Women's College Basketball

For the first time since 2006, the UConn Huskies couldn't score at least 45 points. For the first time since 2012, UConn fell to an unranked opponent. In its first game without Paige Bueckers due to her tibial plateau fracture that will keep her out at least six weeks, UConn struggled to knock down shots. As a team, the Huskies shot 31 percent from the field and only made two threes in their 57-44 loss to Georgia Tech on Thursday night. 

After the game, head coach Geno Auriemma explained what he saw on the floor. "What I see is a team that's somewhat disheveled," he said. "And that's all me. Somehow, someway, I do not have the ability at this point in time to affect my players to make sure that we're in a better place mentally and physically and play the kind of basketball we need to play." 

Disappointed and embarrassed, UConn players didn't address the media after the loss. But UConn's bumps aren't the only major surprises and disappointments so far this season. 

Disappointment: UConn's depth on offense 

When I assessed Bueckers' chances to win her second straight POY, I wouldn't have guessed Nika Muhl would have taken a backseat this long. I didn't think that it would take weeks for first year Caroline Ducharme to have her first batch of meaningful minutes. I thought that Dorka Juhasz's three-point shot would be something that would help rather than hinder UConn. But she's only made one of her four attempts this season.  

Before Bueckers' injury in the final moments against Notre Dame on Sunday, the Huskies had struggled putting together offense around Paige rather than through her.

While they now have two months to figure out how to do just that, UConn is also without top recruit Azzi Fudd, Muhl and small forward Aubrey Griffin. In their first game without all of those players, the Huskies continued their half-court offensive struggles and were irritated even more by a solid Georgia Tech defense. 

There are only questions at this point: Aside from the injuries, what's the root of the roster's struggles and how can it be fixed? How long will Juhasz take to find her niche? Have the skills of the older players such as Christyn Williams, Evina Westbrook and Olivia Nelson-Ododa been overvalued? Or is UConn's young talent not as college-ready as we thought?

Disappointment: Veteran bigs 

Speaking of Juhasz, she's an incredibly skilled post player who transferred to UConn as a graduate student. She was brought in to provide depth, experience and versatility to the forward position, but she has struggled. At Ohio State last season, she averaged 14.6 points and 11.1 rebounds a game. At Uconn, she hasn't found her footing yet, coming off the bench and averaging 2.9 points and 4.4 rebounds. Could part of it be adjusting to Geno Auriemma's style of play? How long will she struggle to find her role on a team that desperately needs her? 

At Baylor, Nicki Collen's new system wasn't going to favor every player. While senior and POY candidate NaLyssa Smith has settled in nicely, fellow senior and post player Queen Egbo has struggled. Her points per game and field-goal percentage have both decreased, with the latter dropping from 50 last season to 48.8 percent this season. At 6'3", Egbo is a long, back-to-the-basket post player that operates on a team that takes around 22 three-point shots a game. How long will it take for her to find her way?

Shakira Austin, a senior center at Ole Miss, has also underwhelmed. One WNBA talent evaluator told B/R before the season began that they expected her to compete in her final year of eligibility "like she's in a contract year" if she was a pro. Well, that hasn't happened. Austin's total scoring output per game has decreased from 18.6 to 13.1. While Austin's rebounds per game have slightly increased from 9.1 last season to 9.4 this season, her field-goal percentage is down from 51.9 percent to 44.8 percent. 

Disappointment: The Big Ten 

Coming into the 2021-2022 season, a major storyline was how dominant the Big Ten had the potential to be. And those predictions were rational as the conference saw seven teams make it into last March's NCAA tournament. Four of those teams in Michigan, Maryland, Iowa and Indiana advanced to the Sweet 16, with Indiana taking one step further before falling to Arizona in the Elite Eight. 

So how has the conference fared so far? While five schools are included in the latest AP poll, the recently released NET rankings reveal that the ACC is the better conference. The Big Ten has only three teams in the NET Top 25 in currently unranked Nebraska, No. 20 Ohio State and No. 12 Iowa. The ACC has six teams in the NET Top 25, which include unranked North Carolina, No. 2 NC State and No. 7 Louisville in the Top 10 followed by No. 22 Notre Dame, No. 19 Duke and currently unranked Virginia Tech.

Disappointment: Oregon Ducks stumped by injuries

The Oregon Ducks haven't been able to put their full potential on display this season with a laundry list of injuries plaguing them. While a 4-3 record and dropping from No. 8 in the country to unranked appears concerning, head coach Kelly Graves understands that a lot of the season remains. The Ducks are still without their most talented players in point guard Te-Hina Paopao and forward Nyara Sabally. 

What has been most difficult for the Ducks to adjust to with their stars out has been the playmaking void. The Ducks usually run a read-and-react motion offense but have been limited due to the fact that role players are being expected to play outside of their comfort zones. Graves said on the Locked On Women's Basketball podcast that he felt like the ball has been sticking and he and his staff have added "point A to point B to point C kind of actions" instead of their typical read-and-react offensive schemes. 

Disappointment: UCLA's defense 

The UCLA Bruins began the season ranked 20th in the nation, but with a 5-2 record, which includes losses to unranked opponents Kent State and South Dakota State, they now sit outside of the Top 25. While a lot is expected of the Bruins due to their top-ranked 2022 recruiting class, that doesn't have to do with the present. 

UCLA lost top scorer and best player Michaela Onyenwere to the 2021 WNBA draft, but the Bruins don't appear to have issues offensively. Defensively is where the glaring holes lie. This season, Cori Close's squad has given up 0.795 points per possession according to Synergy Sports, ranking within the 29th percentile. That's the second-worst in the Pac-12.

Surprise: Without Aari McDonald, Arizona has found success 

The Arizona Wildcats, a team that was a mere point away from winning the 2021 national championship last March, began this season ranked at No. 22 in AP Top 25 preseason poll. In less than two months, Arizona (8-0) has jumped up 16 spots to sixth overall in the country. The Wildcats have done so with one of the best net ratings (40.1) in the nation, according to Her Hoops Stats. 

How did they do it? And why did voters underestimate head coach Adia Barnes and her squad months after the program's first-ever Final Four appearance? 

To answer the latter first: Aari McDonald, now on the Atlanta Dream, scored over 20 points per game last season. But not only was she what the offense revolved around, but she finished her career at Arizona as a two-time Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year. Her ability to jump-start Arizona's offense and defense was going to be missed. 

Barnes and her eight returners from last season adjusted how they play, deciding to share the ball more. In particular, senior forwards Cate Reese and Sam Thomas have stepped up with Reese averaging 13.6 points per game and Thomas shooting 48.1 percent from three.

Surprise: Tennessee is back in the Top 10

For the first time since Dec. 31, 2018, Tennessee is back in the Top 10 of the AP poll. It's been almost three years. 

In her third year with the program, head coach Kellie Harper and her team have begun the season undefeated at 8-0. It's the best start in Harper's 18-year coaching career. The Lady Volunteers have beaten three teams who are currently in the Top 25 or received votes in the last poll, including No. 17 South Florida, No. 11 Texas and Virginia Tech.

They've overcome an initial deficit in half of their eight victories. How have they done it? Being in the 95th percentile in defensive points per possession seems to have helped. What makes their run even more impressive is that Harper has been without two starters due to injury, sophomore Marta Suárez and senior Rae Burrell. 

Surprise: Unranked North Carolina has top-tier defense

In head coach Courtney Banghart's third season leading North Carolina, she's finally put together a team that has been framed around her system and vision. 

Her Hoops Stats lists the 8-0 Tar Heels as the team with the least points given up per 100 possessions and the second-best NET rating per 100 possessions. And that begins with graduate transfer Carli Littlefield, who Banghart previously coached at Princeton for two seasons. 

Banghart's vision is predicated on the roster being chock-full of two-way players, and Littlefield is one who can lead the younger players and advise them on what is necessary to know playing on a team coached by Banghart.

