Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="Sherman20, post: 5029687, member: 6357"] [URL unfurl="true"]https://www.syracuse.com/orangebasketball/2023/09/gerry-mcnamara-at-40-syracuse-basketball-icon-built-a-life-here-what-would-lead-him-to-leave.html[/URL] This is a great article that Donna wrote about GMac last fall, with a bunch of interesting nuggets including: 1.) Player development, Gbinije example: McNamara, said Hopkins, possesses an “Ironman” player-development superpower. He can raise a player’s level of play by channeling his own competitive drive. “When Coach Boeheim challenges you – you gotta make this guy better or this guy’s not getting better – you sit back in that room and you develop a plan,” Hopkins said. “Then it’s like, we’re gonna meet in the gym at 6 in the morning. There’s a competitive fire and a connection you need to help somebody get better and Gerry had that.” Autry saw it, too. He called McNamara’s ability to transform Michael Gbinije from a small forward with limited dribbling and shooting skills into an All-ACC point guard one of the great coaching jobs in his tenure with the program. Gbinije said before he got to Syracuse, he avoided 3-point shots in favor of his preferred midrange game. McNamara helped develop his jump shot and stoked his confidence to shoot it. His senior year at SU, Gbinije shot 39% from 3. The two spent countless hours on ball-handling drills. McNamara counseled him on pick-and-roll reads, on the complexities of the point guard position. And he did it, Gbinije said, with a dash of humor. “He connects with players and gets them to work out at a high level. I think that’s always the secret,” Autry said. “It’s also his consistency. He’s gonna be there every day. And if you have a bad day or a down day, he’s going to be there to pick you up and say, ‘Let’s move on to the next day.’ " 2.) Recruiting authenticity: Larry Kostelac’s Trinity High School teams played against McNamara and Bishop Hannan in the early 2000s. Kostelac said McNamara’s smart, engaging personality on the recruiting trail looks exactly like the smart, engaging personality he had as a high school star. Success never changed him, Kostelac said. Even now, when Kostelac texts McNamara a photo of an impressive fish he’s caught, McNamara “hits me back right away.” His authenticity made it easy for Kostelac to trust that McNamara is the right coach to work with new SU guard Chance Westry, who played for Kostelac at Trinity. “He’s respected,” Hart said. “I have never heard anybody say anything negative about him in all my years, and trust me, I hear things, like, ‘Oh, he’s phony, he big-timed me, he’ll only talk if he wants one of my players.’ And you hear that about almost everybody. I have not heard any of those things about Gerry.” [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?