Aggies

Jim Boeheim enrolled at Syracuse in 1962. Played there until 1966. Started coaching there in 1969. Took over the program as head coach in 1976.
Put simply, he was Syracuse basketball.
Until now.
The Basketball Hall of Famer&rsquo;s 47-year tenure as coach at Syracuse came to an awkward end on Wednesday, with the university saying Orange associate head coach and former Syracuse player Adrian Autry has been promoted to the job. The Orange moved quickly, making the announcement less than three hours after&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/wake-forest-syracuse-dcb7b6ea899dfee2b805972b1ba60897" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Syracuse lost to Wake Forest</a>&nbsp;in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament. And if Boeheim knew the announcement was coming, he didn&rsquo;t let on at what was his final postgame news conference.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s up to the university,&rdquo; Boeheim said. &ldquo;They have to make their decision, and it&rsquo;s up to them.&rdquo;
The university didn&rsquo;t wait long before making the decision public, saying in part: &ldquo;Today, as his 47th season coaching his alma mater comes to an end, so too does his storied career at Syracuse University. Associate head coach Adrian Autry &rsquo;94, one of Boeheim&rsquo;s former players and longtime assistant, has been named the program&rsquo;s next head coach.&rdquo;
Autry has been on Boeheim&rsquo;s staff since 2011, and held the title of associate head coach since March 2017.
&ldquo;There have been very few stronger influential forces in my life than Syracuse University and Jim Boeheim,&rdquo; Autry said. &ldquo;They have both played such important roles and without either of them, I am certain I would not have this incredible opportunity before me.&rdquo;
The 78-year-old Boeheim&rsquo;s record in his 47 seasons, officially, was 1,015-441. That reflects 101 wins taken away by the NCAA for violations between the 2004-07 and 2010-12 seasons.
Whether the count was 1,015 or 1,116, only now-retired Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski had more wins than Boeheim at the Division I level. Boeheim led the Orange to the 2003 national title &mdash; Carmelo Anthony&rsquo;s lone season in Syracuse &mdash; and saw 46 of his players get taken in NBA drafts. Among them: Anthony, Derrick Coleman, Rony Seikaly, Dion Waiters, Billy Owens, Sherman Douglas and Pearl Washington. Boeheim also was a USA Basketball assistant under Krzyzewski on the teams that won Olympic gold medals in 2008, 2012 and 2016.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been very lucky to be able to coach my college team, to play and then be an assistant coach and then a head coach, never having to leave Syracuse,&rdquo; Boeheim said in that postgame news conference, one in which he hinted at retirement, then hinted at returning. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a great university.&rdquo;
He has, in many ways, been the face of that university. Boeheim and his wife Juli, through their family foundation, have raised millions for children&rsquo;s causes across Central New York. He helped champion what became known as the &ldquo;Coaches vs. Cancer&rdquo; phenomenon with the American Cancer Society.
The 2-3 zone defense he used almost exclusively caused opponents fits for decades. His dedication was unwavering; the best examples were how he returned to work earlier than doctors wanted after he was treated for prostate cancer in December 2001 &mdash; the team was struggling and needed him, Boeheim said at the time &mdash; and how he went to work at 12:01 a.m. on the day his nine-game suspension for NCAA violations was lifted during the 2015-16 season.
&ldquo;He&rsquo;s given his heart and soul to that school,&rdquo; said Washington coach Mike Hopkins, a former Boeheim assistant. &ldquo;Still surprised they don&rsquo;t have a statue made of him in the middle of campus. When you think of Syracuse University, you think of Jim Boeheim and you think of the Carrier Dome, and now both of those will be gone, which is very sad.&rdquo;