Their perimeter defense and attention to shooters has been impressive. Synergy Sports has North Carolina ranked in the 97th percentile in points per possession on three-point jump shots and ranked in the 93 percentile in points per possession on catch-and-shoot in the half court. According to their head coach, what's been most responsible for the Tar Heels' growth on defense has been their toughness and how quickly they rotate. 

Surprise: Gonzaga and Oklahoma thrive with sharpshooters 

Both teams aren't ranked (the latest AP poll has Gonzaga receiving 15 votes and Oklahoma receiving six), but both have impressed with elite shooting. The 7-2 Gonzaga Bulldogs nearly upset the defending champion Stanford Cardinal, losing 66-62. 

The 9-1 Oklahoma Sooners put on a shooting clinic in their five-point loss to Oregon. They made 14 shots from three, including seven from Taylor Robertson and three from both Ana LIanusa and Madi Williams. 

This season, Oklahoma ranks in the 93rd percentile in three-point shooting, according to Synergy Sports, and has scored 1.101 points per possession off three-point jump shots. The Bulldogs have shot the ball even better, placing in the 94th percentile and 24th in the country in points per possession off threes. Three Bulldogs are shooting threes at a clip of 35 percent or above, including top scorers and twins Kaylynne Truong and Kayleigh Truong and Cierra Walker, with Walker shooting 47.2 percent from beyond the arc. 

Surprise: The rise of previously unranked Notre Dame and Duke 

Both ACC squads began the season unranked and in recent weeks have found their way into the Top 25 with Duke sliding in at No. 19 and Notre Dame at No. 22. Both Kara Lawson and Niele Ivey are former players who are reviving storied programs into their next era. 

While last season was a learning curve for head coaches, with COVID-19 making it incredibly difficult to get their programs off the ground and running, this season has marked the true beginning for both Lawson and Ivey's blossoming careers in the ACC. 

What has propelled both teams has been the impressive play of their strong recruiting classes. Nine of Lawson's 15 players have come out of the transfer portal, including leading scorer Celeste Taylor. 

Another surprise for the Blue Devils has been the emergence of first-year guard Shayeann Day-Wilson, who Lawson recruited from Toronto. The 5'6" guard has averaged 13.3 points per game and has shot 50 percent from three-point range. 

For the Fighting Irish, Ivey has built her core around two talented recruits in first years Olivia Miles and Sonia Citron. Miles, who had her first triple-double on Wednesday, is a dynamic point guard who graduated high school early last winter to get a taste of college basketball. 

Multi-positional wing Citron, who has played with Miles before on USA basketball and in AAU, has emerged as the Irish's sixth player and could be in the running for ACC sixth player of the year. 

NCAA President Mark Emmert told reporters Wednesday it would be a "great idea" to hold the championship games for Division I men's and women's basketball in the same city, although the potential change wouldn't come anytime soon.

"First of all, it’s up to the oversight committees and then the D-I Council if they really do that," Emmert said. "They made a joint decision, both men’s and women’s committees together, to not do anything between now and (2027) because of the commitments that have already been made to venues that are out there.

"It's a great idea conceptually; it’s a lot more complicated to do in reality."

The discussion comes after an August report stated the NCAA prioritized men's basketball "over everything else" to the detriment of women's sports, per The Athletic. One of the report's suggestions to improve the situation was to hold both men's and women's basketball Final Fours in the same city.

Another suggestion was to use the term "March Madness" for both men's and women's tournaments, which the NCAA announced it would do in September.

The sites for both events are already set through 2026.

The men's Final Four will be held in New Orleans at the end of the 2021-22 season, followed by trips to Houston, Phoenix, San Antonio and Indianapolis. The women's Final Four will be at Minneapolis this season before going to Dallas; Cleveland; Tampa, Florida; and Phoenix.

Having both events in a single city could improve the marketing for both events, although it could create logistical problems with more venues and hotel rooms needed for everyone involved.

Emmert still believes it is worth an attempt at some point.

"I certainly hope it’s worth a try as an experiment, just to try it once and see if we can pull it off," he said Wednesday.     

UConn women's basketball star Paige Bueckers was helped off the court after suffering a non-contact injury in Sunday's game against Notre Dame:

The issue came as she was bringing the ball up the court in the final minute of what was an eventual 73-54 victory.

