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GREENSBORO, N.C. — Syracuse women’s basketball’s uninspiring 2024-25 campaign, which likely ended Wednesday by surrendering the third-largest second-half comeback in ACC Tournament history against Boston College, didn’t come out of the blue. SU was primed for a down year from the start.

Its inactivity in the transfer portal and lack of an alpha scorer without Dyaisha Fair — who finished her career top-three all-time in points (3,403) — made Syracuse’s end result easy to pinpoint. It’s far from where the Orange were a year ago when they were undoubtedly among the best teams in the country.

But after SU fell to No. 3 seed UConn in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, it faced significant roster turnover. Fair and many other key offensive pieces departed. So, Syracuse entered the 2024-25 campaign with a completely different squad. And it ended miserably.

Syracuse’s breakdown against BC Wednesday perfectly concluded its up-and-down season. It’d already needed to rip off two wins over subpar teams to even make the ACC Tournament. And playing a team it’d just destroyed three days before, SU was all out of sorts in the second half en route to its loss.

“If I had to give myself a grade, I’d say a C,” SU head coach Felisha Legette-Jack said of her own coaching performance on Feb. 26. “This is the first year that I think that sometimes I give my best speeches and I say, ‘I don’t even know if anybody was listening.’”

Last season, the Orange largely ran their offense through Fair. She averaged a team-leading 22.2 points per game and shot 37.7% from 3. The senior came up big in crunch time, propelling Syracuse to several double-digit comebacks — namely its wins over Clemson and Louisville.

When Fair graduated, there was no immediate No. 1 option to replace her. No player on last year’s team finished within eight points of her scoring average. Legette-Jack heralded Georgia Woolley as SU’s next leader after its loss to UConn.

Georgia Woolley drives past Boston College’s JaKayla Thompson in Syracuse’s ACC Tournament first round loss to the Eagles. Woolley was supposed to take Dyaisha Fair’s mantle this season, but no one else stepped up to aid her. Courtesy of the Atlantic Coast Conference

It was an obvious choice, as she finished second on the team in scoring. But Woolley doesn’t have Fair’s same scoring prowess. With Woolley as SU’s best scoring threat, there was reason for concern. Syracuse needed someone to compliment her if it wanted to win.

It didn’t.

Despite having momentum coming off last season, Legette-Jack didn’t use it to gain leverage in the portal, only snagging Angelica Velez and Journey Thompson. Velez was a four-star recruit at LSU but played just 4.9 minutes as a freshman. Thompson saw more playing time with Arizona State but produced a career-high 5.5 last season.

Still, a few weeks ago, Legette-Jack said the team was one of the best she’d ever coached. That didn’t show on the court.

“This is a more talented team than we’ve had in a long time,” Legette-Jack said on Feb. 26. “They didn’t perform that way this whole season. It was always something, an injury here, a concussion there, that definitely took place.”

Along with missing a top-scoring threat, a true point guard was nowhere to be found this season. Fair assumed that role for the last two years. While Dominique Camp and even Woolley excelled as facilitators this season, there were no impressive scoring options on paper, with Velez and freshman Olivia Schmitt not providing much as backups.

Meanwhile, Syracuse did nothing to improve its defense. It lost Alyssa Latham to the portal, who produced a team-leading 1.3 blocks and snatched 1.2 steals. The Orange surrendered a middling 65.7 points per game last year, and Latham’s loss didn’t help.

So, with a poorly constructed roster and many of its top players from last year gone, SU entered the season in a tough spot. It was clear from the get-go this season would be a long one.

Syracuse head coach Felisha Legette-Jack yells out advice to her players versus BC. Last year’s ACC Coach of the Year didn’t capitalize on SU’s momentum, leading to an underwhelming season. Courtesy of the Atlantic Coast Conference

Before the campaign, Syracuse hadn’t dropped a nonconference home game since 2019. It racked up three in its five-game opening homestand — including defeats to Saint Joseph’s and UAlbany, teams it would’ve handily beaten a year ago.

SU finished nonconference play 6-5. And nothing changed once conference games rolled around. To her credit, Legette-Jack constantly tried switching things up. She constructed 10 different starting lineups, the most by a Power Five team. Twelve of her 13 players started a game. There were contests when she employed a six-player rotation, like against Virginia, and ones where everyone played, like versus then-No. 11 Duke.

But with a poor roster, no variation of who’s on the floor would’ve led to long-term success. It led the Orange to a 6-12 conference record, suffering embarrassing blowouts to Duke, BC and then-No. 10 Notre Dame. Even when they were in control — like on Wednesday — they were plagued by second-half collapses.

“I think a lot of games didn’t go our way that should have went our way,” senior forward Kyra Wood said after SU’s season-ending loss to BC. “We thought it was in our control.”

That’s why a quick flameout in the ACC Tournament wasn’t a surprise. Syracuse didn’t come in with the talent to contend with top teams. And it lacked a clutch factor to produce dazzling comebacks and hold onto leads.

It was a tall task to meet or exceed last year’s success. But SU didn’t even give itself a chance.

“It was just an interesting year, and I’ve gotta look back and first check me and figure me out,” Legette-Jack said. “And then we have to bring in some more people.”

Noah Nussbaum is an Assistant Sports Editor at The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at njnussba@syr.edu or on X @Noahnuss99.

Published on March 5, 2025 at 8:25 pm