A testament to the growing nature of women’s college basketball, an unprecedented level of parity has taken hold in the sport, with No. 1s and No. 2s dropping and preseason unranked teams climbing into the top five…in November alone!
So here’s a look at the eight most surprising takeaways from an exciting first month of women’s college basketball:
South Carolina…I knew they would be good, but phew
While it’s a bit difficult to consider yourself an underdog with eight five-star recruits on the roster, the departures of Aaliyah Boston and Zia Cooke have left coach Dawn Staley with historic inexperience and skepticism — SC doesn’t return a double-digit scorer for the first time since 2012 and wasn’t picked to win the SEC Media Poll this offseason.
Staley took the opposite view, calling her new backcourt of Te-Hina Paopao and Raven Johnson “the best she’s ever coached,” and the Hall of Fame boss appears to be right after a month of basketball.
His Gamecocks are a perfect 5-0, reaching the 100-point mark against all but one team, crushing in-state rival Clemson by 69 points and scoring 114 points against a top-15 Maryland team. SC currently leads the nation in offensive and defensive rating — according to HerHoopStats, South Carolina is 65.4 points better than the median DI team per 100 possessions — and is undisputed as the best team in women’s college basketball.
Iowa…in trouble from the start
With three starters returning from last year’s national championship team, including reigning Naismith Player of the Year Caitlin Clark, Iowa’s red-hot offense, and especially its excellence on the perimeter, should continue into the new season. The team around Clark has struggled from long range, however, combining to go 3-29 in two games and saved by a 44-point performance from Clark against No. 8 Virginia Tech.
And when Clark finally accepted her teammates’ erratic behavior, the Hawkeyes lost to unranked Kansas State on a night when Iowa shot just 2-21 from three-point range. The immediate improvement came the next time around against Drake, when they shot 13-24 from three-point range, and the Hawkeyes got their revenge on the Wildcats last weekend with 12 three-pointers in a seven-point victory.
Iowa fans hope their team has overcome its poor shooting, but these early-season woes raise questions about a team particularly reliant on long-range shooting.
LSU… not so invincible
Coming off a national championship season, Kim Mulkey’s team had the most successful offseason in women’s basketball, bringing in the top two players in the transfer portal, Aneesah Morrow and Hailey Van Lith, and the second-best high school recruit nationally, Mikaylah Williams. Such a pedigree helped LSU earn its first No. 1 ranking in program history heading into the season and left prognosticators with a pressing question: Who could possibly top this LSU team?
Colorado answered that question immediately and convincingly (more on the Buffs in a moment) by shooting 53 percent and pulling away from the Tigers 92-78. LSU won the next seven games, albeit with some pretty notable growing pains — the Tigers trailed in the second half by Kent State and nearly squandered a 10-point second-half lead against Virginia.
LSU has struggled with spacing issues, with Van Lith and Morrow shooting 24 percent from three-point range, issues partly solved by Williams lighting the net from distance, and All-American Angel Reese has been a team sentiment. The Tigers certainly have the potential to defend their national championship, but flaws have been apparent early in Mulkey’s talent-over-all approach.
NC State… addition by subtraction?
After losing the top four scorers from a team eliminated in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, expectations in Raleigh hit their lowest level in nearly a decade: The Wolfpack received no votes in the preseason AP poll.
The NC State team that has been vocal about the disrespect channeled its anger by making a perfect 7-0 start to the season and returning to the top five in women’s college basketball after an 18-month hiatus. The Wolfpack seized an early opportunity to make national headlines with Saniya Rivers posting an absurd 33/10/5/3/3 stat line and propelling her team to a 92-81 upset win over No. 2 UConn.
Handily dispatching Kentucky and Cincinnati in the Paradise Jam, NC State earned another top-five victory on its final day in the Virgin Islands, outscoring No. 3 Colorado 22-6 in the first quarter and earning a 78-60 victory despite a poor shooting night from Rivers.
Colorado…the good old west coast attack
Facing LSU to open the season, most of the national attention focused on the Tigers and their embarrassment of riches, only to discover just how potent Colorado’s offense can be. The Buffaloes outscored the defending champions for 94 points thanks to Frida Formann, who NCAA.com highlighted as one of the top players of the year. Top 10 shooters entering 2023-24, led the way with 27 points on 7-11 three-point shooting.
In dealing with Oklahoma State, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Colorado’s high-powered offense ultimately fell short in the aforementioned loss to NC State. Still, the Buffaloes have done a good job of creating quality looks around the basket this season, currently ranking fourth nationally in two-point shooting percentage, and standout point guard Jaylyn Sherrod and center Aaronette Vonleh provide the Buffs with enough star power to compete atop a loaded Pac-12 conference.
Southern California…JuJu is real
Guiding USC through the good and bad in an upset win over No. 7 Ohio State in the Hall of Fame Series on Opening Day (the top-ranked recruit was the only Trojan to score in the third quarter), JuJu Watkins propelled USC on the rise throughout November. Watkins ultimately finished with 32 points, five rebounds and six assists against the Buckeyes, setting a Trojan recruit scoring record, before showing her potential as a high-volume shooter against Le Moyne with a 6-8 3-point performance.
Now 5-0 and ranked sixth nationally, USC still owes much of its success to Watkins, as the slender, 6-foot-1 star held off Penn State with 31 points and 12 rebounds in a 71-70 victory. A manageable December sets up a mouth-watering showdown on New Year’s Eve, when it travels across town to take on No. 2 UCLA.
Princeton…the Ivy League thrives
The standard-bearer for a stellar November in the Ivy League, Princeton managed to impress in both its wins and losses, earning its first November AP Poll appearance in school history. Beating a top-half A-10 team in Duquesne and snapping Middle Tennessee’s 29-game home winning streak, the Tigers took a four-point lead in the final four minutes at Pauley Pavilion before ultimately losing to No. 3 UCLA — Princeton has since added wins over San Diego and No. 22 Oklahoma.
Meanwhile, Columbia entered the HerHoopStats top 50, beating Seton Hall and narrowly losing to Duke, while Brown beat Big East opponents Georgetown and Providence.
Cameron Brink…missed a free throw!
By converting his final 46 free throws of his 2022-23 campaign, Brink’s robotic accuracy at the line managed to survive a long offseason, making his first 24 tries of the new year. With a crucial 10-10 free throw streak in an overtime win over Duke, Brink clearly struck a deal with the basketball gods, ultimately missing his next game in a comfortable win over Belmont.
More seriously, Brink has been particularly exceptional this year on a rising Stanford team (the Cardinals are No. 4 in the AP Top 25, 11 spots higher than their preseason ranking), averaging more points, rebounds and blocks in fewer minutes and shooting 38 percent from three-point range.
