FELISHA’S PHILOSOPHY: Felisha Legette-Jack’s return to Syracuse sparked a program turnaround
P
regame speeches are a given with Felisha Legette-Jack. But the tone, motivation and content all vary.
When then-No. 22 Syracuse traveled to South Bend, Indiana, to face then-No. 15 Notre Dame, Legette-Jack pulled at the team’s heartstrings by talking about their mothers. She went player by player, detailing the sacrifices their mothers have made. Legette-Jack knew each player’s background and used it to push her team. She told them their work on the court would make the sacrifices worth it.
“Before the game, every time she puts it in our minds that it’s not about us…Whatever is going on in your life, just get behind your sister and play for somebody bigger than yourselves,” said SU forward Kyra Wood.
Syracuse walked out of Notre Dame with a 79-65 win, the Orange’s first-ever road victory over the Fighting Irish. Legette-Jack’s speech served as a microcosm of her impact on SU.
In her second year as Syracuse’s head coach, Legette-Jack has turned the program around. Hired in March 2022, Legette-Jack took over a program in turmoil. Still recovering from the Quentin Hillsman saga and the ensuing 11-win season under interim coach Vonn Read, SU needed a reboot. So it looked to a fresh, yet familiar face in Legette-Jack — who played for the program from 1984-89 — to turn it around.
Eighteen regular season wins in year one was the springboard for a program record-tying 23 in 2023-24. The Orange have returned to the national spotlight, earning a top four seed in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament for the first time in three years. Legette-Jack’s success earned her ACC coach of the year honors.
There haven’t been any drastic changes in year two. Minor roster tweaks included the addition of freshmen Alyssa Latham and Sophie Burrows along with Michigan transfer Izabel Varejão. Overall, the nucleus remained the same. SU is led by star point guard Dyaisha Fair and Georgia Woolley, who packs a scoring punch.
SU has felt a culture change under Legette-Jack. In two years, she’s tied a record for regular-season wins. Joe Zhao | Asst. Photo Editor
“The people that were here last year, understand that one of the things that cost us some opportunities was the fact that we didn’t uphold the standards,” Legette-Jack said. “And the young ladies that we’ve brought in are ready to be a part of something special.”
It started in the offseason when Legette-Jack invited the team over to her house for wings and pizza, a yearly tradition. In addition to serving food, Legette-Jack indulges in games of Spades and plays foosball, where she often loses, according to Woolley.
“They’re my life. I don’t have a lot of fun things I do outside of hanging out with the team and watching them grow and get better and become phenomenal women and they understand that,” Legette-Jack told the ACC Network.
The way Legette-Jack connects with her team works in tandem with how they view her. Legette-Jack said her players know she cares about them enough to tell the truth. And though the truth is hard to tell, Legette-Jack said her team can see it’s coming from a good place.
“She always finds a way when you don’t know what you need to hear, to say what you need to hear,” Woolley said.
When Syracuse started 3-0 and fell 83-81 to then-No. 20 Maryland in its first true test, Legette-Jack said her team “lost by the numbers” but “won the season” since the reaction in the locker room was different.
Legette-Jack added that it felt like “a moment of change” while Woolley said it was a “wake-up call” for the team when they realized how good they were. Woolley, along with Fair, know the influence Legette-Jack can have as they made an NCAA Tournament with her in 2022 at Buffalo.
From her first phone call with Legette-Jack, Woolley knew she wanted to commit to Buffalo. Despite being thousands of miles away in Australia, Woolley could feel the energy through the phone and felt a genuine connection with Legette-Jack.
But if there’s one individual who encapsulates Legette-Jack’s impact, it’s Fair. Underrecruited out of Rochester, New York, she was doubted because of her size. Fair needed just one person to believe in her. Legette-Jack did.
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She was honest with Fair and told her she needed to improve her grades. Legette-Jack knew Fair had a lot on her plate as she helped take care of her brothers and sisters, but she “needed to be selfish.”
Five years later, Fair is a top-five scorer in NCAA women’s basketball history and one of the best point guards in the country. After passing former Baylor star Brittney Griner to enter the top five in a win over Pittsburgh on Feb. 25, Fair spoke candidly about her relationship with Legette-Jack. Fair tried to fight back the tears as she explained how the belief from her coach isn’t common.
“The culture of what (Legette-Jack) instills in her players has made me realize that over time … that there’s always another side and no matter what if you keep working you’ll reach it,” Fair said.
All across Syracuse’s roster, Legette-Jack has built connections. Coming out of junior college, Dominique Camp wanted to play for Legette-Jack at Buffalo. Instead, the coach picked another player over her. So after a season at Troy, Camp called Legette-Jack to express her continued interest in Buffalo. This time, it worked out. But when Legette-Jack left for Syracuse, there was no room for Camp, who then transferred to Akron.
When Camp’s head coach at Akron was fired in the middle of the season, she called Legette-Jack crying, asking if she was bad luck. At that moment, the coach realized it was time for Camp to “join their family again.”
Camp hasn’t played for Syracuse due to injury, but she’s still making an impact. In December, Camp gifted each of her teammates and coaches customized slides through an NIL deal with iSlide.
Felisha Legette-Jack has helped take Syracuse to new heights alongside Dyaisha Fair, who she’s coached for the last five seasons. Joe Zhao | Asst. Photo Editor
The gesture was an ode to Legette-Jack’s motto of “our family versus their team.” Whenever she’s asked about an opposing side, Legette-Jack often deflects by detailing all that matters is what their “family” does. Camp said the gift signified her growth under Legette-Jack and that as a freshman she might’ve taken money, instead of providing for her team.
Growth is a common theme among Syracuse players when talking about Legette-Jack, but it’s often not about basketball. Though Legette-Jack can be intense on the court at times and push players to the maximum, her true impact comes off the court.
Everything relates back to her pregame speech in the Notre Dame visitor’s locker room, Wood said. Legette-Jack didn’t need to know every player’s personal stories, but she did. It’s what sets her apart from other coaches around the country and why she’s helped Syracuse rise back to prominence in women’s college basketball.
“She makes it her job to be more than that coach to us and a mentor and kind of be that person that we aspire to be because, at the end of the day, basketball is just like a four-year, five-year sometimes six-year thing,” Wood said. “For most people, it’s not forever and so she’s looking to learn you as a person before the athlete.”
Photograph taken by Joe Zhao | Asst. Photo Editor