Gerry McNamara Interview with Jon Rothstein

[M2MPrinciples]

Gerry McNamara building Syracuse roster to win at all costs, not please the Twitter world

Gerry McNamara said on Tuesday what I've been opining over the past week or so. While some Orange fans are lamenting that the Syracuse basketball 2026-27 roster

insidetheloudhouse.com

 

[Orangezoo]

Twitter and fan message boards contain the highest concentration of drastically underpaid collegiate sports talent evaluators and up and coming coaches. It’s a shame this isn’t given the attention it deserves.

 

[DomeHolmes]

It’s not Xs and Os and it’s not talent related but anyone who says the confused looks as well as frustration without mandating accountability haven’t been a problem the last 7-10 years is in denial. The end of JBs tenure and then Reds tenure simply lacked that fire and accountability Gerry brings and that he’s getting at with his comments. Making sure games are not lost on those grounds is important.

Absolutely true. There were so many games against both good and bad teams last year, where at halftime we were right in the game only to completely collapse in the second half. Several things happened every game that you could absolutely bank on happening with regularity. It does not seem like fixing any of them required better players. Just accountability and discipline and coaching.

1. One of the two biggest daggers was our lazy poor angle passes into lanes being watched by opposing players, leading to easy two points the other way. George, Betsy, and Freeman were the worst offenders. It happened every game, several times a game.

2. The other big one was more a coaching issue. Poor perimeter defense combined with no interior presence. Teams had way too many uncontested layups. Especially in the second half. I hope Gerry emphasizes centers keeping a foot in the paint at all times unless the 5 is a true 3 point threat.

3. Players losing the ball on isolation plays. Players did not consistently clear out enough when our guys, Donnie, especially, went into iso. That led to our isolation player getting his pocket picked by a secondary defender who had an easy path to the basket the other way. Also, the communication that there was a secondary defender coming, did not seem to be there.

These three things always seemed to happen in bunches for a 7-10 minute stretch of the second half where games were lost. These things happen when there’s little attention to detail and no accountability for repeating mistakes.

 

[RedtheGOB]

Absolutely true. There were so many games against both good and bad teams last year, where at halftime we were right in the game only to completely collapse in the second half. Several things happened every game that you could absolutely bank on happening with regularity. It does not seem like fixing any of them required better players. Just accountability and discipline and coaching.

1. One of the two biggest daggers was our lazy poor angle passes into lanes being watched by opposing players, leading to easy two points the other way. George, Betsy, and Freeman were the worst offenders. It happened every game, several times a game.

2. The other big one was more a coaching issue. Poor perimeter defense combined with no interior presence. Teams had way too many uncontested layups. Especially in the second half. I hope Gerry emphasizes centers keeping a foot in the paint at all times unless the 5 is a true 3 point threat.

3. Players losing the ball on isolation plays. Players did not consistently clear out enough when our guys, Donnie, especially, went into iso. That led to our isolation player getting his pocket picked by a secondary defender who had an easy path to the basket the other way. Also, the communication that there was a secondary defender coming, did not seem to be there.

These three things always seemed to happen in bunches for a 7-10 minute stretch of the second half where games were lost. These things happen when there’s little attention to detail and no accountability for repeating mistakes.

Hah. Donnie passing out of a double team was insane to watch.

 

[Orangezoo]

Absolutely true. There were so many games against both good and bad teams last year, where at halftime we were right in the game only to completely collapse in the second half. Several things happened every game that you could absolutely bank on happening with regularity. It does not seem like fixing any of them required better players. Just accountability and discipline and coaching.

1. One of the two biggest daggers was our lazy poor angle passes into lanes being watched by opposing players, leading to easy two points the other way. George, Betsy, and Freeman were the worst offenders. It happened every game, several times a game.

2. The other big one was more a coaching issue. Poor perimeter defense combined with no interior presence. Teams had way too many uncontested layups. Especially in the second half. I hope Gerry emphasizes centers keeping a foot in the paint at all times unless the 5 is a true 3 point threat.

3. Players losing the ball on isolation plays. Players did not consistently clear out enough when our guys, Donnie, especially, went into iso. That led to our isolation player getting his pocket picked by a secondary defender who had an easy path to the basket the other way. Also, the communication that there was a secondary defender coming, did not seem to be there.

These three things always seemed to happen in bunches for a 7-10 minute stretch of the second half where games were lost. These things happen when there’s little attention to detail and no accountability for repeating mistakes.

On point number two, I was really impressed the discipline defensively watching his Siena team play with having defenders rotate and drop but not over or under commit so they end up getting beat easily on a back cut or being unable to contest a shooter. It’s a smart strategy that mixes multiple defensive concepts together depending on the matchup.

It isn’t anything super complex and requires good communication but it’s very effective when you factor everyone wants to continue to rely more on layups and 3s given what the analytics say. If

 

[OmahaCuse]

Correct. Word though is that seniors are already planning to take this to court. Based off what we’ve seen previously (JUCO, etc) I’m not sure what kind of chances the NCAA has of winning.

If they start winning, my god what a mess it could become.

Yep, although by the time this drags on can’t see it impacting 2026…Lets hope common sense applies.

 

[AlaskaSU]

G-mac is going to be our coach for a very long time. Lots of posters should be eating crow over the next decades.

 

[bnoro]

Well, will you describe what is ridiculous about it to you?

Red said he was going to win at all costs too. It's just a bunch of lip service and no one knows if this team is going to be good or not.

Saying he's not building it for the fans on twitter is just insinuating we didn't have the ability to go after program-changing names, because those are the type of kids the fans online wanted.

It's just the author projecting his thoughts that "we should all be happy because Gerry said his goal is to have a team that is going to win at all costs."

 

[Cusefan0307]

Red said he was going to win at all costs too. It's just a bunch of lip service and no one knows if this team is going to be good or not.

Saying he's not building it for the fans on twitter is just insinuating we didn't have the ability to go after program-changing names, because those are the type of kids the fans online wanted.

It's just the author projecting his thoughts that "we should all be happy because Gerry said his goal is to have a team that is going to win at all costs."

You realize you’re insinuating too in your post right now? Who the fans think is good isn’t always who is good. Sometimes a MM kid that is productive is better than a mediocre power 5 player that is somewhat productive. Herding isn’t always right. People here thought Wilkins is great while avoiding discussing his terrible turnover rate.