Louis Orr, former Siena men's basketball coach and Syracuse legend, dies at 64 after battle with cancer

Bowling Green head coach Louis Orr in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game with Michigan, Thursday, Nov. 18, 2010, at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor, Mich. Louis Orr, a standout at Syracuse who played eight NBA seasons before going into a lengthy career in coaching that included one season at Siena in 2000-01, has died. He was 64. Orr's family said Friday in a statement through Georgetown that he died Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022, after a battle with pancreatic cancer. (AP Photo/Tony Ding, File)

As a 23-year-old academic advisor in the Siena College athletic department, Lori Anctil worked right across the hall from then-men’s basketball head coach Louis Orr’s office.

They worked closely together during Orr’s sole season in Loudonville in 2000-01, and when the news came out that he was set to depart Siena to take the head coaching job at Seton Hall, Anctil — then Lori Perillo — was called into his office.

“All I wanted to do was congratulate him and just be happy for him, tell him how great it was and how happy I was for him, but I couldn’t get the words out because I was really going to miss him,” said Anctil, now the athletic director at The College of Saint Rose. “My nickname back then was ‘LP,’ and he said, ‘LP, I might have a job for you down there if you’re interested in coming.’

“I didn’t really care what it was. I just knew that it was really something special with him, and I wanted to follow him.”

Orr, who led Siena to a 20-11 record and a share of the regular-season MAAC championship in his season leading the Saints, died Thursday after a battle with cancer, according to a statement issued Friday from his family. He was 64.

One half of the famed “Louie & Bouie Show” alongside Roosevelt Bouie in coach Jim Boeheim’s Syracuse frontcourt from 1976-80, Orr played in the NBA from 1980-88 with the Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks.

After his single season at Siena, Orr went on to serve as head coach at Seton Hall from 2001-06, then at Bowling Green from 2007-14. Since 2017, he’d served as an assistant coach under his former Knicks teammate Patrick Ewing at Georgetown.

“Louis was one of the most outstanding people that I have ever known in collegiate athletics,” Siena athletic director John D’Argenio, who hired Orr as head coach in 2000, said in a statement. “His commitment to faith, his family, his players, and his coaches always came first. I appreciated his time at Siena, the perspective that he provided, that he instilled our student athletes with a sense of purpose, and the MAAC Regular Season Championship that he coached our team to. There aren’t many regrets that I have from my long career working in collegiate athletics, but one that I do have is that I didn’t get to work longer with Louis Orr.”

“I’ve lost a great friend,” Ewing said in a statement. “Someone who has been in my life since I was 22 years old. We developed a friendship and a brotherhood. He was always someone I could talk to — we would talk about life, we would talk about basketball, we would talk about family.

“Louis Orr will be truly missed and he will forever be part of this Hoya program.”

Current Siena men’s basketball head coach Carmen Maciariello was a senior guard for the Saints during Orr’s lone season in Loudonville.

“He was a great man. Obviously, a family man,” Maciariello said. “Always cared about people, was really compassionate, looking out for anyone in need — not just players, but people within the community. Anything he could do to help, he would help people. That’s what he was about.”

Anctil followed Orr to Seton Hall and served as his director of basketball operations during his five seasons at the New Jersey school.

It was during that time that the two formed a lasting bond, with Anctil admiring Orr for his humility and devotion to the lives of others.

“He just cared about people,” she said. “He wasn’t concerned with what job they had, what title they had or how much money they made. He knew everybody had a story to tell, and as busy as his life was and as challenging as things were for him, he always made time for other people to listen, let them know he cared. He was just a genuine, caring, loving, devoted person.”

Maciariello, a Clifton Park native, had come back to the Capital Region the year prior to Orr’s hiring and spent a redshirt year for the Saints under Paul Hewitt, who then departed to become head coach at Georgia Tech.

Maciariello recalled his experiences playing under Orr.

“He really liked how hard I worked,” Maciariello said. “I still remember, it was a summer conditioning workout at Shaker High School on the track at 6:45 in the morning. It was our first kind of timed run, and you had to run two miles. I had lapped some people, and I had the best time, and I think from then on, he kind of realized that I wasn’t going to let up. I was coming to play and help the team win.”

The two remained close following Maciariello’s graduation and Orr’s departure for Seton Hall. The two kept in contact when Maciariello was coaching with the Albany City Rocks AAU program, and Maciariello said he interviewed for an assistant job under Orr when he was at Bowling Green, and that Orr also got him an interview with Ewing at Georgetown.

Maciariello had hoped to reconnect with his old head coach when Siena traveled to Washington, D.C., to face Georgetown on Dec. 7, but when watching film of the Hoyas leading up to the game, Maciariello didn’t see Orr on the bench.

A pregame conversation with Ewing brought the situation to light.

“Coach Ewing told me before the game that [Orr] wasn’t doing well, and they didn’t give him long to live,” Maciariello said. “Before the game, that kind of hit me pretty hard, because I wasn’t thinking that coach Ewing was going to tell me he was in hospice.”

Anctil, who had heard Orr was sick, had an emotional phone conversation with him about a week prior to that.

“He answered the phone, and right off the bat I could tell it was pretty serious,” said Anctil, a Rotterdam native. “I’d got on the phone with his wife, we were on speakerphone together, and I wanted to make sure he knew the impact he made on my life.”

Anctil said she spoke to Orr’s wife, Yvette, Friday morning and was asked to be one of the people to deliver a eulogy at his funeral.

When news of Orr’s death broke Friday morning, tributes poured in from across the basketball world.

In a statement posted to social media, Boeheim called Orr, “the greatest man I’ve had the pleasure to know.”

“He came into my life as my first recruit, became a fantastic coach and colleague — but most importantly, he became a dear friend,” the post continued. “I will treasure our years together. Sending my love to his family and our Orange family.”

Current Iona head coach Rick Pitino recruited Orr when he was a rookie assistant under Boeheim at Syracuse, and was later an assistant with the Knicks from 1983-85 while Orr was on the team.

“So heartbroken with the news of Louis Orr’s passing,” Pitino wrote in a social media post. “My first Syracuse recruit [and] Knick player was as kind a person to play in the NBA — our thoughts and prayers are with his family.”

Others paid tribute to Orr’s impact on basketball and the lives of those he touched.

“Louis left a lasting mark on our sport, first as a decorated player and then as a successful coach at the college and international levels,” Craig Robinson, executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, said in a statement. “More impactful than his on-court accomplishments, Louis invested in the lives of countless players and became a trusted mentor and friend to coaches throughout our profession.”

“The Big East Conference is saddened to hear of the passing of Louis Orr,” read a statement from the Big East Conference. “A gentleman and true class act, Louis has been a key part of Big East history at four institutions, most recently serving on the basketball staff at Georgetown. He also served as head coach at Seton Hall, assistant coach at Providence, and was a standout player at Syracuse, where he played in the Big East’s first season in 1979-80. Our condolences go out to the Orr family. He will be missed by all.”

Anctil said she fondly remembered taking the trip to Syracuse in February 2015 to be on hand when Orr’s No. 55 jersey — and Bouie’s No. 50 — were raised into the rafters of the then-Carrier Dome.

“As humble a human being as he was, he would always deflect the attention and want to give it to other people,” Anctil said. “But, it was really nice to be there with him during that special moment.”

“He was just an absolutely incredible human being,” she added. “One of the best people I’ve ever come across. . . . I got to see how a life should be lived. He really lived his life with purpose in all he did. He felt that it was his calling.”

Contact Adam Shinder at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @Adam_Shinder.