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Syracuse’s 2023-24 season ended with sadness but created a sense of hope.

Falling to UConn in the second round of the NCAA Tournament closed SU’s storybook season and the career of Dyaisha Fair, who became the third-highest scorer in NCAA women’s basketball history. To prevent the campaign from being a flash in the pan, Syracuse needed to capitalize on its success by replenishing its roster in the transfer portal, particularly to fill Fair’s void.

Following last season, Syracuse should’ve been a top landing spot for transfers. Head coach Felisha Legette-Jack built a reputation for developing players with Fair, Georgia Woolley and Alaina Rice. She went from winning 18 games in her first regular season coaching SU to winning 23 last season. Syracuse looked primed to continue its ascent in her third campaign.

Instead, Legette-Jack failed to build off SU’s momentum from last year. The Orange have a 7-11 record and are 1-6 in ACC play — already more losses in conference play than last season — with 11 games remaining. The latest sign of their steep fall was a 92-51 drubbing at Boston College Sunday, Legette-Jack’s worst loss of her tenure.

“This is a rebuild situation. I hate that word, but I think that’s where we are,” Legette-Jack said postgame Sunday. “We’ve never been in this situation, so we got to figure it all out.”

In the postgame press conference following Syracuse’s season-ending loss to UConn last March, Legette-Jack said Woolley was “ready” to pick up Fair’s mantle. But it’s not that simple.

Fair and Woolley play different positions. Woolley is a 3-and-D specialist, not a point guard who can dictate offense. Plus, who would fill Woolley’s role as a consistent secondary scorer and defensive scrapper?

Legette-Jack stressed that even after a remarkable season last year, she “wanted more.” The Syracuse native said the city deserved it, and she would deliver it. Fast forward to this year, SU is tied for 15th in the ACC with a conference tournament berth in flux.

Hannah Mesa | Design Editor

Syracuse entered this season with a weaker roster. On top of losing Fair, its third-leading scorer Rice graduated and freshman Alyssa Latham, who led the team in rebounds, transferred to Tennessee.

Struggles have followed. After going 10-1 in nonconference play last season, Syracuse went 6-5. Of SU’s five conference losses thus far, four have been by double-digits. Woolley didn’t play in Chestnut Hill Sunday due to an illness, fully exposing how threadbare the Orange are.

The core needs for SU in the transfer portal were a 3-point threat, a point guard and a proven post player. Syracuse didn’t check any of those boxes. It added LSU’s Angelica Velez (3.1 points per game on 27.9% shooting), who averaged just over a point in limited minutes last season, and Arizona State’s Journey Thompson (4.7 points and 3.2 rebounds per game), a frontcourt starter but an inconsistent presence.

Additionally, Dominique Camp, though not a transfer, returned from a knee injury. She’s been the primary starting point guard, recording a team-high 4.1 assists but only 4.2 points per game.
They’re all vital role players. But, for Syracuse to maintain last year’s success, it needed star power. Someone who could take over a game offensively. Someone it could reliably go to if it needed a bucket.

Returning players have progressed but haven’t filled the holes left last season or elevated the Orange — their preseason goal. Woolley has only upped her points per game by 1.3 points to a team-leading 15.1. Kyra Wood increased her total by 4.9 and became a starting forward. Sophomore Sophie Burrows added 5.6 points to her scoring average and showed signs of being a 3-point threat. SU’s four freshmen have also shown signs of promise.

But to reach or surpass the last campaign’s heights, SU needed firepower. Legette-Jack understood the portal’s value when she joined Syracuse from Buffalo in 2022, bringing five players with her and adding three more transfers. But she hasn’t built off it since.

“I can honestly say to you, every kid on our team that I’ve coached since I’ve been at Syracuse, we were able to get without offering a penny,” Legette-Jack said Monday on her weekly radio show.

That isn’t feasible if you want to compete. Money in college sports and Name, Image and Likeness deals are here to stay. Syracuse needs to adapt.

Syracuse has already surpassed its ACC loss total from last season — five — with 11 games remaining. Angelina Grevi | Staff Photographer

Many major transfers last season often chose new schools based on lucrative NIL opportunities. Hailey Van Lith left LSU to join TCU and has NIL deals with Apple Cash, The Flying T Club and JLab, per On3. Guard Deja Kelly transferred from North Carolina to Oregon and has NIL deals with Raising Cane’s, Bazooka and Keurig.

Both players are in the top 10 for NIL valuations in women’s college basketball, according to On3, and joined teams — TCU and Oregon — that had much less success than the Orange last year, likely drawn by superior NIL packages. Other top teams, including USC, Notre Dame and UCLA, followed suit.

SU could’ve made a good case for many of the top transfers. There were copious high-caliber options. And the Orange got none of them.

Legette-Jack has emphasized she prioritizes character, academics and then basketball when assessing players to add, admitting it may be at the expense of wins.

Legette-Jack’s approach to assessing the person first is admirable, but she admitted Wednesday that SU has to take part in the “Pandora’s box that’s opened” in college sports with NIL. She stressed Syracuse is “as yolked” as the rest of the ACC and is ready to show it.

“We’re going to have to change our standards a little bit, but don’t lower them to the point that you lose your own scruples,” Legette-Jack said Monday. “… At the end of the day, that’s what I want to win.”

This offseason, if SU wants to replicate its 2023-24 success and move closer to Legette-Jack’s vision of contending for a national championship, strengthening its roster through the transfer portal will be critical. Legette-Jack agrees.

“We’re going to hit the transfer portal hard (this offseason),” she said Wednesday.

Failing to capitalize on last year’s momentum is a lesson Legette-Jack must learn from this season’s steep regression. She needs to rebuild the team’s reputation as a top-tier destination, leveraging her track record and vision for the program. If not, Syracuse risks fading back into mediocrity, with its 2023-24 season remembered as an unfulfilled promise rather than an indication of its true identity.

Nicholas Alumkal is an Assistant Sports Editor at The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at @njalumka@syr.edu or on X @nalumkal.

Published on January 23, 2025 at 12:21 am