The dome still stands, just with a different name. The program will continue, just with a different coach. For the first time since 1976, someone other than Boeheim is now the head coach of the Orange.
&ldquo;Jim has invested and dedicated the majority of his life to building this program, cultivating generations of student-athletes and representing his alma mater with pride and distinction,&rdquo; Chancellor Kent Syverud said in a statement distributed by the school.
Boeheim has been synonymous with Syracuse for more than six decades. He was born in the central New York town of Lyons, not far from Syracuse. He enrolled at the school in 1962 as a walk-on, eventually becoming a captain of the then-Orangemen along with Dave Bing.
In 1969, he was hired at Syracuse as a graduate assistant. And on April 3, 1976, he took the program over after Roy Danforth left for Tulane. Boeheim has led the program since; even the court at the dome where Syracuse plays its home games has bore his name since 2002.
&ldquo;There will never be another Jim Boeheim,&rdquo; Buddy Boeheim, one of Boeheim&rsquo;s sons who played for him at Syracuse, tweeted Wednesday. &ldquo;The greatest coach, father, and mentor I could ever ask for. A man that gave a city, program, and university everything he had his whole life with countless accomplishments. Excited for a lot of golf in our future, love you pops.&rdquo;
The Orange were 17-15 this season and will miss the NCAA Tournament for a second consecutive season. That led to criticism, which led to questions about Boeheim&rsquo;s future, and what the school would ultimately decide.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an honor to play for Coach Boeheim,&rdquo; Syracuse&rsquo;s Benny Williams said after the loss to Wake Forest.
A low point came in November 2011. Bernie Fine, then Syracuse&rsquo;s associate head coach, was fired after being accused of sexual abuse by two former Syracuse ballboys. Boeheim initially called the ballboys liars out to get money, then apologized for being insensitive to victims of abuse and took responsibility. Fine was never charged.
Syracuse reached the NCAA Tournament 35 times under Boeheim, went to the Final Four in five of those appearances, won 10 Big East regular-season titles and five more titles in that conference&rsquo;s tournament.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been just so lucky to be able to coach at Syracuse, a place I love, I place I love to live,&rdquo; Boeheim said. &ldquo;People keep wondering about that, but maybe that&rsquo;s a flaw I have. But I&rsquo;ve lived in Syracuse my whole life, and I&rsquo;ll live there hopefully a long time into the future. I think it&rsquo;s a great place.&rdquo;
Reaction was mixed when word of the coaching change reached the Syracuse campus.
Chris Davis, a freshman, wondered if a coach change will hurt the Orange.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s disappointing to be honest,&rdquo; Davis said. &ldquo;It hurts the students who are here. To see him gone is heartbreaking.&rdquo;
Senior Gracie Carrigan was surprised by the move, saying, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s shocking. He had such a great career. You almost thought he&rsquo;d be here forever, so it&rsquo;s shocking that it&rsquo;s actually happening.&rdquo;
Added freshman Benjamin Perle said: &ldquo;Obviously, massive shoes to fill. I have faith in coach Autry and the coaching staff.&rdquo;
Syracuse clearly has faith in Autry as well.
He played in 121 games in his four seasons for Boeheim, then spent more than a decade on the bench with his former coach.
&ldquo;I have spent much of my time in the game of basketball learning from Jim and am so grateful to him for preparing me to carry on the winning tradition that is Orange Basketball,&rdquo; Autry said.

