On Monday, Syracuse basketball received a commitment from four-star transfer guard Aiden Tobiason, a sophomore at American Conference member Temple. In his commitment video posted to Tobiason's Instagram page, there is an image of him with the Orange staff, including head coach Gerry McNamara and his assistants.
One of those pictured is Ryan Blackwell, the former 'Cuse standout wing who had been serving as an assistant at Siena under McNamara, who led the Saints over the past two seasons before being named SU's head coach last month.
Although no official announcement, Aiden Tobiasson commitment video appears to show the Syracuse staff. Looks like Ryan Blackwell is on staff. Pete Corsaniti on his 3rd different HC staff for Syracuse. pic.twitter.com/0SDKWJhSmA
— CuseSports44 (@CuseSports44) April 13, 2026
The buzz has been that Blackwell is expected to join the Orange staff as an assistant, although there has been no official announcement about that from Syracuse Athletics or the SU basketball program - yet.
Head coach Gerry McNamara is rounding out his Syracuse basketball coaching staff.
To date, the 'Cuse has officially announced four assistant coaches. They are former Siena assistants Arinze Onuaku and Ben Lee, former VCU assistant Ryan Daly and former Penn State associate head coach Jamal Brunt.
At some point, Syracuse basketball will also likely announce a new director of operations as well as a general manager. On Tuesday, former director of operations and SU alum Peter Corasaniti was named associate athletics director of men's basketball and operations at Syracuse University.
Before joining Siena as an assistant coach, Blackwell was highly successful while serving as the head coach of Liverpool High School in Liverpool, N.Y., from 2015 until 2024. In 2018, he was named the high school coach of the year in New York state by USA Today after Liverpool went 26-0 in the regular season and won the Class AA title.
Blackwell also served as an assistant coach of the Syracuse Stallions, a professional team, during the 2022 campaign. The year before, in 2021, he was the head coach of Boeheim's Army when it captured the $1 million grand prize for claiming The Basketball Tournament (“TBT”) championship.
McNamara's staff includes a veteran coach in Brunt as well as several rising stars in the coaching ranks. I'll be curious to see who the general manager ends up being. The 'Cuse can have up to five assistant coaches, and it would be great if Blackwell is the fifth one.
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