As the frustrations with the Syracuse basketball program mount, the calls to fire head coach Adrian Autry grow louder inside the JMA Wireless Dome. 

Autry hasn't been to the NCAA Tournament in his first two seasons at the helm of the program, and it doesn't look like SU is going to go this year, currently sitting with a 12-9 record and a 3-5 mark inside Atlantic Coast Conference play.

As fans make the call for him to be replaced, some of them are clamoring for the Orange to hire another former player: point guard Gerry McNamara, who is currently the head coach at Siena University in Albany.

Here's why that won't be as simple as people want it to be:

McNamara is close to Autry, and the two previously served on staff at Syracuse together. McNamara was the associate head coach for Autry when he got the head coaching job. In fact, McNamara spoke about his connection to Autry just on Wednesday:

"I talk to Red all the time. That's my guy. I haven't talked to him in a week or two. But those are as good a friends as I have in life. Let's set professionalism aside and what we do for a living. Those are guys I spent over a decade working with, a colleague, a guy that lived five houses down from me. Our wives are friends, our children."

As a result, it's fair to wonder if McNamara could really do that to his friend. The Syracuse job may very well be his dream job, but could he really take advantage of his friend's misfortune in order to get it? Maybe you laugh at the notion of friend loyalty, but it's at least something to consider.

It always sounds good on paper, doesn't it? Hiring the program hero to come back and rescue the program. And sometimes it works, like when Jim Harbaugh led Michigan to a football title in 2023. 

However, when it goes sideways, it's never fun to move on from a program icon. If Syracuse fires Autry, that's already firing one program mainstay. Do they really want to risk the same thing happening with McNamara in the future, and does this fear cause them to go outside the SU family?

These are all things that the administration - and McNamara - need to think about should this opportunity materialize.

For now, SU will get ready for a matchup with Notre Dame on Saturday night at 6 p.m. ET.

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