Syracuse coach Felisha Legette-Jack calls NCAA continuing to put Orange in UConn's region a 'personal attack'

Syracuse women’s basketball coach Felisha Legette-Jack ranted against the Orange continuing to end up in the UConn every year in the NCAA Tournament. The rant came after UConn defeated Syracuse 98-45 in the Second Round, a No. 1 vs. 9 matchup.

“And for us to be coming from a 12 and 16, 18, whatever, season this year, okay, let’s judge it on this season,” Legette-Jack said. “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 (Auriemma) has this thing going, and I love what he’s done. But we, I thought, deserved a little more respect.”

With the loss, Syracuse finished 24-9 while UConn improved to 36-0 en route to the Sweet 16. Legette-Jack at least wanted transparency on how her team ends up in the same Region as the Huskies regularly.

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

Legette-Jack may have a point about her team’s skill and potential to go further if it avoided UConn in the second round. But make no mistake, Syracuse trailed 65-12 at halftime and was flat-out beaten in every single category.

“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,” Legette-Jack said. “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 refs. 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.”