What is Syracuse?

Syracuse is currently on the way to another loss to a Tobacco Road team. A loss today would drop Syracuse to 15-13 overall and 6-9 in the ACC. With no avenue to the NCAA Tournament without an unlikely ACC Tourney win, it begs the question, what is Syracuse?

This is Adrian Autry’s third and likely last season as the head coach of Syracuse. Replacing a legend is never easy but the decline of Syracuse began before Autry got the job.

Since joining the ACC in the 2013-14 season, Syracuse will have missed the tournament more than they have made it. In fact, in the decade Jim Boeheim coached in the ACC, the Orange missed the tournament as much as they made it. In their last 5 seasons in the Big East, the Orange made 4 Sweet 16’s and a Final 4.

There are a lot of poster child’s for the negative consequences of chasing football dollars. The Orange have Pitt joining them in the ACC as schools miscast in a league. Is that the reason? It’s easy to say it is but given UConn’s ascension back to the top of the college basketball world after returning to the Big East, it is worth asking.

Autry is almost certainly going to be fired. It’s not a lack of talent acquisition. HS recruiting and transfer portal recruiting hasn’t been elite but it’s been good enough they should be much better than they have been. Gerry McNamara will be a popular name. Longtime assistant and playing legend, he is the head coach at Siena and they’ve been very improved over his first season. The question that will be asked, do you want to go to that same well as you did with Autry.

The other name will be Josh Schertz, a Brooklyn native. If he wants to leave St. Louis, he’ll have his pick of jobs. Given the jobs to likely to be open, this might be the best depending on the dominoes. The coaching chops are there but he hasn’t been somewhere that requires high level recruiting. Of course, he can alleviate that with top assistants but it will be a legit concern.

A lot of things have lead Syracuse to this point. A legend head coach who lost his fastball at the end of his tenure. Misfire on the replacement. Chasing football dollars lost their basketball identity. The days of relevancy over. They’ll need to hit on this hire or they’ll be Nebraska football. Wandering aimlessly trying to recapture long lost glory.