SYRACUSE —― Gerry McNamara’s decision to accept the head-coaching job at Siena College creates an opening on the Syracuse coaching staff.
What qualifications will Syracuse head coach Adrian Autry be looking for as he looks to replace McNamara?
It won’t be an easy task. McNamara, who was officially announced as Siena’s coach on Friday, played a huge role on the coaching staff over the past 12 years.
In 2011, he moved from grad assistant to full-time assistant in the wake of the Bernie Fine scandal. He became a key to Syracuse’s recruiting efforts, bringing in the likes of Joe Girard, Bourama Sidibe, Cole Swider and Maliq Brown.
As a position coach who worked primarily with Syracuse’s guards, McNamara helped develop players such as Tyus Battle, Buddy Boeheim, Tyler Ennis and Michael Gbinije.
This past year, McNamara served as Autry’s associate head coach. There were many times during games when Autry would turn and confer with McNamara.
If previous is any indication, Autry will work quietly on finding McNamara’s successor. Last spring, with McNamara and Allen Griffin retained off Jim Boeheim’s staff, Autry went about the task of filling the assistant coach’s opening.
He went outside the Syracuse basketball family but leaned heavily on his own connections as he hired Brenden Straughn. Autry had gotten to know Straughn through their shared paths through the Washington DC high school and AAU ranks. Both had worked with Team Takeover, the high-powered AAU program.
Autry had an up-close view of Straughn in his role as a recruiter. Straughn had recruited Autry’s son, Trey, to George Washington University.
How will Autry handle the hiring process this time around? Will he make a move quickly? Or will he take his time from him? Syracuse has locked up its two recruits in the 2024 class in Donnie Freeman, a 6-8 forward from Washington, D.C., and Elijah Moore, a 6-3 guard from the Bronx.
The Syracuse coaches have also worked ahead on recruiting the Class of 2025, zeroing in on a select group of prospects, many of whom have already visited the SU campus.
Let’s consider some potential candidates in terms of what they would bring to the job.
For years under Boeheim, the Syracuse coaching staff had a family feel. Many of Boeheim’s assistants were former Orange players with notable exceptions like Wayne Morgan, Troy Weaver and Rob Murphy.
After becoming head coach, Autry emphasized how much being the head coach at his alma mater means to him.
So with losing one of the two former Syracuse players from his staff, would Autry want to reestablish the alumni pipeline?
Potential candidates would include Stephen Thompson, who has been an assistant at Oregon State since 2014. Prior to that Thompson was the head coach at Division II Cal State-Los Angeles for nine seasons.
Jason Hart would be an interesting candidate. He spent the last two years coaching the G-League Ignite, but the NBA has announced that it is discontinuing the Ignite. A former USC assistant, Hart’s name has already come up as a candidate in the school’s head coaching search.
Other names to consider are Demetris Nichols, who just finished his first year as a full-time college assistant at Wake Forest; and former SU walk-on Jake Presutti, who has worked on the staffs at Marquette and Pittsburgh and is currently an assistant at Buffalo.
A head-coaching background
As previously noted, McNamara was the guy that Autry most often turned to during games to go over strategy and other decisions. Would Autry want to bring on an assistant to fill that role?
A few names that would check off that box; plus a few more, includes Mike Boynton, the former coach at Oklahoma State who is also a native of Brooklyn; James Johnson, who worked with Autry at Virginia Tech and was the head coach in Blacksburg for two years; and Dave Leitao, who has been the head coach at Northeastern, DePaul and Virginia and is currently coaching in the Overtime Elite.
Recruiting, recruiting, recruiting
As the old saying goes: It’s the Jimmy’s and the Joe’s; not the Xs and Os.
Autry and his two assistants, Griffin and Straughn, have all established excellent reputations as recruiters. But there’s always more that can be done, right?
This candidate could come from any level of the game: a high school coach, an AAU coach or a college assistant.
It would be foolhardy to start listing random names in this category. It’s just too broad.
But what the heck, let’s toss out two names:
Anthony Doran is an assistant at Manhattan. A Bronx native, he’s coached at Hudson Catholic Regional and Our Savior Lutheran and at the AAU level with the New Jersey Playaz and the New York Lighting.
Joseph Katuka is an assistant at Montverde Academy in Florida, one of the best basketball prep programs in the country. A native of Nigeria, Katuka came to the United States through the Basketball Without Borders camp in South Africa. Katuka, a 6-11 center, played at Montverde and then at (ahem) George Washington University from 2007 to 2011.
Again, these are just names that fit a few descriptions of what Autry may be looking for in McNamara’s replacement.
Rest assured, though, that Autry probably has more than a few names jotted down on a list that’s tucked away in his upper-left desk drawer.
