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Adrian Autry’s legacy is tarnished. What began as the changing of the guard from Jim Boeheim to another Syracuse lifer turned into a nightmare.

Of course, Autry isn’t off the hook. He still shoulders plenty of blame for the Orange’s last three years of mediocrity. But SU’s administration allowed it to happen and failed to allocate enough resources to compete.

With a changing of the guard from top to bottom, Syracuse still went in a similar direction by reportedly hiring Gerry McNamara. He’s a program legend and long-time assistant, just like Autry was.

That’s fine. However, the Orange must change their ways to ensure McNamara doesn’t become the next chapter in a ruined reputation, ultimately moving the program further down the ladder of national relevance.

The uncomfortable truth of the modern college basketball world is that it really didn’t matter who SU’s next coach was if it couldn’t cough up enough money to support them. Sure, X’s and O’s matter between the lines, and a coach must motivate his team when needed.

McNamara obviously proved he’s able to do so, taking the No. 1 team in the country down to the wire in the NCAA Tournament. Postgame, Duke head coach Jon Scheyer even said McNamara “outcoached him.” You’d be hard-pressed to find a time an opposing head coach even dared utter that sentence when Autry led the Orange. Especially not versus a team of the Blue Devils’ caliber.

Syracuse could’ve acquired prime John Wooden, and its lineup, full of under-the-radar, cheap pickups, would still struggle to hit its stride versus teams with boatloads of cash to spend. Not to mention schools that don’t need to allocate part of their $20.5 million revenue share toward football.

But here’s where things get interesting, folks. ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported the Orange expect to have a budget in the top-third of the Atlantic Coast Conference next season. In Autry’s third year, SU was middle of the pack.

Thamel’s report aligns well with what new Syracuse Director of Athletics Bryan Blair said in his introductory press conference Thursday.

“NIL is one of the most, if not the most, important aspects of what we do,” Blair said. “If we don’t have talented student athletes, if we can’t win and be competitive, we can’t drive the commercial enterprise to feed this entire ecosystem.”

Blair proved through his past ventures that he can succeed with limited resources. Though on Thursday, he said he doesn’t want to resort to such drastic measures at Syracuse. He shouldn’t have to. How can SU reach its monetary peak to compete where it needs to?

Well, the answer might just be looking to an old friend, one who helped McNamara elevate Siena in just two years.

Adam Weitsman must be in the equation. The former Syracuse booster who brought celebrities to games and recruits on private jets had a notable falling out with SU’s administration. He took his wallet to Siena, helping support McNamara.

Syracuse.com reported this past summer that Weitsman contributed $250,000 over a two-year period to pay Le Moyne players. He paid $75,000 to help McNamara retain Gavin Doty, the Siena sophomore who averaged 18.0 points per game this season and dropped 21 against Duke. Doty could very well join McNamara at Syracuse.

Weitsman sticking with McNamara, teaming up with John and Laura Lally and creating a funding juggernaut to support McNamara is the only way forward. Simply put, it’s what successful programs are doing. It’s what the Orange failed to do under Autry, leading to pitiful rosters like the 2024-25 team, filled with mid-major transfers in prominent roles.

The eyes were already on McNamara taking over, especially once USF’s Bryan Hodgson took himself out of the running and then took the Providence job. Blair said Thursday he’d be cheering McNamara on in the NCAA Tournament, solely because of his status as an SU alum and program legend.

His turnaround at Siena in just two years is impressive and taking Duke to the limit is no easy task, as Syracuse has come to learn over the last decade. Outside options like Hodgson and St. Louis’ Josh Schertz went to the wayside organically, and other young coaches like UConn assistant Luke Murray would’ve been too risky for a program with no margin for error.

The hire makes even more sense as John Wildhack puts the finishing touches on his era. Throughout his tenure as SU’s Director of Athletics, Wildhack has proven that, whether in lacrosse or basketball, he hires coaches with connections to the school, oftentimes alumni.

Thamel reported that Blair spoke with McNamara multiple times, and it’s assumed Blair and Chancellor-elect Mike Haynie would have the biggest say in the next head coach of a prominent program. But it’d be ignorant to believe Wildhack — and even Boeheim — didn’t have a say in the decision.

There’s nothing wrong with keeping it in the family. It’s how alums stay connected. Tyler Lydon, a 2017 NBA Draft first-round pick who played under Autry and McNamara when they were assistants, told The Daily Orange the possibility of the program not having an alum at the helm crossed his mind. He thought about what the scenario might look like, since he’d no longer have ties to the coaching staff and would have to connect solely through his alma mater’s brand.

It’s a positive when you look at it from that angle, a way to keep decades of Orange players together. But what happens if the well runs dry and things go south again? Does a beloved player and assistant coach fall to the wayside again?

That can’t happen this time, both for the morale of the program and its standing. If it does, Syracuse basketball won’t survive, pushing lower into the depths of irrelevancy.

Aiden Stepansky is a Senior Staff Writer for The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at amstepan@syr.edu or on X @AidenStepansky.

Published on March 23, 2026 at 10:31 am
Contact Aiden at: amstepan@syr.edu | @AidenStepansky