Narrow win vs. Monmouth begs the question: Is Syracuse ready for Las Vegas?
Despite pulling ahead by as much as 14 points in the second half, Syracuse's free throw issues and defensive struggles led to a tight finish in a five-point win. Joe Zhao | Senior Staff Photographer
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Adrian Autry shook his head and called timeout when Syracuse’s 14-point lead over Monmouth had evaporated to two with 36 seconds remaining.
It was right after Hawks guard Jack Collins drained a 3-pointer off a William Kyle III turnover to bring Monmouth within striking distance of an upset Tuesday night. SU surrendered a 10-1 run in a 1:30 span late in the second half. Collins’ 3 was the tail end of another “dip,” which Autry used to refer to the Orange’s inconsistencies.
They would lead by five, then see it dwindle to a tie game. They’d take a 10-point lead and instantly see it shrink again. Or, they’d almost blow a sizable second-half advantage in the final seconds. Syracuse suffered from too many “dips,” Autry said.
Why? The third-year head coach saw a lack of energy. He didn’t see players getting in guys’ personal space on defense. He didn’t see enough strings of stops. He didn’t feel the Orange played with tempo.
“I don’t think the energy was there consistently,” Autry said. “That was the difference.”
Lackadaisical energy isn’t going to cut it against No. 2 Houston and No. 24 Kansas next week in Las Vegas for the Players Era Festival. That’s a concern for Syracuse (4-0, Atlantic Coast), which stumbled and missed a litany of clutch free throws despite salvaging a 78-73 win over Monmouth (1-3, Coastal Athletic) Tuesday night. SU dominated its first three games of 2025-26, a stark contrast from last year’s ruse of a 3-0 start. Its fourth contest, though, exposed some flaws.
The Orange can’t win without energy. And, as guard Nate Kingz put it, they can’t win without elite defense. That’s their identity.
“We got to be a lot more gritty,” Kingz, who scored a season-high 15 points against Monmouth, said Tuesday. “In terms of cracking down on rebounds and box outs, if we can do that in Vegas, we’ll have a really great shot at winning. We pride ourselves on defense.”
Syracuse conceded a season-high in points versus Monmouth. It only forced 12 turnovers against a Hawks team that entered Tuesday with the fifth-worst turnover rate in the nation, per KenPom. It also allowed Monmouth to tie a season-best nine 3s.
Worst of all, as senior guard J.J. Starling said, the Orange outrebounded Monmouth just 36-35.
“I think we only outrebounded them by one,” said a shaken Starling. “To get to where we want to go, that can’t be the result. No matter who we’re playing. We knew coming into the season that rebounding is going to be a focus for us. And that’s something we need to work on.”
Starling’s words encapsulate Syracuse’s depleted energy Tuesday. It went into the game among the nation’s leaders in numerous advanced defensive analytics from databases like KenPom and EvanMiya. Kingz said SU’s coaching staff regularly shows them the team’s advanced statistics, and they all take pride in working to improve them. Kingz alluded to the Orange entering Tuesday with the best effective field goal percentage allowed in the country at 30.8%.
But they didn’t meet the standard against Monmouth.
Same goes for Syracuse offensively. The Hawks effectively shut down Kiyan Anthony, who Autry said suffered from Monmouth doctoring a specific game plan for him. Anthony was visibly frustrated in the first half amid a 1-for-6 shooting start. Postgame, Anthony said “it is what it is,” and he needs to figure out how to get in a rhythm quicker. The Orange also didn’t always have forward Sadiq White’s ferocious presence after he fouled out with 6:27 remaining. Plus, their typical top scorer, Starling, was rusty coming back from a hamstring injury.
Those are three major energy-killers. Oh, and the Orange went 19-of-33 at the free-throw line. It’s numbers like that which made Autry and his players realize this win wasn’t like the other three.
“The whole thing is just mental. It’s a free throw; nobody’s guarding you,” said Starling, who finished 2-for-5 from the charity stripe.
“If we made some (more) of our free throws, the game would be a little bit different,” Autry said.
There’s clearly a lot of kinks for Syracuse to iron out before its trip to Las Vegas next week. However, this group’s problems are not as severe as last year’s.
The Orange’s first three games in 2024-25 — close victories over Le Moyne, Colgate and Youngstown State (a double-overtime affair) — saw them allow 83 points per game on average and play with no coherent identity. This season featured the opposite. Syracuse crushed Binghamton, Delaware State and Drexel to complete its most convincing start to a year under Autry. It developed a defensive identity and showed it might have enough playmakers, like Starling, Donnie Freeman and Anthony, to beat some of the country’s better teams.
Starling, one of three returners from Syracuse’s roster last season, said there’s a different vibe in the locker room as the Orange approach matchups against Houston and Kansas. Much different than last season, when they traveled to Brooklyn after their 3-0 start and dropped back-to-back games to Texas and Texas Tech.
“Take this game out, the first three games we beat our opponents by 30-plus (points). And that’s what you need to do to build team confidence,” Starling said. “Going into the tougher games where we know what we need to work on, we know where we’re clicking at, it’s been a really good beginning of the season for us.”
Last year featured plenty of losses and little answers. This year, the Orange know what they’re made of. They understand what went wrong against Monmouth. And they think they’re ready to prove to the world that what they displayed in games 1-3 is Syracuse’s new standard.
“We could definitely (win) one of those games, if not both of those games out in Vegas,” Anthony proclaimed. “The main goal is to win, no matter who’s playing good, no matter what’s going on.”
