Surprises, Shocks and Star Turns: Andrew's takeaways from Day 1 of the NCAA WBB season...
Yes, it's the first game of the year but there were some interesting results worth discussing in NCAA women's basketball...
A note from the NCS assignment desk: Hi all! If you were waiting on our Georgetown feature, it will be running tomorrow and our Legendarium has been pushed to Thursday. With it being Election Day, and my day job with CBS News Colorado as a general assignment reporter, I will be out at the Jefferson County Clerk’s office tracking TABOR ballot measures and a couple local elections. If you live in Colorado, be sure to watch us instead of 9News! In the meantime, here are some quick hoops takeaways to prompt some discussion ahead of another day of games.
An absolute marathon of women’s college basketball came to a close late Monday night and, as expected, there were plenty of overreactions and sweeping generalizations after a single game. And that’s fine! We need it, truly. The sport demands that kind of discussion every night to grow into the mainstream product we all want it to be.
That said, there are plenty of interesting observations to take away from a few results and a couple of players that stood out in really good ways. Let’s dive into some surprises, shocks and a couple budding star turns.
Texas A&M, Missouri and Arkansas may be in for rough seasons…
I half expected to see the Razorbacks lose on their home floor to Fairfield. The SEC is always a tricky place to play but the Stags are really building something special and worth believing in. Head coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis welcomed the smoke after pollsters knocked their lack of marquee non-con games last year and responded with a convincing win over Arkansas. Now, they take that win and come home to face a really solid Richmond program, hit the road to Oklahoma State and have a couple December Big East opponents before MAAC play starts. The Stags staff sold the heck out of their program last year and this season feels like the one that demands your attention on the floor (not that last year didn’t but the masses are always late to the party).
For those unaware, Vermont has been a really good program the last couple seasons. After a few years in the wilderness, Alisa Kresge has built the Catamounts into a regular contender in the America East. They made the NCAA Tournament in 2023 and were a conference tournament title game away from repeating the feat last year. So it didn’t surprise me that UVM was able to steal one away from Missouri in Patrick Gymnasium. But the way they did it was borderline shocking. The Tigers have a problem, folks. It’s a long season, to be sure. But Robin Pingeton was skating on thin ice coming into this year. They scored 12 points COMBINED in the 2nd and 3rd quarters of yesterdays game and it’s only going to get harder when they get into SEC play. This might be an early hot seat watch contender, especially with Springfield, Missouri native Molly Miller continuing to crush it at Grand Canyon. We are monitoring.
I didn’t watch the Texas A&M vs. Texas A&M Corpus Christi game but that was a big ole “WTF happened here!?” box score. The Aggies lost at home to an Islanders team that has been just decent over the last couple years. Poor shooting was an understatement. A&M show 18-66 from the field and a paltry 3-25 from 3 point range. They also turned the ball over 20 times. I can forgive a USC doing that against an Ole Miss team that is a nationally recognized defensive outfit. But at home against TAMU-CC? Yeah there should probably be some early alarm bells going in College Station.
Some freshman names you need to know…
Much of the freshman conversation has revolved around UConn’s Sarah Strong, South Carolina’s Joyce Edwards and Ohio State’s Jaloni Cambridge. Here’s a couple others for you to watch based on a one game eye test sample.
Michigan guard Syla Swords
Vanderbilt guard Mikayla Blakes
Louisville guard Tajianna Roberts
Naturally, Swords got a lot of the publicity yesterday and rightly so. For those that have followed her story it isn’t exactly surprising that she would be ready for this moment. The Canadian was one of the top players in the country and just got some of the best experience possible this summer: playing in the 2024 Olympics. At 18, she was one of the youngest Canadians ever selected for the women’s basketball national team and it wasn’t as if she sat on the bench. She played 44 cumulative minutes across three games and got some legit shots up against the likes of Nigeria, silver medalist France and bronze medalist Australia. In short, she’s built for it. Her 27 points and 12 rebounds definitely felt like a coming out party of sorts. If this is what we’re gonna get out of Michigan, they have a really interesting ceiling to project this year.
