There's a website called Troy Nunes in an Absolute Magician and it's devoted to Syracuse University sports. (Nunes was a much-maligned Syracuse quarterback; the website name may have been inspired by an incredible scramble that ended with Nunes throwing a touchdown pass to defeat Pittsburgh in 2000.)

The website's followers are mostly diehard Syracuse fans who have become increasingly upset over the collapse of the school's basketball program that for many years put a team into the NCAA tournament, occasionally going as far as the final four and once, in 2003, all the way to the championship.

After Syracuse failed again to make the tournament last March (2026), these rabid fans got their wish when Coach Adrian Autry was fired. He was replaced by another former Syracuse player, Gerry McNamara, who was a fan favorite and played on the school's NCAA championship team. Both he and Autry had been assistant coaches under Jim Boeheim.

TIMES HAVE changed since Boeheim's heyday. Today college athletes are paid and many of them are free agents who put their services up for bid at the end of each season. Some of them get to play five years, even if they graduated in four, and for various reasons, some of them medical, it is not uncommon to find athletes who've been in college for six years, even seven.

Most of the players on McNamara's first team arrived at Syracuse via the transfer portal, a few of them from Siena University where McNamara began his coaching career.

I love Jim Boeheim, Adrian Autry and Gerry McNamara, but I no longer bleed Syracuse orange. I no longer care if Syracuse makes an appearance in the NCAA basketball tournament. Okay, I'll be pleased if they do, but won't speculate from game to game throughout the season or call for the coach's head if they don't.

MY ATTITUDE has a lot to do with my age and how long I've been following sports. It was March 2, 1946 that my father took me to my first college basketball game. It was played at Archbold Gymnasium on the Syracuse University campus. I was seven years old when I saw Syracuse defeat RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) of Troy, New York, 69-29. It was Syracuse's final game of the regular season and its 23rd win (against 3 losses). Guard Billy Gabor and center Royce Newell led the Orange in scoring with 14 points each.

I mention them because both Gabor and Newell proved to be important in the Syracuse area long after they graduated from the university. Thus they were members of a breed that may soon be extinct. (Incidentally, Gabor is pronounced GAY-bor, not gah-BORE a la Zsa Zsa.)

Gabor, nicknamed "Bullet Billy," arrived at Syracuse University in 1942 after playing high school basketball in Binghamton. Because so many young men were needed to serve in World War Two, freshmen were eligible for varsity sports in 1942. (While this is true today, for many years after the war, freshmen could not play varsity sports.)

After his freshman year, Gabor's college education was interrupted by the war, and for three years Lieutenant William Gabor served in the Army Air Corp as a bombardier. He returned to Syracuse University in 1945 and played three more seasons. He then played for the Syracuse Nationals (Nats) for seven seasons, one in the National Basketball League, the rest in the National Basketball Association. Gabor was on the 1954-55 Nats team that won the NBA championship.

As for Newell, the six-foot-eight center grew up in Jamestown, New York, but remained in the Syracuse area after graduation and was the first basketball coach when Camillus, Split Rock and Fairmount combined to create West Genesee High School. Newell later became the school's athletic director.

YOU DON'T see that kind of school and regional loyalty anymore. Boeheim was a great example, someone who truly loved Syracuse and remained coach for 47 years, despite high-paying offers to coach elsewhere.

I enjoyed college basketball and football much better when most of the players stayed put and received their degrees from the schools that recruited them.

There are some good reasons for athletes to transfer, especially to school where they are guaranteed more playing time as well as more money. So I'm well aware the good old days are gone forever. I'm also well aware that Syracuse is unlikely to compete with schools, especially state universities, where there is a greater effort made to hire players.

So like my interest, my expectations, are lower. And I don't take the time to familiarize myself with mercenary athletes who arrive in bunches after having played their sport at two or three other colleges.

With these wholesale roster changes every year, college football and basketball conference have become professional minor leagues. It is pointless to invest much interest in a freshman player because next year he most likely will be gone.

The good news is I no longer agonize over defeats, nor do I care whether the football team becomes bowl eligible, which is just another way of saying, "Hey, at least, we won half of our games!" and "Thank heaven we opened our season against Plainfield State Teachers!"