Syracuse’s season-to-forget comes to a close as the Orange fall to SMU in the first round of the ACC Tourney

In a game where Syracuse trailed by just one point at halftime, the Mustangs offense was just too much to handle for the Orange in the second half as #14-seeded Syracuse fell to #11-seeded SMU 86-69 in the first round of the ACC Men's Basketball Tournament. The loss effectively ends Syracuse's 2025-26 season in Charlotte, NC, with a 15-17 record. 

The loss also means Syracuse will end with a losing record in back-to-back seasons for the first time in 55 years. Prior to this, the last time the program had consecutive losing seasons was in 1967-68 and 1968-69.

A big story in today's defeat was Syracuse's inability to rebound. SMU out-rebounded the Orange 44-31 and grabbed 19 offensive rebounds leading to 26 second change points. 

Syracuse head coach Adrian Autry, after what may have been his final game as the head coach of the Syracuse men's basketball program, opened his post-game press conference with his thoughts on the rebound differential.

"I thought today's game really came down to, for us, the ability to rebound, second chance points," said Autry. "And offensively, our guards and our perimeter, we didn't make enough shots and we didn't play well enough. We just couldn't make a ton of shots besides Tyler (Betsey) and Nate (Kingz)." 

Kingz led the way for Syracuse with 25 points 11-for-18 shooting from the field, and Betsey added 15 points on five made three-pointers. The rest of the Orange, however, were essentially nonexistent on offense. Syracuse's leading-scorer Donnie Freeman (17.0 PPG) finished with just seven points (3-9 FG), and their third-leading scorer J.J. Starling finished with just two points.

Freeman was asked why he believed the season may have unraveled toward the end of the year, with the Orange losing 12 of their 15 games—which began with a loss on the road against the second-worst team in the conference in Boston College—and concluding the season on a six-game losing streak.

"That's tough, I can't really pinpoint where it started honestly," said Freeman. "It happened slowly but it started to snowball and the losses started to pile up. But even after the season's over, I still feel that we were so much better than how our record may look."

Kingz was one of few bright spots for the Orange tonight, which wasn't much of a surprise considering how much he had come on the scene during conference play with his ability to score and knock down shots from beyond the arc. With his collegiate future in question due the eligibility petition process, Kingz was asked what may have been final game as a college athlete. 

"I just went in with a win-or-go-home mentality," said Kingz. "I was just trying to leave it all out there on the court and go as hard as I could. Might have been my last game, I don't know what the future holds for me, so I just wanted to leave it all out there and do whatever I could."

Betsey was the other bright spot, coming off the bench and finishing with 15 points and 7 rebounds, which was especially crucial for a Syracuse team missing one of their vital bench pieces in Kiyan Anthony due to undisclosed lower body injury. Betsey was asked why the season may not have gone the way they had hoped for with high expectations going into the year.

"I would just say inconsistencies with each other," said Betsey. "Whether it was practice or people working hard or not, it just showed against good teams. I feel like all of us in the locker room, we know what players had in there and what coaches we had. I feel like we could have done something special this year, but it just didn't go that way." 

There will be a lot of questions about Coach Autry's future after tonight's loss, who is 49-48 in three seasons as Syracuse's head basketball coach. Autry was asked if he had thoughts about his future as walked off the court and through the tunnel after the defeat.

"Obviously now with the game over with, you think about those things," said Autry. "This was a group we put together with the hopes of being able to work through those inconsistencies, and try to be able to develop 'on the job' so-to-speak. We knew there was going to be a learning curve, and we thought we had a group that could push through that, but that didn't happen."

One of the leaders of the team this season and starting guard Naithan George, who finished with an abysmal 2-for-13 shooting performance, was asked about Coach Autry's future and why he may have a perspective being around Coach Autry every day behind closed doors that outside fans may not have.

"Just his care and his passion," said George. "He always just wants the best for you and he always has a smile on his face. He's also always willing to work though the highs or the lows. He just cares so much, and sometimes it just comes down to players making shots, and today I didn't make shots. Maybe if I made a couple it would have been different." 

Coach Autry also had an interesting take on the ever-changing NIL landscape being a potential factor in underperforming this year. Syracuse is in the third tier ranking for ACC Men's Basketball NIL budgets, which estimates their roster to be valued somewhere between $2-to-$4 million, comparatively to a program like North Carolina or Duke in the first tier ranking for budgets ranging between $10-to-over-$14 million.

"It's not an excuse, but it's just the reality," said Autry. "I own up to everything, but to be able to operate and to be able to do things, the NIL is a real thing. The transfer portal is a real thing, those are the variables that can shape a season. Those are always going to be challenging, and if you fall a little short of those things, it makes it that much more difficult to win" 

Autry said at the end of his press conference that he will be meeting with Syracuse officials tomorrow for their end-of-season meetings. The next time the Orange are back in action next November, it will likely be an entirely new team looking to get Syracuse back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2021, the program's longest streak of not making the Big Dance in over 50 years.