Adrian Autry desperately needed a Quad 1 win. His team found it.
After Syracuse's winless trip to Las Vegas, Adrian Autry was under immense pressure. In the biggest game of Autry’s tenure, SU captured a signature win over Tennesse. Eli Schwartz | Staff Photographer
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Adrian Autry stepped to the podium, tapped his fingers along its frame and took a huge sigh of relief. The third-year head coach yearned for a team like this. With the squad he’s built, Autry desperately needed a win like this.
After the locker room celebrations ended and security cleared the court from a storm, Autry soaked it all in. He knows SU has a long way to go. But Tuesday night solidified what he’s been attempting to build.
Syracuse (5-3, Atlantic Coast) took down No. 13 Tennessee (7-2, Southeastern) 62-60 Tuesday, marking the biggest win of Autry’s tenure. The pressure on the head coach entering the season was immense, as he turned in one of SU’s worst years in program history in Year 2.
The thermometer jumped higher than ever after three missed Quad 1 opportunities in the Players Era Festival last week, as the Orange fell to then-No. 3 Houston, Kansas and then-No. 15 Iowa State, ranging from overtime losses to 30-point blowouts. Tennessee marked Autry and Co.’s final chance at a marquee nonconference win. It wasn’t pretty. But Syracuse captured it.
“Every win is important,” Autry said postgame. “But in particular, a win at home against a team like Tennessee was huge, because we were so close last week.”
Postgame, Autry attempted to downplay the win’s importance slightly. He pointed to the early success of the ACC and how opportunities for big-time wins will come in conference play. But Autry is likely coaching for his job in his third season. Nonconference wins over ranked opponents are key milestones toward making the Big Dance. A March Madness berth for the first time in five years would certainly secure his position.
The Orange fell short in Las Vegas without their leading scorer, Donnie Freeman. The loss of Freeman means Syracuse isn’t playing at its peak through its toughest stretch of the season. But the Orange built around both Freeman and senior guard J.J. Starling. And when SU needed a bucket in the closing minutes, it turned to its captain.
Defensively, Starling often disrupted Tennessee star freshman Nate Ament, stalling him despite a six-inch difference in height. The Baldwinsville native experienced a court storm in 2024, when he sealed a win over then-No. 7 North Carolina with free throws. As the Orange trailed 56-55 with under three minutes to play, Starling came up big once again.
He cut left to right beyond the arc and stepped into a fall-away 3, swishing it. After a defensive stop, Starling came down the floor and hit a fadeaway from the right elbow, again swishing it.
“It’s just a switch,” Starling said, simply describing his takeover.
The Volunteers — who entered with a Quad 1 win over Houston already — of course didn’t go away quietly. Tennessee stormed back to tie the game at 60-60 with 30 seconds to go. But Syracuse’s offense worked inside and was forced to overcome its archnemesis to seal the deal — the free throw line.
William Kyle III converted just 11-of-26 free throws through his first seven games at Syracuse. His noticeable hitch has been ugly to watch, and the senior isn’t afraid to admit his struggles. In the waning seconds, Kyle’s charity-stripe mishaps were the key roadblock between an upset victory or another final-second failure.
Knowing his struggles, Kyle said he shot hundreds of free throws with assistant coach Dan Engelstad on Tuesday alone. It helped him find comfort, trusting his routine no matter what. Kyle was 3-for-8 versus the Volunteers before he stepped to the line with 13.8 seconds to go.
As SU’s bench interlocked arms and Autry paced up and down the sideline, Kyle missed his first attempt. But Kyle trusted his routine. The second shot touched nothing but nylon. The Orange maneuvered back on defense and forced a miss, sending the JMA Wireless Dome into a frenzy. As fans, flagged by stadium security, surrounded the perimeter of the court, Sadiq White split the pair. A long heave to Ament connected, but his buzzer-beating shot missed the mark. Autry earned his victory.
“Everybody on this team knew we could win this game,” Kyle said.
Fans pack the JMA Wireless Dome court after the buzzer sounded on SU’s win over the Volunteers. The win snapped the Orange’s three-game losing streak through its three games in Las Vegas. Eli Schwartz | Staff Photographer
Before it was Starling, Kyle or even White scoring in the final minutes, it was Nate Kingz in the first half who kept SU in the game. He tallied 19 points on 6-for-10 shooting in the first 20 minutes, helping Syracuse to a 32-30 lead. Kingz didn’t even attempt a shot in the second half as Tennessee rigorously double-teamed him. But the Orange leaned on their identity, winning through their defense.
The doubts arrived in a flurry following SU’s winless Las Vegas road trip. Freshman Kiyan Anthony said the team knew most on the outside thought Houston would steamroll Syracuse before SU pushed the Cougars to their limits. Autry presented the outcomes to his team with a positive spin.
He felt the games, while not ending in the Orange’s favor, gave a glimpse of their potential. Starling said it was a step in the right direction toward consistency. Kingz felt it was just a matter of getting over the hump.
“The biggest thing that we took from Vegas, and I took from Vegas, is that we’re playing with the right juice, and we’re playing with the right energy level, level five, and we’re connected,” Autry said. “It’s a whole team. We think we got a chance to compete with everybody.”
Starling described the practices between Wednesday’s loss to Iowa State and Tuesday’s win over Tennessee as some of the team’s toughest ones of the season. The Orange knew they came up short and were upset about it. But they also knew they could use that experience to beat the Volunteers. Starling keyed in on the word hunger, limiting mental lapses and honing in on each defensive possession.
It’s what Autry has preached to his team since many of his players arrived on campus in the summer. He acquired the speed and strength to do so. The shots won’t always fall, and they haven’t for the Orange. However, defense is their security blanket to fall on.
As Ament’s shot missed the mark and bounced free with 0.0 seconds left on the clock, the court turned into a circus. Players jumped up and down, surrounded by a sea of fans. Anthony, who’s fallen in the limelight his whole life, said he’s seen court storms on TV, but never experienced one. To be involved in it was “crazy,” Anthony said.
In the most important game of the Autry era, the Orange cashed in. Autry made note to enjoy it. Everyone now knows what Syracuse is capable of. But the next step is building off of it.
“It was a confidence booster. But we’ve got to keep going,” Kyle said. “This isn’t our Super Bowl. It’s a great feeling to go out there and knock off a ranked team. But we got to keep going.”
