Tim McNamara stayed at his brother’s apartment the week before the 2006 Big East tournament, accompanying a deflated senior whose college career approached a painful end with each debilitating ache. A stress fracture in Gerry McNamara’s pelvic bone had lingered for more than half the regular season. He struggled to put his shoes on, braced himself to cough or sneeze and lied on the floor just to put socks on.

To add insult to injury, the Orange was ravaged by a combined 64 points in three consecutive losses to end the regular season, including a 39-point loss to DePaul that still stands as the worst defeat in Jim Boeheim’s 40 years as head coach.

Heading into Madison Square Garden as the No. 9 seed, Syracuse’s NCAA Tournament hopes were grim.

“If you look back and look at some of the games that led up to the tournament, we were not in games,” McNamara said. “We were not competitive in those games.”

But what transpired over the next four days wasn’t just history — the Orange became the first team to win the tournament with four wins in four days — but it transcended one player’s physical limits as he captivated a sport and city in the process. Ten years later, those that went along for the ride relived the magical run.

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CHAPTER 1: THE FLOATER 

Syracuse drew eighth-seeded Cincinnati on Wednesday, March 8, and the loser was all but eliminated from NCAA Tournament contention. The Orange trailed 73-71 with 6.2 seconds left when McNamara caught an inbounds pass 70 feet from the basket. Cincinnati’s Cedric McGowan rode McNamara to half court before McNamara went behind the back, split two defenders and lofted a running floater near the 3-point arc.

Curtis Shaw, referee: I was really trying to get into position to see what he’s going to do on the play. Is he going to pull up from 3? Is he going to try and run into somebody?

Eric Hicks, Cincinnati forward: Andy Kennedy, the coach that’s at Ole Miss now, he drew it up right. He said don’t trap it, just show so we can’t get split and Cedric McGowan tried trapping him and got split.

Cedric McGowan, Cincinnati guard: I did exactly what Coach said, but Gerry made a great play. Nobody expected him to split. He split me and then shot a floater from 3 point.

Eric Devendorf, Syracuse guard: For him to be able to split those two and get it off in time was pretty amazing.

Gerry McNamara: Eric Hicks, another friend of mine, played USA Basketball with him, snuck it … I would’ve preferred to take a pull-up as opposed to a floater, but you know, the only way I could get it off with a great shot-blocker.

Hicks: I was pissed at Cedric because he wasn’t supposed to get a clean look like that … If he got a shot off, it was supposed to be one of those falling away, hand in your face, just over half court.

Shaw: The first thing I’m looking at is making sure where his foot is and that was my main responsibility really.

Gerard McNamara, Gerry’s father: I thought it was a two at first.

Tim McNamara: We were on the baseline so he was coming toward us … but it’s kind of hard to tell from where you’re sitting where he actually was. We were obviously thrilled at just the idea at that point of even going to overtime.

Terrence Roberts, Syracuse forward: I believe I was behind him, but I couldn’t tell. People don’t think it’s a 3-pointer because of where he landed.

Demetris Nichols, Syracuse forward: I guess I was 50-50.

Brad Pike, head trainer: I don’t even know if I saw it, there was so much going on. I’m not looking at where his feet are.

Todd Burach, Syracuse walk-on: Did Gerry ever shoot two-pointers? That runner, you can kind of close your eyes and still visualize.

Shaw: I had followed him all the way down the floor. I knew he was a good step behind.

Kip Wellman, Director of Operations: I’ve seen him do that before in practice. As soon as he split and got it off, I knew it was good and I knew it was a 3.

Chris Doherty, mayor in 2006 of Scranton, McNamara’s hometown: As he was coming up the court, he was right in front of us, and I remember my son saying, as soon as it went off, ‘It’s in.’

Pete Moore, Syracuse sports information director: I didn’t have any question about two or three. There was very much the sense that this could be it, then his shot, it was like a fourth of July fireworks.

Jim Boeheim: I had a feeling that he was going to make it. I don’t know why. It’s probably about a 10-percent shot.

Hicks: I was just like, ‘Why didn’t you listen to the coach?’ and Ced was like, ‘Uh my bad.’ And everybody on the team looked like, ‘Why did you do that?’ The locker room, he was so quiet. Cedric McGowan was by himself.

McGowan: I was devastated.

Jake Presutti, Syracuse walk-on: After he made it, they went and checked and there was a long delay. Gerry came over and he was yelling, with some profanity, that he said it was good … He knew he made that shot, he was behind the line.

Shaw: Part of protocol is you kill it and go check just to be positive. We were really doing more about getting the clock.

Mike Hopkins, Syracuse assistant coach: I’ve seen him in four games make half-court shots or game-winning shots … so there are certain guys that just have that magic, and he was one of them.

