Join our team as we kick off this week's latest local sports news, featuring the WVIA News Team and FOX56 Sports Director Bob Ide.
We are talking hoops in the WVIA Podcast Studio after an emotional week for fans in Northeast Pennsylvania.
Bob was in New York State on Monday as Syracuse University celebrated recently appointed men's basketball coach Gerry McNamara. The Scranton native, 42, called his new role ‘a dream come true.’
"A lot of pomp and circumstance ... the band was there, the community was there. Over 3,000 people came out — students, alumni and just fans in general. It was like a pep rally," Bob said.
McNamara, a 2006 Syracuse graduate and a member of its 2003 National Championship-winning team, spent 14 years as an assistant coach on Jim Boeheim's staff before serving as associate head coach under Adrian Autry in 2023-24. He coached Siena University for two seasons before returning to take the top job in Syracuse.
"They need him to bring them back to where they were with Jim Boeheim," Bob added, referencing the longtime head coach who led the team from 1976 to 2023. "They haven't made the NCAA tournament in a long time."
Bob also was on hand for a ceremony honoring the University of Scranton’s Lady Royals for its historic season. The team, which sought a national championship and an undefeated season, fell to Denison University last month.
But as Bob explains, the campus community assembled in the John Long center on Tuesday to honor the Division III runner-ups — a team that, in November, knocked off a Power 4 opponent in Pittsburgh.
We'll also hear from Kaci Kranson, who earned First Team All-America honors for the season and scored her 2,000th collegiate career point in the third quarter of the Denison game.
Finally, we'll take stock of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins' prospects with seven games left in the regular season, as well as looking ahead to Penn State spring football and the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders' home opener next week.
You can listen above, or watch on our YouTube channel.
