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CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — J.J. Starling, rinse, repeat. It was an easy, effective and simple strategy for Syracuse head coach Adrian Autry on the road facing Boston College.

Whenever the Orange could get the ball in Starling’s hands, they did. It was their best way of generating offense and, in tune, pulling out a win — which, of late, has been elusive. With the Orange needing to close out a narrow contest down the stretch, their “everything,” as Autry said postgame, did so seamlessly.

“As a coach, you gotta get the ball into the right people’s hands and let them make plays,” Autry said.

Cut to the rim and score a layup to go up six points with three minutes left? Too easy. Attack the lane off the dribble on the ensuing possession to answer BC’s score? There should’ve been a double team. Close the game out isolated with a mismatch against 6-foot-8 Elijah Strong? You know what happens next.

“Down the stretch, they put the ball in my hands, and (Autry’s) just letting me rock out,” Starling said.

Starling scored a game-high 26 points, shooting 12-of-22 from the field across 36 minutes, in Syracuse’s (8-8, 2-3 Atlantic Coast) 79-71 win over Boston College (9-7, 1-4 Atlantic Coast). The Orange are 2-1 since Starling — who is averaging a team-high 19.8 points — returned from his broken left hand, their best three-game stretch since starting the season undefeated against Le Moyne, Colgate and Youngstown State. With Starling back in the lineup, SU has gone from its lowest point under Autry to showing glimpses it’s on the verge of breaking out in conference play.

When Starling suffered his injury, the Orange seemed amid a potential breakthrough. While SU started 3-0, each win was narrow and it played down to its competition. Though losses to Texas and Texas Tech in the Legends Classic at the Barclays Center set Syracuse’s record back, Autry said he saw improved play before it headed back upstate and beat Cornell by double-digits.

The Orange’s new-look team slowly started to click. Starling’s injury abruptly ended that. SU went 2-5 in the seven games he missed, only defeating lowly UAlbany and Bucknell. The worst loss was back at the Barclays Center, where Syracuse was embarrassed 87-60 by Maryland.

When asked what went wrong in the month between when SU showed encouraging signs in the Legends Classic and what transpired against the Terrapins, Autry had a quick answer: “We lost our best player and one of the best guards in the country.”

As SU struggled and entrenched itself as one of the worst Power Five teams in the country, Starling worked on new ways he could instantly help it improve upon returning. He turned to watching film for hours a day. But that didn’t just entail watching himself and Syracuse.

He wanted to take things from other elite guards around the country — in how they attack and play with pace offensively. So, Starling honed in on watching Alabama’s Mark Sears and North Carolina’s RJ Davis. The junior praised Sears for playing with great pace off ball screens while saying Davis excelled as a scoring guard, coming off pick and roles and attacking big men.

“I think J.J. got better in his understanding of the game and what we’re trying to do in certain situations,” Autry said of how Starling improved during his absence.

Upon his return, however, the Orange suffered a 90-74 loss to Florida State. In the loss, Starling played 32 minutes splitting his minutes between playing shooting guard and point guard — the latter of which he saw an increase in playing before sustaining his injury.

Looking to flip the script on Syracuse’s awful start to the season, Autry increased Starling’s usage at point guard against Georgia Tech. For the first time since transferring from Hofstra, Jaquan Carlos was relegated to the bench and played a season-low 10 minutes. The ball was in Starling’s early and often. It worked. He scored 21 of SU’s 62 points en route to a win.

“It’s not like a big adjustment,” Starling said of his increased usage at point guard. “I played the one and two my whole life. So it’s all about going out there and making winning plays.”

Autry took that game plan to another level in Chestnut Hill. Starling again started at point guard. Meanwhile, Carlos saw his minutes cut in half to five. While Kyle Cuffe Jr., who scored 10 points in 17 minutes off the bench, provided secondary ball handling, Starling was the Orange’s primary ball handler throughout.

Despite the increased time with the ball in his hands, Starling struggled in the first half, entering the locker room with six points as SU and BC were knotted 32-32. But once he re-emerged for the second half, Starling ignited. He became a second coach on the floor, too.

“What I love today is that he was giving me feedback, what he was seeing out there,” Autry said. “I always try to tell my point guards, you guys got to be a student of the game. You have to be able to see what’s going on out there too. I loved that about him today.”

Consistently, the Orange got the ball to Starling on the perimeter before clearing the lane for their star guard to operate downhill. No matter who defended him or which side of the basket he attacked, Starling easily got to his spot before consistently finding the back of the net.

“Whoever’s in front of me, I’m attacking no matter what. That’s just my mentality,” Starling said.

Even with Syracuse consistently running similar actions, the Eagles had no answers for Starling. And that was the beauty for SU. It trusted its best player. He made big plays. It resulted in a win.

Autry’s second year at the helm thus far has been nothing like what anyone around the Syracuse program expected it to be. But with Starling back in action, the Orange have a renewed sense of hope as they try to carry a winning streak into the remainder of their conference matchups.

Published on January 11, 2025 at 9:59 pm

Contact Justin: justingirshon@gmail.com | @JustinGirshon