Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim says NCAA investigation made him put off retirement

Some people may be surprised that Jim Boeheim is still the men’s basketball coach at Syracuse after the NCAA levied severe punishments against him and the university earlier this month.

But Boeheim said Thursday at a news conference that those sanctions are actually the reason he has chosen to stay for up to three more years.

“There was no way I would ever run away from an investigation in progress,” Boeheim said. “I had no plans to coach this long. This investigation has made it imperative.”

He added: “I’ll take the punishment. Today what’s important is to handle what I have to do here. I am 70 years old. It’s obvious there’s a time frame for me as head coach. I feel that three years is right for me. Three years is probably longer than I was planning.”

The NCAA placed sanctions on Syracuse for a wide range of infractions. The penalties included a nine-game suspension for Boeheim and 108 vacated wins and a reduction in scholarships for the team.

On Thursday Boeheim said some of the NCAA’s allegations are inaccurate and called the penalties “unduly harsh.”

“This is far from a program where student-athletes freely committed academic fraud,” Boeheim said.

This week Syracuse announced that Boeheim will retire in three years, although the longtime coach said Thursday that isn’t set in stone.

“I love coaching, and you can coach as long as you can be effective,” said Boeheim, who became Syracuse’s coach in 1976. “I thought I was effective this year. I don’t think I was as good as I would have liked to have been, but I think I was effective.

“If I’m not effective at the end of next year, I won’t coach after next year. The three-year thing is the outside.”

Twitter: @chewkiii