When the women’s basketball coaches and a “blue ribbon panel” voted last October on their projected order of finish for Atlantic Coast Conference teams in the 2025-26 season, they predicted Syracuse would finish 13th in the 18-team league.

Boy, were they wrong.

Syracuse (21-5, 11-4 ACC) stands in third place in the conference with three regular-season games to play. The Orange are just below Duke (19-6, 14-0) and Louisville (24-2, 14-1) and just ahead of North Carolina (21-6, 10-4) and North Carolina State (17-8, 10-4).

The preseason prognosticators were right with those other schools, projecting them to finish in the top four. But Syracuse has crashed the party.

The Orange are averaging 75.8 points per game – fourth in the ACC. Defensively, they are giving up 61.6 – sixth in the ACC.

The 13.7-point margin of victory is fourth in the conference.

After her team finished 12-18 (6-12 ACC) last season, head coach Felicia Legette-Jack used her recruiting class and the transfer portal to pick up players who could address the team’s needs.

“We didn't defend well last year, so I went after people that like to defend and we really addressed that very well, and we couldn't put the ball in the hole and so we went after some scorers,” she said at media day in Charlotte, N.C., in October.

The Orange brought in transfers that included Dominique Darius from Southern California and Laila Phelia from Texas, who have seamlessly incorporated into the lineup with returnee Sophie Burrows. Freshman Uche Izoje, a 6-foot-3 center from Nigeria, is an emerging force.

Not one Syracuse player showed up on the preseason all-ACC or all-freshman teams.

That is likely to change.

Start with Izoje, who leads Syracuse in scoring and rebounding, averaging 14.3 and 9.0 per game, respectively. She is shooting 54.4% for the season, ranking her fourth in the ACC.

Izoje also leads the conference in blocked shots with 2.6 per game and is fifth in rebounds.

Phelia tops the team in minutes played with 30.5. Darius is pulling down 5.6 rebounds per game.

Izoje, Phelia and Darius are in the top 11 in the ACC in scoring. Izoje (team-leading 14.3 points per game) is sixth, Phelia (13.7) is eighth and Darius (13.0) is 11th.

Phelia and Darius also are among the ACC leaders in free-throw percentage. Phelia’s 85.2% puts her fourth, while Darius is eighth at 82.4%.

And Burrows, scoring at a clip of 11.2 points per game, is the fourth player in double figures. She is fifth in the ACC in steals with 2.1. Phelia is tied for sixth with 2.0.

After victories against Pitt (84-51) and Clemson (68-64) last week, Burrows was named the ACC Player of the Week. The Australian averaged 18.5 points, 10.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists while shooting 61.5 percent (16 for 26) and had a career-high 16 rebounds against Clemson.

Syracuse has a huge game on Sunday against NC State (17-8, 10-4) in Raleigh, N.C. The Wolfpack are chasing the Orange in the standings, and the game likely will have some impact on NCAA Tournament seeding. A win against NC State certainly would polish the tournament resume for the Orange.

ESPN's latest bracketology, released Tuesday, projects Syracuse as a No. 9 seed. The Orange were placed in the Storrs, Conn., bracket and would have to get through No. 1 UConn if they were to advance under that scenario.

The remaining two games are Feb. 26 at Notre Dame (16-9, 8-6) and March 1 against Boston College (4-24, 0-15) at the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse.

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