2025- 2026 Women's Hoop Team Looks Good

[Dr. Bill]

With a record of 12-2 and 2-1 in the ACC, our team is looking good. Having seen all of the games this year, these are my concerns moving forward:

Likes:
1. Team Defense, especially from our guards, is much improved. This will serve us well moving forward.
2. Rebounding has been outstanding, especially the Offensive Rebounding.
3. Overall Team Depth is much better than last year, but not equal to the elite ACC Teams.
4. Energy: This team plays hard ..

Concerns:
1. Offense: Our 3 point shooting is at or near the bottom of the ACC. Our lack of consistent outside shooting will hurt us.
2. Offense: Lack of ball movement and our half court offense is stagnant. We are much better scoring in transition.
3. Turnovers!!!!! Last game against Florida State, we won with 20 turnovers. You can't beat quality teams turning the ball over as much as we do.
4. Recruiting: We signed only one HS player for 2026 ! WE have missed on a bunch of top 50 players right from NY State. Recruiting has to improve if we want to compete with the top ACC schools .

Likes:
1 Uche Izojeuche!!!! Should be ACC Rookie of the year and Defensive Player of the Year. The last Orange Player to do that: Kamilla Cardosa
2. Dominique Darius: Wasn't that impressed with her career at USC and UCLA, but she has been really, really good for SU. A great leader and plays hard every night.

Overall, this team is playing exciting basketball this year and they need our support at the games and with our checkbooks!!

 

[Cheriehoop]

Uche is averaging just under 23 minutes a game mainly because fouls have limited her play. We need her on the court to be effective against ACC opponents. In the Duke game she fouled out after only 18 minutes on the court and just 4 rebounds.. Aurora Almon did an excellent job vs FSU on the boards especially offensive rebounds with 6 of her 8 rebounds on the offensive boards ending up with her scoring 6 points with put back baskets. Hoping she continues to be a positive force especially if Uche continues to get in foul trouble.

We need someone, preferably more than one shooter, to break out and be a long range threat shooter. It will help prevent defenses from sagging inside while opening up our offense more.

Turnovers have to improve along with our free throw %. (Currently .677) We need to value the ball more and keep the intensity on defense more consistent throughout the game. After a great start against FSU in the first quarter winning by 12 points, we allowed FSU to score 2 more points than we did over the last 3 quarters.

So much fun watching this team and love Uche’s jumping ability and great hands. Hope the team continues to have fun playing hard with their teammates and sharing the ball. LGO!

 

[Biggerbrat]

I'm an ACC fan and lifelong Syracuse fan. Watching the rankings this year, just like last year, Syracuse and the ACC are underrated with, once again, the exception of Notre Dame women. By tomorrow night (1/19/26) the Notre Dame record should be 12--6 when their game with UConn is over. Except for 1 pretty good player I don't see how Notre Dame gets ranked 23 in the top 25. Lot's of people question every year how rankings are done but HEY, I'm OK with underratting the ACC because March Madness will have opposing conferences thinking they can easily kick ACC butt except for ND if they even make March Madness. I just hope great ACC teams don't get left out of making it to March Madness because of poor ranking like we've seen with number 23 ND.

 

[PeteCalvin]

I'm an ACC fan and lifelong Syracuse fan. Watching the rankings this year, just like last year, Syracuse and the ACC are underrated with, once again, the exception of Notre Dame women. By tomorrow night (1/19/26) the Notre Dame record should be 12--6 when their game with UConn is over. Except for 1 pretty good player I don't see how Notre Dame gets ranked 23 in the top 25. Lot's of people question every year how rankings are done but HEY, I'm OK with underratting the ACC because March Madness will have opposing conferences thinking they can easily kick ACC butt except for ND if they even make March Madness. I just hope great ACC teams don't get left out of making it to March Madness because of poor ranking like we've seen with number 23 ND.

The women’s game has the same problem as the men’s in that the preseason polls skew the rankings for a good part of the season. Syracuse would have to win two or three more to get into the top 25, and would only have to lose one to tumble out of the discussion. ND definitely gets the benefit of the doubt because of previous accomplishments.