JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – It wasn’t supposed to happen this way for Gerry McNamara.

He wasn’t supposed to watch almost half of his last college game from the bench. He wasn’t supposed to go out with a two-point, no-field goal performance.

All those scrambles for the ball, those hard fouls, four years of starting every game figured to catch up to McNamara eventually – just not in his last college game.

All that’s happened in the past two weeks, it’d be easy to brush this off, say it was bound to happen. But it’s hard to watch an athlete who prides himself on being tough, sticking through it and still performing to sit hopelessly on the sideline unable to do anything to help the team he’s supposed to be ‘the heart and soul of.’

There’s a point where journalists need to stop being journalists and start being people. This is one of those points.

Thursday’s game was probably my last college basketball game at Syracuse, too. I know if I broke my right index finger and couldn’t type j, h or any of the other letters floating around the center of the keyboard, my hopes for what my last game would be like would turn the experience into nothing less than a tremendous disappointment.

So too did McNamara have dreams about his last performance at Syracuse. I’m pretty confident none of the scenarios resembled what took place in Jacksonville. Whatever your thoughts on McNamara, it’s still obvious what he accomplished in his career didn’t mesh with the ending.

‘His legacy will be left at Syracuse for winning 103 games and winning the national championship, (one) Big East regular season championship and (two) Big East tournament (championships),’ Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said.

McNamara wasn’t a very accurate shooter in his career, especially this season when he had a career-low 35.3 field goal percentage. But in four years filled with shots that inspired a team, it’s almost ironic his last shot was probably one of his worst.

Despite working through the toughest year of his career, McNamara had hopes soaring when he conquered constant double-teams and a nagging groin injury to lead Syracuse to its second consecutive Big East tournament championship. Sadly enough, it was the Big East tournament that caused this ending to McNamara’s chapter at Syracuse.

The wear of four games in four days, coupled with national media attention for his performance on and to a degree off the court, did McNamara in.

Texas A&M, a tough defensive-minded team, did a good job sticking with McNamara when he was in the game. But from the looks of how McNamara gingerly walked through the hallways of Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena after the game, the injury was more than enough to bring down the scrappy senior.

While McNamara’s reaction to the media’s questions after the game wasn’t the most flattering and may seem overly sarcastic or immature, he just was showing the nation what most of Syracuse already knew – McNamara is a clich athlete. He wants to win, and he blames no one but himself when his team doesn’t.

The 66-58 loss may sting McNamara and the Orange for a while, especially after the run SU made in New York, but eventually the out-of-place ending will fade. All that will remain of McNamara in Syracuse lore will be the 6-2 guard from Scranton, Pa., nailing impossible 3-pointers just when Syracuse needed it.

No matter your opinion on whether the guard deserves that status in Syracuse history, McNamara at least deserved to end his career in better fashion than what unfolded in Jacksonville.

And there’s nothing overrated about giving the guy what he’s due.

Rob Anthes is an assistant sports editor for The Daily Orange, where his columns appear occasionally. E-mail him at rmanthes@syr.edu.

Published on March 20, 2006 at 12:00 pm