Syracuse's Next Basketball Hire is Critical

I was up in Syracuse last weekend

I went to the UNC Syracuse game at the Dome. And the fact is, Syracuse is right now on hard times

They've got a 500 record. They've got a losing record of the ACC

It's going to be five straight years without the tournament. And they're going to end up firing Adrian Autry after season number three

all of which without a tournament bid. And they're going to have to find a new AD as well

because John Wildhack is retiring in July. A lot of instability happening right now at Syracuse

And so there's a big worry in central New York about whether this is an elite job

and whether they can draw somebody that might have other options and whether it was really just Jim Boeheim

and the magic of the Big East that built that program. And all of that is now out the window

dissipated into fairy dust or snow on I-81. And the answer is, it's still an elite job, but it's going to take a special person

Jim Boeheim was a special person, even if he was a crotchety curmudgeon that argued with officials and student media, etc

He was a special guy because he was from upstate New York, and he had no interest in going anywhere else

and his giant larger-than-life persona when the Big East was larger-than-life was the perfect fit alongside John Thompson

and Raleigh Massimino and Rick Pitino and all of those guys Autry is not that And today it hard to find that You don have coaches that have that big personality anymore

because they're just not around long enough to do so, and you can't treat players that way anymore

But I sat in the carrier dome for a squad that's not going to make the tournament

with most of the 23,000 people in that building waiting for Syracuse to lose

and I looked around and said, who else gets 23,000 people on campus for a game

when it's not going to be a tournament season? They're there. They are waiting

They are starving. They are there. The problem is Syracuse oftentimes acts like a mid-major

when it comes to funding, when it comes to NIL money, when it comes to vision

And I don't know what this looks like this offseason. I really don't. I don't know what this looks like

because I don't know who the new AD is going to be. And I don't know how much push there's going to be to play it safe

to do something that's not going to rock the boat, but you do need somebody to flip a switch

And there are guys that can do it. Look at Dusty May

There are guys that can do it, but do you have the right people in place that can convince the next Dusty

May or somebody like that? This is the place for you. And that's still a worry that I have and that every Syracuse Orange alum would have. Is this really a great job? Can it be a great job if the people in charge above don't have the right vision