college basketball where Jim Bayheim has stepped down as Syracuse's head coach. It ends a 47 year run for Bayheim with the Orange, which includes five final four appearances in a national championship back in 2003. Bayheim was the second most wins of any Division 1 coach, trailing only Coach K. Syracuse announced that Adrian Autry will take over as head coach. Autry has served as an assistant under Bayheim since 2011 and has been the associate head coach since 2016. Also played basketball at Cuse under Bayheim for four seasons in the early 90s. And we have half the host of the Ion College Basketball Podcast, Matt Norlander joining us here to follow up on this breaking news.
Matt, when you're hearing that they're parting ways Syracuse is parting ways with this coach, what was your initial reaction? Were you shocked or was it something that you were kind of expecting? I've been dropping a few hints on the Ion College Basketball Podcast in recent weeks that this was the way this thing was going, frankly. It was drifting toward this way and yeah, Red Autry taking over was the expected course of action here. And we do have a significant end of an era. Now Syracuse in recent seasons, it is underperformed in the ACC play. Yes, there have been a few times where it's gotten in and made runs in the incident of a late tournament. Bayheim is a Hall of Famer. He is a legendary coach.
In the 2003 run, now that we are 20 years removed right this year, right here, we have the 20 year anniversary of Carmelo Anthony, Jerry McNamara, Hakeem Warick and crew winning a national title has only won. Of course, he made multiple final fours. But that Syracuse program, that's a long ways in the rear view. This program did need a reboot and Bayheim, judging by what he said at the press conference after losing to Wake Forest in the ACC tournament on Wednesday, doesn't seem to be over the moon about this. But it is out of his hands. And frankly, around the sport, there has been talk for a couple of years that Syracuse might be bettered if Bayheim retired because now we are in a new era. We are in the NIL era.
We are in the transfer portal era. Syracuse can certainly still be a major factor in the ACC, but it's also not the absolute easiest place to recruit to in the middle of New York, where they can sometimes get massive amounts of snow when winters can last almost half the year. So it's probably a good thing for the program that they are finally turning the page. But sometimes, Jack, I got to be honest, sometimes these endings with these people that lured over these programs, they can sometimes land with a little bit of awkwardness. And that is what we have here. There was no grand send off for Jim Bayheim, his final press conference. If anything, you know what? Maybe it was appropriate.
He got into a little verbal sparring match with some reporters. Classic Bayheim. I changed my mind. No better way to go out. And Matt, you talked about Bayheim and his comments after Q's loss to Wake, and we actually have that sound, so we want to play it back for you. The university hired me, and it's their choice, what they want to do. I always have the choice of retirement, but it's their decision as to whether I coach or not.
Matt, you were saying no better way to go out with some of those comments. And alluding to retirement there, obviously, Syracuse has been running that same system for 47 years, and Matt, you had mentioned, like, hey, we might need a reboot here. How is this program going to shift gears, and what do you see for Syracuse moving forward? Well, what I see moving forward is a program that is out across roads, and we're going to really find out. We sometimes talk about school like Duke moving on from Mike Szczeski and Yukon moving on from Jim Calhoun. I'm talking about coaches that were there for a long time and redefine the expectations of the program, practically define the program themselves. What we have here is the ending, the severing of, best I can tell, the longest association between a head coach and an institution in college sports history, at least major college sports history. I mean, Jim Bayheim attended Syracuse.
That's the coaching years. Bayheim, the Beatles had not made Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band when Jim Bayheim began playing college basketball at Syracuse. So there is no one person more directly associated in terms of being a coach there in over six decades than Jim Bayheim. So with that as the backdrop, Syracuse has a little bit of an interesting future. Can it become a nationally relevant program again? Can it become a program that we see frequently ranked in the top 25 for multiple weeks on a near every season basis? Those questions haven't been answered, but this is going to give Syracuse the recharge that it needs. I mean, I spoke with sources across this past season and I had been told that inside the program, just a little bit of wheel spinning. They needed to get out of this rut.
They needed to change. Jim Bayheim had been watching over that program for almost 50 years as a head coach. And so I think this will be good. And I think Syracuse moving forward will be in a better position now that Jim Bayheim is retired versus had he decided to come back for one more season. And Matt, just to piggyback off of that question with Autry, do you think he is the guy to recharge Syracuse and kind of get them out of that rut? I think he's got a really good chance. According to sources I spoke with, there was some deliberation. Would it be Autry? Would it be Jerry McNamara, who obviously is a beloved figure in that region for what he did to help win a national title 20 years ago? But Autry is out of shot.
And so the expectation is that he would get the job he, in fact, has gotten the job. And I think he's going to have a really good chance. And now Syracuse gets a little bit of a rebranding effort moving forward as well. Bayheim will always be the greatest coach in program history. There's no denying that and no one would want to. But you get a fresh reb boost and see where they go here. The ACC is changing with a quickness.
Three straight years. Roy Williams retires. Mike Shosheski retires. Now Jim Bayheim retires. Those are three Hall of Fame coaches. It's a new time in College Hoops and it's a very new time in the Atlantic Coast Conference. And really quick, Matt, where does Bayheim rank in your personal list of all-time great coaches? I mean, he'd be up there.
He wouldn't be in my top five or top 10 of greatest college basketball coaches of all time. But sustained excellence or a lot of that over the course of more than four decades there, considering the total wins and what he was able to do. Quite clearly Jim Bayheim, no doubt about it, ranks among the 20 greatest men's coaches in history. All right. That is Matt Norlander joining us here on CBS Sports HQ. If you're just tuning in, we are following some breaking news out of college basketball where Jim Bayheim has stepped down as Syracuse's head coach. Of course, for more conversations surrounding, excuse me, college basketball, make sure you check out the Ion College Basketball Podcast with Matt Norlander, Gary Parish.
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