The offseason allows college football coaches to bring their guard down a bit. Especially in the summer months, when there are not many actual football-related activities ongoing. Yes, recruiting is as important as anything, but June and July are when some relaxation can take place.

Everyone has different ways of spending time and one of the more popular hobbies has to be playing golf. So what AL.com did is find out the GHIN handicaps of coaches from around the SEC, figuring out who is playing the most golf this year. It should be noted that GHIN is an app people must register for through a public or private course, meaning they may not even be signed up to possess an official handicap.

Turns out, Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze is playing significantly more than his peers. In the month of June alone, Freeze got on the course 10 times, AL.com found. They also say he has recorded more than 20 rounds throughout the calendar year already, showing a handicap of 7.4.

AL.com then broke down four other coaches, all of whom are sitting behind Freeze when it comes to recent golf outings. South Carolina‘s Shane Beamer came up in second place, having three recorded GHIN scores in June. A handicap of 11 is not too shabby, scoring in the 80s on a couple of occasions.

Mark Stoops is one of the “most prolific score-posters,” according to the report. However, entries have slowed down in recent times for Stoops. AL.com says his most recent score was inserted in May and the Kentucky head coach has not played since summer officially started.

Attention was then turned to two of the SEC’s most high-profile coaches, Kalen DeBoer and Kirby Smart. Neither one of them is pulling out the golf bag too often these days. DeBoer only has six recorded rounds thus far in 2025, while Smart is sitting at zero. However, Smart (and DeBoer) did participate in the recent Regions Tradition Pro-Am in Birmingham. DeBoer’s handicap of 20.4 and Smart’s 12.6 might be equal to each coach’s scoring defense goal entering the season.

Before we know it, the time for golf will be over. Teams will soon head to Atlanta for SEC Media Days, which is the unofficial start to football season. The last weekend in August will sneak up on everyone as well, where all five head coaches have important early portions of the schedule to deal with.

Hall of Famer and former long-time Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim joined two of my favorite guys earlier this week to chat about a variety of topics.

Boeheim, who has the second-most career wins in Division I men’s basketball history, caught up with Jim Lerch and Paul Esden Jr. on their fabulous program, The Manchild Show with Boy Green, via The Score 1260. Full disclosure: I have the privilege of talking Syracuse basketball on a weekly basis with Jim and Paul during the ‘Cuse seasons. They’re the best.

The Manchild Show with Boy Green will soon move to being a digital product, as Lerch and Esden will conduct their last radio show this Friday. Appropriately, then, they had Boeheim on for more than 30 minutes this past Tuesday, and it was a lot of fun.

I’ll share some of the highlights here. Also, please subscribe to The Manchild Show with Boy Green Digital via YouTube if you can!

Syracuse basketball icon Jim Boeheim dishes on a range of subjects.

First and foremost, while Boeheim retired as the Orange’s head coach in March of 2023, he’s surely keeping busy. He notes that he loves to play nine holes of golf at 7 pm, and he never hits a bad shot (wink, wink).

All kidding aside, Boeheim is a special assistant to SU’s director of athletics. He said that he’s up on the Hill every day, helping out with fund-raising. He talks to recruits, and he talks to coaches. Boeheim, as I’ve discussed in several columns, also works as a college basketball analyst for the ACC Network and ESPN.

This summer, Boeheim will serve as the head coach emeritus of Boeheim’s Army, the team named after him that competes in the annual $1 million, winner-take-all The Basketball Tournament (“TBT”). Boeheim’s Army won this event in 2021, and it has a roster that can absolutely make a deep run this summer.

In this role as head coach emeritus, Boeheim says he has helped out with getting players, and he will be in contact with the squad’s head coach, Syracuse basketball assistant Allen Griffin, about personnel things while attending some practices.

His sons, shooting guard Buddy Boeheim and forward Jimmy Boeheim, are on the Boeheim’s Army 2025 roster. “It’s a really good, solid team,” Jim Boeheim says, noting that his friend, businessman and philanthropist Adam Weitsman, returns as the Boeheim’s Army chairman, a role he had four years ago when the group captured the $1 million grand prize.

