Felisha Legette-Jack blasts Syracuse’s NCAAT return to UConn: ‘It’s wrong’
Felisha Legette-Jack has made March Madness twice at Syracuse, and faced UConn both times. After losing to the Huskies, she criticized the NCAA Tournament committee. Tara Deluca | Asst. Photo Editor
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STORRS, Conn. — After Syracuse’s season concluded Monday against UConn in the NCAA Tournament Second Round, SU head coach Felisha Legette-Jack lamented that the Orange were sent back to Storrs, Connecticut, for another March Madness matchup.
“After being in this business for 37 years, to have to come and be in this particular bracket every fricking year is unacceptable,” Legette-Jack said. “It’s wrong.”
Syracuse’s trip to Storrs marked its second to Gampel Pavilion for the NCAA Tournament in Legette-Jack’s tenure, and the fifth time the program has lost to the Huskies in the tournament, all of which have come in the last 10 years.
It certainly wasn’t how SU wanted to end a rather magical season. The Orange (24-9, 12-6 Atlantic Coast) let No. 1 UConn (36-0, 20-0 Big East) build a 25-point lead after the first quarter, which they never recovered from in their 98-45 defeat. The loss was Syracuse’s largest under Legette-Jack.
“For us to continue to come to Connecticut year after year after year is, to me, a personal attack,” SU’s fourth-year head coach said.
Leading up to Monday’s matchup, Legette-Jack joked she feels she’s always in Storrs or faces UConn in March Madness. She’s not wrong. The head coach has seen the Huskies in three of her last four NCAA Tournament appearances, including a 2019 bid while at Buffalo.
She’s expressed a lot of appreciation for UConn’s Geno Auriemma, who’s the winningest head coach in the sport, but feels Syracuse deserves an opportunity away from his Huskies.
UConn was ranked the No. 1 team in the nation every week this season, and its victory over the Orange on Monday extended its winning streak to 52 games, which dates back to Feb. 9, 2025. The win also gave the Huskies their 32nd consecutive Sweet 16 appearance.
“I just want the young people that’s in my locker room to have a fighting chance, and I am grateful to be in an NCAA Tournament from where we’ve come from,” Legette-Jack said. “But I think that we’ve earned the right to go anywhere outside of a four-hour radius.
“I think what you’re going to notice (is) that everybody that comes through Geno and UConn is going to get the wrath of what they can bring.”
Gampel has a seating capacity of 10,244, and the Huskies’ women’s team has recently set sales records, reporting more than 3 million dollars in ticket sales in recent seasons, per Sportico. It creates a hostile environment, intensifying what UConn already demands of its opponents.
Sophie Burrows, who was with Syracuse when it trekked to Storrs in 2024 for the first and second rounds, said she’d never played in an environment like Gampel before facing UConn then. She thrived in that environment, scoring 18 points on six 3-pointers. This time, though, Burrows struggled to give SU a boost, shooting 1-of-10 from the field and 0-of-4 from deep.
She even said Saturday that she’d never air balled as many times as she did against Iowa State. She said it’s an environment she enjoys, but she admitted Syracuse was “playing scared” in the first half Monday, which allowed UConn to go on a 31-0 run.
“I just think that we are way better than what we performed today,” Legette-Jack said.
“If you’re on the (selection) committee and you’ve been around for more than a year or two or five to 10, 15 years, you understand what that looks like,” she added.
The environment is only half the battle. UConn is the winningest program in NCAA women’s basketball history with 12 national titles and has produced some of the greatest players the sport has ever seen.
Legette-Jack joked that while she’d be happy to play under Auriemma, who often earns top recruits’ commitments, she finds “kids that are under the rock.”
“I can’t recruit against Geno or (South Carolina’s Dawn Staley),” she said. “Hell, I want to play for both of them. They’re that good.”
Legette-Jack made it clear she doesn’t want to bring shame to Syracuse by “crying about spilled milk,” but she argued it isn’t fair for her squad to have to face UConn as many times as it has.
“Geno has this thing going, and I love what he’s done,” Legette-Jack said. “But I thought (we) deserved a little more respect.”
