Living legend synonymous with Salt City hoop success

By Lou Sorendo

A wave of brilliant orange and blue. That’s what one is hit with when walking into Syracuse University basketball coach Jim Boeheim’s office at Manley Field House in Syracuse.

When seeing Boeheim comfortably seated amidst a vast display of sports memorabilia, it’s quite evident that he is more than just at work.

He is at home.

In a phrase, Boeheim is Syracuse basketball. He has taken this CNY city to the pinnacle of basketball glory. Season in and season out, he brings a consistency that has led to a singular career unmatched in college basketball annals.

Boeheim played as a freshman at SU in 1962. He has never left.

How popular has Boeheim become as SU’s basketball leader? The university named the Carrier Dome court “Jim Boeheim Court” in 2002 in recognition of the Hall of Fame coach’s numerous accomplishments. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2005. His legacy intact, Boeheim still fully enjoys the next challenge on his basketball journey. At 64, he is far from done.

That’s apparent by his undying commitment to the SU hoop program and insatiable appetite for success on the hardwood.

“When you don’t feel that you really work, that’s the best kind of job to have,” he said. “Everybody would like to have that kind of job.”

“I’m lucky and very fortunate to have this job and the support I’ve had over the years,” he added. Boeheim has compiled a jaw-dropping .735 win percentage as head coach entering this season, and will most likely hit the 800-win mark next year.

Boeheim made Syracuse proud when the Orange captured the coveted national championship in 2003. He also brought the Orange to the title game in ’87 and ’96.

Boeheim also served as an assistant coach for the U.S. Olympic Team, which went on to capture the gold medal in the 2008 Games in China.

Fresh start every year

Boeheim has undoubtedly soared to great heights in his sport, both on the collegiate as well as the world stage. But every year is a new one for coach Boeheim.

“The interesting thing about coaching is that you are 0-0 every year and starting out with a clean slate,” he said.

Anything accomplished in the past is rendered insignificant. “Each team is brand new,” he said. “Because you might have done something (in the past) has no effect on the season.”

“The challenge is exactly the same every year,” he said. “You have to start from scratch. I think that’s the challenge and it keeps you interested in going forward.”

“If you’re just continuing something, it could get old,” he said. “It’s brand new every year.”

Boeheim is currently the longest-tenured coach in the collegiate ranks. There have been a few who have stayed longer but are now retired. “It’s been a long run,” he said. Boeheim associates his unmatched consistency to being successful.

“It’s a matter of having a good, fundamental program that attracts good players,” he said. “No coach is successful without having good players, and we have had a number of good players over the years and have been able to win on a pretty consistent basis. That’s what you have to do.”

Some of those notable players include Dwayne “Pearl” Washington (‘83-‘86), Sherman Douglas (‘85-‘89), Derrick Coleman (‘86-‘90), Billy Owens (‘88-‘91), Lawrence Moten (‘91-‘95), John Wallace (‘92-‘96), Carmelo Anthony (‘02-‘03), and Gerry McNamara (‘02-‘06).

Boeheim served as assistant coach from 1969 until he took over the head coaching spot in 1976. He has been there ever since.

He began his love affair with SU as a walk-on player in 1962, and went on to compete in the same backcourt along with all-time Orange great Dave Bing. It was apparent he had leadership skills early: He captained the squad in his senior year along with Bing.

CNY in blood

Boeheim is a true-blue Upstate New Yorker. After getting into coaching, he settled into a comfort zone and has never entertained moving anywhere else.

“I’m not one who looks at other places or thinks other places are better,” he said. “I think this is a good place and it’s been a good place for me.”

“I’ve never really thought seriously about going someplace else,” he said.
His love for SU has transcended any need to enter into the realm of professional basketball.

Has Boeheim ever considered coaching on the NBA level?

“Not really. I though about it a little bit,” he said. “It’s a different game, and it would be fun and challenging coaching in the NBA.”

Nonetheless, he has never actively pursued going to the next level.

“You have to really go after it,” he said.

Boeheim said he has thought about retirement but “not too much.”

