Women’s basketball rankings: JuJu Watkins and USC end UCLA unbeaten season, NCAA releases first top-16

The Huskies beat the Gamecocks, a showdown in Tobacco Road and more

A telltale sign that it’s almost March Madness time is when the NCAA Tournament committee releases its first top-16 ranking of the year. That announcement came Sunday leading into one of the top games of the week between No. 4 South Carolina Gamecocks and No. 7 UConn Huskies.

However, the action of Sunday might have changed those seedings with a lopsided win in Columbia and the Tigers falling in Austin. Those games and more highlight the week of action in the NCAA. Here’s how it impacted the weekly AP top 25 poll.

AP top 25 women’s college basketball rankings:

1. Notre Dame
2. Texas
3. UCLA
4. USC
5. UConn
6. South Carolina
7. LSU
8. Ohio State
9. North Carolina
10. TCU
11. Duke
12. Kansas State
13. NC State
14. Kentucky
15. Tennessee
16. Oklahoma
17. West Virginia
18. Alabama
19. Baylor
20. Georgia Tech
21. Maryland
22. Michigan State
23. Creighton
24. Oklahoma State
25. Illinois

Others receiving votes: California 48, Utah 43, Louisville 28, South Dakota St. 17, Florida St. 16, Richmond 10, Michigan 10, Mississippi 10, James Madison 2, Vanderbilt 2, Harvard 1.

Tournament Committee Rankings

In 27 days, the NCAA Selection Show will reveal the 68-team March Madness tournament field and on Sunday the committee gave their first look of how the top 16 teams will look next month.

Earning a top-16 spot in the tournament field often means less travel with every No. 1 through 4 seed hosting the first two rounds of the tournament.

This year, the women’s game caught up to the men’s in one of the key factors behind choosing the tournament field, switching to the quad system to determine the strength of wins and losses. Now, the daily NET rankings help determine which quad a win or loss falls into, with the top matchups in quad one and the least competitive in quad four.

It minimizes the use of the eye test used in previous seasons, or only ranked wins, with AP polling voted on by members of the press.

Despite No. 1 UCLA’s loss three days prior against No. 6 USC, the Bruins landed in the top spot in the rankings. Also, giving a top-10 AP team like No. 9 Ohio State a spot near the cutoff for hosting the start of the tournament.

The committee has one more release scheduled before the end of the regular season, announcing an updated top-16 on Thursday, Feb. 27. It will air live on ESPN2.

Soon after College Gameday announced the initial rankings, the UConn Huskies had people questioning the accuracy of the committee.

UConn Outruns the Defending Champions

Under head coach Dawn Staley, the South Carolina Gamecocks built a reputation of high intensity basketball where the three-time national champions don’t give up on drives and tire opponents with an endless rotation of stars.

On Sunday, South Carolina met UConn for the 11th consecutive season, with the Gamecocks on a four-game winning streak against head coach Geno Auriemma’s Huskies and a 71-game home winning streak in Columbia.

UConn didn’t care about any of those streaks and dismantled the Gamecocks at their own game. The Huskies pushed the pace with their passing and deep shooting. In the first half alone, the visitors went 7-of-14 from beyond the arc. Combine three-point shooting with UConn freshman forward Sarah Strong nearly reaching a double-double in the first half and the Huskies went into halftime up 22 points.

It wouldn’t get much easier for the Gamecocks in the second half. UConn piled on, pushing their lead up to 29 points in the 87-58 victory. UConn outscored South Carolina in each quarter, with guard Azzi Fudd leading all scorers with 28 points on 11-of-22 shooting, 23 points coming in the second half.

Guard Paige Bueckers had a double-double with 12 points, 10 assists and 7 rebounds while Strong did hit her own double-double with 16 points and 13 rebounds.

“This is a great rivalry. It became a rivalry when they started winning,” said Auriemma. “It became a headache for me back home when they started winning, but it became a great rivalry. I think it’s one of the premier games in college basketball right now.”

According to ESPN Bet, the win makes UConn the favorites to win the NCAA Tournament, dethroning South Carolina, which were the favorites entering Sunday.

JuJu shines vs. top ranked UCLA

In the first 21 games of the season for the USC guard JuJu Watkins, the sophomore superstar, had two games where she scored less than 20 points in a game. Against the Wisconsin Badgers and then No. 8 ranked Ohio State, Watkins scored 14 and 17 points, respectively. Despite wins in both games, Watkins didn’t look like her usual self heading into a crosstown matchup against the undefeated No. 1 ranked UCLA Bruins.

Watkins erased any and all doubt right away for the Trojans, scoring 11 points in the first quarter and extending USC’s lead to 12 points at the start of the second quarter. In a game that was billed not only a matchup between two top programs in the country, but two National Player of the Year candidates in Watkins and Bruins center Lauren Betts.

The Trojans won 71-60 behind 38 points, 11 rebounds 8 blocks and 5 assists from Watkins. A remarkable performance propelling USC to its second win over a No. 1 ranked opponent in program history. The first time since 1983 when USC defeated No. 1 Louisiana Tech in the NCAA title game.

Betts had a good game by all accounts, scoring 18 points with 13 rebounds, but UCLA didn’t have enough to go into the Galen Center and get a win on the road.

Then, on Sunday, both teams struggled. For USC, it was a trip to Seattle to face the Washington Huskies. In the third quarter, the Huskies had a 12-point lead with 1:51 remaining.

USC needed a 68.8 percent shooting quarter in the fourth to come away with a 69-64 win, behind forward Kiki Iriafen’s 11 points on 5-of-5 shooting in the fourth quarter, and eight points from freshman Kennedy Smith who went 3-of-3 from the floor, with two from beyond the arc.

Part of a Big Ten doubleheader, the Bruins followed the Trojans, this time back at home to welcome the No. 22 ranked Michigan State Spartans. On the availability report, UCLA listed Betts as questionable in what appeared like a bit of gamesmanship (deception). Betts didn’t practice the day before or take part in shoot around on Sunday, wearing a boot on her right leg due to a toe injury.

A source confirmed that it wasn’t reported that she was moved from questionable to out, with the television crew announcing it just minutes before the tip.

For the first half, it didn’t matter and the Bruins built a 13-point lead before halftime, but there were signs that the Spartans weren’t about to give in. In the final 44 seconds of the first half, MSU scored five points to trim the deficit to single digits, setting up a near upset in the second half.

Michigan State outscored UCLA 22-12 in the third quarter and took a two-point lead into the fourth, setting up a back-and-forth game that took the contest down to the wire. Then, down two points, the officiating crew assessed a technical foul to the Spartans bench, seemingly ending the game with 17 seconds remaining, extending the UCLA lead to four points.

The Bruins won 75-69, but the technical was a travesty of a decision so late in an entertaining and competitive matchup in the Big Ten.

It’s normal for teams to have a bit of a slump after such a big game and both Los Angeles sides survived, but there’s still two weeks of the season left.

Other Stories This Week

• In Chapel Hill, the No. 12 UNC Tar Heels welcomed the No. 10 NC State Wolfpack, going down to the final buzzer with UNC ending NC State’s nine-game winning streak.
• No. 3 Texas was behind No. 5 LSU for most of Sunday’s game with sophomore guard Madison Booker missing her first 11 shots of the game. Booker bounced back, scoring 16 points, including four free throws in the final 30 seconds of the game to give Texas the home win.
• No. 23 Florida State survived against the Miami Hurricanes without the nation’s leading scorer Ta’Niya Latson, with senior guard O’Mariah Gordon scoring 34 points and seven assists. A layup from forward Mikayla Timpson with three seconds left helped the Seminoles avoid the upset.