“Around the NCAAW Weekly” highlights the week’s notable events. Check out the milestones, surprises, best games and exceptional performances for games played until Sunday, March 7th:
Conference championships
Tournament
No. 7 South Carolina Gamecocks
The Gamecocks won the SEC tournament championship on Sunday and their coach Dawn Staley, along with Georgia Bulldogs coach Joni Taylor, became the first black head coaches to face each other in the game for the conference title. South Carolina’s sophomore center, Aliyah Boston, was named MVP of the tournament. With their quarter-final win on Friday, Gamecocks marked their tenth season of 20 wins under Staley.
No. 4 Stanford Cardinal
The cardinal won the Pac-12 Tournament championship with a resounding victory over UCLA Bruins in the title game on Sunday. Senior owner Kiana Williams was named the tournament’s MVP.
Stanford has made 18 of the 20 league games that have ever taken place in the Pac-12 Tournament and has 14-4 in those games. The cardinal is 11-1 against Bruins in the tournament’s history and has already defeated them in the game for the title four times. Stanford is the champion of the Pac-12 Tournament for the third time in five years.
No. 3 NC State Wolfpack
Wolfpack defeated Louisville in a thriller on Sunday to capture its first consecutive ACC Tournament titles. Elissa Cunane was named MVP of the tournament.
Belmont Bruins
Bruins number 2 defeated UT Martin Skyhawks number 1 to win the Ohio Valley Tournament and win an automatic bet for the NCAA Tournament. The Skyhawks are no longer on ESPN’s projected range, while the Bruins have established themselves as the number 14 seed.
Mercer Bears
Bears was also runner-up in the tournament and defeated runner-up Wofford in the championship game for the Southern Conference. 1-seed Samford is out of ESPN’s projected brace, while Mercer is 16-seed and no matter what he drilled your ticket to Big Dance.
Regular season
No. 8 Maryland Terrapins
The Terps won a portion of the regular season’s Big Ten title by defeating the Michigan Wolverines on Thursday and then moved on and won the championship with a victory over the Penn State Nittany Lions on Saturday. Maryland has won six Big Ten regular season championships in seven years.
No. 6 Baylor Lady Bears
The Lady Bears won the big 12 regular season championship on Monday by defeating the Texas Longhorns. They have now won 11 consecutive titles in the regular season – more consecutive than any other team in the country today and the fifth highest consecutive number of all time.
No 15 South Florida Bulls
The Bulls won the AAC regular season title for the first time with a victory over the Central Florida Knights on Tuesday. Bethy Mununga achieved 500 rebounds in two years in South Florida in victory and her teammate Shae Leverett achieved 100 career blocks.
Games of the week
Friday: Syracuse Orange 68, Florida State Seminoles 67
Kamilla Cardoso lay out the bell for Syracuse, who will take the victory in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament and hope for an 8-seed in the NCAA Tournament, which is where ESPN is currently projecting them. Orange returned from a fall of 14 after one winning the second by two, the third by nine and the fourth by four. Cardoso led with 16 points and 13 rebounds. Bianca Jackson scored 25 points and gave seven assists in the defeat.
Sunday: NC State Wolfpack 58, Louisville Cardinals 56 (ACC tournament championship)
Raina Perez made the game’s winning leap with two seconds remaining and ACC Player of the Year Dana Evans (15 points) missed a 3 point buzzer on the other side for Louisville. Wolfpack lost by eight with 8:58 remaining. Elissa Cunane led the NC State with 20 points and nine rebounds.
Sunday: South Carolina Gamecocks 67, Georgia Bulldogs 62 (SEC tournament championship)
Aliyah Boston starred in this game with 27 points and 10 rebounds, and South Carolina stood firm after scoring the game with two free throws 13 seconds into the fourth. That Morrison (20 points, eight rebounds) made a triple for the Bulldogs with 15 ticks remaining, which reduced the Gamecocks’ lead to three. South Carolina lost six after one. Destanni Henderson added 18 points, nine bags and three assists for the winner.
Milestones / achievements
No. 1 UConn Huskies
On Sunday, UConn reached the final of the conference tournament for the 17th consecutive season. He won seven consecutive wins, but hasn’t won the Big East since 2012. UConn has 159-0 in conference competitions since losing to Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the 2013 Big East championship.
The Huskies have not lost the semifinals of their conference since 1988.
No. 14 Tennessee Volunteer Women
Rennia Davis scored more than 20 points for the sixth consecutive time on Friday. Although she had less than 20 points on Saturday, the streak of six in a row made her the first Tennessee player to accomplish the feat since Candace Parker in 2007. In addition, Lady Vols achieved 1,400 wins on Friday, the maximum of any program in the history of NCAAW Division I.
No. 23 Lady Bears of the State of Missouri
The Lady Bears (16-0 MVC, 11-0 on the road) secured his first season of unbeaten conference on Saturday and was also unbeaten on the road for the first time. They are the fifth MVC / Gateway Conference team to be unbeaten in the league game.
