Adrian Autry was fired from his position as head coach of Syracuse men’s basketball, setting John Wildhack and now Bryan Blair on a national search to find his replacement. Over the last few months, online forums have already joined in on the debate and discussion of who the next Syracuse coach should be. Many of the names that I’ll mention in here have been mentioned by Syracuse fans, many of these names will also be candidates for other openings as well.
This list will also probably feature some
names that Syracuse fans haven’t thought much about, as well as some coaches that I’d caution against hiring if I were the decision maker.
Without further ado, here is the ultimate Syracuse head coaching list.
The Biggest Fishes
Josh Schertz, Saint Louis, 50: This is the one that *everybody* wants. Providence, Kansas State, et cetera. If you have an open job in college basketball this year, you want Josh Schertz. A consummate basketball sicko who once spent ten hours talking ball with Dusty May without eating or leaving May’s office, Schertz won a whopping 83% of his games over 13 seasons at Division II Lincoln Memorial in Tennessee. Then, he made the move to Indiana State, where he won 23+ games in back-to-back years, including a 32-win season and trip to the NIT Finals in 2024. At Saint Louis, he won the Atlantic 10 title for the first time in over a decade, and led the Billikens to a projected 9 seed in his second season.
It’s going to take a lot of money to beat out some of these other programs for Schertz’s signature, and I wouldn’t discount him possibly staying at Saint Louis either – that’s a place where he’s proven that he can win at an elite level nationally – and wait out a potential opening at North Carolina, Tennessee, Michigan State, or a program of that stature in future cycles.
Schertz has more career NCAA wins than every ACC coach besides Brad Brownell. He’s widely renowned for his offensive scheme, but this season, his SLU team was elite on both sides of the ball.
Update: Schertz has agreed to an extension at St. Louis
Bryan Hodgson, South Florida, 38: Bryan Hodgson only has three years of head coaching experience, but he has won 20 games in all three, and finished at least four games above .500 in conference play in all three. In 2024-25, his Arkansas State team finished with the highest KenPom rank in program history at 84. His first team at South Florida has the best KenPom rank since the program was in the Big East over a decade ago and won the outright American Conference Championship by multiple games.
Coming off of the Nate Oats tree, Hodgson was known as one of the top recruiting assistant coaches in the country at Alabama, and he’s brought high-level players to both Arkansas State and South Florida. His teams also play at an extremely fast pace, and emphasize rim-and-3 rate, similar to Oats.
As an upstate New York native, Hodgson is rumored to have significant interest in the Syracuse job. He was born in Olean, grew up in Jamestown, coached at Jamestown, Fredonia, and finally, Buffalo with Oats before following him to Alabama. Additionally, he’s only 38 years old, making him one of the youngest rising coaches in the game.
Two High-Major Coaches
Kyle Smith, Stanford, 56: Ball knowers know how good of a coach Kyle Smith is. I don’t know if he’d want to move across the country and take the Syracuse job just two years into being the Stanford coach, but it’s worth an ask. He’s one of the sharpest evaluators in the country, finding studs from every level. Smith gave Jamaree Bouyea his only Division I offer at San Francisco. Look at the names he recruited at Washington State – Myles Rice, Rueben Chinyelu, Oscar Cluff, Jaylen Wells – and where they were when he signed them versus now. And obviously, Ebuka Okorie was committed to Harvard before Stanford swooped in.
He’s also cultivated one of the best coaching trees in the sport, as his process is the one fueling Todd Golden, Mike Magpayo, Kevin Hovde, John Andrzejek, Chris Gerlufsen, and more. Schematically and philosophically, he’s driven by his analytics and hustle stats.
Smith was the first coach to have a winning record at Columbia since the 1950s. He had the highest winning percentage of any coach at San Francisco since the early 1980s. And the only coach in the last century to have a better winning percentage than Smith at Washington State is Tony Bennett. He’s won at a lot of places where you’re not supposed to win. Syracuse would be a different type of job than he’s used to.
