Syracuse starts flat, falls to Kansas 71-60 in 2nd game of Players Era
Syracuse men’s basketball dropped its second straight game of the Players Era Festival, losing to Kansas 71-60 behind 32% shooting. Courtesy of Joseph Alleyne
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LAS VEGAS — Syracuse nearly shocked the world Monday when it took No. 3 Houston to overtime, despite an eventual 78-74 loss. When the Orange stepped on the hardwood Tuesday against Kansas, though, they came out deflated. They couldn’t rebound. They couldn’t initiate offense in transition. They couldn’t shoot 3s. They couldn’t knock down tough shots.
Everything that went right Monday went wrong Tuesday.
In its second game of the 2025 Players Era Festival, Syracuse (4-2, 0-0 Atlantic Coast) fell to Kansas (5-2, 0-0 Big 12) 71-60 in its flattest outing of the year. Jayhawks big man Flory Bidunga proved difficult for a Donnie-Freeman-less SU to handle, totaling 13 points and 14 rebounds. Meanwhile, the Orange got outrebounded 49-29, shot a measly 32% clip from the floor and 23% from 3 and only tallied two scorers in double figures — Tyler Betsey and J.J. Starling.
At the MGM Grand Garden Arena, where fan atmospheres have been mostly dead throughout the Players Era event, Syracuse’s performance did nothing to ignite the environment.
The Orange commenced Tuesday’s contest with a corner 3 from Nate Kingz, immediately regaining their trigger-happy form from Monday — when SU attempted a season-high 31 3s.
As much as Syracuse wanted to pull from deep, though, the story was its struggles inside. Bidunga racked up 11 points on 4-for-4 shooting by the first under-12 timeout. SU was outrebounded 9-3 during the same span. Really, the only thing keeping Syracuse in it early was two buckets in the paint from freshman forward Sadiq White.
Even without Bidunga on the floor, the Orange’s defense played a tad too aggressively. They were quick to foul. They were repeatedly caught hopping in the air at the Jayhawks’ shot fakes. They’d be overly quick to trap guys and leave shooters wide-open beyond the arc, like on a fast-break 3-pointer from Kansas’ Kohl Rosario at the 11:03 mark of the first half, which put Syracuse behind 21-12.
Then Autry made an interesting adjustment. He deployed a full-court press and, in the half-court, sported a 2-2-1 press-zone look. He was clearly unhappy with SU’s lack of on-ball pressure and wanted to force the Jayhawks into committing mistakes.
It barely mattered.
Kansas did virtually whatever it wanted. SU left Jayhawks guard Tre White wide open from the left corner, where he drained the 3 with ease. That put Syracuse down 26-15. Sadiq responded with his third bucket of the day, but Kansas quickly unleashed a four-point flurry off physical layups from Jamari McDowell and Bryson Tiller.
By the time Autry called timeout with 5:03 left before halftime, the Orange trailed 30-17. They had given up 10 second-chance points and only scored two. The rebounding disparity grew worse, too. And Syracuse started a measly 7-for-23 (30%) from the field.
The Orange desperately needed a spark. They never found a consistent one.
They had moments in the second half; William Kyle III threw down a ferocious one-handed jam after maneuvering past Bidunga under the basket, Betsey canned a 3 off a feed from Starling and Kiyan Anthony nailed a layup through contact and completed a crucial 3-point play — which brought SU to a manageable 42-37 deficit with less than 15 minutes to go.
But Syracuse lacked somebody who could take over the game. Starling didn’t do much, going 3-for-13 from the field for 10 points. Anthony went 2-for-12 shooting and finished 0-for-6 from 3. SU didn’t have the same luxury it had against Houston when Betsey dropped a team-high 16 points off the bench.
Though Syracuse’s defense played significantly better in the second half, it simply couldn’t put the ball in the basket. By the time the final buzzer hit, SU racked up 43 field goal misses.
Yet, the Jayhawks also stayed stagnant and let the Orange back into the contest. Starling drilled a 3 with 7:38 remaining to cut SU’s deficit to 52-47, then Betsey pulled up from 3 deep at the right wing and hit nothing but net to make it a two-point game.
Betsey’s 3 served as Syracuse’s final glimmer of hope. The Orange’s prior offensive inactivity came back to bite them in the end, as Kansas embarked on an 11-0 run over a nearly three-minute span in crunch time. When Kyle air-balled a free throw with 3:47 left — his second of three air-balls — that was SU’s kiss of death.
