SU at Notre Dame (62-72): Thurs Feb 26, 7 PM | Page 5 | Syracusefan.com

SU at Notre Dame (62-72): Thurs Feb 26, 7 PM

It is so hard following our teams. We seem to be so good, until we are not. Fooled me again this season. Sorry to be so bitter, but I put my heart into our team, watch every game, and just keep getting disappointed
 
are we in danger of missing the NCAAs now? I'm guessing with tiebreakers we are 8th or 9th now in the ACC.
 
I have watched every game this year and my feelings are : We are a good basketball team, but not elite. In the ACC, we are at the top...of the middle of the pack...just outside of the elite in the conference. I think it is very clear that we only have 4 scoring threats and we need all 4 to be scoring at their best to beat an elite team. We seem to have enough offense to beat average to poor teams, but to beat the elites, you need to be able to do one of two things: (1) Play good enough defense to shut down elite offenses or (2) Have enough offensive firepower to keep pace with high scoring teams. So far, we have not managed to do either against really good teams. We should get into the NCAA's, but with a low seed and we can beat some teams not familiar with our style of play... but we need another scoring threat to emerge if we expect to make a run in March.
 
Lose the game and sounds like as fans are losing support on the team. We are tied with 5 teams for 5th in the league. ND vs Lville, VA vs VaTech, Clemson vs Stanford and we have BC. We could still claim 5th.

Be realistic with expectations, only 1 starter returned, staff had to piece together squad 4 transfers 4 Freshmen. 9 more wins this year, winning record in the ACC. I think that's a pretty good season.

Yes, we are still not ready for top of the league but you have to start building blocks for success. We have made some missteps in recruiting, lack NIL compared to others. Need to win to build depth.
 
CoopSwoop said:
Lose the game and sounds like as fans are losing support on the team. We are tied with 5 teams for 5th in the league. ND vs Lville, VA vs VaTech, Clemson vs Stanford and we have BC. We could still claim 5th.

Be realistic with expectations, only 1 starter returned, staff had to piece together squad 4 transfers 4 Freshmen. 9 more wins this year, winning record in the ACC. I think that's a pretty good season.

Yes, we are still not ready for top of the league but you have to start building blocks for success. We have made some missteps in recruiting, lack NIL compared to others. Need to win to build depth.
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Hoping Dominique will recover quickly. I agree this has been a very good season. We were predicted to finish 13th out of 18 teams in the preseason by the experts. We certainly have beaten that prediction. Not one SU player was mentioned for the preseason All ACC team nor the preseason ACC All freshman team. Uche Izoje is a shoo in for the ACC All freshman team and a very strong candidate for ACC Freshman of the Year. Sure seems Coach Jack and the team is creating a continuing building block for a strong program consistently on the rise. This is the 3rd of Coach Jack’s 4 years at Syracuse that we have had at least a 20 win season and a great overall record of 77-47 and she’s aiming much higher. LGO!

Predicted ACC 2025-2026 Preseason Order of Finish (70 voters)
  1. Duke (40), 1525
  2. NC State (25), 1487
  3. North Carolina (1), 1374
  4. Louisville (2), 1276
  5. Notre Dame (2), 1255
  6. Stanford, 1041
  7. Virginia, 987
  8. Miami, 889
  9. Florida State, 857
  10. Virginia Tech, 813
  11. Clemson, 738
  12. California, 669
  13. Syracuse, 540
  14. SMU, 483
  15. Georgia Tech, 447
  16. Pitt, 299
  17. Boston College, 211
  18. Wake Forest, 157
LGO!
 
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This team tries hard and is a decent defensive team. They are a lousy offensive team and don’t value the ball. They turn the ball over constantly. They consistently can’t make passes to the post. Some of their passing angles to the post are worse than hs kids. They are horrible finishing quarters. Their clock management is ignored at times. Case in point at the end of the first quarter last night. Their biggest strength is their rebounding, especially on the offensive boards. They certainly get enough chances because they can’t shoot. They have consistency gotten beat by anyone with a pulse and beat the dreads of the conference. Decent wins over Virginia and Clemson, but who else have they beat? Against good teams they can’t score and they can’t stop anyone. They’re usually out of it in the first quarter and creep back in when the other team lets up. It’s every game. They have about four players on this team and that’s about it. I’ve enjoyed watching them because they try to compete, but it’s the same thing every game.
 
