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The amount of trust Dyaisha Fair and Felisha Legette-Jack have in each other is unparalleled. It’s why Fair committed to the University at Buffalo in 2019. It’s why Fair followed her head coach to Syracuse in 2022 and returned to SU for her fifth season. And it’s why Legette-Jack allows Fair to “play free” at all times.

Yet, on the day Fair was set to eclipse 3,000 career points, she was met by a much more demanding Legette-Jack in the halftime locker room.

“If you pass the ball, I’m going to sub you out,” Legette-Jack told Fair despite her scoring a season-low two first-half points against Clemson. Fair obliged, dropping 19 points in the second half to break the 3,000 mark.

Sunday’s 83-82 comeback victory over Clemson was a full-circle moment for Syracuse’s head coach and star point guard. From Legette-Jack being one of Fair’s only recruiters out of high school to the two basking in Fair’s 3,000-point milestone, they’ve become one of the most elite coach-player pairings in the country.

SU’s win against Clemson showed they couldn’t have done it without each other. Plus, Fair’s historic afternoon proved to Legette-Jack that the point guard is among the best players in program history.

“Well there’s a person like me but then (when) you go up the ladder to the top, you find people like Dyaisha,” Legette-Jack said. “I’m not in the same ballpark as somebody like this young lady.”

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Fair had humble beginnings before being called an all-time Syracuse great. She was underlooked coming out of Edison Career and Technology High School (NY). Legette-Jack reminisced postgame how she, then the head coach at Buffalo, and Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) were among the only programs heavily recruiting Fair.

Legette-Jack made it a priority to get Fair the summer before her senior year. The head coach was scouting Fair in a tournament in Georgia, driving back and forth from Suwanee to near the Atlanta International Airport to watch Fair’s games.

“I would be like a stalker,” Legette-Jack quipped. “Wherever (Fair) was, I was right there.”

But Legette-Jack was taken aback once she arrived to see Fair play. She said there was no one at Fair’s court scouting the point guard.

“What in the world,” Legette-Jack remembered thinking to herself. “Am I dreaming this?”

The head coach didn’t think others were paying enough attention. She didn’t look at Fair’s 5-foot-5 frame or the lack of scouts. Instead, Legette-Jack admired Fair’s tenacity on defense and high-level shooting ability. She and her assistant coach Kristen Sharkey, who is now Legette-Jack’s assistant at SU, were “giggling” at the prospect of getting Fair to commit to Buffalo. In their eyes, adding Fair warranted Mid-American Conference Championship aspirations.

Fair eventually committed to Buffalo in 2019. In her first season under Legette-Jack, Fair was named MAC Freshman of the Year. She earned First Team All-Mac honors as a sophomore and junior, leading the Bulls to a MAC Tournament Championship victory in 2021-22. In all three seasons at Buffalo, Fair averaged at least 22 points per game. The success Legette-Jack envisioned for Fair became a reality.

“Before getting to this level, everyone doubted me. Everyone doubted my size. Everyone doubted me entirely because of how small I am,” Fair said. “I’ve always said I didn’t care.”

“As coach (Legette-Jack) always says, I kept my head down and just was true to myself.”

When Legette-Jack left Buffalo to take the head coaching job at Syracuse in March 2022, she encouraged Fair to join her, Legette-Jack said Sunday. But, Fair told her coach that she was receiving a lot of calls from other schools. Fair’s prolific career at Buffalo made her highly sought after.

Legette-Jack’s pitch to Fair was that she was going to help the point guard “find her wings” at SU. She said she called Fair’s father “every hour” trying to find out Fair’s decision. Ultimately, Fair wanted to stick with her coach, transferring to Syracuse on April 26, 2022.

“The big thing (about transferring) was my former coach, of course,” Fair told The Daily Orange on April 27, 2022. “Just keeping that bond where it is and just trying to continue what we’re doing on the biggest stage.”

In addition to breaking the 3,000 career points threshold, Dyaisha Fair scored 14 points in the fourth quarter to lead Syracuse to its largest-ever comeback in the Felisha Legette-Jack era. Joe Zhao | Asst. Photo Editor

Fair’s stellar play persisted in her second stint under Legette-Jack. She led the Orange to a Women’s National Invitational Tournament Super 16 appearance and averaged the second-most points per game in the Atlantic Coast Conference (19.9). Fair even had the chance to pursue a WNBA career after the 2022-23 season. Yet, according to Legette-Jack, Fair came into her office after the season and said she was “not going anywhere.”

“I’m not going to leave this opportunity to be your player and you my coach,” Legette-Jack recalled Fair telling her.

Now, amid their fifth season together, Fair and Legette-Jack are leading SU’s program into a bright era. Behind Fair’s 19.8 points per game, the Orange are off to their best start through 16 games since 2018-19. Though on Sunday, the day Fair was set to break 3,000 career points, Fair and Legette-Jack faced a daunting deficit to Clemson.

At the half, Fair was 1-for-6 from the field and 0-for-4 from 3 when Legette-Jack entrusted her to keep shooting. It took until there were five seconds left in the third for Fair to make her first 3-pointer of the day.

From there, Fair exploded for 14 fourth-quarter points, collected her 3,000th-career point and spearheaded a 14-0 Syracuse run late in the game. Her dominant play helped the Orange seal a 19-point come-from-behind win over the Tigers.

It was a fitting way to cap off Sunday, as the two needed each other to win. Legette-Jack needed Fair’s offense to shoulder the load in a comeback. Fair needed Legette-Jack’s trust, which persuaded her to commit to Buffalo and transfer to Syracuse. In the end, with Fair and Legette-Jack working in sync, they delivered a historic performance.

During Sunday’s postgame press conference, Legette-Jack inadvertently swore while gushing about Fair’s 21-point outing. Overcome with excitement for her point guard of five years, Legette-Jack couldn’t contain herself.

“I don’t know what I did to deserve her,” Legette-Jack said, “but it made me swear.”

Published on January 15, 2024 at 10:11 pm

Contact Cooper at: ccandrew@syr.edu | @cooper_andrews