What Syracuse coach Adrian Autry said after 96-70 loss at No. 3 Tennessee in SEC-ACC Challenge

What head coach Adrian Autry said after Syracuse lost 96-70 to No. 3 Tennessee Tuesday night in the SEC-ACC Challenge at Food City Center in Knoxville:

Opening Statement

“I thought the first half we battled and fought. Obviously the free throws were a big difference, I thought, for our team. We missed seven in the first half. Thought that was a difference, as far as trying to stay in the game in the second half. Obviously the first half, we did a pretty decent job on (Chaz) Lanier. We knew he would get going at some point. But it comes back down to, I thought, the second half we just fell apart. We didn’t get back. We didn’t locate guys, rebounds,, couple of live-ball turnovers. Again, everything in the second half was nothing to be proud of, nothing to be pleased with. It’s disappointing. I’m disappointed. Our guys are disappointed. 

“And it’s just, you know, we can’t continue to let one end of the floor impact the other end of the floor. That’s kind of what we’re dealing with right now. So we just got to continue to work on that and get better at that. But by all means this is unacceptable. Unacceptable performance. And we have to, and we will, do better. We just have to. There’s no way around it. This is not what this is. This is not Syracuse basketball. And unfortunately we have gotten off to a rough start and we got to right the ship now. We got to put our heads down, pull up our sleeves and continue to work and get ready for the next game.”

What needs to be done and what has to change for Syracuse 

“Everything. We got to defend. We’ll start with defending. No matter what defense we try to play, whether it’s man or it’s zone, we have to defend. And it’s five guys. It’s not one guy. It’s five guys. We got to defend as a team. 

“And the second thing is we have to be able to get the ball to people when we when we when we need to get it to them. I think the biggest and the first thing is we have to defend and we have to be tougher on that side of the ball. We have to defend and be tougher on that side of the ball.”

If Syracuse players had their heads down at points, helping Chaz Lanier get going in the second half

“Yes. I mean, he hit some tough shots, but that’s the type of player he is and we talked about that. He’s going to make some shots, we knew that coming in. We have to continue to stay focused and locked in and we didn’t do that. We just didn’t. Again, he some some shots and then Igor (Milicic) made some shots and, we got to keep playing. We got to play through that. This is the No. 3 team in the country at home. We knew the were going to be tough. We knew it was going to be tough. I just didn’t like the fight. We didn’t have any fight at all after halftime.”

Elijah Moore being aggressive offensively for Syracuse, scoring 24 points 

“I thought Elijah came in and gave us a lift. He was the only bright spot. He was aggressive. I thought he made shots, took shots. I thought he got to his spots. He used our screens and got to his spots. He’s getting better each week. But again, all of that doesn’t mean anything if we don’t compete on the other end of the floor. That’s just the bottom line. It doesn’t mean anything. And we are all included in that. It’s just that, again, he played well on offense, and I know everyone likes offense and I like offense as well. But not at the cost of performing like this. We have to do a better job.” 

Chance Westry making his Syracuse debut

“Chance has been working. He’s gotten himself in better shape. He probably can’t go for long stretches. And, obviously, once the game was decided already, as a coach, I’m thinking about this one is done. Let’s get ready for the next one. Let’s get prepared. Obviously, we got some things to do, some decisions to make, and let’s get them in there and see what it looks like. I think I tried to sub him in with like five minutes left. They kinda got up and down. I think he got it with about three minutes, but just wanted to kinda get him going forward, get him acclimated, get him into the game because he’s close enough to get there and be playing. So I decided to put him in. This was the game I thought, looking at the situation, this was the game to get him in.”

Jaquan Carlos play against Tennessee

“He was the only ball handler. He was the only guy that could handle the pressure of Tennessee. If we took him out, again, that was what my fear was. And I thought he handled the pressures as well as you can. He got a couple of assists, couple of guys early. He got shot here and there. But again, he was important. He’s gonna be important just because he’s one of our primary ball handlers. We don’t have a ton of ball handlers now, and that’s why being able to get Chance going is gonna be vital. It’s gonna be important for us.”

JJ Starling being out for Syracuse, the long term impact and if there is a timeline at this point

“We don’t have a time table yet, but we do expect him back. And you’re talking about JJ, one of the best guards in the country. A guy that is explosive, a guy that can get to the basket. A guy that can make plays not only for himself but for others. You know? He does a lot for us. We didn’t have a lot of combinations without him on the floor. I thought the first half, we did a decent job, but we knew at some point— he’s so valuable and so important for us. So I thought the guys, we tried to try to manipulate some of the things that we like to do without him being there because he’s just a big part of what we do. He handles the ball for us. He gets to our offense. He scores for us, and obviously he defends for us. Somissing JJ was big. That’s big, but it is a part of sports, and we got to move forward until we get them back.”

Finding consistency with their guards with JJ Starling out

“We’ll start with, obviously, Elijah has been playing well. He’s a freshman, but he stepped up. He’s given us consistent minutes, some consistent scoring. Obviously, Chris Bell and try to see who else can step up and give us some valuable minutes. But I think, really trying to get the ball inside a little more and play with our other guys. It’s gonna be important for us.”