The Syracuse University women's basketball program saw its season end unceremoniously on Monday night, getting blasted 98-45 by No. 1 Connecticut in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Orange finish a solid campaign at 24-9.

While the performance was certainly disheartening, it was the comments after the game by head coach Felisha Legette-Jack that really drew attention.

It's a complex issue, so let's break it down from the top:

Remember, the first two rounds of the NCAA Women's Tournament are held at campus sites, meaning the Top 16 seeds all earn 1-4 seeds and get to host the first two rounds.

Simply put? Legette-Jack is tired of being put in the UConn "pod" of four teams. We've included the full transcript of her opening remarks below, but you can watch the comments courtesy of reporter Ashley Wenskoski.

Syracuse has been eliminated by Connecticut in the second round of four of its last six NCAA Tournament appearances, all four of which were played at UConn (2026, 2024, 2021, 2017). Legette-Jack was also sent to UConn while the head coach at Buffalo.

She understands that playing UConn is essentially a death sentence for her teams and wants to see her program have an opportunity to play for a Sweet 16 berth.

With a little help from CBS, who pulled out the NCAA rulebook:

"Any team that has to travel at least 400 miles during the opening weekend is eligible to take a flight chartered by the NCAA. That drops to 350 miles for the regional finals and the Final Four." So, the NCAA saves money on travel if it is able to reasonably place teams in brackets closer to their campuses.

Let's say that Syracuse truly deserved the No. 9 seed they were given. The other No. 1's were South Carolina, Texas and UCLA. Travel-wise, SU had no other No. 1 seed options to be paired with other than UConn.

Even if Syracuse was given a No. 10 seed to avoid UConn, there were no close options for No. 2 seeds, with Michigan checking in at nearly 500 miles from campus. It's understandable why the NCAA chose this path.

My very first reaction to these comments is that Legette-Jack is exhibiting sour grapes. If she so badly wants to avoid playing Connecticut, then her teams need to stop getting the No. 8 and No. 9 seeds that pair them with No. 1 seeds.

This year's Syracuse team went 12-6 inside Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) play, but didn't beat anybody who finished even or ahead of them in the standings. They had opportunities for standout wins against Duke, North Carolina, Louisville (twice) and Notre Dame and lost them all. 

Furthermore, SU was blown out in non-league play (81-55) by a Michigan team that earned a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. There are simply no standout wins on this schedule that could have bumped Syracuse up to say, the No. 7 line and avoided a pairing with a No. 1 seed.

Had they gotten wins in any of these matchups, they could have avoided this.

Legette-Jack also feels that the seeds could have been manipulated the other way to help Syracuse avoid playing UConn. Sure, SU could have been dropped to the No. 10 line AND given a game outside the 400-mile radius. But does the program really deserve favors? 

While my first reaction stands on its own, I can admit that this policy doesn't seem to be helping the tournament gain variety. While I understand the desire to save money, I think it would be nice if the tournament committee worked to get some different pairings and some different matchups. While the regional nature of these matchups makes sense, the sport is booming nationally and it would be a good investment to get some teams going to some different places.

As for deserving favors? Syracuse has been to 10 of the last 13 NCAA Tournaments. The program has proven itself to be solid, but UConn has certainly stood in its way of taking the next step (at times).

I understand where Legette-Jack is coming from, and I do think that SU has been good enough, for long enough, to maybe warrant a favor from the committee. That said, Syracuse shouldn't have to rely on that. It can take matters into its own hands. Recruit better. Schedule better. Win bigger games.

If you do all that? You'll avoid this discussion entirely. The motivation to get a No. 7 seed or better is there.

"I asked God to touch my heart and help me speak kindly about this opportunity, but also have a responsibility. And when I tell my players they're warming up, I think I have to do the same thing.

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 has this thing going, and I love what he's done. But we, I thought, deserved a little more respect.

After being in this business for 37 years, and to have to come and be in this particular bracket every fricking year is unacceptable. 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.

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.

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."

And for us to be coming from a 12 and 16, 18, whatever, season this year, okay, let's judge it on this season. 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.

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