1 Seed UConn Huskies 8 Seed Syracuse Orange 35-0 24-8
Monday, March 23rd, 2026
Time: TBD
Gampel Pavilion
Storrs, Ct.
TV: TBD
Prior Meetings
SYRACUSE | UCONN LEADS 41-12
H: 20-4 | A: 16-7 | N: 5-1
12/29/80 SU 73, UConn 68 Philadelphia, Pa.
02/13/82 SU 86, UConn 78 Storrs, Conn.
02/02/83 SU 90, UConn 64 Syracuse, N.Y.
02/25/84 SU 61, UConn 56 Storrs, Conn.
01/12/85 SU 82, UConn 61 Syracuse, N.Y.
02/13/85 SU 74, UConn 59 Storrs, Conn.
01/04/86 SU 68, UConn 60 Syracuse, N.Y.
02/01/86 SU 78, UConn 72 Storrs, Conn.
01/17/87 SU 67, UConn 52 Syracuse, N.Y.
02/18/87 UConn 52, SU 49 Storrs, Conn.
01/20/88 SU 68, UConn 54 Syracuse, N.Y.
02/20/88 UConn 74, SU 60 Hartford, Conn.
01/21/89 SU 77, UConn 60 Syracuse, N.Y.
01/08/90 UConn 58, SU 42 Syracuse, N.Y.
02/07/90 UConn 68, SU 56 Storrs, Conn.
01/16/91 #18 UConn 65, SU 63 Syracuse, N.Y.
02/17/91 #15 UConn 85, SU 49 Storrs, Conn.
01/15/92 SU 68, #22 UConn 51 Storrs, Conn.
02/15/92 UConn 83, SU 68 Syracuse, N.Y.
01/02/93 #21 UConn 78, SU 50 Syracuse, N.Y.
02/07/93 UConn 85, SU 54 Storrs, Conn.
01/03/94 #4 UConn 64, SU 45 Storrs, Conn.
02/24/94 #4 UConn 79, SU 50 Syracuse, N.Y.
01/22/95 #1 UConn 89, SU 58 Storrs, Conn.
02/25/95 #1 UConn 89, SU 62 Syracuse, N.Y.
01/02/96 SU 62, #2 UConn 59 Syracuse, N.Y.
01/07/97 #1 UConn 93, SU 67 Storrs, Conn.
02/26/97 #1 UConn 86, SU 52 Syracuse, N.Y.
02/01/98 #2 UConn 100, SU 62 Storrs, Conn.
02/03/99 #4 UConn 96, SU 50 Storrs, Conn.
02/23/99 #6 UConn 105, SU 43 Syracuse, N.Y.
02/18/00 #1 UConn 100, SU 74 Storrs, Conn.
01/09/01 #1 UConn 76, SU 63 Syracuse, N.Y.
01/27/01 #2 UConn 84, SU 60 Hartford, Conn.
02/13/02 #1 UConn 85, SU 55 Syracuse, N.Y.
02/12/03 #1 UConn 75, SU 51 Hartford, Conn.
02/11/04 #2 UConn 82, SU 38 Syracuse, N.Y.
02/19/05 #11 UConn 85, SU 49 Hartford, Conn.
03/06/05 #14 UConn 82, SU 56 Hartford, Conn.
02/22/06 #8 UConn 65, SU 36 Syracuse, N.Y.
01/13/07 #7 UConn 76, SU 45 Storrs, Conn.
01/15/08 #1 UConn 65, SU 59 Syracuse, N.Y
01/17/09 #1 UConn 107, SU 53 Hartford, Conn.
02/24/10 #1 UConn 87, SU 66 Syracuse, N.Y.
03/07/10 #1 UConn 77, SU 41 Hartford, Conn.
02/28/11 #1 UConn 82, SU 47 Storrs, Conn.
01/25/12 #3 UConn 95, SU 54 Syracuse, N.Y.
01/19/13 #3 UConn 87, SU 62 Hartford, Conn.
03/11/13 #3 UConn 64, #24 SU 51 Hartford, Conn.
04/05/16 #1 UConn 82, #17 SU 51 Indianapolis, Ind.
03/20/17 #1 UConn 94, SU 64 Storrs, Conn.
03/23/21 #1 UConn 83, SU 47 San Antonio, Texas
03/25/24 #10 UConn 72, #22 SU 64 Storrs, Conn
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Syracuse Season
Syracuse has had a nice season to date. They are 24-8 and were 12-6 in a decent ACC conference.
