Syracuse needs an ACC Tournament miracle run: ‘It’s as simple as that’
With Syracuse's loss to Pitt Saturday, the Orange's only option to make March Madness is to win the ACC Tournament next week in Charlotte. Zoe Xixis | Asst. Photo Editor
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Adrian Autry splits his year into three seasons. In season one — the nonconference — Syracuse showed promise. In season two — conference play — things didn’t go according to plan.
Now, in season three — the postseason — SU and Autry need a miracle.
Syracuse (15-16, 6-12 Atlantic Coast) dropped its regular-season finale to Pitt (12-19, 5-13 ACC) 71-69 in overtime Saturday. The Orange’s fifth straight loss to end the year puts them under the .500 mark for the second straight season and slotted them into the No. 14 seed for next week’s ACC Tournament.
A win over No. 11 seed SMU would be followed by a game against No. 7 seed NC State. Then, SU would need to beat No. 2 seed Virginia, which it fell to a month ago by 13 points.
Barring a Cinderella story, Syracuse’s season and Autry’s tenure will be over soon. At this point, the Orange know it.
“We need to make a run,” center William Kyle III said. “That’s pretty much the position that we’re in right now. We got to go down there, we got to win games if (we) want to keep playing. It’s as simple as that.”
Syracuse hasn’t lost five consecutive games since the 1968-69 season. It hasn’t accomplished back-to-back losing seasons since 1967-68, 1968-69. Still, the Orange have to believe that a trip to Charlotte will change their fortunes. They have to.
Even if Nate Kingz’s end-of-regulation step back 3 or Naithan George’s halfcourt heave had hit nylon at the end of overtime, a win over the Panthers wouldn’t have changed anything. Wake Forest took down Cal a few minutes before SU’s game ended, clinching the No. 13 seed and bumping the Orange to No. 14.
The damage has been done for weeks. As a result, Syracuse has one less conference win than a year ago despite tripling the investment in its roster. Frustration is expected. And change is coming. The Orange were supposed to be a team at least on the March Madness bubble entering the ACC Tournament. They’re far from it.
After SU’s loss to Louisville Tuesday, George said what needs to happen in Charlotte has been discussed already within the locker room. Guard Bryce Zephir repeated the idea Saturday.
“Our main thing is just playing desperate,” Zephir said. “We’re trying to play like every game is our last, because honestly, every game might be our last.”
Yet the Panthers showed more desperation Saturday, clinching the ACC Tournament’s final spot.
Despite calling out Syracuse’s lack of progress in the win column and with the evolving world of college sports, Autry sees progress in his current team. He said, take away a handful of games, and the Orange have had a chance to come away with wins. It’s been execution at the end of games, in his eyes, holding SU back. He hopes a neutral site could change things.
Autry isn’t looking at what comes next for his personal future after a potential loss in Charlotte. He said he was simply trying to win a game Saturday. The Orange failed, with or without the distractions.
Donnie Freeman said postgame the loss to Pitt, and the recent stretch, isn’t anything SU hasn’t seen before. Historically, the claim is factually correct. Though scoping in on this squad’s team specifically, the Orange have faced some needed adversity.
Their trip to Las Vegas in November gave challenges against some of the Big 12’s top teams. Syracuse kept it close in two of them. Though the current Orange squad wouldn’t play Houston or Kansas that close again. Somehow, SU regressed in four months.
What needs to happen now, other than deep prayers, depends on who you ask. After the loss to the Cardinals Tuesday, George said it would take not worrying about the individual performance, instead playing connected at a high level. Kingz said postgame Saturday it would take a positive mentality, keeping the past in the past and starting fresh.
Freeman looked to the defensive end, where the Orange have plummeted from the nation’s top team to the middle of the pack in the ACC. He said Syracuse must make stops, not allowing any more straight line drive shots. Zephir pointed to SU’s peak, adding the squad has the “explosiveness to blow and catch fire at any moment.”
Senior captain J.J. Starling, who dropped zero points for the first time in his Syracuse career and played four seconds across the final 16 minutes, wasn’t available to the media postgame.
Regardless of the results this season, and the last three for that matter under Autry, Kyle still sees SU as a “group of fighters.” He believes the Orange have been through a lot this year, and they won’t give up now.
Freeman took a similar sentiment to the boxing ring. He added Syracuse will continue to punch.
“We can still make something happen, so I’m not gonna throw in the towel until it’s over,” Freeman said.
However, the Orange’s 2025-26 season, and the historic pedigree that lays before the program, can only take so many uppercuts to the chin. The knockout punch is inevitable.
