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Minutes before Syracuse tipped off its second home game in six days to start the season, Adrian Autry popped up on the big screen at the JMA Wireless Dome. The video — which will play before every home game this season — isn’t anything out of the blue. But it means a lot to Autry.

The third-year head coach doesn’t serenade the Syracuse faithful, thanking them for their support. He’s not soliciting donations to the Athletic Department for Name, Image and Likeness.

No. In the video, Autry explains Syracuse’s defensive goals. It all hinges on getting three defensive stops in a row, which is labelled a “kill.” With each stop, an X shows up on the screen. If the Orange let up a point, it resets.

As for what fans should do when Syracuse gets a “kill?”

“I would like the crowd to go crazy, because that’s very hard to do, to get three stops in a row,” Autry said. “That’s something that we really worked on on the defensive end, to get that defensive identity.”

Autry’s focus this offseason was creating that identity. It was something Syracuse (2-0, Atlantic Coast Conference) lacked last season, as it finished with just 13 wins. Creating an elite defense was evident in every move. The transfers brought it. The drills in practice. The overall attention to detail. It’s still early in the season, but SU has flexed its defensive muscle, as shown by its 83-43 win over Delaware State (0-2, Mid-Eastern Athletic).

The Orange’s defensive performance was their best since holding Niagara to 45 points on Dec. 3, 2021. SU held the Hornets to 14-of-65 shooting (21.5%), by far better than any total it produced last season.

“Defensively, we really got after it. I thought we had some great possessions,” Autry said. “(I) Thought we communicated. We made them take tough shots…the defense was really lights out in the first half.”

Throughout the offseason, Autry implemented the three-strike rule. At every practice, he kept track of how many “kills” SU got. While Autry didn’t reveal Syracuse’s goal for “kills” in a game, point guard Naithan George said it was eight.

It’s part of an overall effort of reshaping Syracuse’s defense. Last season, the unit was 152nd in the country in defensive rating and 275th in effective field goal percentage allowed, per KenPom.

Through two games — albeit against soft competition — SU is 63rd in defensive efficiency and has the No. 1 effective field goal percentage against.

Saturday, the Orange put on a pristine display. Delaware State made just five field goals at halftime, while Donnie Freeman had six and Syracuse led 40-17.

“I’ve been watching a lot of Syracuse basketball over the years, and this is a different brand of basketball,” Delaware State head coach Stan Waterman said postgame. “It’s not Coach Boeheim’’s, (2-3 zone). These guys are pretty athletic, and they get after it. They make it hard.”

During Autry’s roster construction, he emphasized defensive versatility, recruiting guys that played hard on both sides of the ball and came from programs that were known for that. One of those pieces was center William Kyle III, whose career-high six blocks kept a lid on the basket for Delaware State.

Kyle’s vertical ability is a drastic comparison to Eddie Lampkin’s last season, who was a defensive liability. Even though Autry wants to keep teams out of the paint as much as possible, Kyle proved Saturday why he’s an elite rim protector.

“His leaping ability gives him the opportunity to go get it, as well as his wingspan,” George said. “Will’s a freak athlete, and his motor is like no other.”

“I didn’t know I had six blocks,” Kyle joked. “I was just trying to be active and just be that presence in the paint tonight.”

It’s not just Kyle. Multiple players pointed to freshman Sadiq White as one of the leaders on that end. George said White “always wants to guard the best players,” — whether it’d be a 5-foot-10 point guard or 6-foot-10 center — while Freeman called the freshman “elite.”

White came to Syracuse with a reputation as an athletic forward that thrives in transition and wants to play fast. His skillset mirrors Autry’s goals this season, who wants Syracuse to pick up the pace. To accomplish that, you need to get stops.

That’s exactly what Syracuse did. Freeman was a disruptor with his long arms, while George’s on-ball pressure forced Delaware State into 15 turnovers, which turned into 25 points. Freeman led the charge in transition, powering home some thunderous dunks and and-1s.

“We want to use our athleticism and our speed and transition. So for us, you want to be disruptive, you want to use deals, deflections, blocks, etc,” Freeman said. “We got a couple of those, and that guided some of our runs throughout the whole game.”

Four straight points from Freeman 10 minutes in put Syracuse up 21-9. From there, SU ran away with the game, leading by double digits the rest of the way. Its defense didn’t back down in the second half either, only allowing 26 points.

Anthony mentioned how Autry is a defensive minded coach. One of the key monikers of a shutdown defense is athleticism, which Syracuse has plenty of. Despite not knowing how athletic Syracuse’s roster was until he saw them in person, Anthony realized that as soon as he arrived on campus this summer.

The practices were intense. Anthony said players were “damn near ready to fight each other” because of the competitiveness. It was personal on the floor. Off it, they dapped each other up like nothing happened.

Kyle remembers fouls rarely being called during scrimmages. What was frustrating at the time is now seen as a positive. It gave Syracuse an edge. A toughness. A playing style. Something it lacked in 2024-25.

“It battle tested us for sure,” Freeman said. “We don’t take it easy on each other in practice, despite us being teammates, trying to get the best out of each other, we’re trying to compete to the highest level.”

“If we could do that to each other, we could definitely come out here and do it to the other team,” Anthony added.

Freeman thinks it’s pretty clear Syracuse’s defense is further along than its offense right now, and it’s hard to argue with that. SU’s opponents are averaging just 45 points per game and hitting 26% of their shots.

The Orange want to “make it miserable for opponents” with their aggressiveness. So far, they’re accomplishing that. Still, Autry thinks there’s another level they can hit.

He mentioned the defensive effort was there for 28 minutes and that his team needs to do a better job of finishing plays. Still, what Autry saw was encouraging. He knows the Orange
aren’t anywhere close to being a finished product.

But through two games, Syracuse’s defensive tenacity has been hard to ignore.

“That’s what we worked on this summer,” Autry said “And defense is about a mentality and that’s what we’re continuing to work on. We’re not there yet. This is starting in the right direction.”

Published on November 8, 2025 at 6:47 pm
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