Inside the Loud House
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Syracuse Basketball: BTS on building the Boeheim’s Army roster

By Paul A. Esden Jr.

SYRACUSE, NY - NOVEMBER 16: Chris McCullough #5 of the Syracuse Orange drives to the basket against the Hampton Pirates on November 16, 2014 at The Carrier Dome in Syracuse, New York. Syracuse wins 65-47 over Hampton. (Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images)
SYRACUSE, NY - NOVEMBER 16: Chris McCullough #5 of the Syracuse Orange drives to the basket against the Hampton Pirates on November 16, 2014 at The Carrier Dome in Syracuse, New York. Syracuse wins 65-47 over Hampton. (Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images) /
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Usually, in a football front office, the general manager builds the team and the head coach coaches the talent. In most cases, there is a clear separation of church and state, but with Boeheim’s Army, they try to get the best of both worlds.

"“At the end of the day I have the final say and make the final call, but it’s a collaborative effort. I want Ryan (Blackwell) to be happy with the roster because he’s going to be coaching it. Also, Eric (Devendorf) has been super helpful in the recruiting process. Speaking of that it’s actually really helpful to be able to attack a recruit from multiple angles. Like I may reach out to someone, then I can get Eric or Ryan to do a follow-up message or call. Guys like feeling wanted and getting hit up by multiple people makes you feel good. It’s no different than the Syracuse basketball squad when they’re chasing a recruit, a certain coach may be assigned to a guy, but they all chip in during recruiting.”"

Although the recruiting process is a lot different now than it was when TBT first started:

"“At least now we’re kind of known as an entity, at least in this community, so that’s helpful. When we first started this thing I won’t lie it was incredibly difficult. I had to explain to guys that this TBT thing was legitimate and not a scam. I literally had to pull up YouTube videos showing the guys that this was real. No one knew what it was and players were saying, “TBT? Like throwback Thursday what is this?”"

When the squad is recruiting, there are two different types of recruits they’re chasing:

  • Returning players (Boeheim’s Army alum).
  • Brand new players who have never played in TBT previously.

"“As soon as we lose I have a Google spreadsheet of every Syracuse basketball alum over the last 15 years or so. They’re all categorized by their status: playing professionally in the NBA or overseas. So we go through that and Marc Lomasky is a huge help putting this together and then we go through the list, position by position.”"

Throughout our conversation with Kevin he continued to reiterate that once a player gets a taste of TBT or Boeheim’s Army, they’re usually hooked. Which has really helped to maintain players from one year to the next.

While continuity is important to team success, adding young blood is arguably even more important. You want to keep a steady stream of young talent on the squad to balance out the veterans.

Here’s how Kevin approaches adding a new player he’s never had on before (like Chris McCullough this season):

"“Everyone wants to make it to the NBA whether you’re the star guy or 13th guy. So as much as I want to go call up Jerami Grant or Dion Waiters about joining us in the future, I’m respectful, those guys are making millions of dollars right now and I don’t want to insult them. My rule has always been when a player is one year removed from playing consistently in the NBA then I’ll approach them because at that time they’re seriously considering other opportunities.”"

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