He shares the same name as his father, but Jimmy Boeheim — son of legendary Syracuse men’s basketball head coach Jim Boeheim — announced his commitment to play 50 miles south of his father for Cornell.
The six-foot-seven son of college basketball’s second-most winningest coach took to Twitter to announce his commitment, saying he is “excited” to join the Cornell program.
Excited to announce that I have committed to play basketball at Cornell University #gobigred 🔴🐻
— Jimmy Boeheim (@jimmyb_23) March 1, 2017
“It has always kind of been a dream to go to an Ivy league school, and it’s so close to home, so that’s a big part of it too,” Boeheim said to The Sun. “So this is a dream come true, and I’m really excited about it.”
Donna Ditota of Syracuse.com reported that Boeheim was getting looks from Dartmouth, Harvard and Davidson, with Cambridge being his desired destination. But in the end, Cornell turned out to hold the keys for his future. His father said he took a backseat role in his son’s college-lookout process.
“I used him for the resources,” Boeheim said of his father’s role.
Boeheim currently plays for New Hampton Prep, where teammates of his have made commitments to Northwestern, Arizona St., St. Mary’s College in California and a future rival of Boeheim, Dartmouth.
His decision to attend New Hampton after high school came with the hopes of elevating himself to a level where he would get looked at by Division I schools.
“Just to get some more exposure, and have a year to improve my game, taking steps to reach my dream of playing Division I basketball,” Boeheim said of that decision to Syracuse.com. And it worked.
Before that, the lefty played at Jamesville-DeWitt High School, where he averaged 23.3 points per game — a 12.5 point improvement from the year prior — en route to a 15-8 season, per Syracuse.com.
Boeheim also represents one of the first gets for the first-year head coach Brian Earl, who took the reigns of a team without any personal recruits. In his first season, Earl’s team has gone 7-20 — eliminated from postseason contention with two games left in the season.
Boeheim, who considers himself a shooter, sees a nice fit for in Earl’s program that he hopes to fulfill.
“I like his system a lot, and a really nice guy,” Boeheim said of Earl. “Excited to get to work with him.”
Boeheim and his father have been on the court practicing together for years, and the future Cornellian has watched his father become one the winningest coaches in Division I history, several of which wins have come over Cornell.
But during the Cornell’s annual trip to Syracuse’s Carrier Dome next year, his allegiance will now be shifted to the team in red.
“It will be an awesome experience,” he said.