"The doctors did a quick examination and they're going to wait for the ice to come off, and then they'll know more and then an MRI," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said after the game. "On the replay, it looked like it probably hyperextended, best-case scenario." 

Bueckers had a game-high 22 points with five steals, four assists and four rebounds before coming out of the game.

The guard was the first freshman in NCAA women's basketball history to be named the National Player of the Year.

Bueckers finished last season averaging 20.0 points, 5.7 assists and 4.9 rebounds per game, hitting 46.4 percent of her shots from three-point range. She became a go-to option for a squad that reached the Final Four last season.

Expectations were even higher going into her sophomore year, and the Minnesota native came through with averages of 21.0 points, 6.6 assists and 5.8 rebounds through five games entering Sunday.

A significant injury could create problems for Connecticut as it tries to build off its 5-1 start to the season.

Christyn Williams would have to step up offensively for the Huskies, especially after the guard scored just four points against Notre Dame. Evina Westbrook and Caroline Ducharme would also see bigger roles in the backcourt.

Brittney Griner has had a complicated relationship with her alma mater, but the Phoenix Mercury star would still love to see her number hanging in the rafters of Baylor's Ferrell Center.

"I've seen that special moment with a lot of my teammates and friends at their schools where they gave their all," she said to ESPN.com's Mechelle Voepel. "I met my wife at Baylor. Baylor's in my blood. I love the school. I love Waco. And it would mean a lot to me, honestly. It's something I would definitely cherish and love."

Griner is the greatest player in program history. She was a three-time Big 12 Player of the Year and a two-time Wade Trophy recipient. The 6'9" center also played a critical role for the Bears in 2011-12, when they went unbeaten (40-0) and claimed their second national title.

Despite all she achieved in Waco, Texas, Griner hasn't received the treatment befitting a campus legend.

Shortly after being selected by the Mercury in the 2013 WNBA draft, the 31-year-old shed some light on her experiences at Baylor. She told ESPN The Magazine that members of the Bears coaching staff, including coach Kim Mulkey, instructed her to refrain from speaking publicly about her sexuality.

Griner addressed the dynamic further in her memoir, In My Skin, and wrote that Baylor's policies against homosexuality dampened her desire to promote her connection to the university.

"I've spent too much of my life being made to feel like there's something wrong with me," she wrote (via USA Today's Scott Gleeson). "And no matter how much support I felt as a basketball player at Baylor, it still doesn't erase all the pain I felt there."

To celebrate Coming Out Day in October, ESPN reached out to a number of athletes from the LGBTQ+ community. Speaking to Josh Weinfuss of ESPN, Griner said her coming out process "was probably when I went from collegiate to pro." While not tying it to her Baylor career specifically, she appeared to allude to the issues she laid out years before:

I didn't want anyone to go through what I went through. That feeling of not being true to yourself, and looking in the mirror and not liking what you see, is a horrible feeling. I didn't want anyone to feel like that. I never really had anyone to look up to that was, like, huge...Billy Jean King? But that wasn't my era, I didn't grow up as a little kid looking up to her. So I wanted to be someone to look up to, in this present time. Everybody who reaches out to me, they tell me, 'You helped me, you inspired me,' and I think that's bigger than basketball, honestly. Bigger than a gold medal, any award. Knowing that you helped someone not feel down, or have horrible thoughts, because I've been there.

Beyond what she achieved with Baylor, Griner has gone on to be a seven-time All-Star and win a title in the WNBA. In September, she was selected to the league's 25th-anniversary team.

Based purely on her resume, Griner should've had her Baylor jersey retired long ago, but that process is a two-way street.

She told Voepel she hasn't attended a game since graduating in 2013 but that she plans on watching the Bears compete sometime this month under first-year head coach Nicki Collen. Mulkey took over as LSU's women's basketball head coach in April.

UConn freshman sensation Azzi Fudd has signed a "multidimensional name, image and likeness contract" with SC30 Inc., a brand created by Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry.

Janie McCauley of the Associated Press reported Wednesday that Curry will mentor the 5'11" guard to help balance the demands of college classes, basketball and "being a face for female athletes."