“I’m not going to think about what I want to do in retirement until I retire,” he said. “When you start thinking about what you want to do, it pushes you to retire.”

Boeheim is married to Juli, and the couple has three children—James, 10, and twins Jack and Jamie, 8. He also has a daughter, Elizabeth, from a previous marriage.

“If I did retire, I’d have plenty to do with them,” Boeheim said.
He enjoys fishing and hunting, and plays golf, a sport he coached in the 1960s prior to taking on the assistant basketball coaching job.

He once boasted of a two-to-three stroke handicap for many years.

Did Boeheim miss his second calling as a golfer?

“I used to be decent, but with all the things with basketball, my game has slipped every year,” he said. He now characterizes his game as “pedestrian” with a goal of breaking 80.
Even in retirement, Boeheim will be content to stay put in CNY.

“I’d go south for a month or two, but I’d stay here,” he said.

Boeheim, a Fayetteville resident, enjoys the distinct spring, summer and fall seasons in CNY, and being engaged in basketball helps to insulate him from the rigors of Upstate winters being that it coincides with the indoor playing season.

“We have tremendously supportive fans and the people here support all the charitable work we do,” Boeheim said.

“It’s just a great place to live,” said Boeheim, noting that it’s conducive to raising his children and features a solid school system.

Mixing with the best

The SU men’s basketball program has certainly built a reputation of excellence. Expectations to win naturally follow.

“We expect to win. It’s a pressure we put on ourselves. We want to win and expect to win,” he said.

“Competition is very tough in the Big East,” he said. “Right now, we’re the best conference in the country. It’s not going to be easy to win games, and we’re going to lose some games, it’s as simple as that. I think our fans understand how tough the conference is, but they still expect us to have success and we do as well. It’s the way we look at it.”

The reason why the Big East is so formidable is simple. “We have a lot of basketball programs that have been traditionally good for a long, long time,” Boeheim said. “It is a great conference, and we added four really good programs in Marquette, Cincinnati, Louisville and DePaul.”

“We built a monster conference. Every game is difficult,” he said. “There’s eight to 10 teams that are really good.”

Boeheim is no stranger to being top dog in the Big East. He’s captured seven Big East regular season championships and five Big East Tournament titles.

He’s also mentored some of the country’s finest coaches, such as Louisville’s Rick Pitino.

He said it’s a “good feeling” to have nurtured such tremendous coaching talent.

The stress factor

Stress, of course, creeps into every profession and every job in life.

Boeheim handles it in his own cool way.

He enjoys watching TV to alleviate stress, and will tape shows during the basketball season and watch them late at night.

He also tries to get as much rest as possible during the season.

“You try to get away from it a little bit,” he said. “Everyone should have a way of getting away, and that’s what I do.”

“You try to get your mind off it, otherwise you’re thinking about it 24-7,” he said.

It’s easy to get caught up in thinking about the last game, or being worried about the next one.

“There’s so many games during a four-month period, we’re sometimes playing two to three games a week,” he said. “It’s important to try and get away from it.”

August is normally a good month to vacation, but Boeheim has been involved in Olympic training over the last three years and hasn’t had that luxury of late.

Boeheim said stress comes from getting ready for each game and dealing with issues surrounding the program and players.

“But after a number of years, you become relatively used to it,” he said. “It’s still there, but you’re able to handle it a little better.”
Giving back

When Boeheim is not patrolling the sidelines for the Orange, he and his wife are devoting time to several charitable causes in the Syracuse area.

The Boeheims have been most active with “Coaches vs. Cancer,” a national fundraising organization affiliated with the National Association of Basketball Coaches and the American Cancer Society.

Boeheim is a cancer survivor himself, having triumphed over prostate cancer after being diagnosed several years ago.

“I’m fine. I do some light workouts and walking, but not as much as I probably should,” he said.

He’s under no special dietary restrictions, but is careful to monitor and balance his food intake. “I just try to be careful,” he said.

Boeheim said it’s vital to get the necessary checks and physicals, such as colonoscopies and the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test used to screen for prostate cancer.

“You have to take care of all those things,” he said.

Boeheim indeed has a personal stake in the battle against cancer. He lost his mother to leukemia and his father to prostate cancer.

“It’s always been in the back of my mind. It’s something we need to fight,” he said.

“I’ve lost some good friends over the last few years to cancer, and that has pushed me to take more leadership of the program,” Boeheim said.

His major objective has been to recruit more coaches into the program, and that effort has been highly successful.

“Coaches vs. Cancer” has generated over $5 million nationally this year.

The couple also supports the Make-A-Wish Foundation, while Juli is on the board of several other organizations, including the Community Health Center and ARC of Onondaga County.

“The rest of our time is spent with the kids, who are active in baseball and basketball. We spend a lot of time going to their games,” he said.

Is Boeheim tempted to jump into the youth coaching ranks?

“I’m just a parent, a Little League parent,” he said.

Boeheim also directs energy toward fundraising and speaking engagements, all of which he sees as part of his job.

The recruiting trail

Boeheim finds recruiting fresh talent both interesting and challenging, and relishes the opportunity to put a team together and have it reach top potential.

“Getting each team to play at the highest level you possibly can get them to play is tremendously challenging every year. I look forward to that,” Boeheim said.

What are the keys to successful recruiting for Boeheim?

“It’s personalities, it’s working, it’s getting to know people and getting them to understand you,” he said.

He noted having a “great university” and league to play in are advantages, along with a solid fan base and the Carrier Dome itself.

“Everybody has a good place to play, but nobody has a Carrier Dome on campus,” he said.

“It comes down to a player’s ability to want to play for you and your program,” he said.

While matching players to SU’s style of play is important, the opportunity to play is obviously of utmost importance to high school athletes, he added.

Boeheim said there is a major difference between today’s college basketball player and the ones he played with back in the 1960s.

“I think they are more motivated to play to get to the NBA,” Boeheim said. “When we played, it was about just going to school and playing basketball. We really didn’t think about playing professional basketball.”

He said most players today think they have a chance at playing in the NBA, and if not, perhaps explore pro hoops overseas or in the minor league circuit around the country

“They need to be kept on track to get their degrees so they are prepared for when they are done,” he said.

“It’s important to me as a coach to get guys through and graduate so they have that background in their back pockets. It’s something to fall back on when basketball is over,” he said

Boeheim earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University.

Does Boeheim still get as psyched about the game as back in the day?

“It’s the same feeling. I’ve always been competitive and play to win. I hate to lose and still do,” he said.
Boeheim said he enjoys all sports, particularly golf. He even dabbles in watching and playing poker, which he characterizes as a “sporting game.”

Patient perception about diabetes has not changed much in more than 40 years, according to Gerald Bernstein, a physician who has been practicing at two major hospitals in New York City. In fact, he says, he still sees the same viewpoints today as when he was a director of the Beth Israel Health Care Systems diabetes management program years ago.

“In this day and age, I still get patients who believe that they developed diabetes from eating too much sugar,” says Bernstein. Although doctors and researchers are still unsure what causes the disease, Bernstein insists, “bad eating habits such as too much refined sugars, empty carbohydrates, and fructose does not cause diabetes.

Below are some of the most prevalent myths surrounding diabetes. “Baby boomers who were raised with misconceptions about the disease may be at risk,” advises Bernstein, who is also the director of medical affairs at Generex Biotechnology Corp., a biotechnology company engaged in the research, development, and commercialization of drug delivery systems and technologies for patients with diabetes. “There is no substitute for knowledge.”

Diabetes Will Make You Go Blind—According to Bernstein, while it is true that all people with diabetes are at risk of blindness, heart problems, and renal disease, it is equally true that in this day and age a smaller percentage actually experience the full brunt of such complications than 30 years ago. “The better the patient controls his or her blood sugar, the less likely the more serious complications associated with diabetes will progress. Anyone already experiencing the side effects of diabetes needs to achieve and maintain the most stringent possible control in order to minimize their further progression.”

