ST. LOUIS (USBWA) - Syracuse's Jim Boeheim, the winningest coach in Big East Conference history and the second winningest active coach in Division I basketball, is this year's recipient of the Henry Iba Coach of the Year Award, presented annually to the National Coach of the Year by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association.
The USBWA District II Coach of the Year now has 829 career wins - 371 of them in Big East Conference play - and has led the Orange into the NCAA Regionals for a 16th time in his career. Overall under Boeheim, Syracuse has played in 27 NCAA Tournaments and three times the Orange have played for the national championship, winning the 2003 title.
In a season in which Boeheim won his 800th career game, Syracuse captured its first outright Big East regular-season title since 1991 and was ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press poll on March 1. This season, the coach registered his record 32nd 20-win season and the Orange are 30-4 entering their West Regional Semifinal game vs. Butler. A win will tie Boeheim with Jim Phelan of Mt. St. Mary's as the fifth all-time winningest coach in Division I basketball.
Yet, with all those accolades, this marks the first time the legendary Syracuse coach has been named National Coach of the Year by the USBWA. Boeheim also becomes the first Big East coach to earn the honor since Pittsburgh's Ben Howland in 2002.
Now in his 34th season as the head coach at his alma mater, the Lyons, N.Y., native started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Syracuse in 1969, before being promoted to assistant coach and then head coach in 1976. A former walk-on player at Syracuse, Boeheim was co-captain of the team with Dave Bing as a senior. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2005 and Syracuse named the court at the Carrier Dome "Jim Boeheim Court" in 2002.
Through the newly-formed Jim and Juli Boeheim Foundation, Boeheim is also active with numerous charitable causes. His annual "Basket Ball" gala has raised more than $3 million and he is among the most active coaches in the "Coaches vs. Cancer" campaign.
Boeheim will receive the Henry Iba Award at the USBWA's College Basketball Awards Breakfast held in conjunction with the NCAA Final Four in Indianapolis on Friday, April 2, at The Columbia Club at 8 a.m. For tickets to the breakfast, visit the usbwa website, usbwa.com.
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