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The First Week of the Women’s College Hoops Season Felt a Whole Lot Like March Madness

There were several important takeaways and lingering questions from a wild week where the top two teams in the nation were upset and freshmen phenoms lived up to the hype.

Emma Baccellieri

The First Week of the Women’s College Hoops Season Felt a Whole Lot Like March Madness
The First Week of the Women’s College Hoops Season Felt a Whole Lot Like March Madness /

The women’s college basketball season opened in Paris and has come back stateside with upsets, drama and highlights galore. From this first week of action, here are five things to like, three questions to ask and one performance to remember.

Rankings are from Week 1.

Five Things I Liked This Week

1. Freshman Phenoms

JuJu Watkins, MiLaysia Fulwiley, Hannah Hidalgo, Mikaylah Williams, Zoe Brooks—what an embarrassment of riches in this freshman class! There were high expectations for everyone in this bunch. But it’s stunning just how quickly they’ve all shown their ability to meet them. 

Notre Dame guard Hannah Hidalgo, center, drives against South Carolina center Kamilla Cardoso
Notre Dame freshman guard Hannah Hidalgo stuffed the stat sheet in her first college basketball game, totaling a game-high 31 points with four rebounds, three assists and three steals against South Carolina :: Stephane Mantey/USA TODAY Sports

Making her debut for No. 21 USC, Watkins looked like the best player on the floor against No. 7 Ohio State, able to thrive even against the signature full-court press from the Buckeyes. Fulwiley (No. 6 South Carolina) and Hidalgo (No. 10 Notre Dame) both started putting up highlights within minutes of seeing the court for the first time. (Fulwiley’s Gamecocks easily won the game—and Fulwiley won the shoutout from the Hall of Famer—but Hidalgo led all scorers with 31.) Meanwhile, Williams was one of the only bright spots for No. 1 LSU in an upset loss to No. 20 Colorado, spending long stretches as the most capable player on the floor for the Tigers. And Brooks shined with 12 points off the bench in NC State’s big win over UConn.

Watkins was the top recruit of this class for a reason: She’s still the frontrunner for freshman of the year. But with as quickly as the rest of this class has stepped into their roles? There are plenty of other players to like in this race.

2. South Carolina’s Three-Point Shooting

Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley has repeatedly emphasized that this year should not be considered a rebuild for South Carolina: Yes, we lost all five of our starters, but no, that’s not reason for concern. And if you doubted her? Well, you can’t anymore. The Gamecocks had a tough schedule to start the year: Each of their first two games were against top-15 opponents, but they didn’t just win both contests—they dominated. South Carolina hung 100 points on Notre Dame and 114 on No. 14 Maryland. And they did it with far more three-point shooting than has been the case in years past.

The Gamecocks’ dominance over the last few seasons has centered in large part on their defensive identity, with their scoring coming largely in the paint and from mid-range, not from beyond the arc. (They scored just 18.6% of their points last year from three—353rd out of 361 teams in Division I.) South Carolina had just two games with 10 or more treys in the last three years. But so far this season? After warming up with five three-pointers against Notre Dame, they made 12 against Maryland, their most since December 2020.

A leap forward here was to be expected. South Carolina brought in Oregon transfer Te-Hina Paopao this year in part for her touch from beyond the arc. Freshman guard Tessa Johnson is also known for her three-point shooting, and Raven Johnson spent the summer in the gym working on her shot, trying to put to rest that viral wave-off from the Final Four last April. But it’s striking nonetheless to see all of that coalesce so well this early in this season. The team performance against Maryland isn’t going to be the norm going forward: South Carolina won’t shoot 50% from beyond the arc every night, and besides, not every opponent will force a battle of threes. But when a game calls for it? The Gamecocks have shown they can hang. This group may be a new look from years past—but they can be just as (if not even more) dangerous.

3. Hannah Stuelke Is Ready for Primetime

Perhaps the biggest question facing No. 3 Iowa this fall was how the team would handle the loss of Monika Czinano. For five years, she’d been a model of efficiency in the post, to say nothing of a dream pick-and-roll partner for Caitlin Clark. Those are big shoes to fill. But sophomore Hannah Stuelke looks equipped for the challenge.

The Big 10 Sixth Player of the Year last season, Stuelke has capably stepped into a starting role so far this fall. The forward scored more than 15 points just once last year. She’s done it twice already this year and has been in double figures in every game so far. Iowa isn’t looking to Stuelke alone to pick up Czinano’s duties: Sharon Goodman and Addison O’Grady add more length here and can provide more of a presence down low. But Stuelke is expected to replace most of Czinano’s scoring ability. (And that’s a considerable ask: Czinano was the Hawkeyes’ second-leading scorer last year with 17.1 PPG.) Stuelke has room to grow. But she’s made the most of her extra minutes so far.

One thing to keep an eye on? Foul trouble. Stuelke fouled out against No. 8 Virginia Tech and picked up three fouls quickly against Northern Iowa. That will have to improve in the coming weeks.

4. Pac-12 Supremacy

This is the last year for the conference as we know it. And the Pac-12 seems to be going out with a bang.

The conference began the season with six ranked teams: No. 4 UCLA, No. 5 Utah, No. 15 Stanford, No. 20 Colorado, No. 21 USC and No. 24 Washington State. All have thrived so far—especially against tough competition. USC took apart Ohio State’s signature tough defense like it was nothing. Colorado exposed LSU’s lack of cohesion. Stanford dominated Indiana from wire to wire. All three of those teams were ranked in the top 10—yet none looked particularly competitive against the Pac-12. This is the last remaining undefeated conference, men’s or women’s, in college basketball. (They’re 28–0.) Expect a battle on the West Coast all year long.

