Syracuse turned to its past by hiring former star guard Gerry McNamara on Tuesday in a bid to guide a fading men's basketball program back to prominence.
The 42-year-old McNamara, nicknamed "G-Mac," is returning to where he and Carmelo Anthony led the Orange to a national championship in 2003. McNamara then spent 14 years as an assistant under Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim and an additional season under his successor, Adrian Autry.
Now he replaces Autry, who was fired after three largely disappointing seasons in which the Orange went 49-48 and extended their NCAA Tournament drought to five seasons — the school's longest since 1967-72.
McNamara returns to central New York after spending the past two seasons at Siena, where he went 37-30. That included a 23-12 finish this year in which the Saints won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament and clinched their first NCAA berth since 2010.
The 16th-seeded Saints then nearly knocked off Duke in an eventual 71-65 first-round loss on Thursday.
In McNamara, the Orange hire a coach who has name recognition and connections to a program's proud past in which Syracuse was an established basketball power over Boeheim's 47-year tenure that featured 35 tournament berths and five Final Four appearances.
And Boeheim, whose name graces Syracuse's home court, remains a fixture with the team as a special assistant.
McNamara's hiring comes with Syracuse in transition, with Bryan Blair taking over as athletic director. He was hired on March 12 and replaces John Wildhack, who is retiring in July following a 10-year tenure.
Under Blair, Syracuse is expected to place an emphasis on increasing its financial commitment to recruit players — something the program lacked under Wildhack.
As a player, McNamara finished fourth at Syracuse in career points (2,099) and first in minutes played (4,781). His No. 3 jersey was retired in 2023.
