Parity increases women’s college basketball every day, as evidenced in part by so many good non-conference matchups early in the season. These games also help to increase parity.
THE women’s hoops parity is also demonstrated by the whole movement this week in the USA TODAY Sports Women’s Basketball Coaches Poll. Stanford, Illinois and South Dakota State made their season debuts, while Baylor and Duke fell in the rankings (and in the case of FSU, Creighton and Indiana, out of the poll entirely).
That means that after a series of ranked matchups this week, even crazier things could happen in next week’s poll. The more parity, the better (and even though the NCAA tournament seems very far away right now – the more parity, the more entertaining March Madness will be).
With that in mind, here are five women’s matches to watch this week:
NOTICE: Dawn Staley is more than just South Carolina’s women’s basketball coach. He is a transcendent star.
Creighton at No. 11 Kansas State
Thursday, 6:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2
The most undercovered player in women’s college basketball is Kansas State’s Ayoka Leea 6-foot-6 center who holds the NCAA single-game scoring record (61 points). Lee is a handful on both ends of the court, and she has a lot of stuff around her, including Tulsa transfer Temira Poindexter (19.0 points per game) and Missouri State transfer Taylor Kennedy (17 .0 ppg, 8.0 rpg). Meanwhile, Creighton actually fell to unranked South Dakota State last week, although Lauren Jensen (23 points) was the expected scoring machine. The Blue Jays tend to shoot a lot of 3s and the key to securing a tough road win this week will be to exhaust a lot of those attempts.
No. 2 UConn at No. 15 North Carolina
Friday, 6 p.m. ET, ESPN2
UConn coach Geno Auriemma will tie the all-time winning record with a victory against the Tar Heels, and you can bet Alyssa Ustby (10.7 ppg, 8.7 rpg) and Carolina Nord would love nothing more than to ruin this party. Ustby and guard Lexi Donarski (15.0 ppg) will have their hands full with a healthy Paige Bueckers (17.5 ppg, 4.0 ppg) and Princeton transfer Kaitlyn Chen (6, 0 points per game, 6.0 points per game). But keep an eye on UConn freshman Jana El Alfy, a 6-foot-5 freshman center from Cairo, Egypt, who is finally healthy and has come off the bench to give UConn some excellent minutes (11.5 ppg, 9.0 RPG) early in the season. . She will make the difference.
No. 18 Louisville at No. 19 Kentucky
Saturday, 6 p.m. ET, SECN+
It’s a matchup between two of the best-coached programs in the country and a first look at Kentucky under first-year coach Kenny Brooks, who brought in All-American guard Georgia Amoore (12 .0 ppg, 9.0 apg) and center Clara Strack (18.5 ppg, 9.5 RPG) with him in Lexington. Jeff Walz’s group features one of the most underrated post players in the country, Olivia Cochran (12.3 ppg, 62 FG%), while freshman guard Tajianna Roberts (15.0 ppg per game, 2.7 RPG) showed why she was a five-point prospect coming out of high school. . It’s one of the best rivalries in women’s hoops and with Kentucky’s hiring of Brooks last offseason, the situation has only gotten better.
No. 23 Stanford at Indiana
Sunday, 2 p.m. ET, FS1
Few expected much from Stanford this season, as the Cardinal has a new coach and an almost entirely new team. Picked to finish seventh in the ACC, Stanford beat Gonzaga last week on the day its floor was named Tara VanDerveer Court. But that’s not the most impressive thing about the Cardinal’s four games this season – it’s the fact that Stanford is shooting a staggering 57.7 percent from 3. Sophomore forward Nunu Agara (19.3 ppg, 7.5 RPG) does it all for the Cardinal and will be a handful for Indiana, which has lost back-to-back games to Harvard (yes, Harvard) and Butler. Lilly Meister (12.3 ppg, 7.7 RPG) and Sydney Parrish (11.3 ppg, 8.0 RPG) will be eager to put these losses behind them.
NC State No. 10 at TCU
Sunday, 3 p.m., ESPN
Hailey Van Lith’s TCU debut went as well as it could have, as the super senior guard posted a stat line of 21 points, five rebounds, seven assists and six steals. She will now face one of the best defenses in Wolfpack guards Aziaha James (15.0 ppg, 4.5 rpg) and Saniya Rivers (7.5 ppg, 7.0 rpg) who patrol the perimeter. The difference maker could very well be seventh-year senior Sedona Prince (19.3 ppg, 8.0 ppg, 5.7 ppg), or perhaps second-year transfer Donovyn Hunter (8.5 ppg, 4.0 ppg).
Email Lindsay Schnell at [email protected] and follow her on social media @Lindsay_Schnell
This article was originally published on USA TODAY: Women’s college basketball games to watch include UConn, Kansas State
