Jim Boeheim hired Allen Griffin just like you thought he would

Jim Boeheim officially named Allen Griffin an assistant coach yesterday. As per usual, Mike Waters has the scoop on how it all went down. It’s a great read, but if you were wondering why #BrooklynPickle is a thing, it’s not because Keeley joined me in Brooklyn to finally open that artisan pickle shoppe we’ve been talking about. Rather:

Boeheim and Griffin left the Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center and headed to the Brooklyn Pickle.

"We grabbed a sandwich and talked,'' Griffin said. "He sorta picked my brain.''

How did Boeheim and Griffin keep their outing to the local sandwich shop quiet? "We went at the right time,'' Griffin said with a laugh.

A couple of things...

• It’s definitely 4:44, right? a.m. or p.m. is 50/50 in my book.
• Boeheim ordered either the Rueben or a Turkey and cheese on wheat with no veggies.
• Jimmy definitely made some quip about this piece of Brooklyn being better than the actual Brooklyn thing. And meant it.

Anyways, back to the important stuff:

Later Wednesday night, Griffin met up with two old friends for dinner. Ryan Blackwell, who played with Griffin at Syracuse and is now the coach at Liverpool High School, and SU assistant Adrian Autry, who Griffin calls his best friend in the coaching business, had dinner at Prime in Hanover Square.

Everyone seems to pass over Autry when talking about SU coaches, but the spotlight is all on him now. He’s clearly the No. 2 and will be expected to fill Hop’s role of “everything else that JB doesn’t do.” It’s great to see that he and Griffin are already so close.

The rest of the article talks about Griffin’s grind through the coaching ranks to get to this point. He’s definitely had a very different journey than a lot of assistant coaches we hear about these days, but that kind of grinder mentality should be great in the gym. How he got his big break with Dayton shouldn’t surprise anyone:

(Archie) Miller offered a job to Autry, who was an assistant at Virginia Tech. But Syracuse assistant coach Rob Murphy got the head coaching job at Eastern Michigan. Boeheim quickly moved to hire Autry.

Autry and Boeheim both endorsed Griffin for the opening at Dayton. Miller hired Griffin.

It’s so true that the group of former ‘Cuse players-turned-coaches have created a family Boeheim loves to have around the program.

While at Dayton, Griffin coached the big men, a role he will reprise while at Syracuse. Dayton became a regular in March conversations, thanks a run in 2014 some of us chose to forget happened, but showed just how much improvement Griffin brought to their frontcourt game from the bench. The development of key cogs like Devin Oliver, Kendall Pollard and Dyshawn Pierre under Griffin are encouraging signs for the Orange, who are in need of a huge season from a thinned out front court.

Welcome home Allen! Glad to have you back.