Shaheen Holloway, Seton Hall, 49: Now in his eighth season as a head coach, the first four at Saint Peter’s, and the last four at Seton Hall, Shaheen Holloway has only finished with a losing record in conference play twice. He has had a top 35 defense in the country, per KenPom, in four of the last five seasons, and he was the architect behind SPU’s run to the Elite Eight in 2022.
He’s a flawed coach, as he’s only had a top 100 offense once, and he’s not yet made the NCAA Tournament at Seton Hall. But Holloway’s teams play harder than just about anybody in the country, as they pressure the ball, force a ton of turnovers, and protect the rim at an elite level. SHU’s NIL structure has been criticized, and Syracuse could likely offer him more resources to build a better roster.
However, Holloway is a Seton Hall alumnus, so who knows if he’d even want to leave.
Two assistant coaches
Luke Murray, UConn, 40 and Kimani Young, UConn, 52
Both Murray and Young are among the highest paid, most well-known, and most well-regarded assistant coaches in the country. Murray is credited as the offensive mastermind behind UConn’s diverse bag of offensive sets, while Young has been a key recruiter and presence in the program, helping win back-to-back national championships.
Neither has ever been a head coach, as UConn recognizes their value to the program by paying them in a way that most mid-major head coaching jobs would be a step down. So are they ready to be high-major head coaches? I’d say so, but is hiring a career assistant the right route right now for Syracuse? It’s not where I’d go first.
Mid-Major Coaches (The Hot Names)
Jerrod Calhoun, Utah State, 44: He’s finishing his 14th season as a Head Coach having started at D2 Fairmont State before moving on to Youngstown State. In two seasons at Utah State, Calhoun has a record of 51-14 and an offense averaging over 80 points per game. The Ohio native is one of the reported finalists for the Kansas State job.
Tony Skinn, George Mason, 43: In three seasons at George Mason, Tony Skinn finished in KenPom’s Top 100 all three years. The program hadn’t finished top 100 since Jim Larrañaga’s last season there in 2011. Skinn was a point guard for the 2006 Final Four team at Mason, and coached under Erik Konkol, Kevin Willard, and Chris Holtmann before getting the head job at his alma mater.
His teams have relied on guard who pressure the ball and the rim. Each of the last two seasons, George Mason has been top 15 in the country in free-throw rate offensively. The Patriots started 18-1 and 6-0 in the A-10 this past year, but they struggled to finish the season. Like Adrian Autry, Skinn spent time coaching Team Takeover in the DMV.
Eric Olen, New Mexico, 45: Olen has no ties to the northeast, but his success as a head coach at both UC San Diego, and now New Mexico, makes him one of the top young coaches in the sport. He guided the Tritons through the transition to Division I, turning them into a Division II power before leading them to the Division I NCAA Tournament in their first year eligible in 2024-25.
Then, he left for New Mexico and outperformed all expectations in year one with a team led by unheralded and unknown freshmen. His talent evaluation and ability to spot fits within his system is elite.
Matt Langel, Colgate, 48: Syracuse fans know all too well who Matt Langel is. He led Colgate to wins at the Dome two years in a row, building the Raiders into the Patriot League’s premier program. He’s won over 60% of his conference games, led Colgate to five NCAA Tournaments, and is the program’s all-time winningest coach. Langel is known for his offensive scheme, which creates efficient shots for great shooters. Colgate has had a top 15 eFG% in the country six times, and hasn’t finished outside of the top 100 since 2017-18.
However, Colgate hasn’t been the dominant Patriot League force over the last two years, dropping back below 200 in KenPom after averaging a 119th-place finish the previous six years. He also has never worked in high-major basketball, and the jump from the Patriot League to the ACC would be a massive one.
Phil Martelli Jr., VCU, 44: Martelli, Jr. played for his Dad at St. Joseph’s and then got right into coaching.He took over at Bryant and went 43-25 winning the America East title last year. He parlayed that success into following Ryan Odom at VCU where he’s currently got a 24-7 record.
Martelli’s squad is averaging 26 3s and 26 free throws per game this season and should be a fun watch in the Tournament. The track record isn’t as long as others, but you could be getting in on a hot stock early.
