NCAAW Breakdown: Upsets Wreak Havoc With Rankings

There will be a pair of top-10 showdowns on tap for what could be another unpredictable week in the women’s college basketball world, with Maryland meeting Indiana and Stanford traveling to UCLA.

Looking at the Las Vegas odds, South Carolina (+125) is favored in the odds to win the national title. Stanford is next at +250 followed by UConn at +650.

Let’s check the latest NCAAW picks, stats, injury reports, and NCAAW predictions. We’ve plenty of NCAAW expert picks for you to consider.

Bears Starting to Roar

Baylor began 2023 with a pair of wins over ranked opponents, winning 81-70 at Oklahoma and 75-62 at Kansas to take over sole possession of first place in the Big 12.

Sarah Andrews had 57 points, seven rebounds and seven assists in the two victories as Baylor moved to 3-0 in conference play.

Oklahoma was held to 31% shooting and 28% from 3-point range while Kansas made 39.7% of its field goals.

Baylor had the largest jump in this week’s Associated Press poll, going from 23rd to 18th.

Gamecocks Get Tested

There are going to be some games coming up when the top-ranked and undefeated South Carolina Gamecocks will be pushed. It wasn’t expected to come against Mississippi State. However, the Bulldogs were within five points with three minutes to play.

Brea Beal had a huge 3-pointer and Zia Cooke iced the game with a pair of free throws as South Carolina won 58-51. It was the first single-digit victory for the Gamecocks since a 73-64 win over UCLA on Nov. 29 as the Gamecocks avoided the upset as the road favorite according to the Las Vegas odds.

While it did not involve a ranked team, Columbia deserves mention for beating Princeton for the first time in 15 years. Princeton had won 27 games in a row against Columbia before the Lions went on the road and stunned the Tigers with a 58-55 win in overtime on Friday.

Columbia got their first win over Princeton since 2008 last night and broke the Tigers’ 27-game series winning streak.#NCAAWBB x 📸 @CULionsWBB pic.twitter.com/b7zx8Nw2lr

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessWBB) January 7, 2023

Ringing in the New Year With Upsets

It was not a fun week to the voter in the national polls with the teams four top-10 teams and 12 teams in the Top 25 losing.

No. 24 St. John’s suffered its first loss of the season at Seton Hall on Wednesday as Sidney Cooks had 17 points and 12 rebounds in the 72-51 win.

No. 25 Creighton lost at home to Providence 79-75 as Grace Efosa had a career-high 27 points.

The next day, it was the ACC that turned into upset central with unranked Boston College going to North Carolina State and returning with the 79-71 win over the 10th-ranked Wolfpack behind Dontavia Waggoner’s 23 points and 10 rebounds. Also, No. 22 North Carolina fell to Miami 62-58.

Virginia Tech was tied at halftime with Virginia while Duke had to work for a win over Wake Forest.

On Friday, it was host Colorado that took down then eighth-ranked Utah 77-67.

North Carolina rebounded with a 60-50 win against visiting and fourth-ranked Notre Dame.

Huskies in Limbo

UConn, which moved up a spot to No. 4 in the latest Associated Press Top 25 rankings, was scheduled to welcome DePaul to town on Sunday. However, Aaliyah Edwards and Ayanna Patterson were injured in the win over Xavier. That left UConn with six available players, and the Big East requires at least seven players so the game was called off.

The hope is that the game will be rescheduled.

UConn is scheduled to play at St. John’s on Wednesday and have Georgetown come to the XL Center on Sunday. UConn announced that there will be “at least seven” players available for the S. John’s game and the game will be played as scheduled.

Leading scorer Azzi Fudd (knee) could be close to returning while Caroline Ducharme is working her way out of concussion protocol, so that would give UConn enough players for those games to resume.

Team of the Week

Miami Hurricanes

As if upsetting North Carolina wasn’t enough, the Hurricanes followed that up with a 77-67 win over Virginia Tech.

Jasmyne Roberts averaged 16.5 points and 8.5 rebounds in the two games while Haley Cavinder put up 16.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.5 assists.

Miami’s bench outscored the North Carolina and Virginia Tech reserves 38-14 to pick up the two wins against ranked teams.

Player of the Week

Maddy Siegrist, Villanova

The senior has more than 20 points in every game this season. In the three games in 2023, she is averaging 33.3 points on 58% shooting and 9.3 rebounds in wins over Xavier, Georgetown and Butler as the Wildcats moved into the Associated Press poll at No. 25.

Siegrist recently moved by former UConn All-American and national player of the year Rebecca Lobo on the Big East’s career scoring list.

Games of the Week

Maryland at Indiana; Stanford at UCLA

Things will start off sort of quietly in the women’s basketball world with no matchup between ranked teams until Thursday. However, there will be a pair of games between top-10 teams and it is impossible to pick one of those contests over the other.

First up is Maryland heading to Indiana on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. ET (Big Ten Network).

Diamond Miller looks to continue her brilliant senior season at Maryland as she has scored in double figures in each of the last eight games. She averaged 20 points, 7.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 2.5 steals and 2.0 blocks in recent wins against Rutgers and Michigan State.

Indiana senior Mackenzie Holmes has four straight 20-point games and three double-doubles in a row.

UCLA got Charisma Osborne back in the win over USC after she missed a game with a shoulder injury. She was just 2 of 16 from the field and should be more of an offensive factor against No. 2 Stanford whe the teams meet Friday at 11 p.m. ET (Pac-12 Network).

Cameron Brink is coming off a 25-point, 17-rebound game against Cal.