Syracuse players describe fan treatment amid 3-game skid: ‘Very disrespectful’
Syracuse’s players spoke about getting booed at home during SU’s loss to Miami, its third straight defeat. Leonardo Eriman | Senior Staff Photographer
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Intermittently during Syracuse’s loss to Miami Saturday afternoon, its third defeat in the last eight days, a chorus of boos reigned down on the Orange. Specifically, at their head coach.
“Fire Autry” was the chant SU’s student section started whenever Adrian Autry’s squad allowed a big run or coughed the ball up. The honest critiques from the fans did not please Syracuse’s players, though. They wish they didn’t hear all the noise, but they do. It affects them. And it leads them to question whether the fans are on their side or not.
“Just give him a chance,” point guard Naithan George pleaded to Orange fans upset with Autry’s job performance in his third season. “It’s just always bashing and bashing, but they don’t see what goes on behind the scenes.
“I feel like that’s very disrespectful, the way they treat (Autry). I’m just very disappointed. I thought it was a very respected fanbase.”
If anything was apparent in the JMA Wireless Dome locker room after Syracuse’s (12-8, 3-4 Atlantic Coast) 85-76 loss to Miami (16-4, 5-2 Atlantic Coast), it was that the Orange’s players are tired of the boos and the calls for Autry’s job. Though they acknowledged they appreciate SU’s fanbase and are motivated to do the best for them, the players believe they deserve more patience, respect and faith that they’ll improve to become the team Autry said they’ll turn into.
George expected better out of Syracuse’s home crowd.
“You got to respect the guy,” George said of Autry. “He’s trying his best. And of course, you’re gonna come up short, depending on what happens, but he’s just trying his best.”
Like George, other players did not mince words when speaking about Autry — who is in danger of missing three straight NCAA Tournaments as SU’s head coach, certainly putting his job status on the hot seat. The Orange entered Saturday’s game No. 77 in the NET Rankings. Now, they are 1-3 against Quad 1 teams and 1-3 versus Quad 2s — including Miami.
That’s not good enough to make March Madness.
But Autry’s message to all Orange fans out there is this: believe in this team because they will fight until the very end and that there is plenty of basketball left to be played.
It wasn’t said with the inspiration of a war general, though it was a continuation of Autry’s steadfast belief that, through time, Syracuse will be a winner under his watch.
“We’ve shown the ability to be able to play to win,” Autry said of what he’d say to SU’s fanbase. “This group will keep fighting. The coaching staff will keep fighting. There’s a lot more opportunities out there. This season provides us with more opportunities than we’ve had in the past. So, (there’s) still a lot of basketball to be played.
“This team, you know, and our coaches will keep working. And I think we can, you know, change this and turn this thing around. We’ve been close, but we haven’t been able to get over the hump yet.”
Boos and mean-spirited chants flooded the Dome’s atmosphere at a few points during Syracuse’s defeat: after a 9-0 Miami run to begin the game, when Orange fell behind 69-56 late in the game, and when the clock finally hit triple zeroes.
Sure, SU got outrebounded 37-21 and allowed the Hurricanes to shoot 61% from the field, so it’s not like there weren’t reasons to boo. Autry himself acknowledged the outward frustration and said nobody likes to lose.
But, what goes through a player’s head when their own fans express displeasure toward them while sweating bullets on the basketball court?
“I mean, I’ve never experienced that before, to be booed by our fans,” said Syracuse center William Kyle III, a UCLA transfer. “So I mean, it sucks. You can understand where the fans are coming from. They have passion, they want us to win, and we want to win as well. But, I mean, it just sucks.”
For a roster littered with transfers — such as Kyle, George, Tyler Betsey and Nate Kingz — they naturally aren’t as well-versed or well-connected with Syracuse fans. They feel pain right now about not playing up to standard. Yet, they don’t feel the pain some die-hards have felt during what’s on track to be a five-year NCAA Tournament drought.
Nonetheless, it’s never easy on a player’s psyche when dealing with this type of outside noise; relentless calls for their own head coach to lose his job and vicious screams of “Boo” when they’re trying to focus on their home floor.
Not to mention the avalanche of negativity they’ll see on social media.
“It doesn’t really faze us, but it’s just like, wow. Because you think the fans will believe no matter what,” George said. “But, it is what it is. We’re basketball players. It’s just something we gotta block out.”
“It’s unfortunate to hear and it’s hard for us, for sure,” added sophomore forward Donnie Freeman. “The fans mean a lot to us, and for them to feel disappointment like that, it’s tough for us. But I mean, we appreciate their support and they deserve better times.”
Betsey, a sophomore transfer from Cincinnati, offered a different perspective, saying he went through a similar situation last year. In times like these, when playing for a heavily-scrutinized head coach, he focuses on what this group set out to accomplish in the preseason.
They want to bring back the “Orange Standard” of national excellence, and that doesn’t happen overnight.
Syracuse fans just thought it’d happen much quicker.
“I don’t think about his job per se,” Betsey said of Autry. “Just (about) getting things back to where we know we’re supposed to be.”
