What a WONDERFUL way to kick off March Madness!
During a second-round ACC tournament game Wednesday, Wake Forest and Syracuse’s Men’s basketball teams traded haymaker after haymaker. And in the final moments, the two squads found themselves knotted up at 74 points apiece.
After Syracuse bumbled around with the ball on their end, Wake Forest quickly charged up the court to get into position for a game-winning shot. A perfect pass would find Daivien Williamson open for three.
It’s the third month of the calendar year — a.k.a. March — so, c’mon now; you already know what happened next. Williamson drained his shot for an incredible 77-74 Wake Forest win.
THE WINNING BUCKET 🤩@WakeMBB | #ACCMBB | 🏆🏆🏆
📺 ESPN pic.twitter.com/797oUmdsef
— ACC Men's Basketball (@accmbb) March 8, 2023
There are a lot of consequences to what might be the first sweet moment of this year’s March Madness. Let’s focus on two.
The first is that Williamson’s game-winning shot saw Wake Forest cover a pregame -2.5 spread with DraftKings. A relatively even 55 percent of the handle was on Syracuse (+2.5), along with 63 percent of the money. Needless to say, a lot was riding on Williamson hitting nothing but the net.
More importantly for Syracuse fans, Williamson might have just ended longtime Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim’s career, too. Boeheim has been at the helm of the Orange since 1976 but hasn’t provided much clarity on his future lately.
The coach didn’t really provide a concrete answer in the press room after Syracuse’s season officially ended, saying he already gave his “retirement speech”, but that he hasn’t personally decided what’s next:
"I gave my retirement speech on the court last Saturday and I gave it to the press conference afterwards." – Jim Boeheim after Syracuse's 77-74 ACC Tournament loss to Wake Forest pic.twitter.com/1Bc708vsY6
— Cuse Sports Talk (@CuseSportsTalk_) March 8, 2023
Jim Boeheim on his future: He said it’s up to the university about whether he comes back.
Said he hasn’t decided what he’ll do, regardless of what the university decides.
— Donna Ditota (@DonnaDitota1) March 8, 2023
For what it’s worth, this is what Boeheim told ESPN in an early February interview about what lies ahead:
“Listen, this has been the question of the day for 15 years. This isn’t a new question. It’s just the calendar going, ‘Well, he’s 78,’” he said then. “And I’m not going to retire because it’s the calendar. Anything can happen. Anything, literally. We’ll just see what happens. I don’t say anything because I don’t know.”
Suppose Wednesday was indeed the end of Boeheim at Syracuse. This makes matters a little more poetic. In that same conversation with ESPN, Boeheim ripped the Demon Deacons, among a trio of ACC programs, for buying their team. He would later offer a weak non-apology after receiving backlash for those comments.
Just over a month later, Wake Forest may have pulled the curtains on Boeheim’s 47-year tenure on the Syracuse bench.
