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ATLANTA — This used to be the worst professional week of Jim Boeheim’s life, a week of angst and worry and expectation and pressure — unrelenting pressure.
He had built Syracuse into a Northeast power, built it into a source of pride for fans from Onondaga County to the Canadian border, built it with his life blood and sweat because he was from nearby Lyons and had worn the orange and white.
This was long before half a dozen ESPN channels and the Internet, so much of the country still didn’t know what to make of this program and the coach who never seemed to smile when Boeheim and Syracuse arrived at the 1987 Final Four.
The season would end with the most gut-retching loss of Boeheim’s career, a 74-73 heartbreak when Indiana’s Keith Smart buried a corner jumper and the Syracuse players might have lost a couple of seconds when they were too stunned to call time out.
Boeheim, who had yet to commit to the 2-3 zone, faced question after question about who was supposed to be guarding Smart, who was on Steve Alford. After answering the same question in different forms, an exasperated Boeheim finally looked at reporters and said, “Jeez.”
That was the lasting memory — sore loser, grumpy man. Jeez.
“I know I’m very sensitive,” Beoheim said yesterday to a group of reporters after he finished the formal portion of his press conference in the Georgia Dome, where his Orange will meet Michigan tomorrow in one Final Four semifinal game. “I worry about everything I could have done, every situation. I’ve always been totally sensitive to what people say and stuff like that. I’ve gotten a little bit better.”
James Arthur Boeheim, 68, has gotten a little bit better at not taking criticism to heart because the years have given him perspective and the national title he won 10 years ago gave him validation.
“Yeah, that helped, that helped,’’ he said. “No matter what anyone says, if you win this thing, it’s pretty good.
“They can never say, ‘Well, he won a lot of games but he never won this.’ Somebody could say, ‘Well, you should have won more.’ That’s OK. But very few coaches get to the finals and even fewer win it.”
Boeheim still is in it to win it, not doubt.
This will be his fourth, and possibly last, chance to cut down the nets. There was the heartbreaker in 1987, and the unexpected run in 1996 when John Wallace put the Orange on his back and nearly upset Kentucky.
Those were awful weeks, weeks of no sleep and a tight stomach, weeks of not being completely comfortable around hundreds of question-askers armed with tape recorders and TV cameras.
But the win in 2003, when a freshman for the ages named Carmelo Anthony led Syracuse to an 81-78 upset over Kansas, lifted the gorilla and tossed it in a recycle bin.
Ten years later, Boeheim is back, back without the angst, back with a smile and a one-liner and funny anecdotes. Asked about his longevity — 37 years, all at Syracuse — Boeheim acknowledged how lucky he has been.
“Lou Carnesecca was at a Big East meeting with me, he’d been coaching for 20 years, and I told him I was making 25 [thousand], and he ran out of the room, because he was making 20,” Boeheim said.
“He was like, ‘Holy cow, he’s making 25.’ And he found out I was getting 10 thousand from Nike and he said, ‘What?! You’re getting money for your school, for sneakers?’ I said ‘Yeah, they give us sneakers too. It’s a pretty good deal.’ ”
This should be the best week in the lives of the four coaches and all the players who are left playing. The title would be icing, of course, but Boeheim has the ring, has the Hall of Fame, has the court named after him in the Carrier Dome.
“I don’t know if I love it that much,’’ he quipped. “I think it’s a great compliment to get to the Final Four. I have fun with it now.’’
It’s about time.
lenn.robbins@nypost.com