Heading into the 2025-26 season, there’s one goal in mind for new Syracuse Orange women’s basketball guard Laila Phelia: getting back her confidence.
It’s been a rollercoaster journey for Phelia, who transferred to the program over the offseason. The two-time all-Big Ten selection played just eight games last season with her most recent team, the Texas Longhorns, due to needing eye surgery. It got to a point where Phelia said she “didn’t have her vision” for about a month and a half.
“I woke up one
morning and it just looked like a curtain on the top half of my eye… The retinal detachment was a lot mentally and physically. Had to have two surgeries and just going through a bunch of different laser treatments,” Phelia said. “It was tough, but I would say now I’ve like adjusted to it pretty well, and love wearing the goggles, of course, added that new gadget to my game.”
Phelia started her collegiate career with the Michigan Wolverines, committing as a four-star prospect and a top-30 recruit according to ESPN. After a solid first year in 2021-22, she took a leap and then some. Over her next two years, Phelia played 59 games and started in 57 of them, averaging 34.2 minutes, 16.7 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.3 steals per game.
In 2022-23, she was top-three on Michigan in minutes, points, rebounds, steals and three-point percentage, earning a spot on the All-Big Ten Second Team. The following season, Phelia was named to the All-Big Ten First Team. As an added bonus, Phelia and the Wolverines reached two Elite Eights while she was there.
In the summer of 2024, now with Texas, Phelia suffered a detached retina in her left eye. She was able to briefly return to the Longhorns, playing in eight games off the bench before missing the rest of the year. Phelia last played on December 11.
“The biggest thing for me, after going through that surgery and the retinal detachment, it’s more so just like proving it to myself that I can get through that and I can play like after dealing with all that stuff,” Phelia said.
Phelia managed to get a medical redshirt year, and she will now look to use that and bring some much-needed scoring punch and experience at guard to the Orange.
Syracuse took a step back in its first season post-Dyaisha Fair, finishing 12-18 overall and 6-12 in the ACC. Part of that was a roster that lacked consistent scoring on the perimeter, outside of Georgia Woolley (16 PPG) and Sophie Burrows (12.2 PPG). Out of the rest of Syracuse’s guard rotation in 2024-25, the next-highest player averaged 4.3 PPG. The Orange finished last season ranked 11th in PPG and 15th in field goal percentage in the ACC.
Phelia will also look to bring leadership to what is still a very young Orange squad.
Nine players on the roster are either in their first or second year. Phelia is one of the team captains for the 2025-26 campaign, along with Burrows and former USC guard Dominique Darius. Phelia has nothing but high praise for both, saying Burrows has been her go-to person for any questions she has, while clicking with Darius the moment both arrived to the 315.
“People who want to buy in, who want to learn, who want to build together, and I feel like that’s like the definition of this team,” Phelia said. “Everyone wants to be the best, so it’s like being able to help them, it makes the job a lot easier.”
It’s been a long road to recovery for Phelia, who now says besides the goggles on the court, she has to wear glasses off of it because her vision is still “a little off.” Phelia also said rehab consistently of plenty of hand-eye coordination, or as she joked to reporters: “I learned to juggle.”
With that said, support especially from the team and especially coach Felisha Legette-Jack have been essential to get bringing back the confidence and her “yes, I can actually do it” mentality. For Phelia, she said it was definitely needed as she looks to finally return to the court and make an impact for Syracuse this season.
“After sitting out a year it’s really hard, and it’s like she was so invested in helping me and wanting to see me grow post-surgery and stuff. I feel like that was the biggest thing that stuck out to me,” Phelia said. “Sitting out for a year was hard, so going into the season, I was going to need all the support I could get.”
