Andrews: Loss to UNC is another painful reminder of how far Syracuse has fallen
Syracuse showed fight in its loss to No. 14 North Carolina. But our beat writer argues that merely giving an effort should not be the bar for SU. Leonardo Eriman | Senior Staff Photographer
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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Syracuse’s “Orange Standard” used to be about winning.
Nowadays, showing “fight” and “battling back” means you’re playing up to the standard.
Those are the tenets of the extremely low bar SU has set for itself in recent years. And Adrian Autry brought them up in his press conference following its loss to North Carolina. The Orange trailed by as much as 32 points in the second half, and to their credit, miraculously made it a six-point game in the final moments. However, to most who watched, the horrifying stench that arose when Syracuse was getting outclassed by UNC is what will be remembered from this one. Not a comeback that fell 10 points short.
“At the end, I thought we just showed some heart and we kept fighting, because we were down big,” Autry said. “So we have to be able to learn from this and move forward to get better.”
Monday night in Chapel Hill served as another painful reminder of how far the Orange’s program has fallen from their glory days under Jim Boeheim.
In Syracuse’s (13-10, 4-6 Atlantic Coast) 87-77 defeat at the hands of No. 14 UNC (18-4, 6-3 Atlantic Coast) — Autry’s 22nd Quad 1 loss in 26 tries since taking over in 2023 — it did not resemble Hubert Davis’ UNC squad in the slightest. The Orange were unorganized, inconsistent and didn’t stand a realistic chance after halftime. Against one of the ACC’s elite, Autry’s team looked nothing like a top-tier program. More like a feisty mid-major who gave big, bad UNC a late scare.
Is that seriously all Syracuse can offer at this point?
“This is part of the journey,” Autry reasoned after the loss.
“I like this group. We just have to, you know, be more consistent. Be more consistent in what we’re trying to do. Be more consistent in what we’re trying to do,” Autry added.
He sounds like a man in disbelief. Of course, he pointed to elements of the game that Syracuse can improve at in the short-term, such as its lagging ball movement and lack of early physicality on defense.
But, my goodness, being down by 32 points against anybody means that your roster is nowhere near comparable to your opponent’s. This loss isn’t about one bad night; rather a series of low points during Autry’s tenure that are now coalescing into what’s likely to be another season without ACC Tournament success, nor a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
Even Carmelo Anthony voiced his displeasure with how Syracuse performed against North Carolina, per an Instagram comment he posted during the game that read “SMFH.” In other words, he was pissed.
Being in March Madness was merely a fraction of the “Orange Standard” during Boeheim’s 47 years at the helm.
Now, returning to the Big Dance would be exceeding the Autry standard.
Adrian Autry fields questions in his postgame press conference after SU’s 87-77 loss to North Carolina. Autry emphasized a need to see more consistency from the Orange after Monday’s defeat. Leonardo Eriman | Senior Staff Photographer
And as we sit here at the start of February, the Orange’s current problems are the same issues good teams typically fix by December. They’re playing as individuals, not as a team.
“We just haven’t been executing and really getting to where we need to go,” freshman guard Kiyan Anthony said postgame. “I don’t think it’s like five or six people that need the ball in their hands (all the time), definitely like two or three.”
The ball-dominant tendencies of most of SU’s roster was the largest talking point after its loss to North Carolina. Anthony, Donnie Freeman, J.J. Starling, Naithan George, Nate Kingz and Tyler Betsey are all guys who need the ball in their hands to be successful. But the Orange have displayed stagnant ball movement all season, and rank 15th in the ACC with a 49.7% assist rate.
Anthony kept it simple, though, feeling that Syracuse needed to run its offense through Freeman for the entire game, not just the first half. He initially said the Orange should have called more plays for Freeman to get the ball after his incredible 18-point first half. Though Anthony backtracked and said it comes down to the players executing to free up Freeman for open looks, his frustration that SU’s star wasn’t a point of emphasis down the stretch was palpable.
“I can’t really answer that,” Anthony said, bearing a slight smirk, in response to a question about Freeman’s decreased second half touches. “If he has 18 (points) in the first half, I think he should finish with 35, 40.”
Freeman finished with 23 points on 8-for-14 shooting. Nine shots in the first half, five in the second.
If you’re Autry and his coaching staff, and you’re watching Freeman single-handedly keep Monday’s game competitive by halftime, how do you not draw up play after play for this guy on offense? Especially with SU’s supporting cast not making a peep from behind the 3-point arc until the very end (when Kingz hit a couple) and its big man, William Kyle III, playing his worst game of the season — two points, six rebounds, five fouls.
Not to forget, one game after Autry inexplicably benched Freeman in an eventual win over Notre Dame, Freeman was the one player who prevented Syracuse from being blown to bits.
This is a team that struggles to recognize its own personnel, and in turn, continues to perform a league below the top squads in the nation.
SU is now 2-7 versus Quad 1 and Quad 2 opponents this year. It sits 72nd in the NCAA’s NET Rankings, behind six different Mountain West programs and three Atlantic 10 schools.
To be fair, the Orange probably aren’t talented enough yet to compete with the best of the best, anyways. Autry said that UNC’s defenders switching on every ball screen caused trouble for his players and got Syracuse’s offense out of whack.
You read that right: Defensive switches stymied the Orange.
Since joining the ACC in 2013, Syracuse is now 120-114 in conference play. Across its final 12 seasons in the Big East, it went 136-68. Under Autry, SU is 22-28 in ACC games. The Orange have become an afterthought in their own conference, an entire stratosphere behind blue bloods like North Carolina and Duke and even programs like Louisville and Miami.
Awkward roster-building, lack of cohesion among the players and constant flailing in big-game situations are all causing the Orange to behave like a shell of how they once did. They’re a team that loses games, yet can’t seem to figure out why.
But, hey, at least they fought to the very end. Isn’t that what counts?
Cooper Andrews is a Senior Staff Writer at The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at ccandrew@syr.edu or on X @cooper_andrews.
