What can Syracuse basketball do to solve its woes?

Former Syracuse guard Andrew Kouwe discusses some adjustments the Orange could make to be more effective.

Jan 21, 2026; Syracuse, New York, USA; Syracuse Orange head coach Adrian Autry (right) talks with forward Sadiq White Jr. (left) during the second half against the Virginia Tech Hokies at the JMA Wireless Dome. Mandatory Credit: Rich Barnes-Imagn Images | Rich Barnes-Imagn Images

With Syracuse mired in a two-game losing streak after losses to Boston College and Virginia Tech, the Orange need to get back on track right away to keep their postseason NCAA Tournament hopes alive.

How can they do it? We spoke to former Syracuse guard Andrew Kouwe on today’s Juice on the Cuse Podcast to discuss. The Orange struggled with spacing, ball movement and scoring in the second halves of both games, and Kouwe said that part of it is a chemistry problem. The team is still coming together after only two players (Donnie Freeman and JJ Starling) returned from last year’s team, and Freeman missed over a month with a leg injury.

“You know, I think a lot of it has to do with probably confidence as well and kind of that chemistry. You know, we have to remember, in essence, this is a whole new team, right? We have players who have the ability to score on their own feel like, OK, I got to get a bucket. Let me just do this on my own to try to kind of stop the bleeding.”

Freeman's struggles

In particular Freeman has struggled over the past two games, and has placed the blame on himself. But part of that also is that opposing teams are starting to game plan around Freeman, and Syracuse needs to figure out a way to exploit it.

“Teams see that and say, ‘Okay, this is what we need to do. This is Syracuse's best player, the guy that they go to for a lot of their scoring.' So teams adjust defensively toward him. So now that adjustment is being made, Donnie has to make the adjustment now on his end.

"What does he need to do these next four or five games to kind of reverse that? Because you're going to have that bad game, that's just inevitable, especially when you're coming in and you haven't played a lot of games.”

Back to an old defense?

Given that Kouwe played for Jim Boeheim from 2000-04, he believes that playing more zone would help Syracuse disrupt other team’s offenses. It isn’t just because he played the zone, but because Syracuse has a roster that is the most athletic they’ve had in recent years, and certainly the most athletic under Autry.  

Kouwe suggested playing Sadiq White and Freeman in the same lineup with William Kyle III anchoring the back line. That would create turnovers and frustrate other teams with the length and athleticism.

I would love to see like if we could go more zone and even change up the line up a little bit. If you’re playing more zone, you’re using this unbelievable length. I’d actually lean that way to really just flip the script a little bit. But the way we play zone is not basic. It’s very athletic with a lot of movement."