Through 11 games in the 2025-26 season, the Syracuse Orange are giving their fans plenty of presents.
After its latest win over Binghamton , Syracuse is now heading into its final non-conference game of
the year with a 10-1 record and a five-game winning streak. With the ACC slate looming, the Orange are hoping to continue surpassing their initial expectations and surprising the rest of the women’s college basketball world.
With that said, now is a perfect time to take stock of the Orange’s metrics, which are quite optimistic about how the team has performed so far.
The most notable stat so far: Syracuse now being projected as a borderline NCAA Tournament team after starting the year now even in the conversation.
ESPN’s latest bracketology update currently projects the Orange as a “Last Four In” team along with fellow ACC program Virginia, Indiana and BYU.
Right now, Syracuse is on the inside track of what will be a crowded field of ACC schools looking to get those final spots. Miami is the first “First Four Out” team while Clemson (First Four Out) and Virginia Tech (Next Four Out) are also in the hunt. The rest of the projected ACC field includes Louisville (No. 4 seed), North Carolina (No. 4 seed), Notre Dame (No. 5 seed), NC State (No. 7 seed) and Stanford (No. 8 seed).
One critical trend heading into the ACC portion of Syracuse’s schedule: the top of the conference is notable weaker compared to the past few seasons. No program is currently higher than a four-seed. That said, including the Orange, 10 teams are either in the field or right on the bubble. The 11-1 start will certainly help the Orange, but obviously, success in the conference and edging out some of these other schools will determine just how high Syracuse’s ceiling will be in 2025-26.
Even with Syracuse’s strong start, it still only ranks at No. 40 in the NET. That number is, again, notably higher compared to the preseason. The Orange’s lone loss, a blowout to No. 6 Michigan, is the only dud on the resume.
The big key for Syracuse remains handling business against everyone else.
The Orange are 7-0 against Q4 teams, and the team has smoked those opponents by huge margins. Syracuse also picked up one Q2 win, winning by 12 over Utah, and two more Q3 wins.
The ACC slate, however, projects to be a bear.
Syracuse is now projected to go 21-8 on the season heading into the conference tournament, with an 11-7 record against the ACC, according to WarrenNolan.com. The key projections to monitor:
- Q1 prediction: 0-6
- Q2 prediction: 1-1
- Q3 prediction: 1-1
- Q4 prediction: 19-0
Notably, the Orange’s schedule is very much heavy on both ends. As of Wednesday and using RPI instead of NET for the ACC schedule, Syracuse only has one more Q2 game and one more Q3 game. Every other contest is either Q1 or Q4, per WarrenNolan. Switching back to NET, it’s mostly a similar projected path ahead for the Orange.
Speaking of RPI, Syracuse is currently up to top-25 status in that metric at No. 19. To date, that is the best ranking among all the ACC.
On the one hand, the ACC projects to be anyone’s race. ESPN’s bracketology has the magic number for the number of ACC teams to make the field at seven. That will likely end up between six and eight. Essentially, can the Orange finish in the top-half of the conference? So far, it’s certainly performed like that caliber of team.
On the flip side, the road ahead will certainly get a lot tougher for coach Felisha Legette-Jack and company. All this in mind, after a losing season in 2024-25, the team is certainly bouncing back strong to begin 2025-26.
