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Nate Kingz finally caught fire, but all he could think about was stopping Ja’Kobi Gillespie.

Kingz, Syracuse’s senior transfer guard, was assigned to defend Tennessee’s star point guard, Gillespie, a shifty scorer and deadly-accurate shooter. He averages nearly 20 points a game, so SU head coach Adrian Autry wanted the speedy, 6-foot-5 Kingz tied to Gillespie’s hip.

For Autry, it was merely a bonus that Kingz simultaneously dropped 19 first-half points. He knew Kingz would eventually go off and wasn’t surprised. What mattered most to both Autry and Kingz was playing elite defense. It was his responsibility to stall Tennessee’s top option. A measly 10 points on 5-of-12 shooting and zero 3-point makes later, Kingz finished the job.

“My main emphasis was just to shut him out of the game and make the other guys beat us,” Kingz said of guarding Gillespie. “I don’t even think I had a shot in the second half. I was just so tired, man. I was just trying to lock him up any way I could.”

Kingz stood out as Syracuse’s (5-3, Atlantic Coast) most lethal scorer and best defender in its stunning 62-60 upset victory over No. 13 Tennessee (7-2, Southeastern) Tuesday in the JMA Wireless Dome. All of Kingz’s season-high 19 points came in the first half — the most points in a single half by any SU player this year — yet most of the talk in the locker room postgame centered around how he “set the tone” for the Orange’s tenacious defense.

The performance was not only a testament to Kingz’s individual development but to the identity Syracuse is trying to form under Autry: a group of hard-nosed, two-way players who fight until the last drop of sweat hits the hardwood.

Nobody exemplified that more than Kingz did Tuesday.

“He guarded (Gillespie) at an extremely high level,” freshman forward Sadiq White said of Kingz postgame. “That’s the Nate Kingz we see every day in practice. That’s the Nate Kingz we recruited from Oregon State. He just came out tonight and was extremely aggressive.”

Kingz carried SU to its first Quad 1 win of the year after losing three straight Quad 1 opportunities last week in Las Vegas’ Players Era Festival. Heading into another consequential game against a top-15 Tennessee team, Autry sought out Kingz during practice on Monday and provided a few words of encouragement.

Kingz said Autry told him the Orange needed his scoring ability to defeat the Volunteers. He encouraged him to attack whenever he saw an open lane. Even after Kingz struggled throughout Syracuse’s three games in Vegas, Autry implored him to keep pushing.

“I got real love for Coach Autry; he’s somebody who really believes in me no matter what,” Kingz said. “That’s something I haven’t had before in my college career.”

Once he stepped on the court Tuesday, Kingz was playing so well that his teammates got mad at him whenever they felt he passed on an open shot opportunity. He began the game with a quick 3-point make and drove left for a tough layup through contact. During his hot start, White and J.J. Starling said SU’s bench ravenously encouraged him to keep shooting and driving. There were a few times he got passive, his teammates said, and they didn’t want to see that.

Syracuse’s senior guard Starling took it upon himself to pull Kingz aside and tell him what he needed to hear.

“We need you to shoot the ball,” Starling told Kingz midgame. “We can’t have you pass up open looks because I know you’re great offense for us. So just step up and shoot.”

That conversation led right into Kingz’s late first-half explosion, when he scored 12-of-14 points for Syracuse from the 7:39 mark to the 1:58 mark. He received virtually whatever he wanted from Tennessee’s defense, whether it was pulling up from deep along the wings or taking it to the cup and muscling past Volunteers big men Jaylen Carey and Nate Ament.

Kingz said he “easily” got to his preferred left hand on any given drive — which made him think Tennessee wasn’t ready for him.

“I don’t mean to be cocky or nothing, but it didn’t really seem like they scouted me,” Kingz said. “I was able to get to my left hand every time and get to the paint. And then everything else just got bigger (for me) after that.”

Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes felt his team’s defense lacked focus when guarding Kingz in the first half. He said they reiterated what was on the pregame scouting report to fend off Kingz in the second half. However, if you talk to Kingz, he doesn’t believe that was the case.

Kingz’s lack of second-half offense was a choice — the right one, too. Stopping Gillespie would equate to a win in Autry’s mind. Kingz did, holding Gillespie to a sub-50% shooting night and 0-for-3 mark on 3s after blanketing him nearly all game. Kingz complemented Gillespie’s game and didn’t shy away from admitting the fatigue he experienced postgame from guarding him.

“I was dog tired,” Kingz said with a wide smile. “You saw in the second half, I was just fully committed to making sure he didn’t get going.”

Barnes lamented his team’s “bad” guard play postgame. As for Autry’s squad — led by Kingz’s all-around excellence and Starling’s clutch late-game scoring takeover — guard play was the reason Syracuse won.

Autry constantly speaks about building his teams around two-way players, those who can excel on both ends of the floor. After shocking Tennessee, Autry was most proud of his players’ willingness to treat every defensive possession like it’s their last, using Kingz as the primary example.

“I know offensively he was phenomenal in the first half, but the defensive job he did on Gillespie, who I think is one of the best point guards in the country, was also exceptional,” Autry said. “Again, two-way guys, that’s what we talk about. We want two-way guys.”

It took a little bit longer for Kingz to find a rhythm than he would’ve liked. He transferred from Oregon State to Syracuse this offseason with the hopes of rediscovering his former self, an elite shooter at Westmont as a freshman and Southern Idaho as a sophomore. SU gave him the chance to maximize his abilities as a 3-and-D player.

The start, though, was rocky, as he weathered three difficult shooting performances at the Players Era Festival and finished 3-for-15 from 3-point range — his supposed calling card — in the event.

Autry’s belief in him never wavered.

“There’s no doubt that he’ll get it going,” Autry said about Kingz last Wednesday in Vegas.

One game later, he did.

Published on December 3, 2025 at 12:15 am
Contact Cooper: ccandrew@syr.edu | @cooper_andrews