Who? Yea I know, I know. For most of the sports world a name like McNamara means nothing. That is unless you are talking about the Central Coast realty agency. But for March Madness Maniacs like myself, the name McNamara takes  on a life of its own.

This is the best time of year. A time when college athletes from all over the country battle it out for supremacy. Conference tournaments do one of two things. If you come from a mid-major conference (Big West, Missouri Valley, etc.) winning your conference tournament is your only shot at recieving a birth come March. If you are from a power conference (ACC, Big East, Big 12) this is a time to settle the nay-sayers and establish yourself as a legitimate seed come playoff time.

The one-and-done atmosphere is like electricity to the veins of its viewers. March Madness Maniacs live for the David vs. Goliath matchups–1 vs. 16, 2 vs. 15, 3 vs. 14–because within the human heart we all root for the underdog. All of us at one time or another have felt completely overmatched whether it be in our business, collegiate academics, married life, health concerns, and the list goes on. And when we overcome incredible odds, the certainty of miracles grows stronger, more steadfast, more golden.

This common strand that interlinks our societal consciousness is lost when players go professional. Money becomes the central driving point, and before you know it, the competitor is lost to a swirling world of popularity. No longer can we revel in the that moment in time–that one moment in March–when the man we watched on TV was a strungout kid proving his greatness on the largest stage.

Which is why memories haunt college basketball fans. We only get the innocence of our loved competition for two to four years. Watching kids graduate, go pro, or overseas is less a culmination of success, and more a feeling of uncertainty for a game split down the seams between its two largest entities: collegiate and pro.

I am not surprised that our fastfood sports junkies have so quickly forgotten greatness wrapped in its stocky, awkward, out-of-nowhere form. A package wrapped with an outlying vanilla colored goatee, instead of a pretty form of wrapping paper that screams “ME!”

“Draft ME! Look at ME!”

His name is Gerry McNamara. One of the greatest players to ever adorn a Syracuse Orange jersey. A guy who played with the likes of current pros Carmelo Anthony and Hakeem Warrick.  The 6’2, 185 pound pride of Scranton, Pennsylvania, gloried in a four year run at Syracuse, leaving Orange fans and March Madness Maniacs with some of their greatest memories in tournament history.  Who as a freshman co-led with Carmelo Anthony, the Orange to their first basketball title in 2003. Had he been endowed with four more inches of height, he would still be tearing through defenses like a cavalier slicing and dicing foes to the bone.

Here is a nice clip of McNamara to ‘Melo. Pure beauty.

The true Mighty Mouse drove the lane with a poised abandon that made his knock-off, Damon Stoudamire, look like a cheap version bought at Wal Mart.  His ability to hit the step back three meant a defender had to body up at all times. If his defender did, G-Mac would stagger his off shoulder, drop a Tim Hardaway crossover then finish with a tear drop in the key.

2005-2006, McNamara’s senior year, left fans with his image inked in their minds forever. For much of the season McNamara was ridiculed with “too slow” and “undersized,” by pro scouts. The pinnacle of this type of media hit hard when Sports Illustrated published a featured story on McNamara being the most “overrated” player in the country. G-Mac bore the brunt of his teams off kilt 19-12 regular season record. Facing the Big East Tournament, the Orange needed to roll through its entirety to have any hope of earning McNamara and the Orange their fourth birth in March.

What he ended up doing was pure greatness. Fueled by the Sports Illustrated reports, and hobbled by a deep leg bruise, McNamara’s Orange upset Cincinnati in the first round of the tournament 74-73, in which he hit a one handed three point shot at the buzzer. The following day, he hit a fading three-point shot to tie number one ranked U Conn and send the game to overtime. There McNamara scored five more of his team high seventeen points to close out the country’s number one team.  In the conference semi-finals, McNamara hit five three-pointers in the second half against Georgetown to win their third game in three days.  Things culminated when G-Mac and the Orange upset Pitt in the Big East title game, 65-61. The Orange was the first team in Big East history to win four games in a row in the tournament. McNamara as you would expect, was Conference Tourney MVP.

His play was so superior to his foes, that the great and quiet natured Jim Boeheim went on a tirade like this:

McNamara adorned this t-shirt in mockery for a media more in love with big money athleticism than with the heart of a competitor…

G-Mac finished his Syracuse career starting every game (135). His 2,009 career points ranks him fourth all-time in Orange history, 4,781 minutes first, 258 steals second, 648 assist third, and 400 three-pointers first. He also owns the record for the most three-point field goals in Big East Tournament history (183).

So where in the world is Gerry McNamara?

