After Benny Williams’ departure, Adrian Autry and the players spoke about their feelings: “Sometimes things don’t work out.”
New York City, Syracuse On Wednesday night in the JMA Wireless Dome, emotions ran high as the Syracuse Orange took the field.
Syracuse overcame a formidable battle from the Louisville Cardinals in their first game back after junior forward Benny Williams was benched, winning 94–92.
Not only did Syracuse lack Williams, but it was also playing its first game since their humiliating 99-70 loss to Wake Forest on Saturday, which prompted first-year head coach Adrian Autry to hold a furious press conference after the game.
On Tuesday, it was revealed that Williams was leaving the team. When and how Autry broke the news to Williams and the rest of the squad remained a secret.
However, he praised the SU players’ response as he kicked off his news conference on Wednesday.
“I want to begin by expressing my pride in my team today, as these past few days have been extremely emotional,” Autry remarked. “The past few days have been traumatic for our staff as well as our players. I assign all the credit to those men.
The 6-foot-9 Williams, a starter as a sophomore, has averaged 5.4 points and 3.9 rebounds this year off the bench.”It was sentimental,” Autry remarked. The day following the Wake Forest game, we were off. We then entered the gym after that. What transpired with one of our team members was regrettable. We needed to reorganize and restart them.
“That was difficult.”
Regarding the reason or reasons for the decision to fire Williams, Autry did not elaborate.
But given that Autry is a first-year head coach and served as SU’s chief assistant during Williams’ high school recruitment, it was evidently a tough choice.
“We hang out with these guys a lot,” Autry remarked. “We wish him all the best.” Things don’t always work out. Sometimes, you just can’t control the passage of time. That’s as involved as I’m going to get; I just wish him well.
The circumstances underlying Williams’ termination were not discussed by the Syracuse players.
We are behind Benny given his circumstances, SU forward Chris Bell remarked. “He is missed.”
Syracuse has eight games left in the regular season and is currently 15-8 overall and 6-6 in the ACC.
SU guard JJ Starling remarked, “It’s been tough, obviously, but we kinda grew stronger together.” We are aware that we are alone now. We anticipate maintaining that mindset for the duration of the season.
Williams’ injury reduced Syracuse’s starting lineup to just seven players on Wednesday. Starling engaged in the full game. Maliq Brown, who alternated between center and power forward, played 38 minutes.
Williams’ size and agility at the power forward position were also missed by the Orange.
Louisville outrebounds Syracuse by 40 to only 20, decisively defeating the Orange in the paint. With those rebounds, the Cardinals scored an incredible 23 points on second chances. Just three points were scored by Syracuse off offensive rebounds.
However, Bell scored a career-high 30 points, Judah Mintz added 21 points, and Brown had an incredible stat line of 11 points, 9 rebounds, 6 blocks, 5 assists, and 5 steals. The Orange managed to hold on though.
With just 3.8 seconds left, Louisville guard Kaleb Glenn attempted a fastbreak layup that was goaltended by Quadir Copeland, who then scored the game-winning basket.
“This particular game was about our guys coming together,” Autry remarked. They had a great deal of character, in my opinion, especially down five in the final five minutes. It wasn’t flawless, but what mattered most was that these boys persevered and managed to win the game without giving up.