Hicks: You talk to Gerry Mac, tell him I’m still pissed about it.

Half a second remained on the clock. Cincinnati’s Jihad Muhammad threw up a desperation heave that hit the front of the rim and Syracuse escaped with a one-point win.

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CHAPTER 2: ‘NOT 10 F*CKING GAMES’

About two weeks prior, Daily Orange beat writers Zach Berman and Ethan Ramsey wrote point-counterpoint columns on McNamara being overrated, with Ramsey arguing for the case. The Post-Standard, for the seventh year, also conducted an anonymous survey of 15 Big East assistants on a variety of topics. McNamara was voted the most overrated player in the league. Then, Jim Boeheim took to the microphone after beating Cincinnati.

“I have to laugh a little bit when our own paper, and our own student newspaper is calling him overrated. And they actually listen to a couple assistant coaches who I guarantee you will never be head coaches if they think Gerry McNamara is overrated.

“Without Gerry McNamara, we wouldn’t have won 10 f*cking games this year, OK, not 10.

“And everybody’s talking to me and writing about Gerry McNamara being overrated? That’s the most bullsh*t thing I’ve seen in 30 years.”

Gerry McNamara: The language, when that came up, that was more the surprising thing. Down the stretch of your career you don’t want to be thinking about an article written in the paper. It was nice for him because I would’ve never publicly spoken up about it and he kind of did it for me.

Kip Wellman: We have staff meetings and it came up from time to time and Coach would get fired up about it before that … I knew that if we ever got it to a point where he had a chance to say something that he was going to go off. I didn’t know he was going to go off in that magnitude.

Gerard McNamara: And he said, ‘I can guarantee you that none of them will ever be head coaches,’ which I thought was a great line.

Jim Boeheim: I don’t think I planned it. I was just upset by the article … more upset about coaches who would say stuff like that than necessarily the paper itself.

Mike Waters, The Post-Standard beat writer: So what? So some assistant coaches in some fun poll? But for Jim Boeheim it was a cut, it was a hurtful criticism of one of his best and maybe one of his favorite players.

Ethan Ramsey: I remember thinking, ‘Does anyone else know what he’s talking about?’ The D.O. and Post-Standard, I don’t know why most reporters would know about that. I guess I did feel somewhat singled out. It’s not like there’s an opportunity to defend yourself.

Jake Presutti: What was ironic about that moment was the team had no idea it happened. We’re all sitting on the bus and then we were all looking around because people started texting and we were like, ‘Oh my gosh, what happened.’

Terrence Roberts: We would’ve probably won just as many games as we won without Gerry if other people just step up. Funny and a little frustrating because it was kind of like a slap in the face. Kind of like him saying I don’t believe these other guys could’ve got it done without this one guy.

Jay Bilas, ESPN commentator: That was vintage Boeheim. When the obvious isn’t grasped by people, he gets his back up a little bit. I actually really enjoyed that one.

Pete Moore: I was surprised. It was definitely dramatic to see him go in that direction.

Waters: His mom and dad were not happy.

Joyce McNamara, Gerry’s mother: He was certainly not overrated.

Gerard McNamara: It was great for us to see it and hear it because how personally he took it … When Gerry came out, his eyes were like he just saw a ghost or something. He said, ‘Dad, Coach just went off in there.’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘He just went off, he went crazy in there, he was really mad.’

Jim Connors, Gerry’s uncle: It was a joke for anybody who knew Gerry. Boeheim won the day.

Roberts: For people to say Gerry was overrated, especially in the Syracuse area, was kind of asinine to me.

Demetris Nichols: He was letting the media know that they didn’t know what they was talking about.

Ramsey: Definitely no regrets.

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CHAPTER 3: A LONG SHOT

Possibly needing another win to get on the right side of the bubble, Syracuse faced the No. 1 team in the country less than 24 hours after beating Cincinnati. Connecticut, who boasted four future NBA Draft first-round picks, had beat Syracuse twice by a combined 31 points in the regular season.

Ross DiLiegro, Syracuse walk-on: I remember seeing (UConn starter) Marcus Williams eating potato chips sitting on the scorer’s table before the game while we were out there stretching as a team.

Mike Hopkins: They’re sitting over there, Rudy Gay, they’re eating like granola bars and laughing and we’re working.

Kip Wellman: We just kept looking down and the Connecticut guys were just sitting on the scorer’s table eating, some of them didn’t have their shoes tied. As soon as that started spreading through the team and into the locker room, we knew it was on. They didn’t. They didn’t have a clue.

Jim Calhoun, UConn head coach: That’s not true. I refuse to believe that … There’s no reason for any of us to believe that wouldn’t be a great game.