Weitsman has been supporting Boeheim’s Army in helping them obtain a strong roster. “He likes to win,” Boeheim says of Weitsman.

When Boeheim retired in March of 2023, he acknowledged that the way it was communicated to the public didn’t go as smoothly as he would have liked, but he never wanted a farewell tour, and he was ready to retire at that time, particularly as name, image and likeness deals were emerging, and college basketball was significantly changing due to numerous issues.

A lot of Orange fans, myself included, have lamented about the current state of the program, and the team’s “decline” started basically in the second year that the ‘Cuse resided in the Atlantic Coast Conference (SU bolted the Big East Conference for the ACC in the 2013-14 season).

Still, in the decade that Boeheim led Syracuse basketball while in the ACC before hanging up his whistle, the program made the NCAA Tournament five times and the NIT once. Of those five Big Dance appearances, the ‘Cuse went to a Final Four and a pair of Sweet 16s. In the 2013 March Madness, its last term in the Big East, Syracuse basketball also journeyed to the national semifinals.

Sure, Boeheim wished that his squad performed better during the regular seasons over those 10 years, but “in the tournament, we won. … The tournament is still the most important thing.”

He added, “It was pretty good in terms of the overall results. … Did I want to do better? Absolutely.”

Boeheim knows as much about the sport of basketball as pretty much anyone on this planet. He was asked about the recent NBA playoffs, which culminated with the Oklahoma City Thunder winning its first-ever championship.

He praised Oklahoma City’s dynamic point guard, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, for the 2024-25 season that he put forth, noting that “SGA” can get off a shot against anyone he wants. He also praised the Indiana Pacers and their head coach, Rick Carlisle, for taking the league’s top team to seven games in the NBA Finals.

Like everyone else, he also questioned why the New York Knicks fired head coach Tom Thibodeau, who took the squad this past post-season to its first appearance in the Eastern Conference Finals in 25 years. I still don’t get that move by the Knicks.

Perhaps most importantly, Boeheim talked about Syracuse basketball and the upcoming 2025-26 season. He said, “there’s no doubt in my mind that (incoming freshman Kiyan Anthony) will be a great player,” but he needs time to develop.

Boeheim lauded the job that head coach Adrian Autry and his staff did with their portal recruiting efforts this off-season, landing the ACC’s best point guard and a supremely athletic center, among other transfers. A healthy Donnie Freeman will return, and J.J. Starling can play most of the time at shooting guard, where he’s more comfortable.

“I just think they’re gonna be a pretty solid, really good basketball team,” Boeheim said, adding that the ACC will be better in 2025-26. The league only got four teams in the NCAA Tournament this past spring, and Boeheim believes that six or seven ACC squads will hear their name called on Selection Sunday in March of 2026.

Naturally, Boeheim says that he thinks Syracuse basketball will be one of those teams dancing next spring. Love you, Coach.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Nineteen members of the Holy Cross women’s ice hockey squad have been named to the 2024-2025 Hockey East All-Academic Team, as announced by the league office. 

Distinguished Scholar status went to three Crusaders who achieved a 3.00 or higher grade point average in each semester of their four varsity seasons: senior Emilie Fortunato, senior Michela Lio and senior Emma Min.

Three Holy Cross student-athletes made their third career appearance on the All-Academic Team, in senior Carmen Elliott, junior Abby Hornung and junior Charlotte Sonntag. The three Crusaders named to the team for the second time in their careers were junior Taylor Cantelon, junior Alexia Moreau and sophomore Lulu Rourke.

Holy Cross had 10 other players selected to the All-Academic Team for the first time, in senior Mackenzie King, senior Madison Michals, sophomore Reghan Chadwick, sophomore Abby Garvin, freshman Amanda Aslan, freshman Hannah Deck, freshman Lisa Mombourquette, freshman Sarah Rowe, freshman Annika Sullivan and freshman Kaitlin Sullivan.

A total of 203 student-athletes from schools around the league earned spots on this year’s All-Academic Team. To be eligible for the All-Academic Team, a student-athlete must earn a grade point average of 3.00 or better during both the fall and spring semesters.

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