At the end of the day, the Syracuse men's basketball loss against Wake Forest on Saturday afternoon is just another loss in a string of them this season.

Soon enough, it will fade into oblivion, much in the way this entire 2025-26 season will: A forgettable season in a forgettable five-year span for a once-great program.

But the 88-83 loss against the Demon Deacons was frustrating in the sense that it highlighted, to me, the biggest flaw of the eight weeks of Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) play: The lack of defensive intensity.

Now, there's a lot wrong with this SU basketball team, and it's why there are probably going to be big changes this offseason. They are at the bottom of the nation in free-throw percentage, they don't shoot well from three-point range, and the top scorers aren't always consistent in their performance. But beyond that, the porous defense in league play has been the most egregious fault of all.

See, if SU played relentlessly on the defensive end and played incredibly hard and tough - and couldn't shoot, I think they'd ultimately be respected. But the intensity and athleticism that defined much of the non-conference hasn't been there in weeks. The "level five" energy that Adrian Autry has spoken about hasn't been there.

See, on Saturday, the Orange shot 52 percent from the floor. They shot 50 percent from three-point range, making a whopping 13 of them. They hit 13-of-17 free-throws for 82 percent. They moved the ball, registering 16 assists vs. just eight turnovers. Donnie Freeman scored 28 points. Nate Kingz had 20. Naithan George had 10 assists.

It was essentially a perfect offensive game. And the Orange still lost.

This one didn't come down to poor shooting, it came down to defensive effort and intensity not being present. The Orange were out-rebounded by 12, showing that toughness wasn't there consistently, either.

So yes, it's a forgettable game in a forgettable season. But it really does say a lot about this team. The talent and ability has been there, but the consistent effort hasn't. This team best attribute is its length and athleticism. It needed to use that to its advantage and turn defense into offense. It needed to smother teams.

And it just hasn't happened in weeks. And that's the biggest missed chance of all.

The Orange will finish out the regular season on Saturday afternoon at home against Pitt. Syracuse is 15-14 overall and 6-10 inside conference play.

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