"Azzi Fudd is the best choice to start a brand relationship like this because she is the next face of women's basketball and has been a part of SC30 Inc. and the Curry Brand family since she was an invitee to the All-American Camp," Curry said.

Fudd was the No. 1 prospect in the 2021 women's recruiting class based on the ESPNW rankings. The Virginia native was a standout performer at St. John's College High School in Washington, D.C.

The guard is averaging 7.5 points through her first four college appearances while serving in a sixth-woman role for the star-studded Huskies.

Fudd said she's "really excited" about the partnership with Curry and SC30, per McCauley:

Since I first met Steph at his camp a few years ago, I've stayed connected to him and have always admired his incredible talent and accomplishments, but also his humility and the impact he has on people. As I continue to focus on becoming the best player and student I can be while in college, I also look forward to broadening my understanding of business and life beyond basketball. This partnership with Steph and his SC30 team will help me do that. I'm really excited about everything we'll do together in the future.

Meanwhile, Curry explained the NIL deal will go beyond basketball and focus on teaching the rising star about finding the "right partners" for success off the court:

Our values are aligned when it comes to family, and in terms of hard work and for the appreciation of blessings in your life. For me, this is the right time because I have identified the platforms that I have, aligning purpose over profit, and the ability to collaborate with the right partners for the right opportunities. I want to be able to unlock that for Azzi, and for other talented athletes and influencers that see the world the same way I do. It is my hope that we can inspire the next generation of athletes and non-athletes who want to do amazing things.

Curry is one of the best in the sports world to learn from in that regard. Forbes estimates the two-time NBA MVP earns $40 million annually from endorsement deals.

Fudd and the Huskies are back in action Friday when they open Big East play by visiting Walsh Gymnasium to take on Seton Hall.

On Monday, UConn guard Paige Bueckers made history as the first NCAA athlete to sign an endorsement deal with Gatorade, joining pro basketball players such as Elena Delle Donne, Candace Parker, Zion Williamson and Jayson Tatum. This groundbreaking signing isn’t Bueckers' first endorsement deal in the NIL era, however. On November 10, Bueckers signed her first deal with the online marketplace and clothing reseller StockX. 

Both deals will allow Bueckers to take center stage as the energy drink and online marketplace aim to grow their influence in the women’s sports space. Sponsorship deals like this, a first for college athletes, are symbiotic for all parties involved. The benefits for brands include expanding their reach to Generation Z, while the benefits for the athletes are not only monetary but also could lead to more consistent coverage and attention for women’s college basketball. 

But Bueckers' huge month spurs some questions about how in its first season NIL sponsorships are working for the women's college basketball world and whom in particular this process is benefiting the most.

How are local NIL deals regarded versus national ones? Is there an invisible hierarchy? Does it matter how many deals athletes sign? Will we be able to see exactly how much money these athletes sign on for?  

While South Carolina won the first battle on the court in the Bahamas last week, it’s the Huskies who have the edge when it comes to the national and global reach of its players' NIL sponsorships. In addition to Bueckers, Azzi Fudd, who has only been playing for UConn for short of two months, has NIL deals with Chipotle and sports drink BioSteel in addition to appearing in a commercial for TikTok. 

South Carolina’s star post player, Aliyah Boston, only has an endorsement deal with Southern fast food chain Bojangles. In addition to having a deal also with Bojangles, Boston’s teammate Zia Cooke announced another partnership with Dick's Sporting Goods last week. 

Another question that could have an impact in the recruiting space: Is the market more saturated for players who are at schools with well-regarded football or men’s basketball programs? 

Is that why we aren’t hearing about the NIL deals for POY hopefuls and WNBA draft prospects Rhyne Howard, NaLyssa Smith and Naz Hillmon? At Kentucky, Baylor and Michigan it isn’t the women’s basketball program that reigns supreme, but rather it’s men’s basketball and football that hold the most attention.

As of now, Howard has a deal with Direct Auto Insurance, an agency based in her native Tennessee. But for Hillmon and Smith, nilcollegeathletes.com, an NIL College Database, has both athletes only signed to deals with personalized video service Cameo.  

