Gerry McNamara's new Syracuse basketball coaching staff starting to take shape

Just days after his Monday afternoon introduction, and while curious if any members of the media took up McNamara's dare not to "follow me home" Monday night when he was apparently on route to meet members of his new staff, the names of the coaches are starting to materialize.

A staff with new names featuring a rising talent and wise leadership

Multiple reports Thursday indicated that VCU assistant coach Ryan Daly is joining the 'Cuse program after one season with the Rams under Phil Martelli Jr.

Daly is a lifelong "Philly basketball gym rat" in a nutshell, both scholastically, collegiately, and as a rising assistant at three Div. I schools in just five years.

In addition, and in a move that can not go unnoticed considering how the Big Ten has been flexing its hoops muscle, Penn State associate head coach Jamal Brunt is making a strategic career move to join the Orange.

Brunt just completed his third season as the top assistant to Mike Rhodes after the two worked together at...VCU from 2018-2023, before heading in tandem to State College.

A staff with a distinct Orange flavor and comfortable name familiarity

There are still at minimum two assistant openings to fill on McNamara's staff, and spelling out the final order of responsibility back to the head coach.

There is also the vacant director of operations slot, two new potential player development coaching specialists, and of course, the big question of filling the program's general manager job working side-by-side with the new coaching staff to build an ACC-contending roster to specifications.

It figures that several of those positions will be filled by ex-Orange players, and GMac assistants at Siena, Ryan Blackwell and Arinze Onuaku. What is not known yet are individual specific roles (titles) as McNamara still finalizes those details.

There has been much speculation that McNamara told the university he needed a bigger support team moving forward as part of his pledge to get the program back to relevance next season. SU's staff paled in size to that of most of the eight ACC teams that earned NCAA Tournament bids this past season.

As for the director of operations position, McNamara has a close relationship with both Peter Corasaniti, who held the job under Adrian Autry, and former SU video coordinator Ryan Beaury who served in the director of operations position the last two seasons at Siena, and may choose to stay under a new coach.

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