The Syracuse Orange have a head-coaching vacancy following their decision to dismiss Adrian Autry on Wednesday. His predecessor, the legendary Jim Boeheim, shared his thoughts on the firing and appeared to put some of the blame for Autry’s fate on Syracuse’s weak NIL power and on a couple of players.
“Well, you know what happens, you don’t have enough resources. That puts you behind. You look at the league, BC, Georgia Tech, now Syracuse. Three of the least NIL money in the league. You have to look at that,” Boeheim said during Wednesday’s ACC Network broadcast.
The 81-year-old Boeheim then said that Autry’s top players didn’t deliver as expected.
“With Adrian Autry, his two best players had horrible years, Boeheim continued. “If you take any team in this league and you take their two best players, and they have really, really bad years, like Cam Boozer and Isaiah Evans have a bad year at Duke, they don’t win. That’s what happened this year at Syracuse. His two best players just didn’t play well”.
Boeheim may have valid points, but fans have not received his take on the players well.
Yes Jim. Blame the players. No accountability whatsoever!
— Klinickal (@Klinickal) March 11, 2026
What an awful take. Autry decided to put all his eggs in one basketball with JJ and that failed big time. The main reason being he was developed (coaching)
— Everything ‘cuse🍊 (@cuse365) March 11, 2026
There's no way Jim Boeheim, who set the program up for failure in his last years, is now going to blame the players 🤣
— Jack W (@JWillsNH) March 11, 2026
This is an insane take
— . (@Nyg6977) March 12, 2026
This is what 50 years of experience in throwing others under the bus gets you. Just a pure masterclass in throwing out excuses and taking shots at others.
— IdentityTheftMAAC (@MaacTheft) March 11, 2026
Boeheim must've felt like he was still coaching there https://t.co/eODpWnR49d
Although Boeheim did not specifically name the players, he likely was referring to guard JJ Starling and forward Donnie Freeman.
Starling averaged 17.8 points per game in the 2024-25 season, but regressed mightily in 2025-26, with his scoring average dropping to 10.9 points per outing. Freeman, meanwhile, upped his average from 13.4 points per game in 2024-25 to 16.5 per contest in 2025-26, but he missed a lot of games due to injury.
There is a lot to figure out this offseason for Syracuse, and whoever takes the job Autry left will be under immediate pressure to revive a legendary but faded basketball program.