But this could also be due to the discrepancy that exists in the amount of Instagram followers that Howard (16.5K) , Smith (15.1K)  and Hillmon (10K) have in comparison to someone like Bueckers (936K) or Fudd (165K). 

What are the reasons for these discrepancies? Was it just that Bueckers and Fudd were covered properly in high school while some of the older women’s college basketball players were not? 

Case in point: Look no further than 16-year-old Jada Williams, a 2023 UCLA women’s basketball commit. Williams, who signed her first endorsement deal with Spalding this past October, has over 320K followers on Instagram. How did she get there? Women’s basketball outlets such as WSLAM and Overtime WBB shared her mixtape and have been following her basketball career through high school.

Now, will certain schools like UCLA have a leg up on others because of an up-and-coming player like Williams? Will recruits care about having resources that help them navigate their own NIL deals? Will young athletes be even more attracted to UConn because Bueckers and Fudd have secured deals with global brands like Gatorade and Chipotle? 

And what about Oregon? In September, alumna and New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu was named the Chief Athlete Officer of Division Street, a venture that will guide the university’s athletes in how they approach signing their sponsorship deals. 

The potential benefits of the NIL era for women’s basketball are clear. Earlier, I noted how these sponsorship deals could lay the groundwork for more coverage and visibility of the sport. But five months into the NIL era, it’s difficult to discern exactly how NIL deals will influence the growth of women's basketball. And what remains unclear is if the game will be covered more as a result of the athletes being more visible.

Could this visibility influence the types of players who are covered? The WNBA has struggled marketing its Black players who make up 80 percent of the league. Will the NIL era in women’s college basketball break that cycle or uphold it?

Paige Bueckers is the face of women's college basketball this season and is now one of the new faces of Gatorade.

Gatorade announced it agreed to an endorsement deal with the UConn guard, making her the company's first signed college player.

The announcement noted it was a multiyear deal that will help the two sides "drive impact on the women's game."

Bueckers was previously named the Gatorade Player of the Year in high school.

"It was a blessing to win Gatorade Player of the Year in high school, and now it's truly surreal to be an official member of the Gatorade Family," Bueckers said. "I know this is just the beginning of our partnership and can't wait to get to work with Gatorade to drive impact in the community and on the women's game."

She joins a list of Gatorade-sponsored athletes that includes Serena Williams, Sydney McLaughlin, Elena Delle Donne, Zion Williamson, Jayson Tatum and Trevor Lawrence.

The sophomore is averaging 20.5 points, 6.5 assists, 5.0 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 1.3 blocks per game behind 55.7 percent shooting from the field this season.

She also helped lead the Huskies to the Final Four last season as a freshman and is looking to bring the storied program its 12th national championship this season.

South Carolina is the unanimous No. 1 team in the Associated Press Top 25 poll for the third week of the 2021-22 women's basketball season.

The AP delayed the release of the poll to wait on the result of the Gamecocks' matchup with then-No. 2 Connecticut. Dawn Staley's squad was a 73-57 victor on Monday, solidifying its status as the top program in the country.

In addition to the Huskies, South Carolina (6-0) has earned wins over North Carolina State and Oregon, who sit fifth and 15th, respectively in the newest poll.

AP Top 25

1. 1. South Carolina (6-0)
2. Maryland (6-0)
3. Connecticut (3-1)
4. Indiana (4-0)
5. North Carolina State (4-1)
6. Baylor (3-1)
7. Stanford (3-1)
8. Iowa (4-0)
9. Arizona (4-0)
10. Louisville (3-1)
11. Tennessee (4-0)
12. Michigan (5-0)
13. Iowa State (4-0)
14. Texas (3-1)
15. Oregon (3-2)
16. Oregon State (3-0)
17. Florida State (4-0)
18. South Florida (4-2)
19. UCLA (3-0)
20. Kentucky (3-1)
21. Ohio State (3-0)
22. West Virginia (3-0)
23. Texas A&M (4-0) 
24. Virginia Tech (5-0) 
25. Florida Gulf Coast (5-0)

With the loss, UConn only slipped to third. However, the result may have exposed some issues within a roster that otherwise has the talent to bring a 12th national championship to Storrs, Connecticut.

