Syracuse fires Adrian Autry after 3 seasons, 0 NCAA Tournament appearances
In his three seasons in charge of the Orange, Autry recorded zero NCAA Tournament appearances. SU now begins its search for a new head coach to revive the program. Leonardo Eriman | Daily Orange File Photo
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Syracuse University has fired Adrian Autry following three seasons as its men’s basketball coach, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported on Wednesday morning. Autry, a former SU assistant who succeeded Hall of Fame head coach Jim Boeheim in 2023, logged a 49-48 record with the Orange and failed to make an NCAA Tournament.
Autry’s final game coaching SU was on Tuesday was a 86-69 loss to SMU in the first round of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament. The Orange ended the 2025-26 season on a six-game losing streak, their worst skid since the 1960s.
Under Autry, Syracuse faded into college basketball irrelevancy — a process that started with Boeheim’s rough final two seasons from 2021-23, but accelerated over the last three years.
Despite Autry winning 20 games in Year 1, SU finished outside the March Madness bubble. Autry notably dismissed once-promising forward Benny Williams from the program that season. Then in 2024-25, the Orange went 14-19, the program’s worst finish since 1968-69, when it won nine games under then-head coach Roy Danforth.
This year was supposed to be different. Autry overhauled Syracuse’s roster with transfer-portal additions and highly-touted freshmen. Naithan George, William Kyle III, Nate Kingz, Kiyan Anthony, Sadiq White and Tyler Betsey — six of SU’s eight primary rotational players — were new arrivals. Autry also convinced star forward Donnie Freeman and guard J.J. Starling to return.
Before the season began, Autry clearly outlined his goals.
“I want to make the tournament every year. I’m not here just to be mediocre,” he said on Oct. 15 during SU’s media day.
“I think that’s what this community expects. I expect it,” Autry added. “So not shying away from that. That’s what I want, too. We want to be able to play meaningful games. We want to make deep March runs and try to win (a national title). That’s the goal. That’s always the goal.”
Syracuse finished with a 15-17 record this year, extending the program’s NCAA Tournament drought to five seasons. The Orange endured three losing streaks of at least three games — including an 0-3 trip to Las Vegas in front of a national audience at the Players Era Festival. They lost a game to Hofstra. They lost to Duke by 37 points on Feb. 16, the most lopsided defeat of the Autry era and SU’s largest loss in ACC play since joining the conference in 2013.
The ultimate breaking point came on Feb. 28 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In the same press conference room where Autry apologized to Syracuse’s fanbase two seasons ago after a brutal loss to Wake Forest, Autry torched his own players for not being “tough” enough. The Orange had just lost 88-83 to the Demon Deacons, a game where SU’s defense was putrid — allowing WF to score on 13 of 14 consecutive possessions down the stretch.
Autry called out his guys for not trying hard on defense. He said it was a challenge all season long for him and his coaching staff to motivate their players to exert maximum effort.
“It’s been a struggle all year for us,” Autry said. “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.”
“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,” he added.
Back in March 2023, those close to Autry felt he was well-equipped to take the reins of Syracuse’s historic program. Forty-seven years of pure consistency — and five Final Four appearances — under Boeheim was a tough act to follow.
But for Autry, a star SU guard from 1990-94 and assistant on Boeheim’s staff for more than a decade, including seven seasons as associate head coach, he had the credentials.
Now, Autry’s first head coaching stint has ended with him being fired from his alma mater.
SU is also undergoing a search to replace its athletic director following John Wildhack announcing his departure on Feb. 11.
Rumored replacements for Autry include USF head coach Bryan Hodgson — a childhood Syracuse fan and Olean, New York native — former Syracuse assistant Mike Hopkins and Saint Louis head coach Josh Schertz.
