Despite the lack of highly prospected transfers such as Flory Bidunga and John Blackwell, Syracuse men’s Basketball still has had a very successful offseason, and it isn’t even over yet.
To start, Syracuse fired their previous coach, Adrian Autry after some disappointing seasons, missing out on the tournament every year that he was the head coach. In hopes for change, a familiar face to the Syracuse organization was making a name for himself while facing number one Duke, Gerry McNamara. McNamara has previously played for the Syracuse Orange and even won a national championship. Gerry is also a previous assistant coach for the orange and just recently took his coaching talents to Siena where he would help them reach the national tournament where they would give the Duke Blue Devils a run for their money, only losing by six.
Syracuse did lack high school recruits but used the transfer portal to their advantage and the idea that players want to follow their coach. First, Syracuse went out and got Gavin Doty who was ranked top 100 in the transfer portal players. Also recently, Francis Folefac and Tasman Goodrick decided to follow coach McNamara from Siena to Syracuse and showed signs of potential last season with the Saints. That’s not it though, four-star Siena commit, Ryan Moesch just flipped his commitment to Syracuse so he will be joining the roster next year with his friend Gavin Doty, they are both from upstate New York and played in the same section of high school basketball.
It is not just the Siena transfers who followed their coach, however. It is the transfers in general for Syracuse. Syracuse managed to pick up Luke Wilson who is a three-star transfer, along with Garwey Dual who is also a three-star transfer. Syracuse would not end here, picking up another gem in the transfer portal by the name of Aiden Tobiason who had an impressive season for Texas Tech and is a four-star transfer ranked a little lower than Gavin Doty.
It doesn’t end there for Syracuse. Many questioned if Syracuse could keep players from last year’s team due to the coaching change and many already leaving, but some players gave fans some familiar faces to look at next year. First, the 27th overall player in the 2025 high school class, Sadiq White Jr. decided to make his return to the team despite his talent giving him the ability to leave the organization. The big news however was Kiyan Anthony returning to Syracuse despite a disappointing freshmen season with the Orange. Kiyan was ranked 36th overall in his class and has had ties with Syracuse his whole life, his dad, Carmelo Anthony being the best player to ever come out of the Syracuse organization, possibly in any sport.
The past couple of seasons have been disappointing for the Orange and their fans, having to switch coaches and attempt to find a new system that works for them. McNamara has the passion and the players have the talent, can they put it all together and make it far this March?