Head coach Geno Auriemma offered a withering assessment following Monday's game: 

Maryland, meanwhile, got a statement win over Baylor on Sunday, which helped catapult the Terrapins into second. Prior to that, the Terps rolled through their first five games with an average margin of victory of 34 points.

Two big tests lie ahead for Maryland in the form of the Wolfpack and defending national champion Stanford. Overtaking South Carolina will be tough, but the Terrapins might garner some first-place votes if they start 8-0.

Further down in the poll, Tennessee (No. 11) and South Florida (No. 18) had the biggest jumps at five spots. The AP's Doug Feinberg noted this is the Lady Vols' highest position since December 2018.

Tennessee made seven straight NCAA tournament appearances under Holly Warlick, but that doesn't properly illustrate how the program was backsliding as it got further from the Pat Summitt era.

Head coach Kellie Harper still has plenty of work ahead to get the Lady Vols back to the pinnacle of women's basketball. Wins over USF and Texas will get fans excited that a first trip to the Sweet 16 since 2016 could at least be in store.

When Carolyn Peck interviewed South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley following her No. 1-ranked Gamecocks' decisive victory against No. 2 UConn in the Battle 4 Atlantis Championship, she revealed what's next for her team and what they need to improve. 

"I think for the most part, what we want to do is physically challenging," she said after the buzzer. "We got to get better mentally. That's the separation from the good to great teams. So this was a mental challenge for us that we're going to utilize and take with us for the rest of the season." 

Ironically, it was the mental toughness and focus of Staley's team that got it over the hump against the Connecticut Huskies. Staley's on-air assessment of what separates exceptional teams from adequate ones applied to the way UConn fell from being down 57-54 at the end of the third to then losing the game by 13 points. Connecticut, a talented team in its own right, got out-hustled by a team that has just as much talent as it does, if not more. 

But maybe Staley was referring to the way her Gamecocks began the title game Monday. Though South Carolina jumped to a 6-0 lead in the opening three minutes, UConn made adjustments and found ways to score in transition and take advantage of the Gamecocks' early mistakes. The Huskies ended up scoring 13 points off 11 South Carolina turnovers in the first quarter.

Paige Buckers scored 13 points on 5-10 shooting in the first half and defensively, the big tandem of the Huskies' Olivia Nelson-Ododa and Dorka Juhasz found a way to make catches difficult for Aliyah Boston. They routinely double-teamed the country's best center, keeping her off her sweet spots.  

But Boston adjusted in the second half, as great players do, and she let go of any hesitation she had previously. 

"Coach was just emphasizing that I need to be dominant and just take over, and so that's what I was focusing on," Boston said after the game. "I just knew that there was going to be a double, but I needed to work quickly or just be patient and just read how they're playing it and maybe look for the kick out. But I mean, coach helped with that, making sure that I stayed locked in because she knew what I could do and I just needed to get there."

Boston's much more efficient second half (5-of-7 from the field after a 5-of-12 first half) was because UConn forward Aaliyah Edwards had no answer for Boston. She struggled guarding her one-on-one and wasn't as effective in preventing Boston's catches as both Nelson-Ododa and Juhasz were. UConn head coach Geno Aurriema expressed his frustration with her performance by his actions. Edwards, a starter, didn't start the second half and instead of being the first post player substituted in, sophomore Mir McLean, who rarely plays, entered the game.

The exact inverse of Boston's performance occurred for Bueckers. Her 5-of-10 first half shooting was followed by a 3-of-9 second. Staley noticed her team's defense fought harder over screens, helped and chased Bueckers around to make her work harder than she had to in the first half. Staley knew that wearing down Bueckers would take a toll on her, especially since it was her third game in three days at the Battle 4 Atlantis. 

But outside of the shooting and scoring performances of each team's best players in Bueckers (19 points on 8-of-19 shooting) and Boston (22 points on 10-of-19 shooting), there are three statistical metrics that highlighted a real discrepancy between No. 1 South Carolina and No. 2 UConn. 

