syracuse
Syracuse, N.Y. — Ben and Liana Lee start each day together at 6:30 a.m., walking their 5-year-old Newfoundland/Poodle mix, Gus, and catching up. The walk might last 15 minutes or stretch to a half-hour, depending on Ben's schedule. That brief morning interlude could be the last time Liana sees her husband for many hours. "Honestly, it's just a time to enjoy each other's company," Liana said, "because that's something that we don't get to do that often."
People close to Ben Lee, Syracuse's new assistant basketball coach, describe him as a workaholic who has built his reputation on the craft of networking. He knows how to talk to people, motivate players, and has a keen eye for talent. He was Gerry McNamara's top assistant at Siena. When McNamara got the Syracuse job last March, he hoped Lee would succeed him as Siena's head coach. Lee wanted the job, but when the school considered only candidates with head coaching experience, he realized he wouldn't be the next Saints head coach. "It was a no-brainer," McNamara said. Lee had opportunities at other high majors, primarily as a recruiter, but he wanted more. At Syracuse, he remains McNamara's right-hand man at a Power Five school, with a bigger stage, higher stakes, and more pressure. Lee wants all of it. "You want to get more involved," he said. "You want to have more responsibilities. You want at some point down the line for somebody to hire you as their head coach. That's the goal."
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Lee, who has known since seventh grade that he wanted to be a basketball coach, is described as a "basketball grinder" in a small subset of the truly devotional. Stories include overnight scouting sessions with a 30-minute nap on an office floor, a nearly 24-hour mission to deliver forgotten camp jerseys, and an 11-hour drive from Charlotte to Albany after a canceled flight to be on time for practice. Mike Hopkins, who hired Lee twice at Washington, calls him a "GSD guy" — Get Shit Done. Lee has 5,263 contacts on his phone; he estimates 90% are basketball-related: players, parents, agents, event organizers, many from recruits he didn't land. Liana is astonished by the sheer volume of texts and calls her husband gets daily. "He's just a beast," said Chad Babel, who hired Lee at Made Hoops. "He won't stop working."
A 5-foot-10 point guard at Division III Union College, Lee spent countless hours in head coach Chris Murphy's office dissecting games and strategies. His junior year, Union trailed by double digits at halftime in an NCAA Tournament game. As Murphy and his staff stood outside the locker room, they heard screaming inside. Murphy entered to find a look of resolve on players' faces; later, he learned Lee delivered that halftime speech. "I just kind of ripped into our team," Lee said. "I kind of told them it's easy to be confident when you're winning. Now, a little adversity... We just had to take it to a different level." Union won. Murphy never had to say a halftime word. "You could tell that Ben, just through his sheer engagement, through his passion that he could be pretty good in this industry," Murphy said.
Most college players spend offseasons working on their games; Lee wanted to meet people. He showed up at basketball camps and EYBL events. His dad was a realtor, his mom a criminal defense attorney; they worked endless hours but still attended his games. Without family connections to basketball, Lee believed the best way to break in was to show up and be useful. He values in-person conversations and would schedule to bump into valuable contacts. During his Union days, Lee spent time around the Albany City Rocks and eventually coached the 15U B roster. Founder Jim Hart said he usually assigns young guys to that team as a proving ground. One day, Hart needed someone to quickly organize and print rosters for tryouts. Someone mentioned Lee; Hart called him, and within minutes, Lee raced to the gym and got the rosters organized and copied. That simple task made an impression. Months later, Lee asked Hart if he knew anyone at Washington; he'd just applied for a graduate assistant job there. Hart had a close relationship with Mike Hopkins and made a phone call. Lee got the job, moving to Seattle four days after graduating from Union.
