Bambini: Despite NCAA Tournament miss, Felisha Legette-Jack’s 1st season shows positive future

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In her first year as Syracuse’s head coach, Felisha Legette-Jack turned the program in the right direction. The Orange (20-13, 9-9 Atlantic Coast) finished this season with the program’s most wins by a coach in their first year. They doubled their ACC wins from a season ago and were in NCAA Tournament bubble talk, just missing out. 

You could argue the NCAA Tournament miss, the ACC first-round blowout loss to NC State and the Super 16 Women’s National Invitational Tournament loss to Columbia were just representations of a mediocre Syracuse season. But for what this program was just over a year ago — a team in shambles that seemed to have no identity — this season was a success and turned around the outlook of the program. 

On March 23, 2021, Syracuse women’s basketball lost its second-round NCAA Tournament game. By late June 2021, The Athletic exposed former head coach Quentin Hillsman on allegations of bullying and mistreatment, forcing Hillsman — the program’s all-time winningest coach — to resign. 

Within a month of that NCAA Tournament defeat, 11 players had decided to transfer from the team. The program, which had made every NCAA Tournament since 2013 until that point, plummeted, with an external investigation on top of it all. 

Vonn Read, former associate head coach under Hillsman, took over for the 2021-22 season, leading the Orange to a measly 11-19 campaign and just four ACC wins. In one season, Syracuse went from fourth to 12th in the ACC with a roster of several transfers. SU went from relevant — a 2016 NCAA Championship finalist — to nothing more than a pit stop for over a dozen players.

“There’s going to be some bad times, there’s going to be some tough times,” Legette-Jack said at her introductory press conference on March 26, 2022. 

This season wasn’t perfect. Syracuse had some bad losses. Fourth quarters plagued the Orange at times — examples being their 2-point loss to then-No. 6 NC State, 12-point loss to then-No. 14 Duke and 14-point loss to then-No. 13 Virginia Tech. They could’ve added a few more wins by closing out some of those games. 

But as a unit, the team was second in the ACC in points per game (74.2), fourth in rebounds per game (40.7) and first in steals per game (10.3). Under Read, Syracuse ranked sixth, 15th (last) and second, respectively. SU wasn’t near the top in any statistic. The team also ranked 14th in the ACC in scoring defense, which Legette-Jack said bothered her. 

Legette-Jack built her roster this past season through the transfer portal. She brought four players from her former team in Buffalo, including Dyaisha Fair and Georgia Woolley. Fair, an All-ACC first team selection, scored double-digit points in every game this season. She was Syracuse’s best player. Fair could’ve left for the WNBA or ended her college career, but instead, she bought in for another year at Syracuse — exactly what the program needed. 

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Although transfers Dariauna Lewis and Asia Strong don’t have any years of eligibility remaining, they provided a spark in the front court that wasn’t present under Read. The transfer portal is part of the game now, but Legette-Jack has moved Syracuse away from the pit stop that it was.

Syracuse also more than doubled its attendance this season, averaging just over 2,400 fans per home game compared to about 1,100 last year. It started with the culture. Legette-Jack made it clear that everyone in the program needed to buy in, and that success wouldn’t happen overnight. The latter days of this season were supposed to be the better ones, and they were. 

The Orange were in NCAA Tournament contention. Wins over Miami and then-No. 14 North Carolina in the back half of the season had snuck them into the “Last Four In” in ESPN’s Bracketology. Miami reached the Elite Eight of this year’s NCAA Tournament, too. Two, or maybe just one, win at the ACC Tournament would have potentially been enough to clinch an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament. 

The ACC Tournament loss to NC State was disappointing. Legette-Jack teared up at the postgame press conference and Fair shared minimal words. It obviously wasn’t how the team wanted to end the season. The defeat booted the Orange out of the tournament picture, despite the team receiving a postseason berth through the WNIT.

But being on the NCAA Tournament bubble was never in question in 2021-22. Ranked wins and a strong culture weren’t talked about last season. Legette-Jack brought all of that into the locker room this year. It was the right hire, and this season proved that. Syracuse women’s basketball isn’t fully restored from Hillsman’s tenure, but in just one year, Legette-Jack has the team back to a competitive level.

“This is not going to define us in a bad way,” Legette-Jack said after the loss to NC State on March 2. “This is going to push us to another level of excellence. I’m excited about our tomorrow because every time we had a situation like this, we became a better coach, staff, and team.”