After resurgent regular season, Legette-Jack has the tools to thrive in March
As Syracuse’s regular season concluded Sunday with a win over Boston College, Felisha Legette-Jack’s confident in the road ahead. Ave Magee | Photo Editor
Student Press Freedom Day is a reminder of the vital role student journalists play in holding institutions accountable. The money raised between now and March 6 will go directly toward supporting our independent newsroom. Donate today.
Felisha Legette-Jack felt something was off. She couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was, but she felt a new weakness.
She was a year removed from brain surgery. After the procedure, she said she didn’t take any time off. She thought of herself as a superhero, earning the 2024 Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year award while leading Syracuse to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
But sometimes superheroes run into supervillains. Legette-Jack met hers on March 5, 2025, in the First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina. It wasn’t one person. Instead, it was a Boston College squad that trailed the Orange by 19 points in the ACC Tournament First Round.
Legette-Jack hadn’t coached as she’d hoped across that season. SU was 12-18 and was miles from filling the gap Dyaisha Fair left behind. But in this particular moment against BC, Legette-Jack felt a spark.
Then, she said a higher power stepped in.
“This is what I need to figure out,” Legette-Jack recalled thinking. “If this isn’t what I need to be doing, God needs to show that to me this season.”
Legette-Jack contemplated what would come next. She brought in Natasha Adair, Caleb Samson and Mykala Walker to fill her staff. Then, Uche Izoje, a Nigerian standout, Dominique Darius, a USC transfer, and Laila Phelia, one of the best players in the Big Ten years prior, said “yes.”
“(God) said it’s coming soon,” Legette-Jack said. “Had they not come into our lives, we might be making different decisions right now.”
Nine months later, SU is on the heels of a 22-win campaign and is the No. 7 seed in the ACC Tournament. The only thing standing between it and Duluth, Georgia, where the tournament is being held, was that same BC squad.
This time, though, nothing was off. Syracuse (22-7, 12-6 ACC) controlled the Eagles (5-26, 1-17 ACC) from start to finish to end their season, just as they’d ended SU’s in 2025.
“I’m so proud of us,” Legette-Jack said. “I’m so ready for us to emerge into something bigger than just right now.”
Don’t get it twisted, this wasn’t the climax of a revenge arc. Syracuse and Boston College were nearly equals when they matched up on that day in North Carolina. Now, SU is streets ahead of the Eagles, who suffered their most losses in program history this season.
But it’s less about Boston College’s horrific campaign and more about how Legette-Jack went from uncertainty to stability.
Many things were missing from last year’s squad. Legette-Jack said she never spoke with any of those players about basketball outside of practice or a game. They didn’t come crawling to her with questions as she’d hoped.
But players like Phelia and Darius surely would. And they needed a lifeline. They both had the potential — as displayed by their 13-plus point per game averages this year — but experienced injuries and limited playing time.
Legette-Jack needed them just as much as they needed her. She recognized they could be the ones to return Syracuse to the glory she attained two years ago. But they weren’t just handed their roles.
Darius pestered Legette-Jack with questions, showing enough to be named a team captain and, even after sparse playing time at UCLA and USC, did enough in the preseason to crack the starting lineup.
Although in a different spot, Legette-Jack said Phelia came in and similarly asked what needed to happen for SU to succeed. She’s asked Legette-Jack so many questions that the fourth-year head coach joked she doesn’t even like to talk that much.
“We got lucky to get them,” Legette-Jack started, “and then they decided they wanted to let them go and be free and become.”
Legette-Jack’s said time and time again that they, alongside other key pieces, can lead SU back to March. But she doesn’t want to settle for the first round. She wants to be one of the last teams standing, and she believes this is the squad that can do it.
As Phelia and Darius sat beside Legette-Jack, Journey Thompson and Oyindamola Akinbolawa postgame Sunday, only Thompson could attest to how much change SU’s gone through. She was the only one around last season and said the squad this year is indescribable.
“It’s just a different feeling of understanding between us,” Thompson said. “Our drive and our work ethic is a lot higher than it was last year.”
Though the Orange downed Boston College by 25 points, tears were shed in Syracuse’s locker room postgame Sunday. Players tried to stay positive, but as the regular season draws to a close, everyone knows the end is near.
But Thompson said they’re far from done. With the new squad Legette-Jack has strung together and the stability she now feels, she’s the superhero yet again. This time, though, she’s prepared to fight any supervillain that comes her way.
“This team is built to be a part of the 64 that pursue championships,” Legette-Jack said.
“This particular group has proven they were different every single day.”
