Jim Boeheim blames Syracuse players, NIL funding for Adrian Autry firing

Less than 24 hours after Syracuse suffered a season-ending 86-69 loss to SMU on Tuesday in the first round of the ACC Tournament, the school fired Orange head coach Adrian Autry. Autry was promoted to head coach in 2023 after longtime HC Jim Boeheim retired.

Autry served under Boeheim on Syracuse’s staff from 2011-23. While serving as analyst on the ACC Network, Boeheim weighed in on Autry’s firing.

“I think he’s a good coach,” Boeheim said. “I think he got in a situation where his best players just didn’t play the way they needed to play, and it cost him his job.”

Syracuse finished this season with a 15-17 overall record and a 6-12 mark in conference play. In Autry’s three seasons as head coach, Syracuse went 49-48 and 24-34 against ACC opponents. Syracuse never reached the NCAA Tournament under Adrian Autry.

“The one thing with Adrian this year — he’s not going to say this, and people will think I shouldn’t say it — his two best players had bad years,” Boeheim told Cuse Sports Talk. “They had bad years on offense. They had bad years on defense.

“The best two players have to have great years. That didn’t happen. … He got let down by those guys, I think. I think they would say the same thing. I think they’d say, ‘Yeah, we didn’t play well.'”

Though Boeheim didn’t name the players, specifically, he’s likely referring to JJ Starling and Donnie Freeman, the team’s two returning leading scorers from last season. After averaging 17.8 points per game last season, Starling averaged just 10.9 points per contest this season.

Freeman increased his scoring average by three points per game, but shot worse from the field and averaged fewer rebounds. Syracuse concluded its season on a six-game losing streak. The school will initiate a nationwide search for its next head coach.

“This is one of the most storied programs in college basketball, and we intend to hire a proven winner who will build on that legacy,” Syracuse athletic director John Wildhack said in a statement. “We are looking for a coach who can recruit at the highest level, develop players and compete for championships, conference and national. Syracuse fans deserve nothing less, and that is exactly what we are going to deliver.”

Jim Boeheim also pointed to NIL as an issue for Syracuse’s men’s basketball program. The Daily Orange recently reported that Syracuse spent around $8 million on its basketball roster this season — a number that is dwarfed by some of other powerhouse programs in the conference.