Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="Rooster C., post: 5330674, member: 10168"] Syracuse was ranked at around #40 preseason and ended it unranked. It was an up and down season for them as they finished at 12 - 18 overall and 6 - 12 in the ACC. Over her 3 years at Syracuse coach Felisha Legette-Jack has a win pct. of .589 with a .519 win pct in conference. This last year was her worst and the first with less than 20 wins and with a losing record. So let's take a look at how they stack up for the coming season. What was lost : All of the starters save one. Gone is #1 scorer G. Woolley (6'0" G 16.0ppg) and K. Wood (6'3" F 11.6ppg) the #3 scorer to graduation. Also gone are D. Camp (5'8" G 4.3ppg), S. Wilson (6'0" F 4.5ppg), and L. McNabb (5'7" G) also to graduation. The other big loss after Woolley and Wood was I. Verajao (6'4" C 6.8ppg) from Brazil who has also moved on. What remains : Some good news here as most of the reserves saw a fair amount of time on the court a year ago. This includes S. Hawkins (So. 6'2" W 4.2ppg), J. Thompson (Sr. 6'3" F 3.3ppg), O. Schmitt (So. 5'5" G 1.7ppg), and A. Velez (Jr. 5'7" G 2.6ppg). Also back are reserves M. Potts (So. 6'0" G 3.0ppg) and K. Scott (So. 6'1" F 4.8ppg). So if nothing else they'll have a pretty deep bench. Incoming transfers: Shockingly this was one of the few teams without any out going transfers. Biggest amongst the new faces will be L. Phelia (Gr. 6'0" G 6.1ppg) out of Texas. O. Akinbolawa (Sr. 6'5" C 3.4ppg) from Auburn, D. Darius (Gr. 5'10" G 2.5ppg) from USC, and A. Almon (So. 6'4" F 1.3 ppg) from ACC Miami arrive as well. Incoming Freshmen : 4 players make up this years' class. #60 J. Cooper (6'1" W), C. Nelson (5'8" G), J. Fitzgerald (6'1" F) and I. Uche (6'3" C). This year will be a challenge no doubt. The loss of a special player like Dyaisha Fair was clearly felt. Syracuse began the conference season going 1 - 7 over their first 8 games and that was with many experienced starters. This coming year won't be any easier other than maybe BC and GT. The back court has returning starter Burrows and her 39.6% from three. Joining her will definitely be Phelia and probably reserve Hawkins. After that it will be a lot of players getting minutes between returning reserves Schmitt, Velez, Scott, and Potts as well as newcomer Darius and freshman Cooper. The front court will consist of reserve Thompson backed up by incoming transfers Akinbolawa and Almon. I don't expect the other 3 freshmen to see much playing time. This will be another difficult season upcoming for Syracuse. They do have their 2nd leading scorer back and I expect Legette-Jack will give Phelia the green light so we should see a return to the kind of numbers she put up during her time at Michigan and perhaps better. That was nearly 17 ppg. Having said that Woolley was putting up 16ppg so not as significant as it seems. It was not surprising they lost to MD at home last year but they were competitive. But losing by 14 at home to St. Joseph's and 3 at home to U. Albany were not good losses. Those are decent teams but at home you have to win those if you're going anywhere at the end of the season. They lost to Creighton by 27 (neutral court) and to a mediocre Texas A&M on the road. They lost to SMU at home and were destroyed at BC by 41 pts! To finish the year they lost in the 1st round of the ACC tournament to BC. There are problems here beyond the loss (or addition of) a single great player. Better recruiting would be a good starting point. They don't lose too much next year so there's a solid core to build upon IF she can get some good recruits in the 2026 class. Of course that's assuming the rest stay put after this season ends. I look for Syracuse to be in the bottom portion of the conference probably around 12th at best and more likely below that. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach