L
aila Phelia couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
It was 2020, and Phelia was finally ready. She’d slept on the decision for one final night, but her mind was made up. The four-star recruit was going to ink her commitment to UCLA, joining a stacked roster that won 26 games the year before.
That was, until head coach Cori Close called her with some unexpected news: Phelia no longer had an offer. Someone had taken the Bruins’ final scholarship the day before. Some 5-foot-10 guard from a prep school in New Jersey, who Phelia had met at a camp in middle school. Her name was Dominique Darius.
Phelia was frustrated. Shocked. Regretful for not committing one day sooner. While Darius held her spot at UCLA, Phelia was forced to turn her allegiance to Michigan.
Perhaps if Phelia had made that call one day sooner, though, she might’ve never teamed up with Darius four years later at Syracuse. Last summer, they both hit the transfer portal, joining Sophie Burrows at SU to form one of the best backcourt trios in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The three guards — Syracuse’s team captains this year — have steadied the Orange all season, each averaging over 11 points per game. Their efforts have put SU in prime position for the NCAA Tournament. They’ll lean on their experience as the only three Syracuse players who’ve seen significant playing time in March Madness to guide the Orange this postseason.
“We all have that NCAA Tournament experience, but it’s from very different perspectives,” Burrows said. “I think that’s really important for leadership on a basketball team. We’re able to help different people on the team depending on what they need and their perspective.”
Indeed, each one of SU’s guards has seen March from a different view. That’s given them different values that’ll be key to its postseason run.
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Phelia — through her time at Michigan and Texas — carried the burden of being a star. She’s played over 200 minutes in March Madness since first suiting up with the Wolverines in 2021.
When she suited up for her first season with Michigan, Phelia instantly became the go-to guard on a budding No. 3 seed. The Wolverines turned to her almost every time they needed a bucket.
That’s why, in a 2022 Sweet 16 matchup against South Dakota, Phelia was fed the ball on the left wing in a tie game with 30 seconds remaining. She drove to the cup for a smooth right-handed layup, which was the game-winner that sent Michigan to its first Elite Eight in program history.
Phelia transferred to Texas in 2024 to be a starter on a legitimate title contender. Yet an eye injury stood between her and another potential breakout in March, forcing her to sit on the bench while the Longhorns made a run to the Final Four.
“Just being able to go out to Tampa and seeing how they treated us, and all the perks of being in the Final Four, it was definitely a dream come true,” Phelia said. “And that’s something I believe that we can do, (with) the depth and the talent we have.”
Burrows, meanwhile, took the role of a plug-and-play scorer for Syracuse in its 2024 run. Stepping in for an injured Alaina Rice in the Round of 32 against UConn, Burrows saw a then-career-high 39 minutes and dropped 18 points on six 3-pointers. While the Orange lost by eight, Burrows called it “one of the best experiences of (her) life.”
Just a freshman back then, Burrows said she’d never played in an environment like that one in Storrs, Connecticut. But she said she tends to focus best in intense atmospheres like those. Now that she has a taste of them, the Orange hope that rings true this postseason.
“Having been (to the NCAA Tournament) before and knowing what it takes to get there, I definitely want to be able to help my teammates get to that point,” Burrows said.
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Unlike Phelia and Burrows, Darius spent most of her time in March on the bench. She played for two legitimate title contenders over four years at UCLA and USC but never regularly saw the floor at either school.
Though she got minutes in the first few rounds of UCLA’s 2021 run, Darius remembers some of her biggest takeaways coming from observing the players she sat behind. At UCLA, Darius got tips from future WNBA players like Charisma Osborne, and she practiced against Naismith Player of the Year JuJu Watkins every day after transferring to USC.
“All those players that I was behind, I got to watch them, how they approached the game,” Darius said. “I just take little bits and pieces of what they did and apply it.”
By observing those stars, Darius said the most important thing she learned was to approach things day by day. At this time of year, the Orange can’t afford to get caught up in the moment or treat games bigger than they are, she said.
Similarly, Phelia said March is as much a mental challenge as it is physical. When the Orange may play back-to-back days in the ACC Tournament or every few days in the NCAA Tournament, they can’t get too high nor too low. For SU to be at its best, Phelia said it needs to “stay strong and stay together.”
“March Madness is unpredictable,” Darius said. “All you can do is put yourself in the right situations.”
That’s exactly what Syracuse has done this season. As the Orange gear up for their ACC Tournament opener Thursday, they’re a projected NCAA Tournament No. 9 seed in ESPN’s latest Bracketology. That means they should be a shoo-in for the Big Dance, regardless of how they perform in Georgia.
Getting there has been the captains’ goal from the outset. Before the season, head coach Felisha Legette-Jack said the expectation was for the Orange to be a national title contender. At that point, it seemed like a laughably unrealistic wish. Syracuse was fresh off a 12-18 season, and most of its new roster was unproven.
Legette-Jack hoped that bringing in Phelia and Darius who had previously been a stone’s throw away from the title game would help transform the mindset.
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Burrows admitted that when teams go to the transfer portal, they never really know the type of people they’ll end up with. But she feels that the Orange hit the jackpot.
Darius and Phelia, two fiery senior guards, instantly meshed with the more mellow junior Burrows. Having played in Legette-Jack’s system for two seasons, Burrows offered valuable perspective on how the fourth-year head coach wants it run. Darius and Phelia provided the veteran voices that reestablished Legette-Jack’s coveted culture of winning.
Five months later — alongside superstar freshman Uche Izoje — they’ve helped the Orange earn a favorable spot in the bracket. Now, it’s up to the three of them to prepare the youngsters, like Izoje, for what lies ahead.
And the best part? Darius and Phelia say there’s no outside pressure this time around. No expectation to be playing in the Final Four, like some teams they’ve been on in the past. The only expectation is the one they’ve set for themselves, Darius said.
That, of course, is still a hefty one. Legette-Jack’s preseason goal of contending for a title persists.
So, at 7:30 a.m. on Feb. 24, Legette-Jack and her entire staff met with her three team captains. Her message was clear. She thanked them for getting the Orange to this point, where they can smell the NCAA Tournament like a steaming pie on a windowsill.
But, Legette-Jack said, if they think that whiff of success is enough, they’d be gravely mistaken.
“We need more,” she told her captains. “We got to go higher.”
It’s uncertain just how high the Orange can fly. That’ll be determined in the next month, one that’s sure to have both hope and heartbreak. But Burrows, Darius and Phelia will be the wings that uplift Syracuse. They know what it takes to win in March. Now, it’s up to them to show it.
“We’ve been there before, so I think we all know what’s at stake,” Darius said. “But we also know, we just got to enjoy the moment.”
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Published on March 5, 2026 at 12:01 am