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Syracuse local Mike Freund brought his three children — Ethan, Allie and Max — to the JMA Wireless Dome on Friday to see the 2023-24 SU’s men’s and women’s basketball squads for the first time. The Freunds are lifelong fans, they said, as Max revealed he’s had a Syracuse teddy bear since he was 1. They didn’t hide their excitement for the upcoming season and for the changes to the men’s program under head coach Adrian Autry.

“I can’t wait to see the new team,” Ethan said. “We’ve got a new star (J.J. Starling) and there’s more 3-point shooters in the league this year, so man-to-man is definitely going to work.”

Mike said that he’s been a fan of Autry since he watched him hit a shot from his knees in the 1994 NCAA Tournament while he played for Syracuse.

“As much as I love coach (Jim) Boeheim, it’s a great opportunity for a new start,” Mike said.

SU basketball fans received their first opportunity to see the new men’s and women’s programs in-action for Orange Tip-Off. The event included various skills competitions, a scrimmage between SU’s women’s team and its scout team, a men’s team intrasquad scrimmage and a student shooting challenge. Afterward, fans got a chance to take photos with some of the players. But for many, they attended the event to get an initial glimpse of the Autry era.

“I’m hoping (the program) is going to pick up,” said TJ Brennan from North Syracuse, who brought his wife, Sharon, and two kids, Dylan and Bella, to the event. “I hope it’s going to get a lot better and definitely make it to the tournament again.”

The on-court activities began with different skills competitions. To start, the women’s team participated in a shooting challenge, where Kennedi Perkins made a half-court shot to win the contest.

Then, the two teams combined for a 3-point shooting challenge. One group made up of Dyaisha Fair, Sophie Burrows, Chance Westry and Chris Bell competed against Kyle Cuffe Jr., Justin Taylor, Georgia Woolley and Alaina Rice. The two teams tied at 31-31, and headed into overtime. Fair and Taylor squared off in overtime, each taking five shots from the top of the arc. Taylor only made one, but Fair missed every attempt, giving Taylor’s team the win.

The final skills competition was the dunk contest. Four players from the men’s team competed — Judah Mintz, Florida State transfer Naheem McLeod, Quadir Copeland and William Patterson. Kyra Wood, Marilena Triantafylli and Cheyenne McEvans from the women’s team acted as the judges.

Mintz and McLeod advanced to the final round after earning 48 points each through their opening two dunks. While Copeland and Patterson missed their second attempts.

The final between Mintz and McLeod wasn’t close. Mintz got all 10s from the judges after sprinting to the rim and perfecting a windmill slam. McLeod couldn’t respond, missing back-to-back between-the-legs dunk attempts.

Once the men’s team scrimmaged, fans got a brief glance into the changes Autry had started to bring into the program. TJ said he thought that the coaching change would allow the Orange to play “faster.” Over two 10-minute halves, SU’s versatility and athleticism were on display.

The men were split into the “Orange” and “Blue” teams. The Orange team consisted of McLeod, Benny Williams, Bell, Cuffe Jr., Westry, Mounir Hima, Niko Ruffin and Chris Gatty. The Blue team had Maliq Brown, Taylor, Copeland, Starling, Mintz, Anthony Clayton, Chaz Owens and Patterson.

Early in the scrimmage, Starling lobbed a pass from the 3-point line to Brown near the rim, who threw down the alley-oop feed to give the Blue team a 4-0 lead. Brown played aggressive on the offensive end all evening, finishing another dunk on the Blue team’s next trip downcourt.

Halfway through the first half, a 3-pointer from Taylor helped the Blue team jump out to a 14-4 lead. The Orange team quickly responded with Williams’ dunk. Then, Bell converted a crafty double-clutch layup and Williams fed Westry for an ally-oop to cap off a 6-0 Orange team run. At halftime, the Blue team held a 16-10 lead following a tomahawk dunk from Mintz on the breakaway.

During SU’s basketball media opportunity earlier on Friday, Autry confirmed that he planned to move away from Boeheim’s staple 2-3 zone on the defensive end. Fans in attendance for Orange Tip-Off were eager to see the early glimpses of how the change could play out. Mike said some of the new additions to the roster will help Autry foster a punishing man-to-man set.

“Obviously I was a fan of the zone just because that’s how you grow up,” Mike said. “But, when you bring in players like J.J. Starling, guys that know the system, aggressive guards, I think it’s going to be a great transition.”

The Blue team’s backcourt tandem of Starling and Mintz dominated the Orange team’s guards on defense. They forced the Orange team into taking rushed 3-pointers, while also giving them trouble feeding the ball inside to McLeod and Hima.

As the second half approached the 5:00 mark, Brown stepped up and successfully guarded the perimeter. Matched up with Westry, Brown’s suffocating defense forced Westry to fire an errant pass that went the other way.

DJ Voutsinas, a lifelong Syracuse fan from Liverpool, NY, said Autry’s implementation of a man-to-man should lead SU’s players better transition into the professional game.

“I think it’ll be a positive change. It gets the players more ready for the NBA,” Voutsinas said. “You don’t see too much zone in the NBA. I think it’s time for them to switch to the man-to-man and be a little more prepared for the next level.”

The Blue team ended up dominating the Orange team in a 36-20 win. A late-game surge was capped off by a Mintz lob to a cutting Copeland, who got by Hima to finish the alley-oop dunk.

Prior to the men’s scrimmage, Syracuse’s women’s squad played against its scout team. Heading into the second season of the Felisha Legette-Jack era, fans in the dome had another up-and-coming team to get a first look at. The women’s team’s mix of high-profile new arrivals and the presence of veterans like Fair intrigued fans at the dome.

“(The women’s team) seems to be getting (attention) on the national level,” TJ said. “It seems a lot better.”

The women’s team got off to a 8-0 run to start the scrimmage. Fair knocked down two straight 3-pointers on her first two shots, and was followed up by a lay-in from freshman Alyssa Latham, who committed to the Orange as a top 100 recruit.

The scout team stayed level with the women’s squad for most of the scrimmage. With less than five minutes remaining, the score was locked at 28-28. Perkins nailed a step-back 3-pointer to give them a 31-28 advantage, and the women’s team didn’t look back from there, utilizing Fair and a strong defense to dominate down the stretch.

Syracuse’s women defeated the scout team 41-30. With under 1:00 remaining, Fair drilled a step-back 3 over a scout team defender to give them a 39-30 lead and all but seal the victory. Fair’s performance was a preview into what SU fans hope will result in an NCAA Tournament appearance.

“It’s been exciting to see some of the transfers and new recruits that they could bring back in,” Mike said. “And even what happened last year in getting so close (to the NCAA Tournament) in (Legette-Jack’s) first year as coach, it’s all up from here.”

Published on October 14, 2023 at 11:02 am

Contact Cooper at: ccandrew@syr.edu | @cooper_andrews