We're good enough to beat the teams we should beat, which is much better than last season. But we haven't quite been able to match up vs peer teams or better (basically other teams in NCAA contention). Making the tournament is beyond my preseason expectations so that's great. But I'd be surprised if we won in the first round.
 
Dinkyspond said:
are we in danger of missing the NCAAs now? I'm guessing with tiebreakers we are 8th or 9th now in the ACC.
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NET ranking is 39. Probably right around a 9 or 10 seed.

We are tied for 5th place with 4 other teams. Barring a monumental loss to BC, I believe the worst we can finish is 8th since UVa and VT play this weekend. We win tie-breakers against Clemson and UVa. Lose them vs. ND and VT. Highest seed (I believe) we can get is 6th.
 
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hoopsupstate said:
This team tries hard and is a decent defensive team. They are a lousy offensive team and don’t value the ball. They turn the ball over constantly. They consistently can’t make passes to the post. Some of their passing angles to the post are worse than hs kids. They are horrible finishing quarters. Their clock management is ignored at times. Case in point at the end of the first quarter last night. Their biggest strength is their rebounding, especially on the offensive boards. They certainly get enough chances because they can’t shoot. They have consistency gotten beat by anyone with a pulse and beat the dreads of the conference. Decent wins over Virginia and Clemson, but who else have they beat? Against good teams they can’t score and they can’t stop anyone. They’re usually out of it in the first quarter and creep back in when the other team lets up. It’s every game. They have about four players on this team and that’s about it. I’ve enjoyed watching them because they try to compete, but it’s the same thing every game.
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We’re actually missing a pure point guard. Dominique isn’t really a point guard, at the beginning of the season Coach Jack tried Sophie to bring up the ball but she too isn’t a point guard. Olivia and Angela aren’t real playmakers but the only players who have a decent positive assist to turnover ratio. The team sadly has more turnovers than assists for the year.

Three point shooting is another weakness. Only Laila Phelia and Madeline Potts have over a .333 % from 3 on the team. We’ve really missed Sophie’s 3 point shooting this year and as we’ve discussed Maddy doesn’t get much playing time for some reason. Losing Laila will make acquiring 3 point shooters even more crucial next year. Dominique is a much better 2 point shooter (.441) than a 3 point shooter .296. She gets fouled the most on the team though from her drives to the basket and is an excellent free throw shooter (84%). She needs to reduce her reliance on 3 point shots or improve her 3 point shooting to increase her efficiency, if we’re fortunate to get her back next year. #1 priority is keeping Uche and watching her develop and that we improve our passing to her.

I disagree with your absolute negativity regarding their wins being the dregs - Miami, Virginia and Clemson. If you look at preseason rankings SU also beat Stanford and Florida St who were ranked higher than them. They lost to UNC in overtime away at UNC and their wins against Miami and Virginia were both away also increasing their net. It doesn’t mean that I’m not disappointed with the NC State and Notre Dame losses. 21 wins isn’t anything to mock or take for granted. LGO!
 
CoopSwoop said:
Lose the game and sounds like as fans are losing support on the team. We are tied with 5 teams for 5th in the league. ND vs Lville, VA vs VaTech, Clemson vs Stanford and we have BC. We could still claim 5th.

Be realistic with expectations, only 1 starter returned, staff had to piece together squad 4 transfers 4 Freshmen. 9 more wins this year, winning record in the ACC. I think that's a pretty good season.

