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WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Adrian Autry is sick of this.

You could feel the energy in the room shift to nervousness after he slowly shuffled into Wake Forest’s press conference room in the depths of LJVM Coliseum Saturday night. His lips were sealed tight. His eyes hid a raging fire behind them. He rarely blinked. Usually after a loss, Autry tries to inject hope into SU’s fanbase. But this time, for eight minutes straight, he ranted.

“It’s been a struggle all year for us,” Autry said bluntly. “In college, you’ve got to be tough. You’ve got to do tough things. You got to make tough plays. You got to have resistance. You’ve got to be able to defend. And, you know, we just don’t do that.”

Minutes prior, his Syracuse (15-14, 6-10 Atlantic Coast) squad had just walked off the floor after its third straight loss, an 88-83 defeat to the Demon Deacons (15-14, 6-10 Atlantic Coast). The Orange held a few sizable leads throughout the contest, yet down the stretch, they allowed Wake Forest to score buckets on 13 out of 14 consecutive possessions. For a near-10 minute stretch, it was as if SU’s defenders turned invisible.

Autry says it’s because his team isn’t tough. He said the word “tough” — or some form of it — five times during his minute-and-a-half long opening statement, almost in disbelief at his guys’ lack of consistent toughness.

For Syracuse’s third-year head coach, who said from Day 1 that he wants this year’s Orange to play with unmatched tenacity and pride themselves on defense, it took until Saturday’s loss for him to state the obvious.

They’re not tough; they’re not gritty; they’re not who he thought they were.

“I don’t know how many times I keep coming up here and saying the same thing,” Autry said, more forthcoming than he’s been in any postgame presser. “You know, today’s the first day that I’m just going to say what it is.”

“The amount of effort that we spend … and we just keep coming up short.”

In Autry’s eyes, the standard was set. The standard was clear. And the standard was attainable. But with two regular-season games remaining, the standard was almost never met.

Heading into his third year at the helm, Autry finally had the roster he actually wanted. Transfer-portal commits like Naithan George, Nate Kingz and William Kyle III were supposed to form SU into a win-now team, supplemented with returning stars Donnie Freeman and J.J. Starling as well as the arrival of two highly-touted freshman balls of energy: Kiyan Anthony and Sadiq White.

Autry felt he had a group who could exert its raw athleticism over any given opponent and win off that. He also thought his roster lacked any poor defenders.

If I can get these guys on the same page, the sky’s the limit.

But nothing Autry has told his players has seemed to work this season. The Orange are a model of inconsistency. The same team that shocked then-No. 13 Tennessee in December without Freeman even on the floor is the same team that allowed Wake Forest — the worst rebounding team in the ACC — to grab 10 offensive rebounds and out-board SU 30-18.

Sitting one game above .500 amid its third losing streak of at least three games this season, Syracuse is where it’s at right now because it doesn’t know how to win. And, to Autry, SU doesn’t know how to win because his players aren’t responding to the coaching.

“The amount of effort that we spend, and coaching and showing and pushing and challenging (them), trying to get them to understand what it takes to win basketball games … and we just keep coming up short,” Autry said.

“You’ve got to be able to defend. And we just don’t do that.”

Defense was always supposed to anchor this Orange squad. But across February, which was by far the most important month of Syracuse’s regular season, Autry’s team was among the nation’s worst defenses.

In seven February contests, in which SU finished with a 2-5 record, it allowed an average of 86.14 points per game. For reference, the worst scoring defense in the ACC — Georgia Tech — surrenders 83.2 points per game.

The Orange also gave up 100 or more points twice in that dreadful stretch; they beat Cal 107-100 in double-overtime and lost to Duke 101-64.

Wake Forest may be the worst example, though. Syracuse didn’t go after loose balls. It didn’t box out. It left shooters uncovered — primarily Myles Colvin, who dropped 32 points on 7-for-8 3-point shooting. SU executed almost zero aspects of Autry’s game plan, culminating in what happened down the stretch where it couldn’t buy a stop against an ACC bottomfeeder.

But for Autry, defense is fully an effort thing. He doesn’t think they gave much of one on Saturday. That’s why he’s pissed.

“That’s been a challenge all year,” Autry said. “To get people to care about that end of the floor, and not only the offensive (end).”

“This is a choice that every player has to make.”

Autry believes it’s up to the players to carry out his message. He’s made himself perfectly clear. And he can’t put himself in another man’s shoes. So at this point, he’s running out of answers.

“It comes down to, ‘Do you wanna do it?’” Autry said. “We’re just not doing it.”

Though Autry took personal accountability postgame, his rant was delivered off the rage stirring inside him about his players not performing to the playstyle he wants them to display. After all, when he creates his game plans, he’s not drawing up plays with lackadaisical effort and missed assignments. There’s something deeper at play. As much as it pains him to say it, Autry thinks his guys aren’t pulling their weight. Nor is he. Nor is his coaching staff.

But as Autry said, his intended playstyle for Syracuse is a choice. You either play hard and gas yourself out on defense every possession, or you’re not playing to Autry’s standard.

So, if it’s a choice, why was SU’s roster the antithesis of tough when it squared off with Wake Forest? A forlorn Nate Kingz tried to answer that question outside of Syracuse’s locker room Saturday.

“Um, I don’t know,” Kingz answered. “I can’t really … I don’t know. I’m not sure.”

“I guess that’s on me.”

The writing is on the wall. Autry can say anything he wants, but at the end of the day, this sport is about results. And through three seasons, and probably three straight missed NCAA Tournaments, Autry hasn’t gotten sufficient results.

While he repeatedly brought up Syracuse’s toughness, or lack thereof, Autry delivered a snappy but uncertain line to ultimately pin the blame on himself.

“So, I guess that’s on me,” he said after calling out his team.

Toward the end of a season many believe could be Autry’s last at Syracuse, the same problems he’s seen all year continue to resurface. There are only two regular-season games left to right the ship. And the exhaustion of losing has caught up to Autry.

“Those are the things that we’ve talked about all year long,” Autry said of trying to get his team to play tough, physical and fast.

“All year long,” he repeated once more.

Published on February 28, 2026 at 11:03 pm
Contact Cooper: ccandrew@syr.edu | @cooper_andrews