Syracuse Basketball: Major observations from the Orange's exhibition win over Buffalo

Holy moly - Syracuse basketball's 2025-26 season officially gets underway in exactly one week. Wow. Let's go.

Over the weekend, the Orange played one of its two exhibitions prior to 2025-26 commencing. The 'Cuse defeated Mid-American Conference ("MAC") school Buffalo, at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, N.Y., by a final of 76-66.

The 'Cuse will host Pace at the JMA Wireless Dome on Wednesday, Oct. 29, in a second exhibition. Things start for real on Monday, Nov. 3, when Binghamton heads to the Hill. While the Orange didn't blow out the Bulls, Syracuse basketball also never trailed in its exhibition opener.

Let's dissect this Syracuse basketball win over Buffalo.

•More important than anything else, Orange players wore white warm-up shirts with the word "Poetry" and number 21 on them, to honor the program's all-time leading scorer, Lawrence Moten from Washington, D.C., who tragically passed away late last month at the age of 53.

•The 'Cuse played 11 of its 13 scholarship players. Freshman forward Sadiq White Jr. didn't play due to an upper-body injury. Freshman center Tiefing Diawara also didn't see the court.

•The Orange's starting five is the one I've been expecting: Junior Naithan George at point guard, senior J.J. Starling at shooting guard, redshirt senior Nate Kingz at small forward, sophomore Donnie Freeman at power forward and senior William Kyle lll at center.

•Syracuse basketball shot relatively well, at 48.1 percent from the field, 40.9 percent from downtown and 70.8 percent from the free-throw line. The Bulls, conversely, made 42.4 percent from the field, 33.3 percent from beyond the arc and just 53.8 percent from the charity stripe.

•It was a balanced scoring attack for the Orange, with seven players notching at least seven points. Sophomore forward Tyler Betsey led the charge with 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field and 3-of-3 from long range. Freeman had 11 points, freshman guard/wing Kiyan Anthony had 10 points and was 2-of-4 from deep, Kyle added 10 points and nine rebounds, Starling had eight points but went just 3-of-10 from the field, Kingz chipped in seven points on 3-of-4 shooting, and George tallied nine points, seven boards and six assists.

•Rebounding is always a hot-button topic in 'Cuse Nation, and Syracuse basketball led Buffalo there, 40-27. The Orange had 12 offensive boards, including five from Kyle.

•But, the turnovers. Ugh. That has to get cleaned up this season. Against Buffalo, the 'Cuse committed 17 miscues, as compared to 11 for the Bulls. Buffalo also led 16-13 in points off turnovers, and that's something that I'll be watching closely as the season progresses. The Orange got killed in that department in 2024-25. I get that the 'Cuse is playing up-tempo this season, and some mistakes will transpire, but Syracuse basketball is playing with fire if it's consistently trailing in the points off turnovers arena.

•The Orange had 17 assists, four blocks and five steals. Buffalo had 13 assists, one block and a whopping 12 steals. Candidly, that the Bulls had a dozen steals but only had 16 points off 'Cuse turnovers was a big reason why Syracuse basketball was able to hold off Buffalo.

•In other statistical categories, the Orange collected 30 paint points, eight second-chance points, 14 fast-break points and 31 bench points. On the flip side, the Bulls sported 28 paint points, 13 second-chance points, three fast-break points and 32 bench points. Buffalo only scoring three fast-break points is a positive for Syracuse basketball, as the 'Cuse transition defense struggled at times in 2024-25.

•All in all, it was a solid win for the Orange, although exhibitions should get taken with the proverbial grain of salt. Still, I saw some positives from this encounter, and now the 'Cuse looks ahead to Pace at the Dome on Wednesday.