The Hall-of-Famer’s 47-year tenure as Syracuse's head coach came to an end on Wednesday, with Adrian Autry replacing Boeheim.

Jim Boeheim’s long career at Syracuse ends, Adrian Autry takes over

The legalized U.S. sports gambling industry claimed another Benjamin early Saturday morning, unless it didn&rsquo;t. DraftKings Sportsbook has posted odds on the Most Valuable Player race for the 2021-22 season, and this columnist placed three bets at a rest stop on the Garden State Parkway because gambling is not yet up and running in New York.
The largest was $50 on James Harden of the Brooklyn Nets at odds of +2500, and here is why: When the bearded one was on the court and healthy for the Nets prior to his offseason excursion to France, he made Brooklyn the smoothest running team in the entire NBA. Why can&rsquo;t he do that again next season once he has recovered from a Grade 2 hamstring strain that hampered him in the seven-game series against the Milwaukee Bucks?
DraftKings has a total of 66 players listed on their table of MVP odds, ranging from Luka Doncic with the shortest odds at +400 to eight players at 5000-1: D&rsquo;Angelo Russell, Victor Oladipo, Jerami Grant, Draymond Green, Dejounte Murray, Tyrese Haliburton, Aaron Gordon and Norman Powell.
You could make a case for all or none of them, and let&rsquo;s face it: None would be on the board if the sportsbook believed they wouldn&rsquo;t draw action.
But the object here is to have a crystal ball that is not too hazy, which is why Harden drew half of that aforementioned Benjamin on a sultry, sunny Saturday.
Another $25 went on Karl-Anthony Towns of the Minnesota Timberwolves at +9000, just in case Towns&rsquo; time in the Twin Cities is up. He could be the best center in the NBA (apologies to Nikola Jokic) if he landed on a team that has a chance of winning its conference. With the Wolves changing ownership groups, the new folks (that would include you, A-Rod) are going to have to decide whether to blow this thing up again. Minnesota has not won a playoff series since 2003-04 and has missed the postseason in 16 of the past 17 seasons.
Perhaps the New York Knicks could offer a package of prospects and first-round picks to bring Towns back closer to his hometown of Metuchen, N.J.
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Of course, the Knicks already have a pretty credible MVP candidate in Julius Randle despite his flameout in the first-round playoff loss to the Atlanta Hawks. And since Randle was on the board at the enticing price of +6500, he got the other $25 wager.
Randle has only one more season remaining on his contract for $19.8 million, and the Knicks would be insane not to guarantee it. That means Randle will be going into the final season of his deal, a time when players historically play their very best in order to earn another contract. Randle won the NBA&rsquo;s Most Improved Player award, being named on 99 of 100 ballots, and the next step in his progression would be to become a legit MVP candidate.
To do that, he would likely have to improve upon the 24.1 points, 10.2 rebounds and 6.0 assists he averaged last season, but with a better supporting cast around him, it is a distinct possibility. We have not heard much from the Knicks since they went down in five games against the Hawks, but one safe wager is to bet your bottom dollar that Leon Rose and Co. are trying to turn over every stone so that the Knicks can make the leap from fourth-place surprise to legit Eastern-Conference contender.
With a decent array of free agents out there (<a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/2021-nba-free-agency-ranking-kawhi-leonard-chris-paul-and-the-top-10-offseason-players-on-market" target="_blank" rel="noopener">as detailed by colleague Tommy Beer</a>), and with the Knicks having more cap space than any team this side of San Antonio, the options available to their brain trust will not be all that limited. If they find a willing trade partner and/or entice one of the top-tier free agents to join Randle, R.J. Barrett and whoever else remains, the Knicks competing with the Nets and Bucks for the best record in the East is not out of the realm of possibility.
Again, the name of the game here is to try to peer into the future and make an educated guess as to which players might be capable of winning MVP purely on talent alone, and then try to figure out whether their current team has the means to be atop their conference (or close to it) when the 2021-22 regular season comes to an end.
Harden is the most likely, and 25-1 ain&rsquo;t bad. Randle is the second-most likely, because the Knicks are back on the rise. Towns is the wild card because he certainly isn&rsquo;t winning this thing in Minnesota.
It&rsquo;ll be 11 months until we know the results, so this dinero stays locked up for a long time. But one Benjamin is not a ton of money, and the key to having fun in the legalized U.S. sports gambling industry is to keep the wagers affordable. Otherwise, you may end up funding an enormous resort in Las Vegas. &nbsp;

DraftKings Sportsbook has posted odds on the Most Valuable Player race for the 2021-22 season. Chris Sheridan shares his three bets.