Rashad Anderson, UConn guard: I knew it was going to be a tough game. Any time we play Syracuse, it’s going to be a tough game, always.

Terrence Roberts: That game was just absolutely pure hatred of UConn. I’m friends with all those guys on UConn, but I hated them with a passion. I hated Marcus Williams more than anything.

Jim Boeheim: We probably needed to win the game just to make sure. We might’ve been in, but who knows.

After the Huskies erased a 14-point second-half deficit, they took a 74-71 lead with 11 seconds left. On the ensuing inbounds, McNamara caught the ball 70 feet from the hoop and took off before unloading well beyond the NBA 3-point line with Anderson’s hand in his face.

Calhoun: Well I think the biggest thing was to make sure we kept the ball out of his hands.

Gerard McNamara: The one guy in the whole place that said whatever you do, don’t let him get the ball was Calhoun. I think he’s still b*tching about that one.

Tim McNamara: In talking to Gerry about it afterward, the play I believe that they had originally drawn up was for (Syracuse guard) Josh Wright to try and get open, and Gerry was like, ‘Well what if I’m open?” and I think (Boeheim) said ‘You’re not going to be open.’

Eric Devendorf: We always did the handoff up top and then try to get a switch or a mismatch … I remember going behind G-Mac and the guy switched a little bit too late … and he was able to get some space and that’s all he needed.

Anderson: Coach said don’t let him dribble the ball … and I should’ve fouled him. I didn’t foul him and he made a 3. I’m like, ‘Wow, are you serious?’ I didn’t want to foul him while he was shooting a 3. As a person who makes tough shots my whole life, I got a feeling of how that felt.

Wellman: The shot he hit in the Connecticut game was much tougher than the Cincinnati shot.

Moore: When you thought, ‘What can be more dramatic than staying alive with a buzzer beater against Cincinnati?’ Well then he hits this unbelievable shot against UConn … It was another step up that you wouldn’t have contemplated until it happened.

McNamara hit three free throws in overtime to help Syracuse squeak out an 86-84 win. With an NCAA Tournament berth becoming more realistic, the only question was what McNamara would do next.

Pat Connors, Gerry’s uncle: Some of the little kids, they wanted pictures with Gerry, we were laughing … they all had Georgetown shirts on and they were going to get pictures with Gerry. People were just going crazy chanting his name.

Joyce McNamara: We’d be passing by the corner where the papers would be piled and to see Syracuse featured and Gerry’s name … it was just such an exciting time.

Bilas: He was electrifying and you couldn’t wait to see what shot is he going to hit next.

Todd Burach: At that time I was interviewing for either an internship or a full-time job and I went into my interviews during the day that week, and they didn’t want to talk to me about anything else but what was going on at Madison Square Garden.

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CHAPTER 4: RUNNING ON FUMES

Sixteen times, teams had won in overtime in the Big East tournament. All 16 times, they’d lost the next day. McNamara’s groin was about the only thing slowing him down, but No. 23 Georgetown also stood between the Orange and a berth in the title game.

Jim Boeheim: He had a fairly significant injury but he just kept playing, played through it and it didn’t affect his play very much. But I know he was in some pain for sure.

Jake Presutti: I just remember the famous Gerry ice bath. We were staying in the East Side Marriott … I went to his room and he was just sitting … and I walk in and this guy is just sitting in this tub of ice. What I remember is our trainer Brad Pike having to take four, five, six trips to the ice machine.

Mike Hopkins: I remember going up there … if Twitter was there I would’ve had Twitter all over it, it would’ve been Instagrammed.

Gerry McNamara: I lived with Brad Pike that whole year. Brad’s one of the best trainers in the country and we joke about it to this day and we got a little too close to each other that whole year. It’s a difficult thing playing the amount of minutes I did with an injury like that.

Todd Burach: The kid could not walk in between games in the hotel.

Joyce McNamara: He was not 100 percent physically. For his part, it was, when you say leave it all on the court, he left it all on the court. And I think by physically, just the sheer will for them to succeed is what must’ve carried him through.

A hobbled McNamara took two shots in the first half and had a meager two points at the break. Georgetown had stretched its lead to 15 by halftime, but McNamara caught fire and hit four 3s to set up a hectic final 48 seconds as Syracuse trailed, 57-53.

Boeheim: We really were out of it at halftime.

Tim McNamara: I know my thought at that point was pretty much, well, this game is probably a lost cause. It doesn’t look like he has anything left in the tank.

Zach Berman, Daily Orange beat writer: When Gerry started hitting those shots in the second half, you knew this was going to be a big part of the story. Everything that happened those first two games, this was almost a continuation of that because he just got hot at exactly the right time.

