It is believed that Pearl Washington brought Syracuse basketball to national prominence and helped usher the Big East into the national spotlight in the mid-1980s. In the Carrier Dome's first three years, Syracuse's highest attendance mark was a mere 20,401 in the 1982–83. In 1983, Pearl's freshman year, Syracuse's attendance increased to 22,380 per game. As a sophomore, Syracuse led the nation in attendance for the first time in school history. Syracuse would be the NCAA's attendance leader for the next ten years. By the time Washington was a junior, Syracuse's average attendance had jumped to 26,225. Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim, who has long said that there would be no Syracuse basketball program as we know it without Pearl, he once said:"He's the only guy who could just overnight fill the place like that. He had an unbelievable effect on our program. Everybody says that Patrick Ewing and Chris Mullin made the Big East, but I think Pearl made the league. They were the best players, but Pearl was the player that people turned out to see and turned on their TVs to watch. We had the highest-rated games every year that Pearl was here. He was a guy who everybody wanted to see play. He not only helped make our program, he helped make the Big East and he helped college basketball."