Early 2021-22 NBA MVP bets: Harden, Randle, Towns are intriguing

MONTVALE, N.J. &ndash; The rest stop on the Garden State Parkway less than a mile over the border from New York was quiet early Saturday morning, with only three cars in the park-and-ride lot -- one of which held a sportswriter with a gambling app. That writer has a habit of believing in Michael Porter Jr.
So a $50 wager was placed with PointsBet.com on Porter Jr. to win the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player award. And as a Nuggets hedge, another $50 went down on Nikola Jokic.
But the Porter bet is more potentially lucrative, as PointsBet listed Porter Jr. at 100-1 Saturday morning, while most other books had him at lower odds. DraftKings Sportsbook, which usually takes wagers in this market, has had the Finals MVP odds dark for a couple of days.
The Jokic wager carries odds of 16-1, and it&rsquo;ll be more than a month before we know whether these were timely bets or merely another Benjamin falling into the legalized U.S. sports gambling sinkhole. &nbsp;The books had a spectacular week with the Los Angeles Lakers getting knocked out of the playoffs by the Phoenix Suns, and let&rsquo;s just say that there are a lot of folks in Las Vegas and in the online sports betting business that are going to be huge Milwaukee Bucks fans in the second round. After the Lakers, the books&rsquo; biggest exposure is on the Brooklyn Nets, and then the Philadelphia 76ers.
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BetMGM.com, which has partnered with the NBA on a new initiative called NBABet, has taken 21.7% of its handle on James Harden to win Finals MVP, 18.3% on Kevin Durant and 11.7% on Luka Doncic, who still must get out of the first round after getting Kawhi&rsquo;d last night. &nbsp; Only 1.7% of BetMGM&rsquo;s handle is on Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Bucks, just 0.9% is on Kyrie Irving, and 0.7% on Ben Simmons. &nbsp; PointsBet, which is especially strong in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Michigan, lists Durant as the +375 Finals MVP favorite, with Donovan Mitchell at +400, followed by Antetokounmpo at +600. In the Andre Iguodala realm, PointsBet has John Collins, Clint Capela and Kristaps Porzingis at 150-1.
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FanDuel has Porter Jr. at 250-1, along with Porzingis, Collins, Capela, Rajon Rondo, Tim Hardaway Jr., Joe Ingles and Bogdan Bogdanovic. Simmons is on their board at 120-1, and Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday of the Bucks are at 100-1.&nbsp; &nbsp; What this shows is that the books are not of one mind on who is going to come out of the East or West, although the Brooklyn prices are so low that the Nets are clearly seen as the favorites, despite the fact that they still have not shown that they have any idea of how to defend Antetokounmpo, Middleton and Brook Lopez at the same time when using their preferred small lineups of Irving, Harden, Durant, Joe Harris and whoever is playing the role of Jeff Green, as he recovers from a foot injury. &nbsp; Brooklyn is the championship favorite at DraftKings Sportsbook with odds of +160, and the Utah Jazz are second at +300. The Dallas Mavericks have the longest odds, 50-1. &nbsp; It has been a mixed year for sports betting stocks. DraftKings went from $44.86 on Jan. 1 to nearly $51 per share Friday. Penn National Gaming has risen from $80.89 on Jan. 1 to $136.47 on March 14 before coming back to earth and closing at $80.54 Friday. FanDuel&rsquo;s parent company, Flutter Entertainment, dropped nearly 10 percent Friday to close at $94.99, down from $119.40 on March 15. &nbsp; The stock market may or may not have accounted for the profits the sportsbooks will reap from all of the losing Lakers bets they processed, and if the Nets fall to the Bucks in Game 1, it is fair to assume that the sports gaming stocks will rise again. Sports gambling will be legal later this year in Florida, New York, Nebraska and Connecticut, and gaming commissions in Arizona and Maryland are making progress on legislation; Wyoming&rsquo;s sports gambling rules will be finalized in the week ahead.
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 &nbsp; Wyoming borders Colorado, which will have a Most Valuable Player within its borders after Jokic&rsquo;s MVP victory becomes official. Denver opens against the Suns in Phoenix on Monday night, with Game 2 on Wednesday. The Nuggets went 2-1 against the Suns this season, with two of the games going to overtime, one to double OT. The teams have not played since Jan. 23.
Jokic should present a formidable matchup challenge for Deandre Ayton, and Porter Jr. will be relied upon to be a secondary scorer whose point totals will need to offset those of Devin Booker.&nbsp;
The Suns are slight favorites in the series, but Denver has more playoff experience, and Porter is coming off a Game 6 against Portland in which he knocked down six three-pointers in the first quarter. The third-place finisher in Most Improved Player award voting, Porter shot 10-for-13 and 10-for-19 in the final two games of the Nuggets' first-round victory against Portland.
It is unlikely that Porter will be more valuable than Jokic if the Nuggets make the Finals, but that unlikelihood is mitigated by the potential payoff ($5050) if he breaks out the same way teammate Jamal Murray did in the postseason a year ago. Jokic is a decent hedge, especially at 16-1.&nbsp;
If neither wins, we will have another chapter for the book &ldquo;Why the House Always Wins.&rdquo; We shall see.
As a Basketball News reader you can get access to BetQL for 30% when you use the code BBN30, <a href="https://betql.co/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">check out BetQL</a> and win the rest of your bets for the playoffs.

Chris Sheridan shares the early NBA Finals MVP odds as the league heads into the postseason's second round, and why Michael Porter Jr. could be a sneaky wager.

Deuce

Jim Boeheim’s long career at Syracuse ends, Adrian Autry takes over

Early 2021-22 NBA MVP bets: Harden, Randle, Towns are intriguing

Sheridan: Why I'm taking a gamble on Michael Porter Jr. for NBA Finals MVP