Since I Don’t Have To Inject Insulin, My Diabetes Isn’t A Serious Condition—A surprising number of people still believe this falsehood. Non insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (type 2 diabetes) can produce destructively high blood glucose levels if not kept under control. Type 2 diabetes often grows more severe with time, so a patient who starts with low numbers will probably need to progress from diet-and-exercise-based blood sugar control, to oral diabetes medications. It is often better to start with insulin early rather than waiting to use it as a last resort.

Many older patients are finding their “oral meds” have become ineffective with time, and may need to switch to insulin injections to maintain effective diabetes control. “Type 2 diabetes, even pre-diabetes is serious even if your blood sugar isn’t that high,” warns Bernstein.

I Can’t Eat What I Like Anymore—That’s a misconception considering that what is now coined the “diabetic diet” is actually a well-balanced, sensible food plan that would be healthy for anyone to adopt, with or without the disease. “Keep in mind, you can ‘have your cake and eat it too’ but if you want to eat something rich in carbs, you will need to balance it out by cutting an equivalent amount of carbs or sugar from somewhere else in your diet,” suggests Bernstein. “Patients have a good deal more flexibility in their diets than they might suspect; the rest is just a matter of care and moderation.” Very often you can eat what you want but just not as much as you want.

I Can Tell If My Blood Sugar Levels Are Too High Or Too Low—“This myth is dangerous because you can wind up in the hospital if you ignore symptoms of hyperglycemia, which is hard to detect by the way you feel,” says Bernstein. “Making do without a regular blood glucose tests is like flying without a parachute or crossing the street with your eyes closed. You’re guessing. Learn your body’s signals when you get into trouble, but be certain to use your glucose monitor to be sure.” Bernstein also advises people with diabetes to carry a Glucose RapidSpray, that can quickly, conveniently and efficiently deliver glucose to the mouth via an easy to use spray bottle at the first sign of glucose deficiency.

Diabetes Is The Beginning Of The End—“I still get patients who believe their lives are over once complications set in,” says Bernstein. “The reality is that with the development of proper skills and mindset and the possession of monitoring equipment, patients with diabetes can continue to live full lives, even with severe complications. Many diabetics, even insulin-dependent, live well into old age.

“Pay attention to your body. Keep ahead of what your diabetes is doing—for baby boomers, this is no time for surprises! Consult with your doctor, or your diabetes educator. Discuss exercise plans, and any adjustment in medications, with your doctor, first.”

Questions pertaining to diabetes may be answered by Bernstein on the Generex Web site at askthedoctor@generex.com.

Try Stretching and Balance to reduce injuries during a fall

By Chris Motola

An object in motion tends to stay in motion—at least as long as it keeps its balance.

In the experience of Ron Olmstead, director of rehabilitation at Crouse Hospital, the capacity for physical activity has more to do with precedent than age. Active young people tend to become active seniors. While it may be harder to start running marathons at age 60, Olmstead notes that there’s nothing inherent in the aging process—disease notwithstanding—that makes it impossible.
“Senior’s muscles aren’t much different than younger people’s,” says Olmstead.

It is, of course, important to consult a primary care physician before embarking on a new course of strenuous activity.

In fact, Olmstead says seniors tend to be very well informed about concepts of cardiovascular health. Most consider walking to be a good exercise.
Other areas of fitness tend to be overlooked.

“Seniors don’t think about stretching or balance,” says Olmstead. “They’re most focused on cardiovascular exercise.”

Stretching can reduce the likelihood of injury during falls and other missteps. Olmstead compares tendons and ligaments to rubber bands—the more elastic they are, the less likely they are to break.
Equally important, and probably more overlooked, is balance.

“Falling is a traumatic experience for the elderly,” says Olmstead. He notes that those who have suffered a fall tend to play it increasingly safe, relying on walkers and other assistance devices when they many times would be better served by strengthening their sense of equilibrium.

“Some of the things we give [seniors] are the wrong things. People will walk around Wegman’s or the mall, but how often do you practice standing up and sitting down?”