After three years of bouncing between NBA training camps and professional ball in Greece, McNamara now leads shooting clinics near Syracuse University at Onandaga Community College. He has become a primetime guest on a popular radio station, and as of 2009, has been an assistant coach for Boheim and Syracuse. Despite never making the pros, McNamara left fans with memories of why college basketball’s March Madness is superior to the NBA’s take-a-night-off-and-nap seven game series.

Thinking of McNamara brought up a few more past greats…

Leading his team to back-to-back title games (winning one),  former Arkansas Razorback guard Scotty Thurman took a set of bad advice and declared early for the 1995 NBA draft, where he went undrafted. Thurman was a do-it-all guard with a wide wingspan. His ability to hit the deep shot was on full display when he drilled a three-point shot in the final minutes of a title win over Grant Hill’s Duke Blue Devils 76-72. Thurman played overseas for a few years, but never stepped foot in the NBA. He is now a real estate agent in Little Rock, Arkansas.

How about the 5’10, 202 pound tank, Khalid El-Amin? El-Amin was the driving force with Rip Hamilton to U Conn’s title in 1999. Rip went on to a nice NBA career, but El-Amin left after his junior year citing financial troubles. Playing just fifty games in the pros, El-Amin has had quite a nice career overseas. He was a back-to-back all-star in Turkey from 2004-2005, averaging 20.5 points per game, and in 2007, El-Amin won the Ukranian league MVP award and led his team to the Ukranian title.

Most of you remember Brevin Knight, the former great who played point guard for the Stanford Cardinal teams in the late nineties. But what about Brevin’s brother Brandin Knight of Pittsburgh? Knight was a standout point guard for the Panthers who helped establish their recent string of success. He was co-Big East player of the year in 2002, and is currently first all-time in assist for the Panthers, and first in steals. Knight played two years in the NBDL before blowing out his knee, and is currently an assistant coach for the Panthers.

Another past name is Joseph Forte, former standout guard for North Carolina. In his sophomore season he averaged 21 points per game and shot 38 percent from the three-point range. Still considered one of the great guards to ever roll through North Carolina, Forte left early for the NBA draft. Drafted by the Celtics late in the first round, Forte never got the PT and currently plays overseas.

Power forward John Wallace of Syracuse left Orange fans with great memories. A bruiser in the paint, Wallace led the Orange to the 1996 championship game, where they lost to a deep Kentucky team filled with Tony Delk, Walter McCarty, Jeff Shepherd, Ron Mercer, Derek Anderson, and Antoine Walker. Wallace is one of fifty-six players to finish his collegiate career with 2,000 career points and 1,000 rebounds. Drafted 18th overall in the 1996 draft to the Knicks, Wallace bounced around the league for eight years before retiring in 2005.

Before Buckeyes like Greg Oden, Evan Turner, and Jared Sulinger,  Scoonie Penn was the god of Ohio basketball from’98-’00. Born with a forty-inch vertical, the alt-athlete–a blend of both finesse, strength, and speed–led the Buckeyes with current pro Mike Redd to the 1999 final four. An inch under six feet, was the only knock on Scoonie’s Chauncey Billups like game. Because of that Penn was drafted 57th overall to the Hawks in 2000, and never played a minute in the NBA. Penn currently plays ball in Italy.

Checkout this video of Scoonie’s greatness and how about the young Ronald Artest?

The “fab five” for the Michigan Wolverines went to back to back final fours in 1992 and 1993. With Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, and Juwan Howard, it was easy to dissapear. But the “other two,” Ray Jackson and Jimmy King were no slouches. Both were high school all-Americans and top one hundred recruits. King had the ability to drive to the hoop, acting as a safe zone offensively when Rose or Webber was in foul trouble. Ray Jackson was a defensive stopper and a captain, a guy who acted as the glue in tense situations. Once the other three left for the pros, both King and Jackson combined for 30.5 points per game their senior season. King was drafted 35th overall to the Raptors in 1995, and played a total of sixty-four games in his pro career. Retiring in 1997, King now works for Meryl Lynch in New York City.  Jackson was the only one of the five who went undrafted in the NBA, though he played three years in the CBA, winning the Rookie of the Year in 1996. He now runs a non-profit in Austin, Texas assisting underpriveledged kids.

As the gift of March Madness enfolds in the coming weeks with game winners and upsets, players will establish themselves in the ranks of tournament greats. These players will leave us with their legacies in the backdrops of our minds, haunting us with the need to replay their moments over and over. Which is the very reason, why college basketball’s march madness is the greatest playoff atmosphere in the world.