Gerry McNamara, Siena, 42: Oh boy. Here we go. Syracuse legend Gerry McNamara has done a great job in his first two seasons as Siena’s head coach. I think a lot of Cuse fans have tried to discredit McNamara’s success at Siena because they want the Orange to go outside the family for the next hire. I agree that Syracuse shouldn’t be married to an inside-the-family hire, but I don’t think they should completely ignore McNamara.
He’s done a good job recruiting, hit on a few portal evaluations, and led Siena to the MAAC Championship this year. Sentimentally, he’s the choice. The visuals would be striking of him coming back into the Dome, but he’s not the best candidate in terms of his resume, just yet.
Joe Gallo, Merrimack, 46: Gallo has led Merrimack from Division II to the NEC to the MAAC without missing a step. The Warriors won the MAAC regular season title this year for the first time, and he has the most conference wins of any coach in his first two seasons in the MAAC in at least the last 30 years.
He runs a 2-3 zone that sometimes can look like a 4-1 zone with how high the wings play. His teams are routinely near the top of the sport in turnover margin, making up for being near the bottom of rebound margin. This season, the Warriors had their best offense as a Division I program.
Gallo is a Merrimack alum, and the jump from the MAAC to the ACC is a big one, but all he’s ever done is win. And he’s an elite evaluator, as evidenced by bringing Budd Clark and Kevair Kennedy to the Warriors.
Mid-Major Coaches (Some Other Names)
These are not coaches that I’d expect to be in the mix at Syracuse, but I do think they’re worth mentioning at some level.
Casey Alexander, Belmont, 53: Alexander played for the great Rick Byrd at Belmont in the 1990s before becoming his successor in 2019 after winning 65% of his conference games over six seasons at Lipscomb.
Alexander has continued Belmont’s prominence as an elite mid-major program, winning 20 games in every single season at the helm, and winning over 75% of his conference games, even with the move to the Missouri Valley. The Bruins have been known for their offense for many years, and Alexander has led the team to four seasons with a top 10 eFG% in the country.
With this season’s success at Belmont, this may be the year that a high-major hires him away from his alma mater. (Ed. Note: Alexander was hired today at Kansas State)
Ryan Ridder, Mercer, 41: Ryan Ridder is in his second season at Mercer and just led the Bears to their first winning record in conference play since 2020. He took over a UT Martin program that hadn’t had a winning season in five years, and won 19 and 21 games in his second and third season. His third season, he went 14-4 in the OVC, the best that program had done since 2009. Before that, he led Bethune-Cookman to three consecutive seasons above .500 in the MEAC in his only three seasons at the helm, something they’d never done in program history.
His first head coaching job was at JUCO Daytona State, where he won four straight conference championships and won 77% of his games.
Ridder isn’t a big name to college basketball fans, and he’s probably a year or two away from making the jump from Mercer, but he’s highly regarded by other coaches for his sharp evaluation skills and offensive mind. Additionally, Mercer is one of the best teams in the country against the spread this season. A SoCon to ACC jump is a big one – as evidenced by Steve Forbes and Mike Young’s varying levels of success, and their SoCon teams were much better than Ridder’s – but I do think that Ridder will eventually be a high-major coach.
Matt Braeuer, Stephen F. Austin, 39: Matt Braeuer had an extremely successful first season as a head coach for Stephen F. Austin. He’s part of the Grant McCasland coaching tree, working for him at North Texas and Texas Tech, and led the Lumberjacks at 28-5 and 20-2 in the Southland.
I don’t think Syracuse will be on his radar, and I don’t think he’ll be on Syracuse’s radar. But he’s a name worth watching as his career develops.
Dave Smart, Pacific, 60: Dave Smart is the oldest person on this list, and I don’t think Syracuse will even look at hiring him, but he’s got a ridiculous resume and is doing an amazing job at Pacific.
Smart is from Kingston, Ontario, just a few hours north of Syracuse, and coached for 18 seasons at Carleton University in Ottawa. In those 18 seasons, he won over 92% of his games. His Carleton teams routinely competed with, and sometimes even defeated, high-major Division I teams in exhibition games.
