>> Speaking of continuing, a couple of non-conference games coming up, Binghamton.

What do you want to see from your team as you progress through the season?

>> What we want to see them do is just continue to own their power defensively.

We are going to play a lot more numbers as we go through the next three games because I'm still trying to figure out, you know, how you win an ACC championship.

Who actually understands that?

Who does poorly on the floor and runs off the court and daps up her team and still understands that she smashed and wants to stay but gives good energy so the person goes out and creates synergy.

Who is the one that can hit the clutch 3?

The last game the score was starting to change a little bit.

And I went to grab Maddie Potts.

I wanted to see if she could hit the shots in the clutch.

I need to find out and in weird situations, if I call you, will you be ready for your own dreams?

And so we are trying to figure that out for the next three games before we go on vacation.

So I have five days home by myself to kind of organize a plan for the ACC first time around.

So I think we have a good strategy.

I got some good support people on the outside on the coaching staff that pours into me that helps me understand what it needs to look like on the floor, what I stood for when we were winners when I was a younger coach and a reminder of what I'm trying to create here.

And so I don't lose my way.

>> The end of non-conference play and then after that, a little break that you will have, you start right up against the team that was picked to be the preseason ACC favorite in Duke; at home, Sunday at 4.

How excited are you for the opportunity to play the blue devils?

>> I'm excited to play anybody that can help us continue to move forward in our story and our journey and our dream and our desire to tell the people, listen, this is me.

This is us.

This is Syracuse women's basketball.

Orange and Blue and white and red, this is what we look like.

And if Duke decides to come here on the 28th and play us, we want to still continue to tell our story.

It's never going to be about Duke or Florida State or Miami.

It's only about Syracuse.

It's only about who we are and what we stand for.

It used to be last year, oh God, and it's not that fear anymore.

It's all about respect.

There are some really great teams.

I believe there is a final four team in our ACC conference this year.

Who is it, I don't know.

But that's how talented I think we are on any given night.

So it's not about disrespecting my colleagues.

It's about kind of understanding who my team is and who we are and what we are trying to do.

What we are trying to do is show the world that we, too, are enough.

We matter, and we are coming.

We matter, and we are coming.

>> As a prize recruit, as a freshman, Uche Izoje has been tearing it up.

Now a two-time ACC rookie of the week.

First time the program has had that happen since 2021.

And you and the staff rewarded her with the hard hat, the Bank of America hard hat.

What has she brought to this team?

What she thinks she brings to the team.

She is the best dancer on the team.

This young lady, we can talk accolades about her all day.

She can run, she can jump.

She can box shots, she can score and she can defend.

But what is the most impactful thing about this young lady?

She is a great human being.

She is a kid that you just have to love, or you are not a real human being.

I mean the way she graces you with her smile, the way she hugs you and you are a stranger.

The way she sees a teammate who is sad and puts her arm around them.

The way she connects with every coach and everybody that comes around her is remarkable.

You see her on campus and everybody seems to know her.

Like Uche, who is that?

I think I met her in class or something.

She waved at me, and I waved at her.

If you get to know my team, you will get to know the inside scoop.

Not you but the fans who are listening.

Uche Izoje is one of the best recruits we've had all around because of what she brings from our characters academics and our basketball.

But the basketball piece, we didn't know what kind of timetable we were going to have with her with her adjustment from her time in Japan to here.

It's not what we need it to be but way further than we thought it would be.

She catches on fast, she is a visual learner.

She is a person that will ask questions, and she will say no, that's too fast, and take you to slow down.

And take you to a place that she can comprehend.

The reason we have success sometimes, or most of the time, I would say is our defense.

Uche Izoje, she defends and she doesn't allow our team especially our shooters to feel like they're on an island by themselves.

They miss a shot, she is going to get the rebound.

They get beat, she is the one that is going to stop and now she is second time ACC rookie of the week.

It makes me smile because it's because of defense.