Gerry McNamara is back in the Dome — they call it the JMA Wireless Dome now, not the Carrier Dome, but it’s the same building, the place where G-Mac became a college basketball legend for SU.
It’s been 23 years since he nailed six 3-pointers in the first half as a true freshman as Syracuse won its only national title. It’s been two decades since McNamara’s legendary run through the Big East Tournament.
And after McNamara left his SU assistant post to go be the head coach at Siena, he has returned to the Orange.
For the first time on Monday, McNamara coached his alma mater in a regular season game. They took on New Haven and won, 74-58.
There was an epic pregame hype video which even featured the famed suggestion that McNamara was overrated while in college — a remark that ticked Jim Boeheim off, and which McNamara proved very wrong.
The performance on the floor, though, with McNamara now SU’s coach — he was not happy about it.
Gerry McNamara Uses 1 Word
McNamara described Syracuse’s performance by saying that he was “disgusted.”
He joined broadcasts Matt Park and Eric Devendorf to discuss the win, and Gerry didn’t hold back, even when asked about what his recently passed father would think of the result.
“He’d be as disgusted as I am right now,” McNamara said on ACC Network Extra. “I thought we had really good intensity defensively in the first half. At one point, they were 14-for-22 from the field in the second half. We’ve got to be way better. It’s our own doing. We take ill-advised shots, turned the ball over multiple times in the first half when we had total control of the game.”
McNamara wasn’t done.
“We’re either going to grow up, or we’re going to learn the hard lesson,” McNamara said. “I’ve talked about discipline with these guys… We need better point guard play. Simple as that. Flat out. When they make a mistake, I’m gonna pull them.”
McNamara then reflected for a moment on his late father.
“My dad was a hoop junkie just like me,” McNamara said. “I’d be calling him tonight if I were the case, and we’d be venting together.”
Not Supposed To Be This Close
Syracuse was favored by 26.5 points to win on Monday night.
The Orange won by 16.
And that’s despite Syracuse scoring the game’s first 18 points. From that point on, New Haven played them even.
The Chargers are a Division I program, out of the NEC, so they’re not a total pushover. But the Orange were expected to do better than this.
SU didn’t create great looks when New Haven went zone, and the visitors found a comfort level working against Syracuse’s man-to-man defense, too.
McNamara brings a new energy to the Syracuse sideline. He’s clearly not afraid to tell it like it is. There’s some Boeheim-esque vibes to that.
Time will tell, but that might be exactly what this SU program needs.
Syracuse’s Gerry McNamara Uses 1 Shocking Word To Describe Win Over New Haven