What Adrian Autry said before Syracuse travels to meet NC State on Tuesday

At this point of the season looking for any positives for the Orange (12-8, 3-4), is that other than a second-half and OT collapse against Boston College on Jan. 17, SU has ironically played well on the road in the ACC (but surprisingly not at home in close games).

Monday morning Adrian Autry led off the weekly ACC Coaches Call touching on a variety of topics, before the Orange charter down to Raleigh. The Triangle, along with most of the rest of the state of North Carolina, is slowly but surely recovering from this past weekend's ice storm that has made many secondary roads tricky to navigate.

But the games are being played in the Triangle, as the SU women fell in a close OT ending to North Carolina in Chapel Hill Sunday, while Duke and Louisville square off on Monday night in Durham, and the 'Cuse and 'Pack meet at the Lenovo Center Tuesday (7:00 p.m. ET / ESPNU).

The familiar, smiling face of Quadir Copeland awaits the Orange in Raleigh

In the age of NIL and the transfer portal, Syracuse has faced players that transferred directly within the ACC such as Joe Girard at Clemson, and now with Copeland, a player that followed his first landing spot coach, Will Wade at McNeese State in 2024, to NC State this season, where as point guard he is leading the team in scoring (14.1ppg), assists, steals, and predictably, turnovers.

Autry has certainly seen the improvement in a player first recruited to SU by Jim Boeheim's staff back in 2020. as a play-making wing, but who always wanted to be the play-making point guard.

It was that conflict as Autry took the reins, along with the open market opportunities in the transfer portal that led to Copeland leaving, and the SU coach is happy that everything worked out.

"I think the first thing that stands out his is shooting, especially his three point shooting (47%)," Autry said. of the senior who has settled into his role running the Pack's offense. "He's really progressed, his assists are up, he's doing a good job limiting his turnovers."

The Orange have been giving up slightly more points and turning the ball over more often in their seven ACC games

Only six of the 18 ACC teams have more conference losses than the Orange, and currently SU sits at fifth in team defense (69 ppg) up almost five points from the non-conference, and in the middle of the pack (10th) in turnovers, but 15th in points allowed off turnovers which has hurt in the current three-game losing skid.

Autry has addressed this point many teams with the media the last two months.

"I think there's some careless mistakes, careless passes, we have to take care of the basketball and make better decisions, Autry said Monday. "Critical turnovers at critical times, and some of those turnovers turn into points (because) we can't set up our defense. That comes down to decision-making, taking less risk, and playing more sounder in those areas."

Honoring Lawrence Moten Saturday in the Dome

The all-time Syracuse and Big East scoring leader's career and legacy will be honored by the university Saturday, in a ceremony with his family in attendance surrounding the Notre Dame game which is scheduled for a 6:00 p.m. tipoff.

Moten suddenly passed away on September 30 at age 53, shocking the Syracuse community and those who knew the Washington, D.C. native far and wide.

Autry talked Monday about his Orange teammate when asked about Moten 's influence personally and how he related to everyone.

"He was a dear friend of mine and a teammate of mine," Autry said. "He was someone that really embodied a true alum. Someone that was proud and had strong feelings about where he played at and what that uniform meant to him. I am definitely going to share that with our players."

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