Balance has three components, according to Olmstead. The visual component relies on sight and the ability to process space and proximity. Sensation and touch are another component and help negotiate uneven surfaces like sand, mud or even carpeting. Finally, the vestibular system—the part pertaining to the inner—helps regulate a sense of equilibrium. Olmstead says the reason children like merry-go-rounds, swings and getting dizzy is that those activities provide vestibular stimulation. Such “exercises” would be, theoretically, just as productive for adults if not as socially acceptable.

Simple Balance Exercises

• Stand and Sit: Just stand up from a seated position, then sit back down. For added difficulty, try this from the floor rather than a chair.

• Tight-Rope Walking: Don’t worry, you won’t need a net. Simply walk heel-to-toe in a straight line for 10 or more steps then walk backwards toe-to-heel an equal number of steps.

• Balance on One Leg: Simply hold your weight on one leg for 30 seconds or more, then switch legs.

• Bike riding: A great way to mix your cardiovascular and balance workouts.

Formal Exercise

• Tai chi chuan: A soft martial art focused on slow, flowing motions. The stances help develop both flexibility and balance.

• Yoga: Using body weight, yoga employs various “poses” to develop strength, flexibility and balance.

• Pilates: Originally a rehabilitation program for the injured, pilates focuses on stabilizing key muscles and the body’s core.

Eyelid surgery one of the top four surgical cosmetic procedures performed in 2007

Many theories have sought to explain what causes the baggy lower eyelids that come with aging, but researchers at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), have now found that fat expansion in the eye socket is the primary culprit.

As a result, researchers say, fat excision should be a component of treatment for patients seeking to address this common complaint.

The study, published in the September issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, is the first to examine the anatomy of multiple subjects to determine what happens to the lower eyelid with age. It is also the first to measure what happens to the face with age using high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

“A common treatment performed in the past and present is surgical excision of fat to treat a ‘herniation of fat’ — meaning that the amount of fat in the eye socket does not change but the cover that holds the fat in place, the orbital septum, is weakened or broken and fat slips out,” said lead author Dr. Sean Darcy, a research associate in the division of plastic and reconstructive surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a plastic surgery resident at the University of California, Irvine. This orbital septum weakening or herniation-of-fat theory is what most plastic surgeons have been taught.

“However, our study showed there is actually an increase in fat with age, and it is more likely that the fat increase causes the baggy eyelids rather than a weakened ligament,” Darcy said. “There have been no studies to show that the orbital septum weakens.”

The study looked at MRIs of 40 subjects (17 males and 23 females) between the ages of 12 and 80. The findings showed that the lower eyelid tissue increased with age and that the largest contributor to this size increase was fat increase.

According to a recent report by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, nearly 241,000 Americans underwent eyelid surgery in 2007, making it one of the top four surgical cosmetic procedures performed.
Currently, many plastic surgeons performing procedures to treat baggy eyelids do not remove any fat at all. They reposition the fat or conduct more invasive tightening of the muscle that surrounds the eye, or they tighten the actual ligament that holds the eyeball in place. These procedures are performed despite there being no data indicating that these structures change with age.

“Our findings may change the way some plastic surgeons treat baggy eyes,” said study co-author Dr. Timothy Miller, professor and chief of plastic surgery at the Geffen School. “Our study showed that a component of a patient’s blepharoplasty procedure should almost routinely involve fat excision rather than these procedures.”

Blepharoplasty refers to surgical rejuvenation of the upper or lower eyelids, or both, depending on the extent of aging or disease. The procedure is usually performed on the lower eyelid because the most common complaint patients have is that their eyes appear tired, puffy or baggy. The surgeon makes external incisions along the natural skin lines of the eyelid to remove the excess fat and improve the contour of the lower eyelid.

“Although baggy lower eyelids are a significant result of aging and fat expansion, there are other factors that can contribute too,” Miller said. “We recommend that surgeons evaluate each component and address them accordingly in an individualized approach to blepharoplasty.”