John Wildhack is out as Syracuse’s athletics director, but one of the biggest calls from his tenure is still hanging in the air: the choice to hand the men’s basketball job to Adrian Autry instead of Gerry McNamara after Jim Boeheim retired in March of 2023.
Wildhack, who wrapped up a 10-year run on June 30 before Bryan Blair officially took over on July 1, opened up about that decision in a radio interview earlier this week. He made clear that it was not a simple pick. Both Autry and McNamara wanted the job, and Wildhack said choosing between them was a “really hard decision to make.”
That much is easy to understand from the results alone. Syracuse went 49-48 under Autry in three seasons, starting with a 20-12 record in year one before dropping into back-to-back losing seasons. Wildhack acknowledged in the interview that the first season went well, but the next two did not.
The former AD said he knew the call would leave one of them disappointed. That was part of what made it so difficult, because he likes and respects both men. Wildhack also said both Autry and McNamara “approached it the right way,” and each told him that if he didn’t get the job, he hoped the other one would.
Autry had been Syracuse’s associate head coach, and the promotion made sense to plenty of people who wanted the program to stay inside the family. McNamara, who had been an assistant under Boeheim, eventually moved on to Siena, where he spent two seasons and helped turn that program around, including an NCAA Tournament appearance this past spring. After Autry was fired, Syracuse went through a national search and hired McNamara in March.
Now the two men are in different spots, but still connected by the same Orange thread. Last weekend, Autry and McNamara sat next to each other at the DMV Live event in Hyattsville, Md., while evaluating a recruit. Autry is now an assistant at Virginia, while McNamara is in his first year as Syracuse’s head coach and trying to get the Orange back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2021.
Wildhack’s comments only sharpen the question that has followed this whole transition: did he get it wrong in choosing Autry over McNamara?
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