Jim Boeheim says Syracuse players cost Adrian Autry his job

Jim Boeheim defended Adrian Autry and called him a “good coach,” saying his dismissal from Syracuse was the result of poor performance by the Orange’s best players and a lack of NIL funding for the program.

Syracuse fired Autry on Wednesday, ending the former Orange player’s three-year tenure as Boeheim’s coaching successor. The Orange went 15-17 this season and failed to reach the NCAA Tournament under Autry.

Boeheim acknowledged that “the coach is responsible” for the results, but added that player performance was a big factor in Syracuse’s struggles this season under Autry.

“I think he’s a good coach,” Boeheim said Wednesday on ACC Network. “I think he got into a situation where his best players weren’t playing the way they needed to, and it cost him his job.”

Boeheim echoed those sentiments in a separate interview Wednesday with Cuse Sports Talk, saying Autry was “let down” by his stars.

“The one thing with Adrian this year — he won’t say this, and people will think I shouldn’t say it — his best players had bad years,” Boeheim told Cuse Sports Talk.

“They’ve had bad years on offense. They’ve had bad years on defense. The best players should have great years. That didn’t happen. … These guys let him down. I think they’ll say the same thing. I think they’ll say, ‘Yeah, we didn’t play well.’

Boeheim did not specify which players he was referring to in either interview. Syracuse’s two leading scorers from last season — JJ Starling and Donnie Freeman — have had two disappointing seasons in 2025-26.

Starling, a senior guard who scored a team-high 17.8 points per game last season, is averaging just 10.9 points per game this season. Freeman, a 6-foot-9 sophomore, has seen his scoring average improve — from 13.4 points last season to 16.5 this season — but decline in almost every other statistical category, including rebounding and shooting percentages.

“His best players have had terrible years,” Boeheim told ACC Network. “If you take any team in this league, and you take their best players and they have really bad years — like Cam Boozer and Isaiah Evans who had a bad year at Duke — they’re not going to win.

“That’s what happened this year at Syracuse. Their best players didn’t play well.”

Boeheim also briefly mentioned Syracuse’s NIL situation, comparing it to Boston College and Georgia Tech — two other ACC schools that have fired their coaches after difficult seasons.

“If you don’t have enough resources, it puts you behind,” he told the ACC Network. “You look at the league — BC, Georgia Tech, and now Syracuse — three of the (lowest) in terms of no money in the league. You have to look at that.”

The Daily Orange recently reported that Syracuse is spending about $8 million on its basketball roster this season — a number that pales in comparison to other basketball programs, according to Boeheim.

“Football is crazy right now,” he told Cuse Sports Talk, referring to NIL’s funding in the ACC. “Big schools pay $35 to $40 million. Basketball costs $10 to $20 million — some 20, some 15, some 10. That’s the reality.”

A four-year starter at Syracuse under Boeheim and then his associate head coach, Autry took over for the retiring Hall of Famer in 2023, but failed to gain any traction in moving the program into the post-Boeheim era, finishing with a 49-48 overall record.

Syracuse ended back-to-back losing seasons for the first time since 1968-69.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.