Multiple Contributors
Feb 17, 2025, 08:20 AM ET
Amid the dog days of February, with the promise of madness just around the corner, upsets and shake-ups reigned in women's college basketball this past week. Big-time individual performances and surprising results highlighted a slew of top-10 matchups.
Over the past four days, USC upset previously unbeaten UCLA. UConn routed South Carolina -- at Colonial Life Arena, no less. Texas rallied at home to beat LSU. Then the Bruins -- with star Lauren Betts out because of a foot injury -- had to battle to the end to hold off Michigan State to avoid a second straight loss.
JuJu Watkins, USC's national player of the year contender, had 38 points, 11 rebounds, 8 blocks and 5 assists in the win over No. 1 UCLA. Madison Booker has averaged 21.5 points for Texas over her past six games. Azzi Fudd hit six 3-pointers and scored 28 points as the Huskies ended the Gamecocks' 71-game home winning streak.
Texas on Sunday ended an eight-day stretch in which it beat three top-10 teams in a row -- including South Carolina on Feb. 9 -- and now has a great chance to win or tie for the regular-season title in its first season in the SEC. The Longhorns might have lost some believers on whether they could compete for the title after a 67-50 loss at South Carolina on Jan. 12, but Texas' 10 victories since -- six against ranked teams -- have mitigated those doubts.
No. 2 Notre Dame, which is unbeaten in the ACC, is looking for its 18th consecutive win Monday (6 p.m. ET, ESPN) when it faces No. 13 Duke.
With Selection Sunday less than a month away, ESPN's Michael Voepel, Charlie Creme and Alexa Philippou reexamine the state of the national title race following this recent slate of games.
The national championship race is wide open -- and Texas might be the hottest team
Philippou: The past four days cemented how wide open March and April are going to be -- at least, within the top echelon of teams. Before last Sunday, I considered UCLA, South Carolina and Notre Dame the top three teams in the country, with one of them most likely to cut down the nets in Tampa. But the Bruins and Gamecocks looked mortal over the past eight days, UCLA suffering its first loss of the season and South Carolina dropping two of three games for the first time since 2019.
Meanwhile, USC earned its first victory over a No. 1-ranked opponent since 1983 and reaffirmed its place in the title conversation, particularly if Watkins goes supernova in March the way she did against UCLA. UConn's stunning upset in Columbia on Sunday indicated for the first time this season that the Huskies are capable of beating anybody.
Still, no one has had a better stretch than Texas. The Longhorns have defeated three consecutive ranked opponents, including South Carolina and LSU, and are showing they might be as dangerous as any team.
Those six -- plus the Irish -- have solidified themselves in a tier above the rest.
1:57
Texas takes down LSU for 10th straight win
Madison Booker leads the way with 16 points as Texas defeats LSU 65-58, handing the Tigers their second loss of the season.
Voepel: It's always great to see upsets and big performances in February; it whets the appetite for March. But as Alexa said, the same group of teams we've been focusing on most of the season are the top contenders for the national championship. Depending on how the bracket turns out, the list can expand to a few more teams that could make a run at the Final Four.
Inside the UConn bubble, there is constant psychoanalysis of the team, which coach Geno Auriemma has joked about for decades. But outside it, that doesn't exist: The expectation is always that UConn will be UConn in March/April. The Huskies didn't need Sunday's game to go as well as it did to prove they could win it all. But it probably made them feel better about that possibility after losses to Notre Dame and USC in December, and to Tennessee earlier this month.
Still, the past few days have been a lot of fun, and it's exciting to think there are at least six teams that are legitimate championship contenders. And add this: Three of those programs either haven't won an NCAA title (UCLA won an AIAW national championship) or haven't won one in a long time (Texas' lone NCAA title was in 1986; USC won in 1983 and '84).
Azzi Fudd and UConn seem to be peaking at the right time
Philippou: Auriemma knows better than anyone that one win in February doesn't make or break a national championship run, and he and his players spoke postgame Sunday about knowing they must build from this performance and not get complacent. Not helping the matter is that an uncompetitive Big East slate is all that remains on the team's schedule for the next month.
But most went into Sunday thinking UConn hadn't yet proved it was a true championship contender. The Huskies' dismantlement of the Gamecocks proved they are now in that conversation. Their transition play, rebounding and 3-point shooting were significantly better than only 10 days ago when UConn was upset by Tennessee in Knoxville. Fudd's 28-point effort demonstrated she is capable of going off in big games against top competition, and the performance should only help her confidence moving forward.
But Auriemma also pointed to how his team played to win instead of playing as if they were hoping to not lose. If the Huskies can continue to channel that aggressive, determined and confident mindset, they could cut down the nets for the first time since 2016.
Voepel: Fudd has an abundance of talent mitigated only by terribly bad luck with injuries. But right now, it feels as if we're seeing Fudd healthy and lethal. She has averaged 26.3 points in her past three games, going 19-for-30 from 3-point range (63%). It might seem an oversimplification to say UConn goes as its 3-point shooting goes, but there's a lot of truth to that. When Fudd is playing the way she did Sunday, everything works better for the Huskies.
