After the Syracuse Orange season ended on Monday night, head coach Felisha Legette-Jack used the post-game press conference to air her frustrations with the NCAA selection process- specifically sending her Orange to face the UConn Huskies time and time again.
Now you can argue whether or not this was the time and the place to make the statement- especially after the Orange weren’t competitive against the Huskies. What is hard to argue is the history of the NCAA selection committee sending Syracuse on a bus to Storrs, which just so happens to save the NCAA some money in travel expenses.
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Four of the last six Syracuse appearances have seen the Orange placed in the Storrs sub-regional.
2026 9 Seeds and sub-region host
Syracuse-UConn
Princeton-UCLA
USC-South Carolina
Virginia Tech-Texas
20024: 6 Seeds and sub-region host
Syracuse-UConn
Nebraska-Oregon State
Louisville-LSU
Tennessee-NC State
2021 8 Seeds and sub-region host
Syracuse-UConn
Oklahoma State-Stanford
South Florida-NC State
Oregon State-South Carolina
2017 8 Seeds and sub-region host
Syracuse-UConn
Green Bay-Notre Dame
Arizona State- South Carolina
LSU-Baylor
Since the two schools met for the 2016 Nationa Title, the two times that Syracuse wasn’t plsaced in UConn’s sub-regional were in 2018 when the 8 seed Orange went to the sub-regional hosted by Mississippi State and 2019 when the 3 seed Syracuse squad hosted the first two rounds in the Dome.
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This isn’t the say that Syracuse would have had better opportunities to advance if they faced another school, but it’s also lazy (and cheap) scheduling. Princeton could have bused to Storrs and sent the Orange out to UCLA.
If the committee wanted to create a possible match-up between FLJ and Dawn Staley, Syracuse could have gone to South Carolina.
The timing might have been wrong, but the message was correct. It’s time for the NCAA to do a better job of matching up teams who have earned their spot in the NCAA Tournament.
