Autry marks post-Boeheim era by dumping zone D

• Jeff Borzello, ESPN Staff WriterOct 25, 2023, 10:26 PM ET

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  • Graduate of University of Delaware.CHARLOTTE, North Carolina

— Not only will there be a brand-new head coach on the Syracuse guys’s basketball sidelines for the first time given that 1976, there will also be an unknown sight on the protective end of the flooring: man-to-man defense.Jim Boeheim’s 2-3 zone defense was as much a staple in main New York as snow in the winter season, however brand-new head coach Adrian Autry is marking the start of his period by bringing in his own defensive system.” It’s difficult since the core of our team is from a year back,” Autry informed ESPN at ACC Media Day on Wednesday.”So when you start considering that, you got guys– Benny Williams is a junior. He hasn’t done what I’m asking him to do considering that he left high school. Our sophomores, they have not done it because high school. So 2, three years. That’s an obstacle. And having the ability to teach it and make it make sense. Getting them to understand the approach. The strategy things will remedy itself after that. “Back in March, hours after Syracuse lost in the ACC competition, the school announced Boeheim would not return as the Orange’s basketball coach for the 2023-24 season, ending a legendary profession after 47 years at the helm and another seven as an assistant coach. It also called Autry, Boeheim’s long time assistant and former player, as his successor.Editor’s Picks 2 Associated While there was continuous speculation about Boeheim retiring, the abrupt statement caught the basketball world off-guard. It turns out Autry didn’t have much advance notification of the change in management, either.

” I didn’t

have a possibility to process it,”he stated.”I didn’t have a chance to get worried. I simply needed to go, which was much better for me.”Autry had actually been the associate head coach given that 2016 and had long been considered the most rational replacement– but he said Boeheim never overtly told him a retirement was looming or that he would be tabbed as the next in line. There

were some hints in the months prior, though.He stated Boeheim asked to talk to him early last season and started giving him different tasks that Boeheim would typically do himself. “I still believe he simply didn’t know,” Autry stated.”He might say he knew, however I believe he always sort of left that door open. You know,’I seem like this now, but maybe it’ll alter.’I knew it would never be during the season. I didn’t understand if he would go through the summer and

see how he felt. I didn’t know what his timeline was.”Autry and Boeheim still speak fairly routinely. In truth, it was a piece of advice that Boeheim provided Autry this previous summer that stuck with him more than anything else his mentor said in the past 12 years or throughout Autry’s playing days.”Do it your way, “Autry said Boeheim told him.”Whatever you think, whatever you think

is right, do it your method. And you much better think in it. Since you ain’t gon na get anyone else to think in it, if you don’t.”Autry’s immediate objective is to get Syracuse back to the NCAA competition, a location it hasn’t been considering that 2021

. The program hasn’t gone 3 heads without an NCAA competition appearance because the late 1960s and early 1970s, before Boeheim took over as head coach. “We got ta make a jump,”Autry stated.”We have to make an enhancement. We have to advance. Which’s my mindset. We got ta make progress, record-wise, we got ta make development in different areas of the program. “Syracuse returns Judah Mintz, who was one of the best freshman guards in the country last season, and adds Notre Dame transfer JJ Starling, a previous first-class hire. Mintz and Starling must form one of the most dynamic backcourts in the ACC, however Syracuse goes into the season with lower expectations than during the peak Boeheim years.Autry has made it obvious to his players the program’s

requirements aren’t dropping, though. “His message was precise and concise: Simply be all set to work, “Starling stated. “Be ready to bring it on a daily basis. We have a fantastic group of guys that’s going to complete daily. Just have the ability to show up and provide 110 %effort daily. “