Veteran sportswriter Kevin McNamara is heading to San Antonio this weekend for the NCAA Final Four and his induction into the U.S. Basketball Writers Association Hall of Fame.
That’s right. Our own Kevin Mac — Providence Journal alum, website content producer and local sports talk radio host — is joining outstanding sports reporters who for decades have chronicled college basketball from the Big East to the Big Ten. ACC to SEC. PC to UCLA. In January of this year he received a call from USBWA president Stu Durando informing him of the good news.
“I was just shocked. I just thought I was too young, and I also thought that when I left the Journal that that ship has sailed, because this truly only goes to people who really work in newspapers,” Kevin, 58, told me Tuesday morning. “Obviously, that’s gonna change going forward.”
Kevin is the second Rhode Islander and sixth New Englander to be so honored. Bill Reynolds of the Providence Journal (2020), Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe (a charter member), Charlie Pierce of the Boston Herald and Esquire (2018), Lesley Visser of the Globe, CBS and ESPN (2023), and Jerry Radding of the Springfield Union News (2004) preceded him.
The USBWA will recognize Kevin and six other inductees April 7 at a lunch at the Grand Hyatt Riverwalk in San Antonio. A few hours later he will cover the men’s championship game in the Alamodome.
Kevin started at the ProJo in 1988, 11 years after I had joined the staff. After two years of covering high schools and URI basketball, he picked up the Providence College beat in 1990-91. The rest is history. His byline and column logo were familiar to ProJo readers until the newspaper in a staff reduction let him go in 2020. He reinvented himself online and on the air.
“I created this [second act] off the brand,” he said during an interview last September. “So, thank you, Providence Journal, for giving me a brand for 30 years.”
His career highlights include:
- 34 consecutive Big East Tournaments
- The longest-tenured beat reporter in Big East history
- At least 12 NCAA Final Fours — he has lost track
- About 15 years as a contributor to Basketball Times
- Three-time Rhode Island Sportswriter of the Year
- Two time USBWA Best Writing contest winner
- Multiple AP/New England sports writing winner
- Founder of the 401 Podcast during the COVID pandemic
- Host of the Kevin McSports Hour on WPRO radio
- Founder of the Kevin McSports website
College basketball has been his primary focus over the years. Here are a few of his favorite memories:
1992 Final Four
“My first Final Four as a working media member was in Minneapolis in 1992. Duke went back-to-back with Bobby Hurley and Christian Laettner vs. the Fab Five freshmen of Michigan. I sat right behind the Duke bench and was amazed at Mike Krzyzewski’s foul language.”
1992 Final Four Part 2
“A Bob Knight press conference. The act was so boorish it was hardly believable.”
Knight was the Indiana coach known for his hot temper as well as his basketball genius.
1997 Elite Eight
“Providence was within one shot of a Final Four.”
Arizona, the eventual champion, defeated PC, 96-92, in overtime.
Big East Tournament
“Some of my 34 Big East Tournaments stand out more than others, most notably the 1994 and 2014 Providence wins.”
Big East Tournament Part 2
“The 2006 run by Gerry McNamara and Syracuse was the best individual performance I’ve ever witnessed.”
McNamara led ninth-seeded Syracuse to the championship with a stunning display of game saving heroics: a last-second, running, one-handed three-pointer to beat Cincinnati, 74-73; a 30-footer with 5 seconds left against UConn that sent the game into overtime —the Orange won by two; a floor-length dash and pass for the winning shot with 1.5 seconds left that beat Georgetown, 58-57; a clutch three-pointer late that set up the 65-61 upset of Pittsburgh in the final.
Big East Tournament Part 3
“As a media member, the Syracuse-UConn, six-overtime game in the 2009 Big East Tournament.”
Syracuse, ranked 18th, upset UConn, ranked 3rd, 127-117, in the quarterfinals. The Orange never led in the first five overtimes.
1987 NCAA Final
“Best game? I’ll take a dagger loss to the heart when Keith Smart of Indiana hit a last-second shot to win the National Championship over Syracuse. That was as a fan.”
After 35 years covering basketball, Kevin, a native Rhode Islander and Syracuse alum, remains a sharp observer of the game. What he sees worries him.
“College basketball everywhere, and especially here in Rhode Island, has never been in a bigger crisis stage. I can see Division I in the NCAA tournament looking very different in 5 to 10 years,” he said. “What could happen is the big conferences – and it’s really only four conferences – they call all the shots. The NCAA has no juice.”
The landscape of college sports is fundamentally changing, Kevin wrote in an email.
“The fans are the biggest losers in this new world of supposed ‘student-athlete welfare,’” he said. “The players now hold all the power and most aren’t mature enough to make wise decisions. The transfer portal, plus ‘pay-to-play’ payments, now spark jumping from one school to another in search of the best financial deal. Until the football conferences (SEC, Big 10, Big 12) agree (it’s not the NCAA) to put some type of academic penalty into the equation, I see no end in sight of the money-grab. The chances for such a change seem minimal.”
That spells trouble, especially for schools like URI and Bryant that have football. When terms of the class-action lawsuit known as House v. NCAA take effect later this year, colleges will be able to pay athletes directly. Providence College can pour more revenue-sharing money into basketball because it does not sponsor football. URI and Bryant will have to divert substantial amounts of money to football. Brown’s case is different. The Ivy League is not allowing direct payments to its athletes
“It’s a disaster. It really is. I don’t see how they can compete,” Kevin said. “Basically every guy who has any chance to make any money is going to leave because Rhode Island is not going to be able to sell that they’re in the same boat — that they get the same $20 million. I don’t know what [athletics director Thorr Bjorn] is going to do. Is he going to get football a little bit or a lot? Is he going to give women’s basketball a little bit? I mean, my guess is very little for women’s basketball, but football, is he going give decent money to football because they’ve shown that they can compete [in the Coastal Athletic Association]?”
As for the product on the basketball court now, here’s Kevin’s take:
“The individual instruction and year-round focus on skills has the talent level at an all-time high. Unfortunately, the coaching has not followed suit. Give me more coaches who play multiple defenses, control the tempo both fast and slow and don’t run pick-and-roll offense 90% of the time and we’d enjoy a better game.”
That from a Hall of Famer. Congratulations, K Mac!
