Coach Search Options after Autry

[OrangeFoo]

I'm sure that'll help them get off to a good start

Seriously… if that happened I’d be asking Toledo for my job back

 

[malpearl31]

[Gerry McNamara’s] offense is one of the worst in the entire NCAA. It even got worse his second year than the first.

Siena’s [Gerry McNamara’s] offense in 2024-25: 102.8 AdjO rating by KenPom. That ranked #246 out of 364 teams in D-1 hoops.

Siena’s [Gerry McNamara’s] offense in 2025-26: 107.8 AdjO rating by KenPom. That ranked #193 out of 365 teams in D-1 hoops.

Siena’s [Gerry McNamara’s] offense did not get worse in their second year when compared to the previous year.

 

[mdf5290]

Lmfao. Legendary quote.

I’ve watched this full police video like a dozen times. Guys a nut.

Reminds me of the comedian Bret Ernst

 

[mdf5290]

There's huge value in the JB coaching tree living on. I would love for Gerry to carry the mantle, and would support him. And want him to succeed. He should have gotten the job when Red got it.

That said, I've been thinking a lot about why everyone fell behind Hodgson. At first I was mystified bc his record didn't impress me. But, I was taken aback by the strong support he's had in this thread, from good posters too. So, I have realized that he represented change, & what they really want is change.

So, we have Blair now. An outsider. He can do anything. It would be great if he conducted a true national search . If GMac is still the one after all that, awesome. However if there is someone way better. I mean way better, and I was never convinced Hodgson was. Let's go for it.

There's huge value only playing 5 guys the whole game like Jim's 6-7 man rotations?

Has he now?

Shooting 3-14 the last 10 minutes of the game is in line with where we were this entire season.

 

[OrangeFoo]

If Gerry is the next coach I am interested to see if he can get that same effort out of Kiyan and Donnie if they are both still here. The two of those guys didn’t play half as hard as anyone on Siena did today all year.

If Donnie had played like Doty we would be dancing and Autry would be coaching. This sums up the problem with Autry... he had a vision but he didn't have a plan for executing it and because of that his players had no idea what they were doing on the court.

My fear with GMAC is while he gets his players to play hard, but what separates the elite coaches from the average/poor ones is the game plan before and during the games. When Duke went zone he had no real answer for it... why didn't he run the offense through Doty at the high post doing those possessions. I didn't see him adjust his scheme in real time when that happened. Now that doesn't mean he never will get to that point where he sees it and can adjust, but it again means we got a coach learning on the job. And we don't know how it will go. I THINK he will figure it out but then again at the beginning of the year I THOUGHT Autry had figured out the defense at least.

If I was interviewing the coach I would ask one question plus a follow up... what's your base offense, okay what happens when the other team moves to a zone to stop it. What do you do? The beauty of the peak JB zone, is only the really good coaches could beat it consistently. So the answer to that question would tell us a lot.

 

[OrangeFoo]

I’m not sure how you can put Murray above GMac. I think Murray will be a great coach, but it’s a much bigger risk than GMac at this point.

this 1000%... you have proof of what GMAC will do when his team is punched in the face. With Murray or any other AC you are completely blind.

 

[OrangeFoo]

They’re the best team since the invention of KenPom. That’s why I said statistically. Some of
You can’t read

what does that even mean? They have the best offensive and defensive efficiency stats?

If that's the case that says more about the state of college basketball and the ACC than anything else. The Boozer kids are not the elite talents that Duke had even last year. The big one has limited post moves and just out-physicals the opponent... good luck big boying people in the NBA. The guard one is silky smooth, but his jumper seems questionable, I don't see elite explosion and I didn't see a mid range game. The rest of the players were very meh... Evans and Sarr are explosive athletes but neither of them are able to take over a game even against Siena. Their two shooters are okay I guess, but I couldn't tell the difference between them and the Siena kids.

 

[SuFTW]

If Donnie had played like Doty we would be dancing and Autry would be coaching. This sums up the problem with Autry... he had a vision but he didn't have a plan for executing it and because of that his players had no idea what they were doing on the court.

My fear with GMAC is while he gets his players to play hard, but what separates the elite coaches from the average/poor ones is the game plan before and during the games. When Duke went zone he had no real answer for it... why didn't he run the offense through Doty at the high post doing those possessions. I didn't see him adjust his scheme in real time when that happened. Now that doesn't mean he never will get to that point where he sees it and can adjust, but it again means we got a coach learning on the job. And we don't know how it will go. I THINK he will figure it out but then again at the beginning of the year I THOUGHT Autry had figured out the defense at least.

