SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — It has been 50 years since Jim Boeheim enrolled as a freshman at Syracuse and T-shirts have been printed to mark the occasion.
The 2012-13 season will be like no other in Boeheim’s long tenure. It is Syracuse’s final year in the Big East before the school moves to the Atlantic Coast Conference, Jim Calhoun has retired at rival Connecticut, and when the Orange start practicing in earnest after Midnight Madness on Friday night it will mark the first time Boeheim will be without former assistant Bernie Fine in the preseason.
Fine, who started with Boeheim in 1976, was fired last November after sex-abuse allegations lodged by two former ballboys became public. Fine denied the accusations and has yet to be charged. A federal investigation is still under way.
Boeheim will soon be 68 years old and he starts the season just 10 victories shy of No. 900,
