Amid a Final Four run, just how firm is Jim Boeheim's 2018 retirement date?

A year ago, Syracuse men’s basketball coach Jim Boeheim -- facing NCAA penalties and having missed the NCAA Tournament -- announced he’d retire at the end of the 2017-18 season.

Needing to serve a nine-game suspension at the start of 2015-16 and with assistant coach Mike Hopkins in line to replace him, Boeheim’s four-decade tenure as the face of Syracuse basketball seemed to be taking on a lame-duck feel -- right up until this year’s Orange became the first 10 seed to make the Final Four.

So could Syracuse’s surprise success and the fact Hopkins went 4-5 while Boeheim was taking his punishment early this season change Boeheim’s expiration date? New athletic director Mark Coyle answered that question for reporters Tuesday, via Syracuse.com: