Real or not: Gamecocks back in championship form, Hidalgo for player of the year
Credit to Author: Michael Voepel, Alexa Philippou, Charlie Creme, Kendra Andrews| Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2024 12:43:58 EST
Tennessee fends off Florida State’s second-half comeback thanks to Zee Spearman’s game-deciding jumper in the final minute to give the Volunteers a 79-77 win and remain undefeated. (0:45)
Another week, another entertaining — and telling — stretch of women’s college basketball.
The SEC/ACC Challenge was a must-watch event Wednesday and Thursday. The SEC came out on top 10-6, the event highlighted by wins for Oklahoma over Louisville, LSU over Stanford, North Carolina over Kentucky, Notre Dame over Texas, NC State over Ole Miss and South Carolina over Duke.
Over the weekend, Tennessee earned its first ranked win in the Kim Caldwell era with a 78-68 victory over Iowa in the Champions Classic doubleheader. The event’s second game was less competitive, with UConn trashing Louisville by 33. Similarly lopsided was South Carolina’s 85-52 rout over TCU on Sunday.
Elsewhere, league play began in two of the Power 4 conferences.
With so many matchups between Top 25 teams, and others just outside of the poll pushing to enter the rankings, the picture is beginning to crystallize of which teams and players are contenders and which might be pretenders. ESPN sorts through the host of overreactions that emerged from the past week’s consequential games.
UConn’s Sarah Strong scores 22 points to pace the Huskies to an 88-52 victory over Holy Cross.
Expectations were high for the Huskies entering the season. They have lived up to the billing, starting 8-0 with Top 25 wins over UNC, Ole Miss and Louisville. Most impressive was Saturday’s 85-52 rout of the then-No. 22 Cardinals, a vintage UConn demolition in which they led by as many as 46.
The Huskies shot 52% from the field, despite the fact that Paige Bueckers had an off night with eight points (on 2-for-11 shooting). Freshman Sarah Strong dazzled with 21 points (8-of-10), while Azzi Fudd had another strong outing with 18 points before leaving early with an apparent knee injury. The Huskies’ depth shined once more, with players like Kaitlyn Chen, Jana El Alfy and Ashlynn Shade also making an impact. Louisville — which managed 33 points through the first 30 minutes — looked so overmatched that coach Jeff Walz apologized after the game for his team’s “embarrassing” performance.
Verdict: OVERREACTION
UConn could end up ranked No. 1 in the country at some point this season and looks well-positioned to end up in Tampa come April. But it would be pretty stunning to see the Huskies go undefeated the rest of the way, even against a weaker Big East this season. UConn has a gauntlet of ranked competition ahead in nonconference play, with most of those games on the road: at Notre Dame on Thursday, vs. Iowa State on Dec. 17 (neutral site), vs. USC on Dec. 21, at Tennessee on Feb. 6, and at South Carolina on Feb. 16. For as good as UConn has been, it doesn’t look so invincible that it will make it through unscathed against some really stellar competition. Notre Dame, USC and South Carolina will likely be the toughest tests.
As has been the case for the past four seasons, all eyes will be on whether the Huskies can stay healthy, especially after Fudd’s scare Saturday. Coach Geno Auriemma said after the game that Fudd seemed “fine” and likely avoided a worst-case scenario, but the team will know more upon returning to campus. Her status will be crucial for the Huskies not for Thursday, but for their championship aspirations. — Alexa Philippou
We knew what to watch for in Caldwell’s first season: The Lady Vols’ version of “40 Minutes of Hell.” Tennessee relies on both pressure defense and pressure offense, with rolling substitutions to keep players fresh.
It has worked: Tennessee is 7-0 and has forced an average of 28.3 turnovers, second in Division I to College of Charleston’s 30.7. In Saturday’s win over Iowa, the Lady Vols scored 42 points off 30 turnovers while allowing just four on nine turnovers. The players have bought into the style, which requires energy and teamwork. Sophomore guard Talaysia Cooper, a transfer from South Carolina, averages 20.1 PPG and 2.9 steals per game for Tennessee, which hasn’t finished first in the SEC regular season since tying South Carolina in 2015.
Verdict: OVERREACTION
It’s a positive start, especially with back-to-back wins over Florida State and Iowa. But the Lady Vols haven’t played any opponents the caliber of the top SEC teams yet. It’s one thing to force so many turnovers from Iowa in its first season after point guard Caitlin Clark graduated. That will be harder against the likes of South Carolina, LSU and Texas, top-five-caliber teams with standout guards such as Raven Johnson, Flau’Jae Johnson and Rori Harmon.
Even against the other ranked SEC teams like Oklahoma, Kentucky and Ole Miss, the Lady Vols will find it difficult to impose their will as much as they have so far. Oklahoma has shown a propensity for turnovers, but counters with a lightning-quick ability to score and rebound. Kentucky has D-I assists leader Georgia Amoore (8.2 APG) at point guard. And Ole Miss plays its own high-pressure defense.
Offensively, Tennessee averages 10.6 3-pointers per game — fifth in D-I and a big jump from last season’s 6.8. But the Lady Vols shot 32.1% from behind the arc last season compared to 28.7 this season.
There is a lot to like about what Tennessee has done so far. To match the achievements of former coach Kellie Harper — who went 53-24 in SEC play in her five seasons and didn’t finish below a tie for fourth place — would be a success for Caldwell. But it seems unlikely any team will displace South Carolina as conference champion. — Michael Voepel
South Carolina’s Ashlyn Watkins races down the court and elevates at the rim for a one-handed jam against TCU.
The Gamecocks had as big of a wakeup call as they could get last month when they were pummeled by UCLA, ending the program’s 43-game win streak. Since then, they have regained their dominant form. That peaked this week, when they defeated then-No. 8 Duke 81-70 on Thursday and blew out then-No. 9 TCU 85-52 on Sunday, handing the Horned Frogs their first loss of the season. South Carolina held a 20-point lead against Duke on Thursday and then held TCU to a season-low nine points in both the second and third quarters.
South Carolina has three top-10 wins this season. In their rout over TCU, MiLaysia Fulwiley had one of her most offensively consistent games of the season, with a team-high 20 points on 8-of-15 shooting.
South Carolina has a 7.3% chance to win the rest of its remaining games this season, according to ESPN Analytics, which is the sixth-highest chance in D-I and the second highest among major conference teams. South Carolina hasn’t suffered multiple losses in a single season since 2021-22, when it went on to win the national title.
Since losing to UCLA, South Carolina:
-demolished then-No. 15 Iowa State by 40
-led No. 8 Duke by as many as 25, ultimately pulling out an 11-point win
-routed No. 9 TCU by 33
Quite the response from the Gamecocks over the last few weeks
Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION
South Carolina took its foot off of the gas in the second half Thursday against Duke, but the Gamecocks played what could be considered the best 20 minutes of their season in the first half. They played quickly but didn’t just rely on pace and transition offense to score. They had cohesive schemes and executed the game plan.
After the game, coach Dawn Staley said she didn’t know what she envisioned because “sometimes we don’t know what we’re getting.” Yes, things have looked different for the Gamecocks this year. They rely heavily on guard play and are working without a go-to post player for the first time in nearly a decade. But if this is the result when playing without a vision and lacking reliability, it should scare opponents. As the season goes on, the Gamecocks will figure it out. They have the ability to go back-to-back. — Kendra Andrews
Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo drops 30 points in the Fighting Irish’s overtime win vs. Texas.
It was a good week for the exceptional sophomore class. Hidalgo (30 points) was the catalyst in Notre Dame’s thrilling win over Texas in the SEC/ACC Challenge. Madison Booker paced the Longhorns with 20 points. That same night, LSU’s Mikaylah Williams rallied the Tigers to a win over Stanford with 32 points. On Tuesday, JuJu Watkins had her best game of the season — 40 points and 9-for-11 shooting from 3-point range — in a blowout of Cal Baptist. The future of the sport is in good hands with this class that also includes the dynamic Fulwiley, Iowa State’s Audi Crooks and NC State’s Zoe Brooks. But Hidalgo is the leader of this pack.
Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION
Watkins was the No. 1-ranked recruit in the 2023 recruiting class, and she maintained that status throughout her freshman season, finishing second in the country in scoring and carrying the Trojans to the Elite Eight for the first time in 30 years. Watkins remains one of the top five players in college basketball, but this season, Hidalgo is the marginally better player.
Watkins (25.0 PPG) ranks second and Hidalgo third (24.6 PPG) in D-I scoring behind behind Florida State’s Ta’Niya Latson, but Hidalgo is having a more productive season and should be regarded the country’s second-best player behind Bueckers — with that gap closing, too. Hidalgo has been more consistent than Booker or Williams and more efficient than Watkins.
When Hidalgo and Watkins were both on the floor in Notre Dame’s win at USC two weeks ago, Watkins scored 24 points. But she needed 25 shots to get there. Hidalgo also scored 24 points but added 8 assists and 5 steals, which were instrumental in the victory. And that last statistic is the separator. While Watkins is a good defender, Hidalgo — who leads the country with 4.1 steals per game and topped the nation with 4.6 as a freshman — is elite.
And it’s that ability to disrupt opposing offenses that also gives Hidalgo a solid case to be considered the top player in the country. Hidalgo and Bueckers face off Thursday night (7 ET, ESPN) when UConn travels to South Bend, and it could not have come at a better time. — Charlie Creme
We don’t say this just because South Carolina has dominated two Big 12 teams picked to finish in the top four in that league, beating Iowa State by 40 on Nov. 28 and TCU by 33 on Sunday.
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But considering UConn looks so good for another Final Four run, that leaves three spots for the Power 4. South Carolina is favored to make it, too, with fellow SEC teams LSU and Texas in the mix.
New Big Ten members UCLA and USC lead that league’s candidates for the Final Four, and Notre Dame — especially if its post game gets healthy — is likely the top candidate from the ACC, with Duke also in consideration. The Big 12 doesn’t have a team now that stands out as being able to make it that far.
Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION
The Big 12 has no unbeaten teams. Kansas State, picked by the coaches to win the league, is 10-1. The Wildcats lost their only game against a ranked team, falling by 11 to Duke. Iowa State, picked second, couldn’t touch South Carolina and also lost to Northern Iowa. Baylor, picked third, has losses to unranked Oregon and Indiana. TCU, picked fourth, made headlines with its win over Notre Dame, but came back to Earth against South Carolina. And West Virginia, picked fifth, lost its only game against a ranked team (Texas).
History doesn’t help the Big 12, either: Only three of its current members have been to a Final Four, and one of those was nearly 32 years ago (Texas Tech, which won the NCAA title in 1993). Baylor has three national championships, most recently in 2019, but those all came under former coach Kim Mulkey. Arizona is the most recent Final Four participant, in 2021, when it lost in the NCAA final to Stanford.
The Big 12 conference race should be fun to watch, and its teams could make noise in the NCAA tournament. But getting to Tampa is not likely. — Voepel