Just some highlights in their season.
Well, not many...lol. They lost to every NCAA tournament team in the regular season but one.
Michigan 81-55.
Duke 71-51.
Virginia Tech 77-57.
North Carolina 77-71 in overtime
Louisville 84-65.
NC State 82-69.
Notre Dame 72-62.
Louisville II 87-61.
Those are all of their losses. That's the bad news. The good news is they beat everyone they should have beaten.
Their best win was against Virginia, who barely made the tournament as a "First Four" team. Virginia won their play-in game against Arizona State and then beat Georgia in the first round.
They beat Iowa State in the opening round 72-63 to have the chance to play UConn.
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Comparative Team Statistics
(leader in bold)
UConn Syracuse
88.8 PPG 74.4
50.4 Defensive PPG 63.4
38.4 Scoring Margin 11.0
52.4 Field Goal % 42.4
33.5 Defensive FG% 40.4
38.9 Three Point % 31.6
27.6 Defensive 3PT% 28.5
74.1 Free Throw % 72.6
37.5 Rebounds/game 42.2
6.1 Rebounding Margin 7.8
23.6 Assists per game 14.7
12.7 Turnover per game 15.6
1.9 Assists/TO ratio .9
15.7 Steals per game 10.5
5.0 Blocks per game 5.4
UCONN
The player and coaches names for both teams
are clickable to see their Bios
are clickable to see their Bios
UConn Starters
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Game Analysis
A familar foe and they are playing in a familiar game. Two years ago it was close to the day when these two teams last met. UConn beat the Orange 72-64 in the 2nd round game in the 23-24 season in a competative game. .
However, this is two years later and there is only one player in their rotation that is on this years roster.
Before I go into their player rotation Syracuse lost a starter to injury two games ago. 5'10" grad student guard Dominique Darius injured her left hand is was out for the game against Iowa State and will miss the 2nd round NCAA game against UConn. She is a big loss for the Orange. The third leading scorer at 12.6 PPG, her loss will be felt more as the point guard. She leads the team in assists at 3.5 APG. Syracuse will certainly miss her leadership on the court and in the huddle.
Against Iowa State, Syracuse was limited to only 6 players in double digit minutes.
Uche Izoje, a 6'3" freshman forward, is the leading best player on the team. In similar fashion to Strong she is the leading scorer on the team at 15.7 PPG, leads the team in rebounding at 9.3 RPG and leads the team in block shots at 2.5 BPG. A great building block for the Orange as long as they can hold on to her.
6' senior guard Laila Phelia is the second leading scorer on the team at 13,8 PPG. She leads the team in steals at 2 per game. She is by far the best 3 point shooter on the team, hitting them at a 37.2% clip.
Sophie Burrows is the only player on the roster who saw action against UConn in the 2nd round game 2 years ago. The pressure (in more than one way) will be on her to handle the UConn pressure with their usual point guard out with an injury. I almost feel sorry for her. Almost. She is averaging 11.3 PPG. Second on the team in assists at 2.3 per game. She by far takes the most three pointers on the team with 6 per game, but she only shoots 30.8% from deep.
Replacing Darius in the starting lineup is 6' sophomore guard Madaline Potts. She won't see many minutes. Against Iowa State she started but only played 16 minutes. On the season she averaged 3.6 PPG om 9 MPG.
Another fairly new addition to the starting lineup, 6'3" Senior Journey Thompson is averaging 3.9 PPG and 4.3 RPG. She only played 17 MPG for the season. She played 33 minutes against Iowa State but was scoreless taking only 1 missed shot. However, she did grab 13 rebounds in that game.
Olivia Schmitt, a 5'5" sophomore guard was the only real contributer off the bench. She played 31 minutes and scored 15 points, all them on three pointers going 5-9. She was huge in the second quarter when Syracuse built their big lead that they were able to hang on to.
Three other players saw minutes, but only 5, 7, and 7 each. They were scoreless.
Final Prediction
Well folks, this could get ugly quickly. Missing your primary ball handler against a defensive team like UConn is just a killer situation. And with UConn struggling from three point going 7-33, you can bet that won't happen again. The Huskies should have dusted off the rust after the long layoff between games. I would bet they shoot better.
UConn will win this one big. My dislike for Syracuse has lessoned after Hillsman left them. But I still enjoy a good beatdown.
UConn by 40+.
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