If I was interviewing the coach I would ask one question plus a follow up... what's your base offense, okay what happens when the other team moves to a zone to stop it. What do you do? The beauty of the peak JB zone, is only the really good coaches could beat it consistently. So the answer to that question would tell us a lot.

Doty got his ankle stepped on early in the second half. He was limping pretty good after the game, you can see it in the tweet showing him and the NC staffer after the game.

 

[OrangeFoo]

This thread is how I imagine the 5 families picking a leader. The threat of (financial) blood shed hangs over every choice.

This is game of thrones level madness.. I hope GMAC doesn't accept an invite to anyone's wedding if they are associated with SU.

 

[SuFTW]

Blair can say this was not his pick 100% and that he was brand new if GMAC did not work out, Could buy him a chance to get his own guy in 3 years and reboot….AD’s know how to protect themselves,

Blair is not going to say that. If GMAC is not working out he can just fire him.

 

[OrangeFoo]

After 619 pages and two months of checking this thread here is where I am at. If I am ADBB, my job is 1. to give the program the coach with the highest probability of winning for the next 5 to 10 years, 2. but I also need to hire someone who I can get along with and want on my team.

I think #2 eliminates BH from consideration... sorry, but there is no way I want someone who is a clear flight risk on my team. My hunch is Syracuse did feel him out and maybe even got to an agreement in principle, but it was clear that BH would not be long for the job. Part of a leaders job is to manage egos for sure... but there are egos and there are egos. Plus I already have one ego monster on my team.

So going to consideration #1... I evaluate based on ability to bring NIL, ability to recruit players, strategy and vision, program management, and execution and most importantly what do they do when they get punched in the face in a game. Hiring him would be class if faith without proof. Maybe it worked with Fran maybe it didn’t… but this is the route you take if you are in a really really weak position. If we go this route either Murray is such a no brainer in one of the areas that nothing else matters or the program is circling the lower part of the bowl that already has crap sticking to it.


Based on all of the above, unless you are going cheap, I have no idea how you go with Luke Murray unless he completely blows everyone away in the interview. Fran obv was able to do this and but he at least had the title of #1 recruiter in college football... but do we even know how good of a recruiter Murray is?

I have no idea who the choices are but I've heard Hurley, GMAC, Martelli Jr, Otz from ISU (too lazy to spell it out) Of all these dudes Otz is the clear #1 and it's not even close, but I believe he is a pipe dream. We know what Hurley can do and he's probably a 2 or a 3 out of 5 in all areas but recruiting where he is a 4 maybe (being generous), I also suspect the Hurley name gets him to a 4 on the NIL piece.

GMAC and Martelli are relatively unknowns, but in this case the devil you don't know is probably more attractive than the devil you do know from seeing Hurley's record so those two are above Hurley suspect Martelli is probably a bit above GMAC in everything but NIL and recruiting. We don't know how either of these guys can recruit at the P4 level, but GMAC is probably a bit ahead because he did bring talent that JB couldn't close.

The biggest separator is going to be NIL... GMAC's NIL potential blows everyone out of the water, including Martelli. And I get it... if Martelli or someone else comes in and makes the dance in year 1 the NIL will come in, but again my job as AD is to find the highest probability and here GMAC wins easily because of what he will bring in year 0 and year 1

So to me Otz from ISU (again don't want to spell his name) or someone like him is choice #1 by a mile, but we seem to have not shot. Of the alternatives, I wouldn't hire BH either and of the rest GMAC is the clear choice based on the NOW... hiring anyone else is a super big risk and you better sure the upside is there.

Thanks for listening to my ted talk.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

I’m not fully against Gmac. But how do you defend his entire assistant coaching track record at SU. It’s fully correlated with our downturn.

What assistant coaching record?

 

[Sherman20]

.

Jesus, is he even out of his uniform yet?

That’s bizarre. Why do you have to change your IG handle right now? Have some pride in your current school even if you’re somewhere else next year. These young kids need help.

 

[Sherman20]

Hodgson is in the rear view mirror. We can stop talking about him.

We learned today we have 2 really good candidates. Gerry and Phil Jr.

Each will have to be evaluated and negotiated with. We don't know how this will play out. Plus there are still some others. But we should feel good after what we have seen today.

I was not necessarily on the Gerry train, but now am fine if he is the coach. He showed some real stuff today.

Obviously Phil won't be able to really interview yet. But I am sure his agent was already in discussions with us.

The better news for me is that March Madness has been fun for me. I was actually dreading it. But watching some of our potential coaches, and of course I would always root for Gerry or any SU alum. So it has been a good day.

No one is out of the running until they’re out of the running.