Rutgers Prep’s legendary head coach Mary Coyle Klinger told me a bit about Mikayla Blakes this summer while interviewing for our Legendarium installment on Rutgers 1982 championship. In short, I was told that she is one of the good ones and mentally capable of being a star at this level. Blakes scored 23 points while adding five rebounds and five assists in her college debut. Now, grain of salt: it was against Lipscomb. But when you have these non-con buy games what you’re looking for is individual player development and where they fit into a roster instead of overall team performance. What I saw was a dynamic playmaker who can affect the game on both ends. She was the crown jewel of Shea Ralph’s recruiting class and it’s easy to see why the Commodores head coach went after her so hard.
I came away semi-impressed with Louisville after their seven point loss to No. 5 UCLA in Paris. Coming into the year, I felt that No. 17 ranking was entirely too high but once again Jeff Walz puts the pieces together and makes something work. Roberts had a volume shooting performance — 21 points on 19 shots while 4/10 from 3 — but it was the moxie to be willing to shoot in her debut that caught my eye. Last season felt like the Cardinals were trying to make up Hailey Van Lith’s scoring output by committee and it just didn’t seem to work. Roberts is a shifty and speedy guard who can get to the cup and has a quick first step. It may be early but she feels like someone that can develop into a special guard in an ACC chock full of them.
The state of the top teams and a couple “the kids are alright” contenders…
Folks, don’t worry about South Carolina. Bad shooting night and a surprisingly spry Michigan team. They’ll be fine. Joyce Edwards needs to develop if Ashlyn Watkins will indeed be out for awhile but Chloe Kitts has stepped up nicely in the starting role. They. Will. Be. Fine.
USC will also be fine but the Talia Von Oelhoffen point guard experiment will be something to watch. She and JuJu kind of operate in similar space as combo guards and that starting five didn’t seem to have a true point on the floor. Additionally, I was surprised to see how little pick-n-roll was run with Kiki Iriafen and Rayah Marshall. I know last years’ mantra was ‘let JuJu cook’ but the supporting pieces are better. Ole Miss is a defensively intense team and so that can be forgiven but there’s plenty to work on before the Women of Troy see Notre Dame.
As for the Irish, they played Mercyhurst so take it with another grain of salt but whew buddy there is no issue with a Hannah Hidalgo - Olivia Miles backcourt tandem. The two play off each other perfectly, Sonia Citron looked like she fit in seamlessly as well and the Irish have probably the top guard duo in America. Now, the question is if they can stay healthy particularly up front. But the Miles/Hidalgo combo is must-see TV.
UCLA just needs to get healthy. Kiki Rice and Charlisse Leger-Walker were out so it’s hard to judge them on their debut. The rest of the top 25 beat up on buy teams so there isn’t much to talk about unless you want to look at certain individuals (Clara Strack at Kentucky, for instance. Looking good!).
The two teams I was most curious about were Stanford and Virginia Tech. While they both had buy-game type opponents I was curious to see just how cohesive they’d look with new coaches and a bit of roster turnover. In short, the kids are alright. The Hokies have an ACC Rookie of the Year watchlister in Kayl Petersen while four of five starters finished in double figures. Kate Paye’s Cardinal absolutely vaporized Le Moyne (which, again. To be expected) but it was the performance of Sacramento natives Jzaniya Harriel and freshman Harper Peterson that caught my eye. Harriel never really found Tara Vanderveers’ favor over the last couple years but played the most minutes of anyone in the opener and finished with 24 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists. She was 6/8 from the field, 6/7 from 3 and 6/8 from the free throw line. Peterson, a sharpshooter from Whitney (just outside of Sac), added two three pointers in just four minutes. Both of them might be fun watches in the ACC.
And finally, the Oregon Ducks might…be back? I say this because this Cal Baptist team is no slouch. While they be a 28-4 type squad like last year? I would guess no but this is the kind of game that the Ducks either lost or scraped by in the last two seasons. Instead, Oregon run away with the game beating the Lancers 93-63. The scoring was even, Kelly Graves emptied the bench and I was interested to see the starting five he ran out there. Peyton Scott was the key to last year before suffering a season ending injury in the first game of the year. KG told reporters last season she was their point guard and not having her essentially would derail the year. He turned out to be quite prophetic with that one. But now Scott is back alongside Deja Kelly, who will also handle ballhandling responsibilities. While an off night (3-10 FG) for Kelly, she finished with 10 points, 8 assists and 7 rebounds. The real test comes next week against No. 12 Baylor but this is a promising result for a program that felt like it was gasping for air after last season.
The TL;DR? Buckle up. We got a hell of a season on our hands.