0:58
Highlight: Edwards has career performance in South Carolina's win over Florida
Freshman Joyce Edwards scores a career-high 28 points as No. 4 South Carolina bounces back from its recent loss at Texas with a 101-63 blowout of the Gators.
South Carolina, which lost twice in eight days, has key things to work on
Creme: There should be concern in Columbia. It wasn't just that South Carolina lost twice in its past three games, it's that two teams beat the Gamecocks in different ways. In the past few years and even earlier this season, the window of opportunity to beat South Carolina was a small one: Opponents had to be physical, make open shots and avoid turnovers -- and it had to be all three. Not this week. Texas didn't make a single 3-pointer and committed 13 turnovers but still beat South Carolina. UConn did it by making 3-pointers -- 13 in all. The Gamecocks have more vulnerability than we have seen recently, and Texas and UConn exposed it in two distinctly different ways.
But there was one common trait in each game: rebounding. The Longhorns and Huskies outclassed South Carolina on the glass. UConn dominated, in particular, winning the rebounding battle 48-29. That just doesn't happen to Dawn Staley teams of recent vintage. It was shocking to witness Sunday.
Voepel: In talking to Staley recently about the UConn matchup, she said another SEC coach asked her why she was willing to play UConn in February, so deep into the SEC season. The outcome is more likely to help UConn, which plays in the lightly regarded Big East, than South Carolina.
But Staley has a good reason: She said UConn is a reference point for how ready her team is for the NCAA tournament. A loss to the Huskies might dent the Gamecocks' résumé, but it gives Staley a clear view of how her team matches up against an offensively gifted team, which UConn always is. That matters when you want to compete for a national championship.
The SEC is a grind, even more this season after adding Texas and Oklahoma to the conference. The loss of forward Ashlyn Watkins (knee) in January didn't show up right away in South Carolina's results, but it did this past week. The Gamecocks missed her against Texas and UConn, especially on the boards and defensively. They didn't shoot well enough to beat Texas and didn't defend well enough to even be in the game with UConn.
They are relying on freshman Joyce Edwards to be the go-to player on a team in which the whole has been more than the sum of the parts this season. It has all still worked pretty well -- except the three times it didn't (against UCLA, Texas and UConn). One thing is for sure: Staley won't have trouble getting her team's attention after this past week.
Philippou: Staley mentioned postgame Sunday that the way in which her Gamecocks played showed her that "obviously ... something else is going on that isn't just about basketball." She didn't elaborate on what specifically that might be but mentioned the importance of her team playing with toughness, getting back to its habits and identity, and ensuring it keeps the main thing, the main thing.
There's still time for South Carolina to do just that, but with three losses for the first time since 2020-21, the Gamecocks don't have the same unbeatable aura they've embodied in recent seasons.
2:24
Vandy's Mikayla Blakes drops 55 to break D-I freshman scoring record
Mikayla Blakes takes over against Auburn, scoring 55 points to set the D-I freshman scoring record.
The quality at the top of women's college basketball is deep
Voepel: If anyone was worried about a lack of individual stars to watch after Caitlin Clark's departure to the WNBA, that has been alleviated. There are multiple contenders for player of the year and freshman of the year. And good luck putting down money today on who is going to win the national championship.
There are still some big-time regular-season games. Three of Notre Dame's remaining five ACC games are against ranked teams. UCLA and USC have a rematch March 1 at Pauley Pavilion. Then there are the conference tournaments.
Even outside the top group of teams are some must-see players, such as Vanderbilt freshman guard Mikayla Blakes, who has scored 53 and 55 points in games this season.
Plus, knowing we have WNBA expansion (finally) also means we can think about where a lot of these players will be going in the pro league over the next five years.
3:30
Women's college basketball top-16 reveal
Check out who made the NCAA committee's top-16 as we get closer to selection day.
The No. 1 seeds are still fluid
Creme: The top seeds are the same today as they were a week ago, but that doesn't mean things haven't changed. UCLA and South Carolina had a sizable margin for error, which is why they stayed No. 1 seeds despite the losses. That margin is now gone.
UConn seemed out of the running, and still has long odds to be a No. 1 but closed the gap with Sunday's performance. The Huskies will need help -- South Carolina losing one more time, and USC stumbling twice, for instance. But as we've seen in the past seven days, that help might exist. UConn almost received some help Sunday night as both UCLA and USC trailed deep into the fourth quarter to Michigan State and Washington, respectively.
LSU was all but eliminated from the race for a No. 1 seed with Sunday's loss to Texas. An SEC tournament title is the Tigers' only hope for a 1-seed at this point. The Longhorns, meanwhile, have strengthened their position, and Notre Dame has a chance to do the same Monday night against Duke.
UCLA and South Carolina have weaker holds on a top seed than they did a week ago. The gaps among all of these teams has been compressed, making games such as the second USC-UCLA matchup on March 1 and potentially every semifinal and final in the SEC, ACC and Big Ten tournaments monumental in deciding which teams ultimately end up as the four No. 1 seeds.
