The Syracuse Orange women added another player to the frontcourt as Temple forward Jaleesa Molina will join Syracuse for next season.
Molina is a 6’3” forward from The Netherlands who spent three seasons at Temple, making 61 starts the last two seasons. Molina averaged 9.9 points and 7.4 rebounds per game last season for the Owls.
Syracuse’s women didn’t need NCAA Tournament expansion to earn an at-large bid last season and ESPN’s Charlie Creme suggests they won’t need it next March.
In his early 2027
Bracketology, Creme has Syracuse as a 10 seed with an opening round match-up against West Virginia in Iowa City. Imagine that, a Syracuse post-season appearance that isn’t a bus ride to Storrs…is that even possible? The host Iowa Hawkeyes are the 2 seed and would play James Madison in this projection.
Creme has Syracuse as one of the final four teams to avoid the First Four and the Orange are one of 9 ACC schools in this prediction.
Syracuse’s post-season hopes largely rest on the shoulders of center Uche Izoje. While most of the campus is preparing for final exams, Izoje is with Nigeria’s National Team playing a series of exhibition games against WNBA teams.
In the opener, the LA Sparks beat Nigeria 89-63, but Izoje had 10 points, 5 rebounds and was only -4 in 22 minutes. Nigeria took on the Minnesota Lynx next and fell by a score of 88-79. Izoje had 8 points, 7 rebounds and 2 assists and finished as a +5 in 21 minutes of action.
Nigeria has one more game and it will be against Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever on Saturday. Here’s some highlights from the game against the Lynx.
