Adrian Autry doing it his way in Syracuse’s post-Boeheim era
Jim Boeheim’s 2-3 zone defense was as much a staple in central New York as snow in the winter, but new head coach Adrian Autry is marking the start of his tenure by bringing in his own defensive system.
“It’s challenging because the core of our team is from a year ago,” Autry told ESPN at ACC Media Day on Wednesday. “So when you start thinking about that, you got guys — Benny Williams is a junior. He hasn’t done what I’m asking him to do since he left high school. Our sophomores, they haven’t done it since high school. So two, three years. That’s a challenge. And being able to teach it and make it make sense. Getting them to understand the philosophy. The technique stuff will correct itself after that.”
Back in March, hours after Syracuse lost in the ACC tournament, the school announced Boeheim wouldn’t return as the Orange’s basketball coach for the 2023-24 season, ending a legendary career after 47 years at the helm and another seven as an assistant coach. It also named Autry, Boeheim’s longtime assistant and former player, as his successor.
While there was constant speculation about Boeheim retiring, the sudden announcement caught the basketball world off-guard. It turns out Autry didn’t have much advance notice of the change in leadership, either.
“I didn’t have a chance to process it,” he said. “I didn’t have a chance to get nervous. I just had to go, which was better for me.”
Autry had been the associate head coach since 2016 and had long been considered the most logical replacement — but he said Boeheim never overtly told him a retirement was looming or that he would be tabbed as the next in line. There were some hints in the months prior, though.
He said Boeheim asked to talk to him early last season and started giving him different tasks that Boeheim would normally do himself.
“I still think he just didn’t know,” Autry said. “He could say he knew, but I think he always kind of left that door open. You know, ‘I feel like this now, but maybe it’ll change.’ I knew it would never be during the season. I didn’t know if he would go through the summer and see how he felt. I didn’t know what his timeline was.”
Autry and Boeheim still speak fairly regularly. In fact, it was a piece of advice that Boeheim gave Autry this past summer that stuck with him more than anything else his mentor said in the past 12 years or during Autry’s playing days.
“Do it your way,” Autry said Boeheim told him. “Whatever you believe, whatever you think is right, do it your way. And you better believe in it. Because you ain’t gonna get anyone else to believe in it, if you don’t.”
Autry’s immediate goal is to get Syracuse back to the NCAA tournament, a place it hasn’t been since 2021. The program hasn’t gone three heads without an NCAA tournament appearance since the late 1960s and early 1970s, before Boeheim took over as head coach.
“We gotta make a jump,” Autry said. “We have to make an improvement. We have to progress. And that’s my mindset. We gotta make progress, record-wise, we gotta make progress in different areas of the program.”
Syracuse returns Judah Mintz, who was one of the best freshman guards in the country last season, and adds Notre Dame transfer JJ Starling, a former five-star recruit. Mintz and Starling should form one of the most dynamic backcourts in the ACC, but Syracuse enters the season with lower expectations than during the peak Boeheim years.
Autry has made it apparent to his players the program’s standards aren’t dropping, though.
“His message was clear-cut and concise: Just be ready to work,” Starling said. “Be ready to bring it on a daily basis. We have a great group of guys that’s going to compete everyday. Just be able to show up and give 110% effort on a daily basis.”