Adrian Autry, players discuss emotions after Benny Williams’ departure: ‘Sometimes things don’t work out’

Syracuse, N.Y. ― The Syracuse Orange played amid a swirl of emotions on Wednesday night at the JMA Wireless Dome.

In the team’s first game following the dismissal of junior forward Benny Williams, Syracuse faced down a stiff challenge from the Louisville Cardinals and came away with a 94-92 victory.

Not only was Syracuse without Williams, but the Orange was also taking the court for the first time since its embarrassing 99-70 loss to Wake Forest on Saturday, a performance that elicited an angry post-game press conference from first-year head coach Adrian Autry.

The news of Williams’ departure from the team was announced on Tuesday. Autry would not say exactly when or how he delivered the news to Williams or the rest of the team.

But he began his press conference on Wednesday by praising the SU players’ response.

“I want to start off saying that I’m proud of my team today because these last couple of days have been emotional,’’ Autry said. “It’s been emotional the last couple of days not only for our players but our staff. I give those guys all the credit.’’

A starter as a sophomore, the 6-foot-9 Williams had been averaging 5.4 points and 3.9 rebounds off the bench this season.

“It was emotional,’’ Autry said. “We had a day off the day after the Wake Forest game. After that, we got in the gym. It was unfortunate what happened with one of our team members. We had to regroup and get them going.

“That was tough.’’

Autry would not get into specifics regarding the reason or reasons for the decision to dismiss Williams.

However, it was clearly a difficult decision not only because Autry is in his first year as a head coach, but he was also the lead assistant when SU was recruiting Williams out of high school.

“We spend a lot of time with these guys,’’ Autry said. “We want the best for him. Sometimes things don’t work out. You just don’t have control of the time, sometimes. I wish him the best and that’s about as far as I’m going to get into it.’’

The Syracuse players said little about the situation surrounding Williams’ dismissal.

“With Benny’s situation, we support him,’’ SU forward Chris Bell said. “We miss him.’’

Syracuse is now 15-8 on the season and 6-6 in the ACC with eight regular-season games remaining.

“It’s been tough, obviously, but we kinda grew stronger together,’’ SU guard JJ Starling said. “We know now it’s just us. We’re looking forward to having that mentality going on for the rest of the season.’’

The loss of Williams shortened Syracuse’s rotation to just seven players on Wednesday. Starling played the entire game. Maliq Brown played 38 minutes, moving between center and power forward.

The Orange also missed Williams’ size and athleticism at the power forward spot.

Louisville crushed the Orange on the boards, gathering in 40 rebounds to just 20 for Syracuse. The Cardinals turned those rebounds into a whopping 23 second-chance points. Syracuse had just three points off offensive rebounds.

But the Orange persevered, getting a career-high 30 points from Bell, 21 more from Judah Mintz and a stellar stat line of 11 points, nine rebounds, six blocks, five assists and five steals from Brown.

Quadir Copeland scored the game-winning basket on a fastbreak layup that Louisville forward Kaleb Glenn goaltended with 3.8 seconds remaining.

“This game right here was about our guys rallying together,’’ Autry said. “I thought they showed a lot of character, especially down five in the last five minutes. To get back and be able to finish off the game and win, again it wasn’t perfect, but it more about these guys just really not giving up and playing and pulling out a win.’’

Contact Mike Waters anytime: Email | Twitter