 

[Sherman20]

It's a good article by Carlson. Really like hearing from Dusty May. Even a behemoth like Michigan was scraping pennies to pay players last year. He didn't start with a massive warchest. He is a great coach who found the right players.

I am not saying we do not need to pay. We do. But we also need a coach who can identify players, get the best out of them, show success, and then, as with May, greater funding will become available.

Our c. $8m this year was more than enough to be competitive. Again, look at the B12. Great coaching, mediocre resources. We all know Autry was woefully ill equipped for this job. I hope if we can provide a modest step up from $8m next year, and identify the right coach who knows what this program can and should be, that we can be off to the races once again.

There has been so much doom and gloom not only on this board, but from the talking heads, particularly after the latest Hodgson news. I still want to remain somewhat optimistic that the admin has a plan and that they are talking to the right people who remember Cuse as a premier destination (it was not that long ago), and believe in it's potential to get back to the bigtime.

I don't want this to sound like sour grapes because it isn't. But if Hodgson, or any other coach for that matter wants to go to Providence over Syracuse, that's quite weak in my opinion. May got minimal funding but he knew what Michigan represents and its potential. He had the confidence he needed and now they are rolling. And I don't see a scenario where SU has 'one of the lowest NIL budgets in the country', as May claimed last year. Likely not top tier, but sufficient for the right coach to do his thing. And the hope and expectation is success begets success.

No more excuses. Find the right coach for this job. The one who knows what we have been and where we should be in the basketball hierarchy, has belief in himself, and let's roll.

That’s why we wanted Hodgson. He got it done at South Florida with fewer resources.

 

[FloridaCuse]

 

[FloridaCuse]

 

[Sherman20]

Maybe you didn't get what I was saying. My source was as good as it would be possible to have.

We don’t doubt you. But I could hear JB or Gmac’s dad or any other number of people making those assertions, and I still wouldn’t fully believe them, even though they’d be considered great sources. Because they all have agendas and biases, and that seems to be what’s going on with all the contradictory information that’s flowing right now.

 

[OrangeFoo]

there is going to be massive public pressure to hire GMAC. The good thing is if I am HCBB I will get very little blame for hiring him if this goes south in three years... the bad thing if I am HCBB is the choice is being forced on me and if I don't like it too bad. From a boss/employee perspective it's never good having the weak hand from the beginning.

From other posts in the last months GMAC is a hero at Syracuse and a genuinely good person, but my understanding is he has a bit of an ego, which isn't a bad thing. But good luck to HCBB in hiring someone when it looks like that person is doing him a favour in taking the job.

 

[Sherman20]

Right its not a secret and I don't know why people are trying to say well he might not take it etc. It is just when GMac is going to be announced. Tonight, Tomorrow, or over the weekend. It just matters how much of a fake search Syracuse wants to do.

We all said the same thing about Hodgson a few days ago.

 

[Irt4su]

One thing we can say about Gerry that we cannot say about the other candidates….he knows what the program was like when it won and what it means to the city, the school and the alumni. You can’t teach that and you can’t bring that. It’s either something you experience first hand or you don’t.

 

[Cuse4Life]

If we hire GMac and he doesn’t work out, do we get to push Brent out with him?

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

Was JAB a terrible coach when he got bounced early in tourneys by underdogs?

Yes

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

there is going to be massive public pressure to hire GMAC. The good thing is if I am HCBB I will get very little blame for hiring him if this goes south in three years... the bad thing if I am HCBB is the choice is being forced on me and if I don't like it too bad. From a boss/employee perspective it's never good having the weak hand from the beginning.

From other posts in the last months GMAC is a hero at Syracuse and a genuinely good person, but my understanding is he has a bit of an ego, which isn't a bad thing. But good luck to HCBB in hiring someone when it looks like that person is doing him a favour in taking the job.

Who had a bigger ego than Boeheim?

 

[nyucuse]

This has been my take for a while re BH... let's see. And let's see if GMac's performance today changes anything.

https://twitter.com/CBB_Central/status/2034708557132677419

Not sure how to copy the image, but if you read the messages, both Curry and Sweeney state that BH never had an offer. And insinuate that he was further down the wish list than many speculated. Seems agent-initiated propaganda which Goodman et al jumped on. Not sure about Curry, but Sweeney is more reputable than most, more measured and thoughtful, less prone to hyperbole and frankly seems like far less of a gullible simpleton than a Goodman for example, IMO.

Leads me to believe SU had their man lined up before BH decline-gate materialized. Will be very interesting now to see if that was GMac, someone else, and if Siena/Duke yesterday impacts what ultimately happens.