For Syracuse fans watching this week, it’s hard not to feel something uncomfortable.
Because while Syracuse Orange men’s basketball just finished a miserable regular season — one that will end with a fifth straight NCAA Tournament absence — a familiar face is doing something remarkable a few hours down the road.
Gerry McNamara has Siena Saints men’s basketball one win away from the NCAA Tournament.
That sentence alone would have sounded absurd a year ago.
Siena went 4–28 in the 2023–24 season. It was one of the worst teams in Division I basketball. When McNamara took the job, the expectation wasn’t an immediate turnaround — it was stabilization.
Instead, the Saints are now 20–11, the No. 3 seed in the MAAC Tournament, and playing in the title game for a trip to the Big Dance.
Even more impressive? Siena has done it without one of its best players, Antonio Chandler, who has been sidelined during the tournament because of an eligibility issue.
None of it has slowed the momentum.
The locker room videos tell the story. Players screaming and slapping the MAAC bracket whiteboard. Pure chaos and joy after each win. The kind of unfiltered energy that college basketball is supposed to be about.
It’s the opposite of what Syracuse fans just experienced.
While Siena is dancing on the edge of March, Syracuse is staring at empty seats inside the Dome, questions about NIL spending, and the likely end of Adrian Autry’s tenure.
One program feels alive.
The other feels exhausted.
And right in the middle of that contrast is McNamara — a program legend whose name inevitably pops up whenever Syracuse fans start debating the future.
It’s impossible to ignore what he’s done in such a short time.
Turning a 4–28 team into a 20-win contender in two seasons is not normal. Even in the MAAC. Even with portal help. Culture doesn’t flip that quickly unless the message resonates.
Which brings us to the question Syracuse fans keep asking:
Is this enough to earn McNamara the job?
Siena and Syracuse are completely different worlds. Recruiting expectations, NIL budgets, media pressure — everything scales dramatically. A great mid-major coach doesn’t automatically become a great ACC coach. Plus, Mike Hopkins left and fizzled out. Autry is cratering on the sidelines. Former SU legends are a falling stock right now.
But this much is undeniable.
Right now, Gerry McNamara has something Syracuse basketball desperately lacks:
Momentum.
And if Siena cuts down the nets and goes dancing, that question — once hypothetical — is going to get very loud in Central New York.
