Women’s college basketball story lines after two weeks of play.
With UConn just resuming practice, here’s what we learned about the rest of the country in the first two weeks of season
Even with perennial powerhouse UConn just recently taking the floor, there’s still been plenty of intrigue, surprises and standout performances in the first two weeks of the women’s college basketball season.
Upsets of South Carolina, Baylor and Mississippi State shook up the latest rankings and underscore a reality of this 202021 campaign: There’s arguably no clear No. 1 team in the country this season, and this bizarre and challenging year proves anything can happen on any given night.
Here are some takeaways from the first two weeks of play:
Upsets, upsets, and more upsets
Early-season upsets aren’t necessarily always shocking. Even the best of teams in the nation are often still trying to figure out their identity a few games in. This year, upsets should perhaps be even more expected since so many schools are playing without fans and schedules have been disrupted left and right due to COVID-19 pauses.
Over the last week alone, three teams that started the year in the top six of the Associated Press poll lost. Then-No. 8 NC State snapped former No. 1 South Carolina’s 29-game win streak on the Gamecocks’ own floor, thanks to an ugly 54-46 victory Thursday night. No. 4 Baylor also dropped an 83-78 contest to No. 16 Arkansas on Sunday, and USF earned a huge 67-63 overtime victory over No. 6 Mississippi State on Saturday. The Bulls were also neck-and-neck with Baylor earlier in the week before the Bears eked out a 67-62 victory.
As a result, in this week’s poll South Carolina slid to No. 5 in the standings, Baylor to the No. 7 spot and Mississippi State out of the top 10. Despite still not having played, UConn stayed at No. 3 in this week’s APpoll, receiving a pair of first-place votes.
The games showed just how dangerous well-coached squads like Mike Neighbors’ Arkansas, Jose Fernandez’s Bulls and Wes Moore’s NC State can be — and also that some of these top teams still have kinks to work out. South Carolina is looking for who can step up following the graduation of its two senior leaders. Baylor too is still figuring out how all of its pieces fit together and how to get the most out of each. Those schools should, in theory, be further along in determining all that by the time UConn plays them (Jan. 7 vs. Baylor and Feb. 8 vs. South Carolina).
Louisville, N.C. State on rise
In this week’s poll, Louisville andN.C. State, both 4-0, made the largest jumps out of any teams in the top 10, the Cardinals nowassuming the No. 2 spot and N.C. State coming in at No. 4aheadof South Carolina. After dethroning South Carolina last week, the Wolfpack didn’t skip a beat in their last game against Coastal Carolina, while Louisville demolished DePaul, 116-75, in the Jimmy V Classic game originally scheduled to be between the Cardinals and UConn. Louisville’s 116 points set a new program scoring record.
Louisville preseason All-American Dana Evans hasn’t disappointed so far this season, but freshman Hailey Van Lith has also turned heads just four games into her college career. She’s second on the team in scoring (16.0 points per game) and rebounding (7.5 rebounds per game) for a team that head coach Jeff Walz says is his deepest in years.
The Huskies probably won’t be able to squeeze in a game against Louisville after their initial meeting was canceled. But that sure would be an intriguing matchup should the teams meet down the road, say, in the NCAA Tournament.
Season oddities: Stanford temporarily relocates to Las Vegas
Stanford secured its new top ranking in the country not from Palo Alto, but Las Vegas. After Santa Clara County temporarily banned contact sports due to COVID19 concerns, the team briefly relocated to UNLV , where they beat UNLV and Washington this weekend to improve to 3-0.
The Cardinal were supposed to take on Washington State on Tuesday in Vegas but had to postpone the meeting after the Cougars were unable to field enough players, and coach Tara VanDerveer says upcoming contests against UC Davis and Cal also remain in flux. VanDerveer is one victory away from tying Pat Summitt’s all-time record (1,098).
Big East update
Eight of 11 Big East schools have taken the court so far, with UConn, Seton Hall and Georgetown still on COVID-19 pauses.
True to form, DePaul scheduled a tough nonconference slate this season, facing Texas A&Min its season opener and replacing UConn in the Jimmy VWomen’s Classic at Mohegan Sun Arena to take on Louisville. After just narrowly falling to the Aggies, 93-91, the Blue Demons were throttled by Louisville. Through three games, Dee Bekelja paces DePaul with 19.0 points per game.
Perhaps the biggest surprise so far in the Big East: Denise Dillon has come out with a strong start in her first year at Villanova, leading the Wildcats to a 4-0 record (1-0 in conference play) that makes them the only Big East team to play at least two games and still be undefeated. Sophomore Maddy Siegrist repeated as Big East player of the week as the top scorer and rebounder in the conference (23.8 points and 11.8 rebounds per game).
Player spotlight: Baylor’s DiDi Richards
Thirty-eight days after a freak accident left her temporarily paralyzed from the hips down, Baylor’s DiDi Richards made her return to the court for the Bears’ Dec. 2 against USF. The senior guard and reigning national defensive player of the year had collided with a teammate in practice at the end of October, suffering a spinal shock that one doctor told her would leave her unable to play basketball ever again.
But Richards rehabbed her way back from the injury rather quickly, managing to get out of a chair and walk under her own power two weeks after the accident and shoot jump shots another two weeks after that. She’s played 30 or more minutes in each of the two games she’s appeared in for the Bears since her return.
“She’s back to playing DiDi basketball,” Baylor head coach Mulkey said after last week’s USF game. “We needed her tonight, and the lift is just the mere presence of her on the floor.”