He came to America on McCasland’s Texas Tech staff in 2023, and a year later, was hired as the head coach at Pacific coming off a disastrous 0-16 WCC season. In year two, he’s approaching the top 100 in KenPom, and had the program’s highest KenPom finish since 2010.
Full disclosure: I’ve regularly covered Gallo, McNamara, and Langel over the past few years, and have varying levels of personal relationships with all three. I did not discuss their inclusions on this list with them, and I do not talk about the coaching carousel with coaches that I cover. I also have brought Alexander and Braeuer onto my podcast, Brackets, Bubbles, and Bid Stealers, for guest appearances. Additionally, I’ve covered – but not regularly – Schertz, Holloway, Skinn, and Hodgson at times over the last few years.
What about a parachute?
A parachute hire, or bringing on a current high-major coach that is on the hot seat or has recently been fired, is a pathway that I wouldn’t want to take, but it’s worth entertaining who the potential candidates would be.
Maybe Porter Moser would want to leave Oklahoma after missing the tournament for the fourth time in five seasons. He’s won in the past, and his years at Oklahoma haven’t been that bad in terms of KenPom, but he’s never finished over .500 in league play in that job. I don’t think any of the recently fired power conference coaches are even close to decent candidates. No on Kim English, Jerome Tang, Earl Grant, Damon Stoudamire, and potentially Wes Miller. As I’ll go into in the next segment, I don’t think Syracuse should give a second high-major chance to a coach who has already failed at that level.
Coaches I wouldn’t hire
Mike Hopkins, New Orleans Pelicans, 56: Mike Hopkins made one NCAA Tournament in seven years as the head coach at Washington. He finished outside of the top 100 in KenPom three years in a row. He went 62-72 in Pac-12 play. He’ll be 57 years old by the time next season starts and has been out of college basketball the last two years in the NBA. This goes without saying, but you don’t hire him.
Travis Steele, Miami (OH), 44: What Travis Steele has done over the last two seasons at Miami University cannot be ignored. He broke the program’s single-season wins record in his third season last year with 25, Miami’s first 20-win season since 1999. Then, he broke his own record with a 31-0 start in 2025-26. However, Steele was fired from Xavier after missing the NCAA Tournament four years in a row. Yes, he’s still young at 44 years old, and his teams weren’t awful at X, perennially on the wrong side of the bubble, but the Orange shouldn’t be the team to give him another high-major shot.
John Groce, Akron, 54: Same with Steele, Groce has already been fired from a high-major gig. He made one tournament in five seasons at Illinois, finishing no higher than 39th in KenPom, and that came with Bruce Weber’s players in his first season. Groce has done a terrific job at Akron, changing his style over the last few years to play a much faster pace around an elite shooting team. His teams always attempted threes at Akron, even when they didn’t play super fast, but now, he’s become a great coach. But I just don’t think Syracuse should be the one to give a second high-major shot to somebody who has already failed.
Dial the number as a formality if you really want
None of these coaches would come to Syracuse, but the comment section would get mad at me if I didn’t at least acknowledge names like Jay Wright, Tony Bennett, Billy Donovan, and Brad Stevens. Dial the number as a formality. You can afford the phone bill. If you get even two minutes to pick these guys’ brains about basketball and coaching, you do it, even if you’re not offering a job.
Is there anybody else?
A few mid-major coaches that I think could move up soon include Speedy Claxton, Brian Earl, Takayo Siddle (just signed an extension), Patrick Sellers, Todd Phillips, or Bob Richey. Just throwing some names out.
If assistants are your thing, a few of the nation’s best are Carlin Hartman (who is actually from Buffalo), Preston Murphy, Chris Carrawell, and others. As I said earlier, I don’t think Syracuse should hire an assistant. J.R. Blount from Iowa State, who is considered one of the best rising assistant coaches in the country, just took the job at the University of San Diego. Those are the types of jobs that these guys are getting right now.
The venerable Curry Hicks Sage has mentioned Chris Jans as somebody who he’d look at hiring away from Mississippi State at a different high-major, and if he’d be interested in coming to Syracuse, you have to look at him.
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Now that Sam has given you an exhaustive list, do you have a top 3 of your own?
