NCAA Basketball: Ranking the last 25 national title winning head coaches

There will almost certainly never be a coach with the same experience as Jim Boeheim. The Hall of Fame coach played, served as an assistant and has spent more than four decades as head coach at Syracuse.

He has never coached anywhere else, spending the last 50 years on the Orange’s coaching staff and building an incredible program, elevating them into ACC contender status in recent years.

As a player, Boeheim worked his way from a fringe player to varsity captain, which led to a brief professional career overseas. In 1969, he returned to the school as an assistant coach and was part of the team’s first Final Four appearance in 1975. He began as a graduate assistant but was the Orange’s top assistant by 1976 when he was promoted to head coach.

43 years have passed and Boeheim remains Syracuse’s head coach, despite many opportunities for a change of scenery. He’s taken the Orange to five Final Fours as head coach, including the 2003 national title.

Boeheim brought studs like Carmelo Anthony and Derrick Coleman to Syracuse. He currently sits at just under 950 career wins following vacations from various scandals, though this doesn’t delegitimize his impressive run with the Orange. He turned a decent independent into a Big East and eventual ACC power.

It’s a bit of a disappointment that Boeheim has won just one national title in his 43 seasons leading Syracuse. On the other hand, he led this team to the Final Four as a No. 10 seed just three seasons ago and continues to bring great talent to upper New York.

He’s one of the winningest coaches in college basketball history and has brought remarkable consistency to Syracuse for more than five decades.