WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – The Syracuse University men’s basketball team kicks off its 2024-25 season Monday night.

It will be the regular season start for year two off the coach Adrian Autry era, after a pair of exhibition games. The Orange were a perfect 2-0 in pre-season with a 101-73 win over Clarion on Saturday and a 96-51 win over Slippery Rock on Wednesday night.

While Autry was impressed with his team’s performance in both games, he says there are things this year’s team needs to do to be successful.

”We need to play better defense and rebound. I think for us to really try to have this season that we want to have that’s gonna be imperative that we do that. Rebound the basketball, keep people out of the lane and keep people off the foul line. I think that’s gonna be a big thing for us,” said Autry.

The Orange have a number of new faces thanks to NIL and the transfer portal, with Lucas Taylor, Jaquan Carlos, Eddie Lampkin and Jyare Davis new additions who will play key roles this season along with top recruit freshman Donnie Freeman.

The players said having a couple of exhibition games before the start of the regular season has been a big help understanding the ins and outs of each other’s games in a situation other than practice.

”I feel like just being a bunch of guys from a bunch of different places just finding that chemistry and seeing how we all mesh in pretty well. I feel like the guards as leaders of the offense, they’ve kind of done a really good job with that. Also adding Eddie in there in that leading the offense perspective as well, keeping everybody in tune and just taking good shots. I feel like when we take good shots as a team we’re pretty good,” said Chris Bell, forward.

“It;s definitely a little different. I think when you’re a senior at a school you’ve been at for four years it’s a little different. You kind of have a level of comfortability with the coaches, a level of comfortability with what you’re doing as a team. I think all of us are still getting adjusted. What coach Red asked for us is straightforward. I think we’re all stepping into a new role of trying to be a leader but we’re also trying to learn too,” said Jyare Davis, forward.

”Our chemistry is already at a pretty high level just because we compete every day in practice against each other. We push each other and we know that we’re gonna trust each other when the game comes,” said J.J. Starling, guard.

The Orange host LeMoyne at the JMA Wireless Dome on Monday night in a 7 o’clock tipoff, marking the first time the two Syracuse schools will square off as Division 1 opponents, with LeMoyne making the jump in the 2023-24 season.

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