5. High-Profile Matchups Abound

Take a moment to reflect on how many outstanding games we got in just this first week. We had a trio of top-25 matchups on the first day of the season. A few days later, we saw a top-10 showdown draw a crowd on a neutral court with No. 3 Iowa taking down No. 8 Virginia Tech in Charlotte, N.C. And on Sunday, we got a triple-header of quality games, with five of the top 15 teams in action on ABC and ESPN. Both the No. 1 and No. 2 teams have already lost—in games that were upsets by definition, yes, but came against tough competition nonetheless. For November, it’s felt an awful lot like March. That’s a credit to coaches for scheduling these games early, and to broadcast media for giving them a deserved spotlight, too.

Three Questions

How Worried Should LSU Be?

There was lots of focus this summer on what LSU gained: The reigning champs brought in DePaul transfer and double-double machine Aneesah Morrow, Louisville transfer Hailey Van Lith and a top freshman class led by Mikaylah Williams. But there wasn’t as much focus on what the team lost. The graduation of Alexis Morris meant the departure of an experienced point guard. And her loss has been keenly felt so far.

LSU guard Hailey Van Lith dribbles the ball while calling out instructions
Van Lith has taken on more of a distributor role with the Tigers thus far, averaging 8.5 points and five assists per game after averaging 19.7 points and 3.2 assists last season for Louisville :: Stephen R. Sylvanie/USA TODAY Sports

LSU became the first No. 1 team to lose its season opener since 1995 when it fell to No. 20 Colorado last Monday. Credit to the Buffaloes: This is a strong, defensive-minded team that retained its core after making waves last year. But the game exposed plenty of flaws for LSU. The team didn’t look like a cohesive unit. The lack of a true point guard was clear: Van Lith has taken over the role here after playing mostly at shooting guard while at Louisville. But she’s better working off the ball. The adjustment period hasn’t exactly been smooth.

The Tigers bounced back in their next two games against lesser competition. (All due respect to Queens and Mississippi Valley State.) But those came with some changes to the starting rotation: LSU coach Kim Mulkey had Morrow come off the bench in both games. All of the pieces are here for a deep tournament run; LSU doesn’t have reason to panic yet. But it’s clearly going to take some more time for this group to mesh and learn their roles.

… And How Worried Should UConn Be?

This season was supposed to mark a return to form for UConn: All of their stars are finally healthy at once. It’s not gone according to plan thus far. The No. 2 Huskies were upset by unranked NC State on Sunday, 92–81, in a contest that wasn’t particularly competitive for most of the fourth quarter. Much like LSU, this isn’t reason to panic, it’s still early—all the usual caveats apply. (And while this core may have been on campus together for years, it’s worth pointing out they have somewhat limited recent experience as a starting five, given the extent of the injuries over the last two years.) But there are some obvious areas to highlight for improvement.

One is defense. UConn was outrebounded by NC State by a margin of 41 to 29. The Huskies struggled to defend both in the paint and on the perimeter and finished with zero blocks to the Wolfpack’s six. To state the obvious: That’s not going to cut it. They’ll have to figure it out quickly: Their next opponent is No. 14 Maryland, whose high-powered offense should prove a challenge.

But one silver lining from the loss? Paige Bueckers scored 27 points in 30 minutes. After missing all of last year with a torn ACL, she looked as capable and fearless as ever.

Is Rickea Jackson the One to Beat for SEC Player of the Year?

The SEC is loaded with talent: Angel Reese, Kamilla Cardoso or Madison Scott could all easily end the season as conference player of the year. But no one looked more impressive this week than Tennessee forward Rickea Jackson. The 6'2" fifth-year scored 31 points with 17 boards in a tough loss to Florida State. (The No. 11 Lady Vols fell to the No. 18 Seminoles 92–91 on Thursday.) It seemed for a stretch as if Jackson would propel Tennessee to victory by sheer force of will. She fell short of that—and later took personal responsibility for the loss—but shined all the same. The game was a showcase for her versatility: She has excellent finishing ability at the rim but is a threat from beyond the arc, too, and she can clean up on the glass. Yes, she’ll have stiff competition for SEC player of the year, but no one has looked as dominant so far.

One Performance to Remember

The first triple-double of the season went to DePaul guard Katlyn Gilbert. If her name’s familiar, you might remember her from her time at Notre Dame, where she played parts of four seasons, or Mizzou, where she was last year. You may have also heard that she gave birth to a son, Elijah, in the spring of 2022. And now she’s notched her first career triple-double—with steals.

The graduate guard had 12 points, 10 rebounds and 10 steals against Stonehill on Thursday:

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Emma Baccellieri
EMMA BACCELLIERI

Emma Baccellieri is a staff writer who focuses on baseball and women's sports for Sports Illustrated. She previously wrote for Baseball Prospectus and Deadspin, and has appeared on BBC News, PBS NewsHour and MLB Network. Baccellieri has been honored with multiple awards from the Society of American Baseball Research, including the SABR Analytics Conference Research Award in historical analysis (2022), McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award (2020) and SABR Analytics Conference Research Award in contemporary commentary (2018). A graduate from Duke University, she’s also a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America.

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