Jim Boeheim Discusses Retirement Decision, State of College Basketball With ESPN
Syracuse basketball head coach Jim Boeheim discussed his potential retirement and the state of college basketball with ESPN's Pete Thamel. Below are the notable exerts from the article, which you can read in its entirety HERE.
ON HIS RETIREMENT TIMEFRAME
Thamel notes that Boeheim told ESPN that the retirement decision is up to him and he will "probably" be back for next season.
"I have no other plans," Boeheim said. "Listen, this has been the question of the day for 15 years. This isn't a new question. It's just the calendar going, 'Well, he's 78.' It's just the calendar. If it wasn't the calendar, if I was 65, no one would be saying anything. And I'm not going to retire just because it's the calendar. Anything can happen. Anything, literally. We'll just see what happens. I don't say anything because I don't know.
"I know it's my choice," he added. "I can do whatever I want. I just don't know for sure."
ON THE STATE OF COLLEGE BASKETBALL AND NIL
"This is an awful place we're in in college basketball," Boeheim said. "Pittsburgh bought a team. OK, fine. My [big donor] talks about it, but he doesn't give anyone any money. Nothing. Not one guy. Our guys make like $20,000. Wake Forest bought a team. Miami bought a team. ... It's like, 'Really, this is where we are?' That's really where we are, and it's only going to get worse.
"It's crazy. That's why those guys got out. That's why Jay [Wright] got out, Mike [Krzyzewski] got out. That's the reason they got out. The transfer portal and everything is nuts. It really is."
Follow up note from Thamel:
Boeheim followed up with ESPN early Sunday to say that he "absolutely misspoke" about Wake Forest and Pitt buying teams, as the only public usage of NIL he knew about was Miami's, which was highly publicized. He said he "shouldn't have" included Wake and Pitt in his statement Saturday night.
ON SUPPORT/CRITICISM
"Ninety-five percent of Syracuse people want me to coach," Boeheim said. "Why wouldn't they? As bad as we've been the last two years, we were fun to watch last year and we're still fun to watch and we're still competing. We just played three of the top teams in the country to a standstill. If you're getting beat by 20 by those teams, then you say, 'OK, we'll see.'
"'All these people are saying he should retire,'" Boeheim added, saying the only vocal critic he hears consistently is a local talk show host. "Who's that? Everyone I see comes up to me and says, 'Coach, don't retire.' Where do you get that from?"
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