After Syracuse got demolished by UConn in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, 98-45, on Monday, Orange head coach Felisha Legette-Jack used her opening statement in the postgame press conference to send a message to the NCAA selection committee.
“For us to do what we’ve done, to continuously have to come to UConn … it’s unfair to the young people,” she said, later adding that it was “unacceptable,” “wrong” and a “personal attack.”
Legette-Jack became the Orange head coach in 2022. Her team has made the NCAA Tournament twice in the last four years; both times, it faced UConn in the second round. Syracuse, a No. 9 seed this year, took down Iowa State in the first round on Saturday. The Orange were crushed by the unbeaten reigning champs on Monday, however. UConn was up 65-12 at halftime before cruising to the 53-point win. Legette-Jack’s team kept it much closer in 2024, losing to UConn 72-64.
Prior to coming to Syracuse, Legette-Jack was the head coach at Buffalo, where she led her team to four NCAA Tournaments. In 2019, Buffalo was a No. 10 seed and had to face UConn in the second round, where it lost 84-72. Syracuse also drew UConn in the second round before Legette-Jack was at the helm, in 2021 and 2017.
In the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, the top four seeds host games on their campuses. It is not uncommon for the selection committee to make bracket-placement decisions based on geography, and Legette-Jack noted that she believed Syracuse has “earned the right to go anywhere outside of a four-hour radius.” She also mentioned that she would have been OK being a No. 10 seed instead of a No. 9 seed if it helped avoid this placement.
Per NCAA rules, “Any team that has to travel at least 400 miles during the opening weekend is eligible to take a flight chartered by the NCAA. That drops to 350 miles for the regional finals and the Final Four.” So, the NCAA saves money on travel if it is able to reasonably place teams in brackets closer to their campuses.
You can read the full transcript of Legette-Jack’s opening statement below:
I asked God to touch my heart and help me speak kindly about this opportunity, but also have a responsibility. And when I tell my players the need to ‘woman up,’ I think I have to do the same thing.
And for us to be coming from a [12-18 season] last year, OK, let’s judge it on this season.
For us to do what we’ve done, to continuously have to come to UConn, and every single school that I go to, from Buffalo to — it’s unfair to the young people.
I don’t know what it is. Somebody said, is there something that they might have against me? If that’s the case, then we need to communicate about that.
But for us to be — what we’ve done and our body of work, to have to come and play the best team in the country, I mean, Geno has this thing going, and I love what he’s done. But we, I thought, deserved a little more respect.
After being in this business for 37 years, and to have to come and be in this particular bracket every fricking year is unacceptable. It’s wrong. It’s — somebody — and if you’re on the 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.
I have been on those committees to see how it’s done, how you can put people on different lines. Put us on a 10 line, whatever. But for us to continue to come to Connecticut year after year after year is, to me, it’s a personal attack, because I just think that we are way better than what we performed today.
But I think what you’re going to notice, that everybody that comes through Geno and UConn is going to get the wrath of what they can bring.
I just know that this team right here had a strong chance of getting beyond this particular level, and I am hoping that I’m not disrespecting anyone. I’m hoping that I’m not bringing shame to Syracuse by crying spilled milk, but after a while — I’ve never said anything in this kind of light before.
A lot of people talk about rev share. 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, but I think that we’ve earned the right to go anywhere outside of a four-hour radius. That’s all I have.
Legette-Jack has been open about the challenge UConn presents since the draw came out.
“I gave a directive to my manager. She said she’s good at kidnapping people. I asked her to kidnap [UConn head coach Geno Auriemma] and [UConn forward Sarah Strong]. And I looked at her and I said, did you follow through with the directive I gave you? And she said, no. So they’re going to be there,” she joked in the press conference on Sunday, the day after Syracuse’s first-round win over Iowa State.
At the end of her press conference on Monday night, Legette-Jack made it clear how much she respects UConn’s program.
“Just before I go, I just want to say thank you, UConn, for growing women’s basketball to newfound heights every year. You just make it great,” Legette-Jack said. “And our hope is that we can grow our program so that we can be competitive enough so when they bring us back here next year, we’ll be more prepared. Thank you. God bless.”
