UNCASVILLE, Conn. -- The Syracuse Orange men's basketball team lost the first exhibition game of its season on Tuesday night, falling 72-52 against the UConn Huskies at Mohegan Sun Arena.

Aiden Tobiason's injury and Kiyan Anthony's shooting struggles were probably the biggest stories of the day, but one of the biggest positives was the play of freshman point guard Ryan Moesch.

Though Moesch went 1-of-10 from the floor in his first collegiate action, he looked comfortable running the point guard spot and his speed was certainly useful against UConn's ball pressure. He tied for the team-lead in minutes with 30.

His minutes came at the expense of veteran transfer Garwey Dual, who came in this offseason from McNeese State. Though Dual started, he played only 10 minutes. After the game, head coach Gerry McNamara revealed part of what went into that, also saying that he's very demanding of his point guards.

"I'm demanding of the point guards that are in my system. And one of the non-negotiables is we've got to know everything from every position of what every person's supposed to be doing.

So, there was apparently a miscommunication in terms of, the action that was needed to run and that the one that was run was run the wrong way. So I was very upset with that.

And then it was, Ryan got in the game, and it just looked right to me. But then I yelled at him quite a bit too. So, I just like the speed of how he changed the game, I thought, for us offensively today, so I went with that."

Sure, it's only one exhibition game ahead of a 30-plus game season, but it's evident that McNamara is a stickler for the details and that he will run a tight ship when it comes to "doing the little things."

And that will be important. The Orange are not the most talented team in the nation this season, but we can confidently say that they'll be prepared under McNamara's leadership.

It's also fair to note that Dual is coming off a collarbone injury this offseason, so that could have factored into his minutes as well.

Syracuse is coming off a 15-17 season a year ago. Adrian Autry was let go at the end of the season following three seasons at the helm. McNamara spent the last years at Siena, helping take the Saints to the NCAA Tournament last year.

Speaking of Siena, the Orange will travel to Albany to play the Saints on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. ET. It will be the first game of the exhibition season for Siena, and it will come with some pomp and circumstance.

The program will raise the 2025-26 MAAC Championship banner at the MVP Arena and they will give out their championship rings. The ceremony is being held on this day so that McNamara, Gavin Doty, Francis Folefac and Tasman Goodrick, as well as multiple assistant coaches, can participate.