{"id":236640,"date":"2025-10-19T16:04:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T16:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/236640\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T16:04:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T16:04:08","slug":"adrian-autry-offers-blunt-assessment-of-what-he-expects-syracuse-basketball-to-achieve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/236640\/","title":{"rendered":"Adrian Autry offers blunt assessment of what he expects Syracuse basketball to achieve"},"content":{"rendered":"

Head coach Adrian Autry<\/a> has acknowledged that last season, when Syracuse basketball went 14-19 overall and had its worst record in decades, was a struggle. He knows it. He’s not hiding from it.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Autry and his players are confident that they can return the program to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2021. And the Orange’s third-year head coach<\/a>, who had to replace the Hall of Famer Jim Boeheim, is clear about what he expects the ‘Cuse to accomplish in the upcoming 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n

“I want to make the tournament every year,” Autry said at the team’s annual media day that was held a few days ago<\/a>. “I\u2019m not here just to be mediocre. That\u2019s not why I\u2019m here.”<\/p>\n

Syracuse basketball head coach Adrian Autry is vocal about the team’s goals this season.<\/p>\n

Autry added that it’s also not just about making the Big Dance. It’s about going on deep March Madness runs and vying for a national championship. “That\u2019s the goal. That\u2019s always the goal,” he said.<\/p>\n

In recent years, the ‘Cuse fan base has grown increasingly frustrated with the state of the program. Going four years without reaching the NCAA Tournament is almost unheard of for Syracuse basketball.<\/p>\n

The Orange staff, though, did a terrific job in retaining their two best players from last season, while landing a top-20 recruiting class<\/a> that includes six college transfers and five incoming freshmen. There is cautious optimism that the ‘Cuse can hear its name called on Section Sunday come March of 2026, even if the Atlantic Coast Conference’s preseason media poll isn’t super bullish on the team<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As Autry said at the program’s media day<\/a>, and I’ve discussed in several recent columns, the Syracuse basketball 2025-26 roster<\/a> has good depth, better positional size, and is more athletic and versatile across the team’s line-up, including the guards, wings and big men.<\/p>\n

Autry understands that SU Athletics leaders, alumni and the fan base expect the Orange to get back to being a perennial conference contender that doesn’t have to sweat out Selection Sunday. Does the ‘Cuse have to make the 2026 Big Dance for Autry to keep his job? That remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

He said, “I think Syracuse is one of the few places that, no matter what, they have a little bit of patience. That\u2019s what is going to pay off. I think that is what\u2019s going to make this place special with that patience because it\u2019s a different world now.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Head coach Adrian Autry has acknowledged that last season, when Syracuse basketball went 14-19 overall and had its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[402,398,400,401,99],"class_list":["post-236640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaabasketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}