You can exhale, Syracuse women’s basketball fans. Superstar center Uche Izoje is returning to the Orange for another season, the program announced on Friday.
Izoje was the ACC Rookie of the Year, averaging 15.6 points and 9.2 rebounds, and led the conference with 2.6 blocks per game. She led Syracuse in all three of those stats, and was named to the All-ACC First Team, becoming the first Orange big to earn that honor since Kamilla Cardoso in 2020-21. Unlike Cardoso, Izoje will return to continue her
legacy inside the Dome for a second season.
“Uche is the foundation of our program,” head coach Felisha Legette-Jack said in a release. “She will bring others here because she is here! Uche re-committing to Syracuse University and to me shows that what we are building is amazing. I will work very hard, along with my staff, our administration, donors, and friends to bring the best student athletes in the world to play alongside this incredible young lady. I am one blessed coach to have Uche Izoje on our team. We fight on together!”
“I have the best teammates and I truly see them as my sisters,” Izoje said in the release. “Our coaching staff, especially Coach Jack, has been amazing and I know they will prepare me for the next level. I am grateful for this team, and I wouldn’t want to go through this with anyone else. As for me, I am coming back stronger, more aggressive, and more confident. And as a team, we are going to rise together.”
She ranked fourth among all power-conference freshmen in scoring, first in rebounding, and second in blocks. In Syracuse’s first-round win over Iowa State, Izoje led the team with 23 points in just 25 minutes. Hall of Famer Geno Auriemma called her “the best player we’ve seen this year,” the day before his Huskies ended Syracuse’s season in a 98-45 blowout.
Izoje, originally from Nigeria, moved to Japan at 13 years old to play basketball, and came to America for the first time to play for the Orange at age 21. The 6-foot-3 Izoje was an unknown commodity coming to college basketball, but burst onto the scene with three straight double-figure scoring games to open the year. She continued to impress all season long on both ends of the floor, with a series of big performances and double-doubles, leading SU to the NCAA Tournament.
Her return is the first— and biggest— step in building off the momentum from a 24-win campaign, something the Orange failed to do two seasons ago.
We’ll see who else may return, but the Orange have the centerpiece locked in.