After his grad assistant year at Washington, Lee worked at Made Hoops, a company organizing grassroots basketball events. McNamara said some might view that as an unconventional detour, but for Lee, it was pivotal. He describes those years as crucial to understanding recruiting and maintaining relationships. He made connections with players and families that continue to pay off. Syracuse is now recruiting a player Lee met while at Made Hoops when that kid was in fifth grade. "It was learning how to sell, learning how to talk to people, being able to talk to anybody," Lee said. "The second part was the relationship part of just treating people the right way." Babel put Lee in charge of Marquee Hoops, a sister venture, when Lee was 23, supervising about 10 employees. In two years, Babel said, Lee elevated the brand to match Made Hoops' event total. Babel tells a story of Lee's boots-on-the-ground mentality: after organizers realized they lacked jerseys for a Dallas elite camp, Lee flew to Houston at 10 a.m., drove a U-Haul to a house where four people frantically pressed jerseys, loaded them at 2 a.m., and drove five hours to Dallas before camp registration opened. "It's kinda easy to see a guy and know he's gonna be successful one day," Hopkins said. "How you do anything is how you do everything."
Hopkins hired Lee as director of basketball operations for 2022-23, then promoted him to assistant coach in 2023-24. Lee was 26, a rarity in Power Five conferences. When Hopkins lost his job at Washington, Lee was a free agent. He'd known McNamara since Hopkins introduced them; they'd established a professional friendship, and when McNamara got the Siena job, Lee was his first hire. McNamara was impressed by the depth of Lee's recruiting knowledge; he seemed to know every kid from every grassroots program. Their shared ideas on recruiting boiled down to simple tenets: "Be a good person. Play really hard." Through two seasons at Siena, McNamara saw how Lee interacted with players and families, appreciated the time he put in with his guard group. "There's a lot of guys who are good recruiters," McNamara said. "There's a lot of guys that are good coaches. He can do both." McNamara remembers a night when he and Lee watched 30 recruits on film; they agreed Frances Folefac was the best. Lee was Folefac's primary recruiter; the 6-foot-6 forward signed with Siena, was unanimous MAAC all-rookie in 2025-26, and transferred to Syracuse last spring.
Lee spent two years at Siena tutoring Gavin Doty. They watched film together, pored over statistics to understand strengths and weaknesses, worked on his jump shot. But what Doty really appreciated was Lee's ability to keep it real. "He'll just tell you how it is and what needs to happen for you to accomplish what you want to accomplish," Doty said. Five minutes after Siena learned it would face Duke in the 2026 NCAA Tournament, Lee left a public celebration and confined himself to his office. He spent hours downloading Duke games, watching video, looking for gaps, talking with coaches who played the Blue Devils. The Duke demystification lasted from 6:10 p.m. until 10 the next morning; he slept maybe 30 minutes on the office floor. "I think by the time we got to practice the next day, we kind of felt good about the game plan," Lee said. McNamara said Lee had his fingerprints all over the Duke strategy. No. 16 seed Siena, limited by injuries and a starter's disqualification, led No. 1 seed Duke 43-32 at halftime before falling 71-65. Folefac and Doty combined for 39 points and 10 rebounds against the ACC's best defense.
Lee said he will not work for anybody else but McNamara; his next job will be a head coaching job. Liana and Ben have been together since seventh grade. Ben says Liana understood what she was getting into when she married him—the long hours, the basketball obsession—but knowing it and living it are different. "He likes to be involved in everything. Every little thing he can work on, he's there," Liana said. "He loves the camaraderie, the team, the environment, the energy. And the competition. He's very competitive." She's a speech pathologist; after their time in Washington, they decided on morning strolls. In Seattle, she was up at 6 a.m. and in bed by 9 p.m.; he worked all hours. They rarely saw each other. At Siena, it would be different—they would find time. The Lees will continue their morning walks with Gus in Syracuse. But Ben Lee is who he is. "I was raised to have that work ethic of trying to be the best at whatever it is you do," Lee said. "And this is my choice. This is what I've chosen and I'm going to do everything I can to be the best coach I can be."
Originally reported by syracuse.