Landing Moussa Kamissoko matters, but Gerry McNamara is still the key to Syracuse's future

Five-star forward Moussa Kamissoko committed to Syracuse on Friday, marking the first major recruiting move for Gerry McNamara as head coach of the Orange. The 6’7” Kamissoko is a New York native who plays at the SPIRE Academy in Ohio. His commitment does not completely change the landscape of Syracuse basketball, but it is a positive sign for McNamara.

Since arriving from Sienna, McNamara has worked to rebuild the Syracuse roster. He has mostly done it with transfers from mid-majors, mainly Sienna. Ryan Moesch, a four-star guard from Massachusetts, was the Orange’s biggest high school recruit from this past cycle.

Otherwise, ‘Cuse landed a trio of international prospects in Mark Moreno Mahmutovic, Abdramane Siby and Iker Martinez. While all of them offer exciting upside, it’s far from a guarantee that any of them will contribute this season.

Expecting more from McNamara so soon felt foolish in retrospect. He took the job in April and Syracuse had been struggling to keep up from an NIL perspective, but this current roster is lacking high-end talent. The squad assembled has a bunch of interchangeable role players who excel largely on the defensive end of the floor. Hopes of luring a big-name transfer or a high-end recruit to bolster the roster evaporated when McNamara filled out the roster with those international recruits.

Clearly, with a bit more lead time, McNamara is capable of building a team with a higher ceiling. That’s the biggest knock on his current team. No one on the Orange roster is likely to be an All-ACC player or capable of putting the team on their back when needed. Kamissoko has that type of upside.

Big-time recruits don't always equal huge success

However, the inverse is also true. It’s not like the Orange are snapping a long drought without a major recruiting commitment. Adrian Autry landed a five-star recruit and McDonald’s All-American for the Orange just two years ago: Donnie Freeman.

As we saw, being able to land one big recruit does not turn around the program. Freeman played just nine games in his freshman season because of an injury, stuck around for an underwhelming sophomore year and then transferred to St. John’s.

The biggest reason why ‘Cuse struggled under Autry was not a lack of talent. It had more to do with Autry’s inability to develop players and design a cohesive offensive identity. Those are two things that McNamara showed he was capable of doing in his time at Sienna.

I don’t want to downplay the significance of Kamissoko’s commitment. It bodes well for the future of the program. Even in the transfer portal era, being able to recruit top talent, especially those with ties to the New York City area, is always going to be a priority at Syracuse. I just want to remain cautious when it comes to getting my hopes up.

The coaching will ultimately matter more

What McNamara shows us this season will dictate how willing I am to buy into any hype for 2027 and beyond. If he can get more from this team than the sum of its parts, that changes things.

This current ‘Cuse roster has two players who played any sort of meaningful minutes for a Power 5 school last year. That’s Kiyan Anthony and Sadiq White, two holdovers from Autry’s tenure. The rest are either freshmen, mid-major transfers, Calvin Russell or Noah Lobdell.

If he can elevate a roster with clear limitations to the bubble or even make the NCAA tournament, then projections for 2027 are going to be out of control. Because if McNamara could do that with this current squad, imagine what he could be capable of with a team that has a top-20 recruit and, hopefully, a bit more roster continuity.

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