Pete Moore: We were behind the entire game, and we’d also lost just a few weeks prior to them pretty handily. And then all of a sudden you get into the last couple minutes and boom, boom, boom.

Tim McNamara: They’re down by, I think, four at the time, they come out of a timeout and he hits a pull-up jumper with none other than Roy Hibbert in his face.

Brandon Bowman, Georgetown forward: Once he hits that shot over Roy, I’m like, ‘Man, it’s this guy’s tournament.’ If he shoots in the final minute, I’m always thinking it’s going in just off of what history says. For him to hit that, I was just like, ‘Well, we saw that coming.’ Roy’s not small either, he’s 7 foot 2.

Tim McNamara: And then they get the steal and just a great run out by Devendorf.

Kip Wellman: Think about this, you’re a senior, you’re trying to win the tournament, you’re trying to go to the NCAA Tournament, you just hit two of the biggest shots in the history of the program and you get a steal on the fastbreak … but you throw a left-handed bounce pass to a freshman.

Eric Devendorf: I was fortunate enough to get it up over Hibbert in time.

Pat Connors: His passing kind of gets lost in the shuffle sometimes … That was a neat bounce pass, lefty, that was typical Gerry.

Gerry McNamara: More importantly down 15 at half and scratching, clawing, you don’t get a lead until like seven or eight seconds. That was the beauty of it.

Boeheim: It was quite a series of plays to win that game.

Tim McNamara: Next thing you know he’s pounding the floor, and they’re moving on.

Gerry McNamara: Brandon Bowman’s a very good friend of mine. We ended up playing in the D-league together so when he would be in the training room, and I would come in and get taped and he was getting taped, I would come in and do the fist pump and start smacking the floor.

Bowman: I mean what can I say? I just got to put my head down like, ‘Yeah, you’re right.’ I have no comeback for it. It’s just like a big brother having something on you … Like ‘Yeah, but why do you keep reminding me of it?’

Mike Hopkins: To see a guy with that much heart, that much soul, willing to put himself, his body, on the line, by the end of the game I mean he was playing on fumes.

I remember going back in the locker room and there was like Lawrence Moten and Billy Owens and Derrick Coleman, and they were all there and those guys bring the swagger. Pitt was in the hallway because they were going to play the next game for who played us.

Todd Burach: It was the Mount Rushmore of Syracuse basketball just going nuts in our locker room.

Hopkins: ‘You guys are next,’ they were telling the Pitt players.

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CHAPTER 5: FANTASTIC FOUR

Syracuse squandered a double-digit second-half lead in the title game against Pittsburgh and trailed 48-47 with 8:40 left. McNamara hit a 3-pointer 15 seconds later to give SU a lead it wouldn’t relinquish. There were no last-minute heroics by the senior, but after four days and a tournament MVP to his name, he cut down the nets wearing a shirt that read “Overrated?!!,” his legacy now solidified.

Chris Doherty: It was like the icing on the cake. That’s our guy. Star, they doubted him and then he came back and was triumphant.

Pete Moore: This had never been done and then when you add onto it the fact that we were so reliant on Gerry, and he wasn’t 100 percent and he kept turning in these miraculous performances. I can’t think of a stretch like that in the (18 years) I’ve been here.

Jay Bilas: You remember moments and you remember how you felt. There have been other players that have had similar stretches, but there’s nothing quite like McNamara.

Mike Hopkins: One of the greatest run of games I’d ever seen of any guy.

Terrence Roberts: It pretty much ensured this guy’s the man, the future mayor of Syracuse.

Pat Connors: He could be anybody’s kid, 6 foot 1, and if he could do it, maybe my kid could do it kind of thing. They couldn’t believe what they saw, four days in a row. I think even the leftovers from the other teams were rooting for him.

Jim Connors: If you wrote a script nobody would believe it. They were storybook games. He gave Scranton a big boost. We were walking around a little bit taller with our chests out.

Jim Calhoun: He’s one of the best clutch players in the history of the Big East.

Gerard McNamara: The biggest thing that people remember about Gerry, even though they know he won the national championship, is the four days at the Big East tournament.

Tim McNamara: The Big East tournament really did become his legacy.

Gerry McNamara: I think it probably just added a little bit to what I had kind of accomplished. We came together as a team for a week. Everybody kind of had their moment and that was somewhat of my moment.

Jim Boeheim: It’s just something that people will always remember I think … He made the key plays in all four games and that’s pretty hard to do … There’s been good performances, but I mean that’s the best that I’ve seen.

Published on March 8, 2016 at 2:05 am

Contact Matt: mcschnei@syr.edu | @matt_schneidman