The Syracuse Orange men’s basketball team defeated the University at Buffalo 76-66 from KeyBank Center on Saturday night. The Orange were the host team in the exhibition contest and wore its white uniforms inside a frigid arena that primarily serves as the home of the Buffalo Sabres. Syracuse scheduled the game with the NCAA Tournament in mind, electing to play at one of the 2026 host sites.
Sadiq White was held out of the competition due to an upper body injury, per Syracuse.com’s Mike Waters.
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“Sadiq’s doing fine,” Adrian Autry said post-game. “He’ll be fine. We just have to take it day-by-day with him”
Syracuse went with a starting five of Nait George, JJ Starling, Nate Kingz, Donnie Freeman and William Kyle. The Orange jumped out to lead by as many as 18 and led by double-digits for much of the game. Buffalo put same game pressure on Syracuse by making six straight shots, whittling Syracuse’s lead to four with 1:22 to play. Syracuse turned to Starling and Freeman late, however, and Syracuse closed things out from the free throw line to win by ten.
Autry used numerous lineups, played four different players at point guard and used three different centers as 11 of Syracuse’s 12 available scholarship players saw action. Tyler Betsey led Syracuse in scoring with 14 points. George finished with 9 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists. Freeman scored 11 points and grabbed 6 rebounds. Kyle had 10 points and 9 rebounds while Kiyan Anthony posted 10 points.
With that, let’s recklessly draw definitive conclusions from one game of experimental basketball that ultimately doesn’t even count:
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Defense improved, waned in the second half
Even this early in the preseason it doesn’t feel like an overstatement to say the success of this year’s Syracuse team will hinge on its ability to defend. Or that its lack of success will be due to its inability to defend.
Syracuse’s defensive intensity against UB was noticeably at a higher level than last season, particularly in the half-court. Autry had his team pick up full-court man-to-man with soft pressure for much of the game. In the half-court Syracuse’s communication was good. At times all five guys would talk as a unit, calling out screens and communicating on help.
“I feel like our athleticism helps but we also keyed in on a lot of our defense in the summer time,” Freeman said. “Defense has been a big focal point for the season this year. So we’re just going to keep building and keep getting better with that.”
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Syracuse is tracking “kills” as well. In other words, that’s three defensive stops in a row. The Orange had six kills in the first half.
In the first 20 minutes of action Buffalo shot 11-28 from the floor (38.3%) and 4-13 from three (30.8%). The Syracuse defense waxed in the first half, but waned in the second. The Bulls finished the game 25-59 from the floor (42.4%) and 9-27 from three (33%).
“A lot of dips,” Anthony said of Syracuse’s play. “A lot of inconsistency I would say with runs and stuff like that. I feel like if we tighten that up a little bit more we could definitely be a much more consistent team and put teams like this away.”
This Syracuse team is going to be able to score the ball. There’s plenty of offensive threats on the perimeter. The question for this team is how effectively it can lock in on defense — and for how long. Time will tell.
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Bench deployed, with a scoring punch
Syracuse went with Anthony as first off the bench, along with Betsey. The duo provided an immediate offensive spark as Betsey knocked down his first two shots from outside. Anthony went 2-2 as well with a stepback jumper along the baseline and a lefty layup off a feed from Luke Fennell. Betsey made five of his first six shots.
“I feel like I can do that,” Betsey said of his shooting. “I can score, put up points where our team needs.”
In his first (unofficial) college game, Anthony said he was anxious. But it didn’t show in his performance.
“The pace is a little bit different playing against different guys for the first time. It was definitely good to be out there,” Anthony said. “Obviously I can put the ball in the hole. That’s what I do.”
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“They were aggressive,” Starling said of Betsey and Anthony. “They came in looking to do what we know they can do. We’re going to need more of that moving forward.”
The Syracuse bench scored 31 points but Betsey and Anthony in particular should really help the offense in bench roles.
Syracuse also ran multiple guys at point guard. George started at that position and played 25 minutes. Starling brought the ball up on occasion. Fennell played a dozen minutes, some at point and some off ball. Anthony would interchange at point when he and Fennell were in together.
Shooters aplenty
This team won’t be short for shooting. At one juncture Syracuse was 6-12 from three with five different players connecting from outside. The Orange finished 9-22 from three (40.9%) with six different players connecting from deep. Betsey, Anthony, Starling, Kingz, George and Bryce Zephir all hit from outside. Freeman and Fennell are capable shooters as well. That’s the versatility Autry has been talking about.
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Consider last season where only three Syracuse players made over 30 threes and not one player made over 50. Last season Syracuse shot a meager 32.8% from three and took just 32.7% of its total shots from beyond the arc. Expect those numbers to be at a higher clip this season.
Freeman at the five
Expect to see more of Freeman at center this year. While Kyle will command the starting center position and take the lion’s share of minutes, Freeman expects to get more time at that position. Some of that will be matchup dependent. Freeman played some center in the exhibition. It allows Syracuse another mobile athlete at the five in a small-ball lineup. Just don’t tell Freeman it’s small-ball.
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Freeman joked with one reporter in the post-game locker room from Buffalo, “You think it was a small lineup?” His question drew laughs from media and his teammate Anthony, who sat to his left flank.
“I’m probably going to play the five a lot more than I did last year,” Freeman said. “We’re just going to try things out and see what works for us.
“I’m fairly comfortable. It’s not too much different from my normal position just kind of guarding different defenders, different body types, just a little stronger. But I’m fairly comfortable down there and that’s why they put me down there.”
Stars limited, turnovers a concern
Syracuse’s two returning stars Freeman and Starling got off to slow offensive starts. Starling made his first three, but finished 3-10 shooting on the game. Freeman had just two points until the game’s final moments. He finished with 11 points. Neither expressed concern.
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“It’s more to the game for us than me scoring. So I was trying to do other some other things, got some rebounds. Played good defense. The offense was going to come as the game goes on and it did. I wasn’t really too worried about my points,” Freeman said.
Syracuse also struggled taking care of the ball against UB. The Orange had 17 turnovers to which UB manufactured into 16 points. Four Syracuse players had three or more turnovers. There’s plenty of rust to shake off with limited live game reps against other teams.
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Other notes: Syracuse out-rebounded Buffalo 40-27, what one would expect with higher-level athletes. We’ll need to learn more before knowing how well this team can rebound the ball.
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Syracuse also won the transition game 14-3. We know Autry wants to get out and run more this year and Syracuse looks to have the roster to do it. Also a good sign for a team that struggled with transition defense last season. Limiting UB to just 3 fast break points after having 17 turnovers seems worth mention.
What about you? For those that caught the stream or attended in person, what did you see and what did we miss? Let us know in the comment section below.
