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Teams: Syracuse Orange (7-4, 1-1) vs. UMBC Retrievers (1-8, 0-0)
Day & Time: Saturday, December 18, 11 a.m. ET
Location: Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.
TV/Streaming: ACC Network Extra
Radio: Cuse.com, ESPN 97.7
Rivalry: Syracuse, 1-0
Current Streak: Syracuse, 1
First and Last Meeting: The Orange women’s basketball team cruised to an 82-48 victory over UMBC on December 8, 2019. Syracuse only led by two points after the first quarter but outscored the Retrievers 47-24 over the next 20 minutes to ease to a win. Digna Strautmane hit five triples and had 17 while Teisha Hyman came off the bench to score 16 points in 15 minutes.
Head Coaches: Syracuse - Vonn Read (1st year, 7-4) | UMBC - Johnetta Hayes (3rd year, 13-32)
Coach Bio: Hayes took the head coaching job at UMBC before the 2019-20 season. She played her college basketball at Rice from 2000-04, finishing as the program’s third-best shot blocker. She became Prarie View A&M’s head coach in 2004, serving for two seasons. She made assistant coaching stops at North Texas, UNC Wilmington, and Texas Southern.
Hayes became Texas Southern’s head coach in 2013, going 115-73 in six seasons, including an NCAA Tournament bid in 2017. She went 10-18 in her first season at UMBC before the pandemic brought an abrupt end to their 2020-21.
Last Year: The Retrievers went 2-6 last season, playing their last game on January 4. UMBC hasn’t had a winning season since 2015-16.
“Fear Me, I’ve Killed Hundreds of Timelords”: Janee’a Summers leads UMBC with 14.3 points per game. She’s a high-volume shooter, who has put up double-digit shots in all but one of her games. Summers is only at 34 percent from the field but will look for a good performance on Saturday.
If Syracuse Wins: 8-4 sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?
If Syracuse Loses: At least they didn’t lose to a 16-seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Fun Fact: The Orange haven’t played a team with a dog-themed mascot yet this season. UMBC and Siena (Syracuse’s next opponent) are both represented by man’s best friend. They also have a 1-16 record between them. Maybe not the best year for dog teams.