SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Gerry McNamara, the newly hired men’s basketball coach at Siena College, talked Tuesday about the task ahead of him.
He has a new job. Now he has to formalize his coaching staff and find some players.
Soon after McNamara was hired, Ben Lee, a former assistant coach and director of recruiting for Mike Hopkins at Washington, was reported to be a McNamara hire. Lee is a former Union College point guard who was also an Albany City Rocks coach.
Two former Syracuse players, according to sources, have surfaced on a list of potential McNamara assistant coaches: Arinze Onuaku, a former Syracuse center, and Ryan Blackwell, a former Syracuse forward.
Onuaku is an assistant varsity coach at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C. The program sits No. 21 nationally in ESPN’s 2024 high school rankings. Onuaku grew up in Latham, Maryland, and has ties to the D.C. area.
Blackwell is the head varsity coach at Liverpool High School and has built that program into a Section III power. The Warriors have won three straight sectional titles, their most recent last month, and won a state title in 2018. They finished this season at 21-3. Blackwell for years has also been the head coach of Boeheim’s Army, an annual summer entrant in The Basketball Tournament. He started his coaching career in Japan.
On Tuesday, McNamara would not “confirm or deny” that Onuaku would be on his staff. He was not asked specifically about Blackwell. Onuaku could not be reached for comment. Blackwell said Wednesday he had spoken with McNamara, but declined to say more about the conversations.
“I’m going to have people around me that I trust,” McNamara said Tuesday, without specifying names.
McNamara said he began last Friday to officially search for players who might fit what he wants — “toughness, talent, length, athleticism.” He plans to speak to the handful of players still on the Siena roster, he said.
“You look around, a lot of guys have jumped in the portal,” McNamara said. “You do the right thing in recruiting and get on the right guys and you have a chance to be good really fast.
“There’s guys out there,” he said. “We already have a commitment.”
Myles Wilmoth, a 6-foot-9 Chestnut Ridge (N.Y.) native, announced he would transfer to Siena a couple hours before the school held its introductory news conference for McNamara.
Wilmoth is a City Rocks and St. Andrew’s School in Rhode Island graduate; Syracuse coaches have recruited both programs. He started his career at Butler before transferring to Hofstra last season. Injuries, sources said, have impacted his last couple basketball years.
McNamara said Tuesday he will build his roster with players he can look “in the eye and tell each other the truth.”
Pay related to name, image and likenesss, he said, will be “a factor” in recruiting but will not be a topic he initiates.
“You’re not going to hear us talk to a recruit where it’s going to be the first thing we talk about,” he said. “It’s such a dangerous game we’re playing. I get it. I can’t blame these kids. That’s the model they’ve been given and they’re taking advantage of it. But I’ve said it before, I’m not going to sacrifice because I was at a program where it’s all about tradition and history and you should have pride wearing the jersey. That’s still going to be the first conversation I have.”
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