Coaching Staff Conversation

[Niastri]

Now that GMAC has hired Ben Lee, Jamal Brunt, and Ryan Daly, let's talk about the staff as a whole. My one major concern about GMAC's hires was alleviated when he hired Jamal Brunt. Brunt was Associate Head Coach at Penn State, and brings very important experience coaching in the P4. The other two guys are very young and inexperienced, rising stars though they may be. It looks like an interesting mix of coaches. Importantly, to me, is that none of them are from JB's coaching tree. The fact that none of them worked together (other than Lee for GMAC at Siena) will allow them to avoid group think, and bring fresh ideas to roster building, recruiting, development and game planning.

New Staff Biographies (Reported 2026)

• Gerry McNamara (Head Coach): Named head coach in March 2026 after serving as Siena head coach and previously as a long-time assistant/director of operations at Syracuse.
• Ben Lee (Assistant Coach): Joined from Siena where he worked under McNamara for two seasons. Previously worked at Washington as an assistant/director of basketball operations under former SU assistant Mike Hopkins.
• Jamal Brunt (Assistant Coach): Joining from Penn State, where he served as associate head coach and defensive coordinator for three seasons.
• Ryan Daly (Assistant Coach): Hired from VCU, previously an assistant at Bryant and UAlbany. Recognized as a top-100 rising star in 2023 for his offensive expertise.

 

[CU44SE]

want to bring this back up. Transfer portal is obviously open now for 15 days.

I did not realize the rule change, but now all 5 coaches can recruit. This was changed summer of 2024 but only 4 coaches can be on recruiting trips at a time.

So confirmed we have Lee, Brunt, Daly, AO.

We still have room for 1 more coach.

We still need to hire a GM.

We still need to hire a Strength coach, but that can probably be secondary as currently we only have 2 guys on campus, potentially only one that is staying.

Hopefully Corasaniti is just an operations guy and not the 5th assistant.

I think most pressing is the GM first and the 5th assistant.

Anyone have any info? I know Blackwell was at Siena. Is he not coming with? Is he going to be an analyst instead.

 

[Frozen]

 

[sutomcat]

View attachment 262097

Ryan is director of ops for Siena basketball.

SU grad. Was a student manager for men’s hoops at SU. I am sure that is where he met Gerry.

I doubt he would get the GM job but he might well end up in Gerry’s staff in some capacity.