Longtime Syracuse University men's basketball head coach Jim Boeheim’s tenure is officially over, the school said Wednesday.
After 47 seasons at the helm of the Orange, the 78-year-old will leave the program for good following SU's loss to Wake Forest in the second round of the ACC Tournament.
Associate head coach Adrian Autry will take over the program next season, becoming the ninth head coach in the school's 123-year history, according to a release from the university.
After the team’s 77-74 loss Wednesday afternoon, Boeheim reflected on his nearly half of a century leading the Orange at his alma mater.
“I’ve been very lucky to be able to coach my college team. To play, then be an assistant coach, then be a head coach and never having to leave Syracuse, it’s a great university,” Boeheim said.
The legendary coach leaves the program with 1,015 wins recognized by the NCAA, the second most in men's college basketball history. Known for his 2-3 zone defense, Boeheim led the Orange to 35 NCAA Tournament appearances, five Final Four appearances, and a National Championship in 2003. Syracuse had a winning season in all but one of the last 47 years.
Boeheim's first ties with the program began in 1963 when he enrolled at Syracuse and was a walk-on with the basketball team. By his junior year, Boeheim started alongside NBA Hall of Famer Dave Bing in the backcourt. In his senior season in 1965, the duo led the Orange to their second-ever NCAA Tournament appearance.
Following his playing days, Boeheim returned to the team as a graduate assistant coach under Roy Danforth. He was promoted to assistant coach in 1972 and took over for Danforth as head coach in 1976.
Boeheim took the Orange to a 100-18 record in his first four seasons and the school entered the Big East Conference in 1979. Syracuse made its first Final Four appearance in the 1986-87 season, losing to Indiana in the National Championship on a last-second shot. After winning the Big East championships in 1988 and 1992, the Orange made it back to the Final Four in 1996 but lost to Kentucky in the title game.
In 2003, Boeheim won the first National Championship in Syracuse program history, beating Kansas University 81-78. That team was led by freshman Carmelo Anthony, who immediately moved on to the NBA after the win his freshman year. Then-student and now assistant coach Gerry McNamara manned the backcourt as a freshman, and a late-game block from Hakim Warrick, who also went on to play professionally, helped secure SU's first championship against the Jayhawks.
Over the last 11 seasons, Boeheim helped the Orange reach two more Final Fours. His 2013 squad went 30-10 and advanced to the national semifinals following a beatdown of Marquette University in the Elite Eight. Defensively, the 2-3 zone was nearly perfect and suffocated the Golden Eagles to just 39 points, the lowest in a regional final in the shot clock era. Making the tournament as a No. 10 seed in 2016 as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, Boeheim led Syracuse back to the Final Four after a flurry of upsets.
Boeheim leaves SU as the longest-tenured head coach in all of college basketball.