syracuse won the ncaa tournament in 2003.
what year did syracuse win the ncaa tournament?
2003
throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, georgetown, villanova, st. john's, and syracuse were the primary powers in the conference. uconn became a power in 1990 with a # 1 seed and a trip to the elite 8 before being defeated by duke. georgetown was led by john thompson jr., who was named three times as the conference coach of the year. they won five regular season conference championships and six big east tournaments to go with their 1984 national title. villanova was coached by rollie massimino, who led them to the 1985 ncaa championship in a historic 66–64 win over no. 1 ranked georgetown where forward ed pinckney was named the most outstanding player. in their first 11 seasons in the big east, villanova made 9 trips to the ncaa tournament including advancing to the ncaa elite eight in 1982, 1983 and 1988 as well as their 1985 championship season. massimino coached for 19 seasons at villanova, compiling a record of 357–241 (.596). in the ncaa tournament, massimino had an incredible 20–10 record (.667). st. john's was led by lou carnesecca, who won the national coach of the year honor in 1983 and 1985. he led the redmen (now the red storm) to the 1985 final four, and made a post-season appearance in each of his 24 years at the helm. syracuse has been led by alumnus jim boeheim since the 1977 season. he was named conference coach of the year in 1984 and 1991. during this period, the orangemen won five regular season conference championships, three big east tournaments, and were invited to the ncaa tournament every year but two (1981 and 1982), losing the 1987 national final to indiana. syracuse eventually won its first national title in 2003, led by coach boeheim and freshman carmelo anthony.
big east conference (1979–2013)
entering the 1984 ncaa tournament, the orange were unbeaten. they reached the final but lost in a rematch against johns hopkins, 13–10. after syracuse finished the 1985 regular season with a 12–1 record, the teams met in the ncaa tournament final; syracuse was again defeated by johns hopkins, 11–4. the orange were eliminated in the semifinals of the ncaa tournament the next two seasons, against virginia and cornell, respectively. however, 1987 marked the syracuse debuts of brothers gary and paul gait. the gaits, who had resided in canada, were recruited by simmons at a time when canadian lacrosse players typically took part in indoor games. before the gaits started playing for syracuse, simmons called them "the two greatest lacrosse players i've ever seen in my life"; the pair combined for 118 goals in 1988. in 1988, simmons led syracuse to the ncaa tournament title for a second time. the orange, playing in syracuse, defeated cornell 13–8 in the championship game to finish the season with a perfect 15–0 record. simmons later recruited tom marechek, the university's second-leading goal scorer behind gary gait. he received a recommendation about marechek from the gaits, and offered him a scholarship without watching any of his games. in 1989, simmons's team lost to johns hopkins in their first game, which was their only defeat of the season. the orange repeated as ncaa champions, winning the ncaa tournament final 13–12 over johns hopkins.
roy simmons jr.