Now is not the time to hire Gerry McNamara as Syracuse basketball's next head coach.
I can already feel the backlash from this particular column, and that's okay. McNamara is an absolute legend within the Syracuse basketball program, helping to lead the Orange to its first and only national title in 2003.
McNamara then went on to be an assistant coach at SU for many years, and he was elevated to associate head coach under then-head coach Adrian Autry for the 2023-24 season. Over the past two campaigns as the head coach, GMac has done a remarkable job turning around Siena, a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference ("MAAC") school located in Loudonville, N.Y., near Albany.
It's a wonderful story that the Saints (23-11 overall) are back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2010, although No. 16 seed Siena will have to face No. 1 overall seed Duke in a round-of-64 battle in the East Region.
Jim Boeheim has publicly stated that GMac should be a candidate for the 'Cuse head coaching vacancy. Reports suggest McNamara will be considered for the SU job. On Sunday night, after the Saints found out their Big Dance destination, GMac said regarding rumors about his Orange head coaching candidacy, "You win, you know, and those things come up. I’ve got an incredible staff. We went out and recruited the right kids. And I like to think I know a little bit about what I’m doing. We’ve got incredible effort and when you win there’s going to be some things and some speculation and for me, nothing’s changed."
Here's why it's not the right time for Gerry McNamara to lead Syracuse basketball.
Okay, hear me out. The Orange hoops program had 47 years with Boeheim at the helm. Then Autry came in for three years, and he went 49-48 overall. The fan base is fed up. Now, some fans would love it if GMac gets a shot now to be SU's head coach; other fans contend that the next head coach needs to come outside the 'Cuse family, so to speak.
My main argument against McNamara (for the time being) is as follows: Yes, he's a Syracuse basketball icon. Fans' love for him will never waver. However, if you showed me his resume as a head coach, and removed McNamara from his name, would you be sold that he's the guy for this gig?
In two terms leading Siena, McNamara is 37-29 overall. He went 14-18 in his first season there, a 10-win improvement over the prior campaign, and in 2025-26, the Saints finished third in the MAAC regular-season standings before claiming the league's post-season tournament to get the auto bid to March Madness.
At the time of this writing, Siena had an NCAA NET ranking of No. 183 overall. The Saints are 0-1 in quadrant-one games and 21-4 in quadrant-four contests. If you saw those metrics, taking away GMac's legacy at SU, would you think he's ready for this head coaching post on the Hill?
I'm not convinced. Sure, I get that McNamara is a top-five career scorer in Orange program history. He won a chip. He's a solid recruiter, but by no means is he an elite recruiter. If he had a few more years of head coaching experience under his belt, I'd push for him more.
It's not GMac's fault he's only been a head coach for two terms. That's just where he is in his tenure. Some fans argue that McNamara would re-energize the fan base and help improve the team's NIL situation.
I'm not so sure about that. Candidly, I think the new athletics director is the one who will improve the program's financial components. I believe some fans would love for GMac to be the next head coach, but there are likely other fans (and some donors) who are ready for a clean break, at least for now, at it relates to former Boeheim family ties.
Boeheim, by the way, recently stated that McNamara is an outsider now, because he is the head coach at Siena. But that's semantics. Boeheim also said of GMac, "He's proven himself outside."
No disrespect to Boeheim, a legendary Hall of Famer, but has McNamara done that? Two seasons as a head coach, in a so-so mid-major conference, with a 37-29 overall record. Hmmm.
To be fair, another speculated top target in the Syracuse basketball head coaching search, South Florida's Bryan Hodgson, has only been a head coach for three seasons. He's 70–36 overall, with a 45–28 record over two years at Arkansas State and a 25–8 mark in 2025-26, his first campaign leading USF (which is a No. 11 seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament).
Hodgson's Bulls won the American Conference regular-season and post-season tournament championships. The American Conference is a notch below the Atlantic Coast conference, for sure, but USF has a NET ranking of No. 45, with a combined record of 8-5 in quadrant-one/quadrant-two affairs.
What intrigues me about Hodgson is that he's not a Syracuse guy, per se, but he's from Western New York, not far from Buffalo, and grew up a 'Cuse fan. I'm not suggesting that if GMac were hired, SU was making a bad decision. I'd cheer on McNamara like it's nobody's business.
I just wish GMac had a bit more higher-level head coaching experience. And even though I'm a proud SU alum (class of 2000), and I appreciate what he's done for the 'Cuse, I don't want to feel like the Orange is stuck in the past when it comes to its new Syracuse basketball head coach.
Hodgson is a proven recruiter, he's a no-nonsense guy (kind of similar to Syracuse football head coach Fran Brown), he loved Syracuse growing up, the fan base and donors will get behind him, and Hodgson is exactly what the Orange hoops team needs to return to ACC and national relevance.
I'll stop my rant now. Feel free to tell me how silly I was with this column's premise. I'll understand.