To say that Syracuse men's basketball finds itself at a crossroads would be a massive understatement. This is a moment of profound change for the institution more broadly, with both a new chancellor and a new athletic director coming in ... right when program legend Adrian Autry has been fired after a largely disastrous tenure at the helm in which he failed to reach the NCAA Tournament and barely cracked .500 overall across three seasons.
All of which is to say: The Orange better get this right, because their glory days are more and more in the rearview, and with how fast the landscape is changing in college sports these days, they might lose their standing for good. But what does that actually mean? What's happened to this prestigious program, and what does the new administration (and, eventually, new coach) need to do to get things back on track? We've put together a five-point plan.
Realize that you do, in fact, need to choose between basketball and football
You could make a pretty compelling argument that everything that's befallen Syracuse basketball over the last 10 years or so is downstream of choosing to jump to the ACC for the 2012-13 season. Of course, that also happened to coincide with the twilight of Boeheim's tenure, so perhaps a step back was always inevitable. But it can't be a coincidence that the Orange have lost 13 or more games in 10 of 13 seasons in their new conference.
It's certainly not because the competition got tougher; the ACC isn't nearly what it once was as far as basketball is concerned, much less what the Big East was during Boeheim's heyday. And that's sort of the point: The ACC, on an institutional level, has hitched its wagon to football — leaving basketball to wither on the vine.
Which, if you're a program with elite financial backing like Duke, doesn't have to be a death sentence. But we've seen once-proud basketball schools like UNC, Pitt, Louisville and Boston College run aground to varying degrees, and there's one common denominator: All of them have put more emphasis on competing in this brave new world of college football, one that costs well into the eight figures just to stay afloat.
New 'Cuse AD Bryan Blair can insist that it's possible to do both all he wants. But the evidence doesn't lie, and it's hard not to draw a line between the cost of doing business as a power football conference with the Orange reportedly ranking in the bottom half of the ACC when it comes to roster expenditures for men's basketball. Speaking of which ...
Finally embrace the NIL era
I have little interest in relitigating the falling out between Syracuse and mega-booster (and social-media maven) Adam Weitsman. It seems like there's reason to believe Weitsman's ability to market himself outstripped the actual money he was giving to the athletic department, and he's not exactly the easiest guy to manage.
But it's also true that the Weitsman saga revealed an institution desperate to remain in control of every single aspect of its operations, and that's a hard way to make a living in 2026. No one is suggesting that Syracuse should outsource its NIL operations entirely. But even the biggest money cannons in college sports right now have handed over the reins a bit; you don't have to go full Wild West to realize that building a competitive roster these days demands a more flexible approach and a willingness to not be quite so buttoned up.
That's a lesson that Syracuse has yet to learn, and it shows up in the quality of player that has come through this team in recent years. It's not enough for the Orange to simply commit to being a basketball school again. You also need to go out of your way to solicit as much money as you can get your hands on, and doing so "the right way" (whatever that means in the current era of college sports) has been holding 'Cuse back.
Don't let Carmelo Anthony hold the program hostage
As Syracuse embarks on finding its next head coach, rumors continue to swirl around certain prominent supporters of the program throwing their support behind former Boeheim lieutenant and current New Orleans Pelicans assistant Mike Hopkins. The theory goes that Anthony and Co. want to keep the program in the family, and if the Orange go along with the plan, he's willing to not only ensure that his son, four-star recruit Kiyan, remains at Syracuse — he's willing to spearhead a whole new fundraising effort as well.
Which sounds great in theory, but would be disastrously short-sighted in practice. Hopkins has exactly one stint as a head coach at the college level, and it didn't go well: He made the NCAA Tournament exactly once in seven years at Washington from 2017 to '24, with a 118–106 total record. The talent level collapsed, and even the star players he was able to lure to Seattle died on the vine. There's very little reason to believe that he can handle a job like this, and while the financial and emotional support of the Anthony family sounds nice, what good is that really? Is it enough to sustain the Orange over the long haul?
Of course not. The first and most important step Syracuse can take on its way back to national relevance is to hire the best coach possible, someone who not only knows how to drive resources toward a program but also knows how to win with the resources available.
Do whatever it takes to land Bryan Hodgson
Which leads us to Hodgson, who checks just about every box that Syracuse should be interested in when finding a new head coach. The consensus top option, Josh Schertz, just signed a long-term extension at Saint Louis that would seem to take him off the board for now. But Hodgson's resume, while brief, is pretty sterling: 45 wins and an NIT berth across two years at Arkansas State, then an AAC regular-season title in his first season at South Florida.
He plays a fun, frenetic style, and his teams are equally adept on offense and defense. As the cherry on top, he's a Southern Tier native who played his college ball at Fredonia and spent time as an assistant under Nate Oats at Buffalo. He understands the culture required to succeed at Syracuse without the potential of being too close to that culture that comes with, say, Siena head coach and Orange favorite son Gerry McNamara.
And crucially, unlike Hopkins, he can coach ball. An opportunity like this, to find a young riser who's proven himself not just on the court but off of it (he's done excellent work in the portal to overhaul the Bulls' roster in just one offseason) and who's from the broader area, won't come around too often. Syracuse can't afford to miss it.
Turn the Dome into a destination again
When it's packed, the Carrier Dome (look, I'll be honest, I refuse to acknowledge whatever "JMA Wireless" is) is one of the most unique environments in college basketball. But its overwhelming size comes with a downside as well: When things aren't going well, the place is cavernous.
The latter has been the case all too often of late, as a new generation of Syracuse fans don't know anything other than men's basketball mediocrity. Attendance has plummeted in recent years, whether the official numbers want to recognize what our eyes tell us or not. And while winning will certainly help bring the noise back to the Loud House, the Orange don't need to wait for their fortunes to turn.
The reality is the outgoing athletic administration took fan support for granted for far too long. They need to be more ambitious and innovative in how they market themselves, and more importantly, they need to be willing to lower the bar as far as they have to in order to draw people back to the Dome. In order for Syracuse to start being a men's basketball power again, they need to feel like one, and nothing draws recruits more than packed houses.