Staying in-house is what happens in most cases…with mixed results
Many Syracuse Orange basketball fans are ready for a coaching change as Adrian Autry’s squad struggles in year two.
In this piece, I’m not trying to argue for or against a coaching change, but rather to address the idea that Syracuse should have done a national search to replace Jim Boeheim. To do so, I’ve listed a number of modern era men’s college basketball coaches who retired after long careers and success at one institution. Then, we list who replaced them, if they were promoted from the staff, or came as an outside hire. Each hire is listed along with that coach’s record at the school along with a brief look at post-season bids.
The fact that most coaches were followed directly by a member of their staff doesn’t mean it’s the right choice, but it does show that athletic directors follow this pattern. While smaller in number, the three notable outside hires (Pitino, Kruger and Dunphy) had extremely successful careers at that institution.
Among this group, the shortest tenure was Sean Sutton at Oklahoma State, which was due to off-court issues. I don’t consider Neptune to be a true outside hire, but his tenure at Villanova is an argument for Syracuse making a switch sooner than later. College basketball has certainly changed and there’s no reason to say that a new head coach should get a full four-year cycle to get their own players in.
It’s interesting that three of the more successful current coaches, Painter, Scheyer and Dutcher, had been designated the “Head Coach in Waiting” and spent one year (or several for Dutcher) with that designation as the Hall of Fame head coach wound down their career.
While too late for Syracuse to do anything about their process to name Boeheim’s successor, you do have to wonder what might have happened had they kept the original transition plan to Mike Hopkins, or established a similar timeline three years ago. Scheyer and Painter got to bridge recruiting by having a definitive answer for recruits wondering who their coach would be. Boeheim departing in a manner that seemed to be out of his hands, certainly did Autry no favors in terms of that 2023-24 recruiting class, or with Orange fans.
I’ve said before that I thought Duke’s approach was the best way to give the successor all the help they needed, but what’s done is done. Like the other first-time Head Coaches before him, Autry will need to win enough games to stick around. If not, expect the next HC to be someone outside the Syracuse basketball family.