Syracuse Women's Basketball Matches Highest All-Time Ranking At No. 22

The Syracuse Orange women's basketball team (15-2, 3-1) is No. 22 in the USA Today Coaches Poll, released Tuesday afternoon. The Orange reached No. 22 only two other times in program history: January of 2008 and December of 2009.

The team moved up one spot from last week's rankings. Syracuse has played two games since the last Coaches Poll was released. The Orange won 84-80 at home versus DePaul (14-5, 3-2). On Saturday, SU lost 87-62 to No. 3/2 Connecticut (17-1, 4-1).

Syracuse was not ranked in the AP Top 25 Poll which was released Monday. But, SU did not lose ground. For the second week in a row, SU received the most votes among non-ranked teams.

The voters did not penalize the Orange for losing on Saturday...and rightly so. Syracuse's 25 point loss does not look so bad when put in context. The Huskies have outscored opponents by about 36 points per game this season. In fact, UConn has only played four games with scores less than 25 points apart. These games were against Maryland (won by 15), Penn State (won by 15), Louisville (won by 14), and Notre Dame (lost by 1). All four of these opponents are ranked in the top 15.

FYI, Jim Boeheim's club isn't the only good program at Syracuse anymore. When Quentin Hillsman took over as coach in 2006, SU had not posted back-to-back winning seasons since 1989-1990. Hillsman now has five consecutive winning seasons. And he's on track for number six this season.