Syracuse WBB coach sees perpetual placement in UConn’s bracket as ‘personal attack’

Every year, 68 teams enter the NCAA women’s basketball tournament with the hopes of making it to the Final Four and perhaps even winning a national title.

That is, unless you end up in UConn’s bracket.

The UConn Huskies have been a women’s basketball juggernaut since the early 1990s as longtime head coach Geno Auriemma has led the team to 19 undefeated conference seasons, six perfect seasons, 24 Final Four appearances, and 12 national titles. They entered this season as the defending national champions and went 34-0 to enter the NCAA Tournament.

In other words, if you end up in their bracket, you’re probably not going very far, especially considering the top seeds host the opening-round subregionals. Few teams know this better than Syracuse. In five of their last seven tournament appearances, the Orange have met the Huskies in the second round (they also met UConn in the 2016 national title game). That includes this year’s tournament, where the 9-seed’s season ended with a 98-45 walloping on Monday.

Afterward, Syracuse coach Felisha Legette-Jack took the NCAA women’s basketball committee to task for continually putting her team in the UConn subregional in Storrs.

“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 [Syracuse], it’s unfair to the young people,” Legette-Jack said in her opening statement. “We, I thought, deserved a little more respect.”

“For us to continue to come to Connecticut, year after year after year, to me, is a personal attack.”

“After being in this business for 37 years and to have to come and be in this bracket every year is unacceptable. It’s wrong.”

Syracuse women’s basketball coach Felisha… pic.twitter.com/tLR9DKaBCC

— Ashley Wenskoski (@AshleyWenskTV) March 24, 2026

Legette-Jack was previously the coach of the Buffalo Bulls, who also lost to the Huskies in the 2019 second round of the tournament.

“After being in this business for 37 years, and to have to come and be in this particular bracket every freaking year is unacceptable. It’s wrong,” Legette-Jack said. “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.”

Unfortunately for Syracuse and most other northeastern women’s basketball programs, one of the NCAA committee’s seeding principles is that teams are placed “as close to home as possible to maximize fan accessibility,” per the NCAA website. That’s why, barring a strong run of their own, the Orange are always likely to end up in Storrs at some point in the postseason.

“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,” Legette-Jack said.

Legette-Jack added that she’s not trying to be disrespectful to UConn, but rather would like to see a more even opportunity for schools like Syracuse, which finished 24-9 this season, to advance in the tournament.

“I just know that this team right here had a strong chance of getting beyond this particular level,” Legette-Jack said. “I am hoping that I’m not disrespecting anyone. I’m hoping that I’m not bringing shame to Syracuse by crying spilled milk. I’ve never said anything in this kind of light before.”