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Syracuse wanted to elevate this season. Elevate off a second-place finish in the Atlantic Coast Conference standings in 2023-24. Elevate off head coach Felisha Legette-Jack winning ACC Coach of the Year. Elevate off an NCAA Tournament second-round loss to UConn. The word percolated throughout the preseason discussions as the theme of the season but was something SU struggled with entering its road matchup against Boston College.

“Our expectation is to elevate on what we did last year,” guard and top returning scorer Georgia Woolley said at ACC Tipoff before the season started on Oct. 8. “Obviously, last year we got to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, so just to build on that and get further. Get better than we did last year.”

However, improving on last season’s performance wouldn’t be easy. Dyaisha Fair, who finished third on the NCAA’s career scoring list, graduated. Even SU’s success last year wasn’t sustainable. The Orange won six games they were predicted to lose in 2023-24, per HerHoopStats, and went 11-3 in games decided by single digits.

It all came crashing down Sunday in Chestnut Hill. Without Woolley, who was ruled out with an illness in warmup, Syracuse (7-11, 1-6 ACC) suffered its worst loss of Legette-Jack’s three-year tenure as head coach, getting marmalized 92-51 at Boston College (12-8, 3-4 ACC).

The lopsided defeat proved how far SU had fallen — not elevated — from the heights achieved last season. With Woolley not on the court, Fair graduated and last season’s third leading-scorer Alyssa Latham transferring to Tennessee, not a single player who led the Orange in scoring during a game last season was on the court in Chestnut Hill.

The Eagles, who entered the game sitting tied for 13th in the conference standings, ran ragged on Syracuse, which sat tied for 15th in the table. After finishing one game off first place in the conference last season, SU is in serious jeopardy of missing the ACC Tournament this campaign. Currently, it ranks 17th, outside the top 15 that qualify for the tournament.

“We’re not as good as we were last year, where we could manage two, three or four bad situations,” Legette-Jack said postgame Sunday.

Last season, in Legette-Jack’s second year coaching her alma mater, Syracuse announced itself to the nation. It started 11-1, punctuated by an 86-81 win over then-No. 13 Notre Dame at home on Dec. 31. The following day, the Orange were ranked for the first time since January 2021. They would remain ranked for the rest of the season.

It was an early sign that Legette-Jack had dug the program out of the scandal-filled hole created during the final years of Quentin Hillsman’s tenure. A new positive energy surrounded the Orange and permeated the JMA Wireless Dome.

After the win over Notre Dame, Legette-Jack took the public address microphone on the court and addressed the 2,755-person crowd. She called them Syracuse’s sixth player.

“This is an incredible team. Notre Dame is going to possibly be in the Final Four. But today, your Orange women, we just stepped up, because your energy was contagious,” she bellowed into the microphone. “If you keep proceeding with us, we’ll keep getting better. I promise you.”

Syracuse kept Legette-Jack’s promise. Despite a 24-point loss at North Carolina in its next game, SU went on a sixth-game winning streak, capped by another win over the Fighting Irish on Jan. 25, this time in South Bend and by a comfortable 14 points.

Along the way, Fair eclipsed the 3,000 career points mark, as SU produced furious comebacks to defeat Clemson by one point and then-No. 15 Florida State by six points. The Orange looked like the team to beat in the ACC.

Losses to two ranked teams followed — versus then-No. 19 Virginia Tech and at then-No. 16 Louisville — but Syracuse regathered itself and went on a five-game winning run. Avenging the loss to then-No. 15 Louisville with a one-point comeback home win was the high point of the stretch.

The Orange staggered to the finish line during the regular season. They lost two of their three final games — with the sole win being coming from a near-miraculous 22-4 fourth-quarter scoring advantage versus Pitt.

Then Syracuse dropped its first game at the ACC Tournament, a 78-65 wire-to-wire defeat to FSU. Though it staggered into the NCAA Tournament as a No. 6 seed — SU’s highest seeding since it was a No. 4 seed in 2015-16 — and was the betting underdog in its first-round matchup with Arizona, it again relied on Fair to carry them through.

Syracuse repeatedly leaned on the fifth-year senior to allow it to escape sticky situations. She led the team in scoring in 25 of the team’s 32 games, averaging 22.3 points per game, papering over its unsustainable play style.

In the aftermath of SU’s season-ending loss to No. 3 seed UConn in the NCAA Tournament Second Round, Legette-Jack said Woolley would step up to take Fair’s mantle.

But it wouldn’t be that easy. The Australian doesn’t have the point guard’s ball-handling prowess. She can’t create her own shots as easily. Though Woolley excels on defense and as a catch-and-shoot threat, it was unrealistic to think she could seamlessly replace a generational player like Fair.

This season has proven to be a huge regression, not elevation, for the Orange. Early losses against Saint Joseph’s and UAlbany proved it. Legette-Jack’s impassioned postgame press conference remarks calling out the fans and media demonstrated her early-season frustration.

Legette-Jack has reason to be frustrated. There have been growing pains for SU’s roster which features four freshmen and two sophomores. The Orange have tried and failed to find a sustainable point guard — starting three different players at the position. They haven’t found a starting lineup that’s worked — starting 11 different players, with Shy Hawkins getting her first start of the season Sunday in Chestnut Hill. They have faltered to start ACC play, and a trip to the ACC Tournament looks unlikely.

Elevating off last season was never going to happen. And, after a walloping at Boston College, Legette-Jack finally admitted it.

“We got to fight on,” she said postgame. “We’re just not there yet. This is a rebuild situation. I hate that word, but I think that’s where we are… We’ve never been in this situation, so we got to figure it all out.”

Published on January 19, 2025 at 2:05 pm

Contact Nicholas: njalumka@syr.edu | @nalumkal