Former Syracuse basketball star forward Ryan Blackwell is coming home to join the Orange program as its director of player engagement, SU Athletics announced on Wednesday.
It was assumed that Blackwell was going to become a member of the 'Cuse staff, although his role isn't necessarily what I expected. But that's just me! For the past two seasons, Blackwell was an assistant coach under head coach Gerry McNamara at Siena.
Welcome home, Ryan Blackwell! 🍊
— Syracuse Men’s Basketball (@Cuse_MBB) April 15, 2026
📰 https://t.co/psVyCHD5kI pic.twitter.com/6WOXDJcPom
Last month, McNamara was hired to be the next head coach of Syracuse basketball, replacing yet another former SU player, Adrian Autry. A huge congrats and welcome back from Orange Nation to Ryan!
As the team's director of player engagement, Blackwell "will serve as the program's primary connector to its extended network of alumni and former student-athletes," according to a press release posted to cuse.com.
Per the media statement, Blackwell is tasked with developing an alumni and donor engagement strategy, in coordination with SU Athletics, and he will take the lead in executing events such as mentorship and networking opportunities, alumni weekends, and other "activations."
Blackwell, as I outlined in an article on Tuesday, had a tremendous run from 2015 to 2024 as the head coach of Liverpool High School in Liverpool, N.Y. He played three seasons for Syracuse basketball, and the Orange made the NCAA Tournament in each of those campaigns. Blackwell earned his undergraduate degree from SU in 2000, and then he played professionally overseas for a decade.
Syracuse basketball's assistant staff is nearly complete.
McNamara currently has four assistant coaches. They are Arinze Onuaku and Ben Lee, who both came over with McNamara from Siena. The other two are former VCU assistant Ryan Daly and former Penn State associate head coach Jamal Brunt.
The 'Cuse can have up to five assistant coaches, so I'll be curious to see if McNamara brings on board one more. It is also expected that, at some point, Syracuse basketball will have a new director of operations and a new general manager, who will focus on the transfer portal, high school recruiting, overall roster construction, player development and financial issues, among other things.
On Tuesday, former Syracuse basketball assistant coach and longtime director of operations Peter Corasaniti, an SU alum, was named to a newly created role - associate athletics director of men's basketball and operations at Syracuse University.
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