Podcast: Kouwe remains 'optimistic' about Syracuse basketball's future

We caught up with former Syracuse basketball guard Andrew Kouwe on today's Juice on the Cuse Podcast, presented by Rivals and Bleav, and he said he's still got optimism heading into the 2025-26 season, and still believes in the current Syracuse coaching staff led by Adrian Autry. Kouwe said part of the struggles this year could be attributed to injuries to their top two players, JJ Starling and Donnie Freeman.

"It's a difficult year with injuries. It's unfortunate, but in today's college basketball atmosphere, sometimes you're going to have years like this. But in terms of coaching, you see what Syracuse has coming in. They have a top 15 recruiting class coming in. You build that out with hopefully Donnie Freeman staying, you've got to be a little bit more positive, optimistic outlook heading into next year."

Kouwe also discusses what his fellow Syracuse Basketball alumni think of this difficult stretch, how much of the blame should be assessed to the coaching staff, and what comes next for Syracuse.

Afterward, we also discuss Syracuse's latest loss to Virginia Tech, a new development for the future of the ACC and its lawsuit with Clemson and Florida State, and we also chat about several elite 2026 prospects who have lined up official visits to Central New York.

You can listen to our whole conversation by following “The Juice on the Cuse Podcast,” a Syracuse Orange podcast presented by Rivals.com, by subscribing to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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