No. 10 Indiana Hoosiers
Indiana ended the Big Ten regular season with a program record of 16 conference victories. The Hoosiers also completed a season sweep of the Iowa Hawkeyes for the first time since 1993-94 on Wednesday.
No. 16 Georgia Bulldogs
Georgia’s senior Jenna Staiti reached 1,000 career points on Friday. She also has more than 500 rebounds and more than 150 blocks in her career. Only eight players in the history of the Bulldog have reached such heights in these three categories.
Streak Tracker
Aari McDonald of Arizona Wildcats – 87– simple games with double-digit punctuation
Surprises
Butler Bulldogs on No. 25 DePaul Blue Demons (Monday)
Bulldogs (3-17, 3-15 Big East) are number 275 on the NET. DePaul is No. 70. This was a regular season game.
Omaha Mavericks defeated number 21 of the South Dakota Jackrabbits (Saturday)
The Mavericks (6-12, 4-8 Summit, No. 222 NET) defeated the Jackrabbits (No. 46 NET) in the quarter-finals of the Summit League Tournament, keeping them with 40 points. The state of South Dakota was perfect in the regular season of the Summit League.
Ole Miss Rebels on No. 13 Arkansas Razorbacks (Thursday)
The rebels (11-11, 4-10 SEC, No. 42 NET) advanced to the SEC tournament quarterfinals with this victory and climbed into the ESPN bubble for the NCAA tournament. However, they lost to Tennessee Lady Volunteers in the quarterfinals. Arkansas is number 20 on the NET.
TCU Horned Frogs over Oklahoma Sooners (Thursday)
Oklahoma (12-11, 9-9 Big 12, No. 67 NET) is now part of the “next four out,” according to ESPN, after this defeat. TCU (9-14, 4-14 Big 12) is the number 99 of NET.
Clemson Tigers beats Notre Dame Fighting Irish (Thursday)
Clemson (11-13, 5-12 ACC, No. 65 NET) advanced to the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament with this win and may have eliminated Notre Dame (10-10, 8-7 ACC, No. 55 NET) from the NCAA Tournament.
Oregon State Beavers wins No 19 Oregon Ducks (Thursday)
The Ducks (No. 10 NET) continued their fall while playing without Te-Hina Paopao in this quarter-final match of the Pac-12 Tournament. Oregon State (No. 36 NET) ended up losing to Stanford in the semifinals.
Villanova Wildcats on No. 25 DePaul Blue Demons (Saturday)
The Blue Demons continued their fall with this defeat in the Big East quarterfinals. The loss to Butler was particularly striking, as DePaul is still projected by ESPN to make the NCAA tournament, but is in the bubble. Villanova is number 76 on the NET.
No. 16 Georgia Bulldogs on No. 2 Texas A&M Aggies (Saturday)
With this victory, Georgia reached its first SEC title game since 2004, although it lost to the South Carolina Gamecocks.
Central Florida Knights on No. 15 South Florida Bulls (Thursday)
The Knights are tied with the Bulls 12-2 in the AAC, but are not qualified and that was still a surprise at the end of the regular season for both.
COVID / other news
Auburn Tigers
The Tigers fired Terri Williams-Flournoy after a 5-19 season (0-15 SEC). Williams-Flournoy was 140-138 (48-96 SEC) in nine years at Auburn.
Other main performances
Alexus Dye: 37 points, 18 rebounds and two blocks for the Troy Trojans in the overtime victory over the Texas State Bobcats on Saturday.
Cece Hooks: 33 points, 10 rebounds and seven steals for the Ohio Bobcats in their loss to Akron Zips on Wednesday.
Kiara Smith: 36 points, nine rebounds and two steals for the Florida Gators in the loss to the Kentucky Wildcats on Thursday.
Caitlin Clark: 35 points, eight rebounds and four assists for the Iowa Hawkeyes in the victory over Nebraska Cornhuskers on Saturday.
Rennia Davis: 33 points and 14 rebounds for the Tennessee Lady Volunteers in their victory over Ole Miss Rebels on Friday.
The Rutgers Scarlet Knights are the ones that rose the most this week, going from 24th to 19th place. The 12th Georgia Bulldogs and the 17th West Virginia Mountaineers moved up four and three positions, respectively, while the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles entered the rankings at No. 24.
It was not a strong display for some of the teams ranked in the bottom half of the Top 25, as DePaul Blue Demons dropped from 25th place to receive just five points of vote, the South Florida Bulls dropped five places to 20th, the South Dakota State Jackrabbits fell four positions, to 25th, and the Oregon Ducks, four positions, to 23rd.
UConn remains in first place in AP research, although Stanford is now the general seed in first place on ESPN’s projected range. Stanford moved up two places to second in the AP vote, while NC State Wolfpack remains in third place.
Best close match
Big Ten Tournament Championship Game
TBD vs. TBD
When: Saturday, March 13, at 2 pm ET
Where: Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, IN
How to watch / listen: ESPNU
Reason for watching: Four of the five qualified teams from the Big Ten will participate in the tournament and the championship game should be exciting.