First, the Huskies were creamed on the boards, with South Carolina grabbing 42 to UConn's 25. Almost half of the Gamecocks' rebounds were on the offensive glass, where they notched 19 to UConn's six. Boston had 15 total rebounds alone, which was just as many as UConn's starting five combined. 

But while South Carolina is a bigger team with one of the strongest post players in the country in Boston and reigning ACC co-Defensive Player of the Year Camilla Cardoso, that's no excuse for UConn. Even though their posts are 6'5" (Nelson-Ododa and Juhasz) and 6'3" (Edwards) and might be less muscular than the Gamecocks' bigs, gang rebounding is especially a formidable tool for teams that are more reliant on their perimeter game, as the Huskies are. 

Auriemma seems to believe that the lack of rebounding all around isn't terribly concerning. "Rebounding is always fixable," he said postgame. "That's always fixable."

Directly associated with rebounding, particularly offensive rebounding, is second-chance points, where South Carolina also dominated. The Gamecocks scored second-chance points (17) than Nelson-Ododa, Juhasz and Edwards combined (14). UConn could only manage two second-chance points. 

And lastly, UConn turned the ball over 19 times against South Carolina, resulting in 21 points for the Gamecocks. While UConn appeared to be winning the points-off-turnovers battle in the first half, that number dramatically changed its course in the second half. South Carolina allowed zero points off turnovers and only gave it away three times in the second half after an 11-turnover first half.

Turnovers, rebounding and second-chance points all have a common thread. All three metrics are achieved with some physicality, but mostly on the merit of effort, mental focus and toughness. 

When South Carolina extended its defense in the second half, it caught UConn sleeping. On two separate inbounds passes, Juhasz turned the ball over twice in a row in the third quarter, which led to two different scores from South Carolina's dynamic guard Zia Cooke. The Gamecocks' full-court press rattled the Huskies, and they weren't scrappy enough to keep up. 

Even when the Huskies maintained a 52-50 lead with 2:37 left in the third, UConn guard Evina Westbrook's bad pass sent Cooke at full speed ahead in transition once again. South Carolina tied it up at 52 and the Huskies never got their momentum back. 

When asked about the correlation between his team's mental focus and their turnovers, Auriemma replied that they are related.  

"Mental focus, yes," he said. "Some [turnovers] were kind of mindless. Some of that obviously was responsible." 

But then he deflected and spoke about the Gamecocks, who were able to deal with a punch in the first half and found a way with their talent and enough of a mental focus to maintain their status as the No. 1 team in the nation. 

"Most of the time turnovers are caused by the other team," he said. "So yeah, half of that and half of the other team. We could be just as dumb against another team and we woudn't have turned it over. So I think South Carolina had a lot to do with that."

UConn women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma called out star guard Paige Bueckers after the team's 73-57 loss to No. 1 South Carolina on Monday. 

"I don't think she was any good today, to be honest," Auriemma said of Bueckers after the game. "I thought the first half, there were a lot of great moments that she had but I think for the entire second half, I don't think she was much of a factor."

The sophomore led the No. 2 Huskies with 19 points and seven assists in the Battle 4 Atlantis matchup, but only six of her points came in the second half. She was held scoreless in the fourth quarter as UConn was outscored 16-3.

There are lofty expectations on Bueckers entering the season after she became the first freshman ever to be named the Associated Press National Player of the Year in women's basketball.

She averaged 20.0 points, 5.7 assists and 2.3 steals per game last year while leading the squad to the Final Four.

Bueckers has been a bit more inconsistent to start 2021-22, scoring 34 in the season-opener before being held to 29 points over the next two games combined. After her 1-of-3 shooting from beyond the arc on Monday, the guard only has a 27.8 three-point percentage (5-of-18) through four games.

Auriemma is clearly holding her to a high standard and is looking for more out of the talented player.

On the other end of the court, Aliyah Boston emerged as a Player of the Year contender herself with 22 points and 15 rebounds in the marquee battle.