Great Neck native and Syracuse assistant men's basketball coach Ben Lee thrilled to face St. John's at MSG

Ben Lee certainly is appreciative of where he is now.

The 29-year-old Great Neck native is a first-year assistant coach for Syracuse, one of the youngest assistant coaches in high-major college basketball and a rising star in the industry.

Lee emphasizes staying present, but Sunday night brings a full-circle moment that he will have to take a step back to appreciate.

He has been to Madison Square Garden countless times and grew up with Knicks season tickets. But Sunday’s game between Syracuse and No. 13 St. John’s will mark the first time he coaches at the “Mecca of Basketball.” Everything that MSG represents personally and historically will not be lost on him, and a large Great Neck contingent is expected to attend.

“When we got the job, [Syracuse coach Gerry McNamara] said he was going to get me a game at the Garden, so definitely looking forward to it,” Lee told Newsday in a phone interview.

“It’s funny. I was on the phone with one of my best friends that I grew up with in Great Neck, and he’s like, ‘Are you still fazed by the arenas you coach in and the different places you get to go?’ And I said, ‘I’m not, except for Sunday at the Garden.’ I coached in the Pacers’ arena the other day. It is what it is. It’s another arena.

“But I’ve been going to Knicks games since I was 3 years old. Being able to coach there, that’ll be a pinch-me moment of, hey, you’re focused on the task at hand, but this is pretty cool.”

'Whatever it takes'

As a seventh-grader, Lee realized he wanted to become a coach.

He was playing for the Hollis Biddies, a Queens-based AAU program, and his first tournament in Boston featured a starting five with players as tall as 6-6, 6-4 and 6-3. He came off the bench and quickly came to the realization that most players ultimately have: he wasn’t going to the NBA.

But Lee played at Great Neck South High School and was encouraged by mentors to play collegiately. He landed at Division III Union College in Schenectady.

During his time at Union, Lee would help out at different AAU events and grow his network. He eventually coached a 15U team for the Albany City Rocks, one of the nation’s elite programs on the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League (EYBL) circuit.

He told Jim Hart, the founder of City Rocks, that he had interviewed for a graduate assistant position at the University of Washington and asked if there was anything he could do to help. Unbeknownst to Lee, one of Hart’s best friends was then-Washington coach Mike Hopkins.

Fifteen minutes later, Lee got the job. Four days after graduating from Union, he was off to Seattle.

The graduate assistant gig was for one year. Lee said Hopkins tried to hire him on staff after, but life changed after the COVID-19 pandemic and Lee ended up back in Great Neck. He worked on the grassroots level for MADE Hoops for 18 months, running middle school and high school events around the country while living with his parents; they saw his drive to succeed first-hand.

Brian Lee, Ben’s father, said he was “basically running a business,” organizing tournaments with thousands of kids and dealing with coaches, parents, security, referees, budgets and advertising.

“His work ethic was just incredible,” said Louise Hochberg, Ben’s mother. “He never stopped, and he was flying all over the country. He was really helping them build their company and their program, and he just did an amazing job.”

Lee admitted it was an adjustment to not be playing or coaching games for the first time, but he gained invaluable experience that helped build his recruiting network.

He returned to Washington as the director of basketball operations for the 2022-23 season, then was promoted to assistant coach and director of recruiting in 2023-24.

“[Hopkins] said to me, ’There is no job too big for Ben, and no job too small,’ ” Brian Lee recalled. “That he will do whatever it takes, essentially.”

'A dream come true'

Washington fired Hopkins — also a former Syracuse guard and longtime Orange assistant coach — in March 2024, and Lee had “a bunch of irons in the fire” searching for his next job. That came via another Syracuse alum in McNamara, who was recruited to Syracuse by Hopkins.

Hopkins connected Lee with McNamara while Lee was a graduate assistant, and they would hang out on the road while recruiting. Lee knew that he wanted to work for McNamara when the latter became Siena’s coach in 2024, and it’s been a perfect partnership since.

“I remember walking to his office after Year One at Siena, and knowing what we were building there,” Lee said. “I told him straight up, ‘I’ll never work for anybody else.’ I think that speaks as highly as I can about how much I’ve enjoyed being with him every day.”

The ensuing two-year turnaround at Siena, which went 4-28 in the 2023-24 season before McNamara and Lee arrived, was remarkable. The Saints improved to 14-18 in 2024-25 and went 23-12 last season. They won  the MAAC Tournament and the 16 seed then pushed top overall seed Duke to the brink in a 71-65 loss in the NCAA Tournament.

Lee, of course, followed McNamara to Syracuse this spring, and a hectic six weeks of roster-building followed. They brought three transfers — including All-MAAC selection Gavin Doty — and an incoming freshman (Ryan Moesch) from Siena, and retained two rotation players: Sadiq White Jr. and Kiyan Anthony, Carmelo Anthony’s son and a former Newsday All-Long Island selection at Long Island Lutheran.

Lee’s job at Syracuse is split into three buckets — recruiting, player development and scouting — and he is one of four assistants under McNamara. His ultimate goal is to become a Division I head coach, but he loves his situation at Syracuse and will be ready when the right opportunity and time comes.

Sunday will be only his fourth game as a Syracuse assistant, but it no doubt will mean more than the others.

“He grew up going to the Garden, taking the train, and watching the Knicks lose year after year after year,” Hochberg said. “But the idea that now he’s there on the floor as an assistant coach? It’s just a dream come true.”

She paused.

“Well, the dream come true will be when he’s head coach.”

Brian Lee took it a step further.

“Hopefully one day,” he said, “he’ll be coaching there all the time with the Knicks.”