Yes, we are still not ready for top of the league but you have to start building blocks for success. We have made some missteps in recruiting, lack NIL compared to others. Need to win to build depth.
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CoopSwoop: I agree with everything you have said. I will always support the team. They have had a good season, a huge improvement over last season...but look closely at this team: Coach Jack got extremely "Lucky" getting Uche!! Don't know how she discovered her, but take her away from this team and we are not middle of the pack. She is the difference in this Team's success. Dom and Phelia have been great additions, but each is only a one year addition. Look to next year: We are again in trouble because of how poor our high school recruiting has been and I don't see where it has improved for next season with one unranked recruit. Clemson, has a top 10 recruiting class coming in and all the teams we are trying to catch in the ACC are killing it on the recruiting stage...Look at Stanford! This team is missing quality, athletic wing type players with some scoring punch. All the top teams in the conference have them but us. Uche and Sophie are great building blocks for next season, but we are going to have to pull several "Rabbits out of the hat" so to speak, in the Transfer Portal, to move up in the ACC. Again, I don't know how we found Uche, but we need to repeat that process and find a couple more like her if we expect to rise in the ACC...
 
hoopsupstate said:
This team tries hard and is a decent defensive team. They are a lousy offensive team and don’t value the ball. They turn the ball over constantly. They consistently can’t make passes to the post. Some of their passing angles to the post are worse than hs kids. They are horrible finishing quarters. Their clock management is ignored at times. Case in point at the end of the first quarter last night. Their biggest strength is their rebounding, especially on the offensive boards. They certainly get enough chances because they can’t shoot. They have consistency gotten beat by anyone with a pulse and beat the dreads of the conference. Decent wins over Virginia and Clemson, but who else have they beat? Against good teams they can’t score and they can’t stop anyone. They’re usually out of it in the first quarter and creep back in when the other team lets up. It’s every game. They have about four players on this team and that’s about it. I’ve enjoyed watching them because they try to compete, but it’s the same thing every game.
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This team plays hard! Coach Jack has instilled that into them, which is a great attribute. The problem that they have against elite teams...is their lack of scoring punch. We only have 4 scoring options...that's it and all of them need to be on their best game for us to beat a really good team. Turnovers, I agree, is also a huge problem! Poor High School recruiting has put us in this position and unless it get's better, we will struggle to move up against the likes of recruiting wizards like: Duke, North Carolina, Stanford, NC State, Louisville, and now Clemson!!
 
MSOrange said:
We're good enough to beat the teams we should beat, which is much better than last season. But we haven't quite been able to match up vs peer teams or better (basically other teams in NCAA contention). Making the tournament is beyond my preseason expectations so that's great. But I'd be surprised if we won in the first round.
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We are a perfect example of women's basketball and it's woes. We beat teams we should. Lose to teams who are good but not good enough to challenge the elites. Elites toy with us. The sport needs the discrepancy between teams to shrink.
 
if they had a brittney sykes type of a scorer this team would thrive. They try to force the ball into Uche way too much and the unforced turnovers are killing this team right now.
 
Women’s basketball is the top 5-6 teams and everyone else. There’s very few teams that are actually capable of winning the national championship. I will take UCONN over the field. It won’t be even close.
 
Marsh01 said:
if they had a brittney sykes type of a scorer this team would thrive. They try to force the ball into Uche way too much and the unforced turnovers are killing this team right now.
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It is not that they force the ball inside to Uche too MUCH!!! They did to actually give it too her more, but the problem is their entry pass angles are poor and they don't give it to her when they have the right angle. She is our best scoring option and this should open up our outside shooters more...but since we are shooting so poorly from outside as a team, defenses can sag and give help on Uche, and leave outside shooters with some space to shoot and we are not able to make them pay!!! Potts needs to play more and take more shots... and Uche needs to take more than 9 shots in a game.
 
hoopsupstate said:
Women’s basketball is the top 5-6 teams and everyone else. There’s very few teams that are actually capable of winning the national championship. I will take UCONN over the field. It won’t be even close.
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It intrigues me when highly ranked players go to these elite programs just to sit and not play or transfer there after being a highly valued player (maybe not NIL wise) who had started, played big minutes to transfer to an elite program to sit. (Maybe higher NIL). They exchanged being a huge factor in the story of their prior school and being a crucial player for them to just being considered a bench factor if other more valued players either get hurt, leave themselves or just giving a starter a blow.
 
hoopsupstate said:
Women’s basketball is the top 5-6 teams and everyone else. There’s very few teams that are actually capable of winning the national championship. I will take UCONN over the field. It won’t be even close.
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Agree. Parity is a huge issue. UConn is strong every year obviously, but they are really a level above everyone else this year that it's pretty much inevitable. Maybe UCLA might have a chance if everything goes their way?
 

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