Jim Boeheim says Syracuse players cost Adrian Autry his job

Jim Boeheim defended Adrian Autry as “a good coach,” saying his dismissal from Syracuse was a results of poor efficiency by the Orange’s greatest players and lack of NIL funding for this system.

Syracuse fired Autry on Wednesday, ending the previous Orange participant’s three-year tenure as Boeheim’s teaching successor. The Orange went 15-17 this season and failed to achieve the NCAA event beneath Autry.

Boeheim acknowledged that “the head coach is responsible” for outcomes, however added that participant efficiency was an enormous think about Syracuse’s struggles this season beneath Autry.

“I think he’s a good coach,” Boeheim stated Wednesday on the ACC Network. “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.”

Boeheim echoed these emotions in a separate interview Wednesday with Cuse Sports Talksaying Autry was “let down” by his star players.

“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 informed 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.'”

Boeheim didn’t establish which players he was referring to in both interview. Syracuse’s two main returning scorers from final season — JJ Starling and Donnie Freeman — each had disappointing seasons in 2025-26.

Starling, a senior guard who scored a team-high 17.8 factors per sport final season, averaged simply 10.9 factors per sport this season. Freeman, a 6-foot-9 sophomore, noticed his scoring common enhance — from 13.4 factors final season to 16.5 this season — however was down in nearly each different statistical class, together with rebounding and taking pictures percentages.

“His two best players had horrible years,” Boeheim informed ACC Network. “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 foul 12 months at duke — they do not win.

“That’s what occurred this 12 months at Syracuse. His two greatest players simply did not play effectively.”

Boeheim additionally briefly talked about the NIL state of affairs at Syracuse, evaluating it to Boston College and Georgia Tech — two different ACC faculties that fired their coaches after tough seasons.

“If you do not have sufficient assets, that places you behind,” he told ACC Network. “You take a look at the league — BC, Georgia Tech, now Syracuse — three of the [lowest for] NIL cash within the league. You have to take a look at that.”

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

“Football is loopy now,” he told Cuse Sports Talk, referring to NIL funding in the ACC. “The big-time faculties are paying $35-40 million. Basketball is $10-20 [million] — some at 20, some at 15, some at 10. That’s the fact.”

A four-year Syracuse starter beneath Boeheim and later his affiliate head coach, Autry took over for the retiring Hall of Famer in 2023, solely to fail to achieve any traction in carrying this system into its post-Boeheim period, ending with a 49-48 total report.

Syracuse completed with consecutive dropping seasons for the primary time since 1968-69.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.