This is a look at the week ahead in women's college basketball. Each week Skim Milkey will be providing five players to keep an eye on, five teams to watch this week, five stats, five games you wouldn't think to keep tabs on, and five tweets.
5 Players I Have My Eye On
Kymora Johnson
Johnson has been quietly very good this season for Virginia. She had a few off games during the non-conference slate, but since getting into conference play, she's been very good nearly every night. She's scored 12 or more points in every ACC game this season and has put up over 20 points four times, which includes a 31-point game on the road at Florida State. Her lowest offensive rating of the conference slate was against Duke, as she had an offensive rating of 87.7; her next lowest offensive rating is 105.0. She is carrying the load with distributing the ball too, as she is averaging 6.4 assists per game and is the owner of two points-assists double-doubles this season. She's been extremely effective all over the floor this season and has proven herself to be one of the most reliable players in the conference night in and night out.
GiGi Gamble
Gamble got off to a tough start to the season for Monmouth but since the conference slate has started she has been a bright spot for her team. She's scoring the ball at a 14.1 points per game clip, and prior to CAA play, she had only scored in double figures twice. She started conference play out by scoring 30 points on the road against Elon, and she followed it up with a 25-point outburst against North Carolina A&T. After her worst performance of the conference season, she got right back to it offensively, scoring 22 or more points three times over the next six games. Gamble is a JUCO transfer into the Monmouth program this season and it's been obvious that it took her a bit of time to adjust. But now that she is, she is showing her ability to impact the game in multiple ways.
Kaylah Turner
Turner is an extremely critical piece to the offense that Temple wants to run. She has the best offensive rating on the team along with the second-best effective field goal percentage and true shooting percentage on the team. She is enjoying her best shooting year so far of her career too, as she's knocking down shots from the outside at a 42 percent rate. She has cut down on her turnovers this season and has started to get downhill to the free throw line a bit more as well. She has had an excellent past few weeks, as she has scored 16 or more points in five straight games. She has put up 30 or more points twice this season and has been someone who Temple can look at for offense in tough spots. As her usage has grown as the year has gone on, her game has just gotten better and better. Temple has a tough game this weekend against North Texas, and if Temple wants to have a shot to knock them off, then Turner is going to need to come and play well.
Carleigh Wenzel
Wenzel has seen an uptick in usage over the past few games, and it has been to the benefit of Virginia Tech. She just put up 23 points in a big rivalry win over Virginia, where she also added five assists and six rebounds. She hasn't scored under double digits since the Louisville game on January 4th and has seemingly turned a corner since then. She has extremely high usage at times and has been shown to rise to the occasion when she is counted on. Her assist rate has climbed this year while her turnover rate has dropped. She is also shooting the ball at a 33.9 percent rate, which is the highest of her career. Virginia Tech has a few very nice pieces, but if they want to reach the NCAA tournament in a good spot to make a run at the second weekend, then Wenzel needs to be a huge factor down the stretch.
Cali Smallwood
Smallwood is a high-volume shooter who makes shots at an excellent rate. She's hoisting up over seven 3-pointers a game and is making over three per game for a shooting percentage of 43 percent. She is making the most of her opportunities, as she doesn't have a ton of chances to get shots off with the ball in her hands. Of her 63 made shots from behind the arc this year, 98.4 percent of them are assisted, meaning that she's generally running off of a screen to get open. Once she gets her legs under her, she is deadly when she looks to shoot the ball. She rarely turns the ball over and does an excellent job of converting at the free throw line once she gets there. It hasn't been the season that UAB or Smallwood would have liked, but she's continually gotten better as the season has progressed.
5 Teams to Watch This Week
Georgia Southern
Georgia Southern is still one of the best teams in the Sun Belt this season and has gotten through nearly the toughest part of its schedule so far this season. They are tied with Troy for second in the conference with a 9-2 record and have already beaten them this year. In two weeks they will face off with Arkansas State, who leads the conference currently, in a matchup that could decide who has the best chance to win the Sun Belt. But, Georgia Southern cannot look past this week or they will be in trouble. They go on the road to face Texas State in the middle of the week, followed by traveling to take on Miami (OH) in the MAC-Sun Belt challenge which will not be an easy test. A 2-0 week by Georgia Southern would plant them firmly in a good position to challenge for a Sun Belt title.
UC San Diego
UC San Diego did not get off to a hot start to the season, as they played some poor basketball through the first month of the season. Since the loss to Washington, they have gone 12-2 and sit atop the Big West with nine games to go. The Big West feels like it is a wide-open race right now with four teams sitting at three losses or less. UC San Diego has played the second easiest conference schedule so far and has gotten itself perched atop the standings for now at 10-1. They play all three teams directly below them in the standings once again this season and also have to play Hawai'i again this upcoming week, who is a team that has given some teams a few real scares this year so far and is acting as a spoiler. If UC San Diego can get through this week at 2-0, the pathway to a Big West title might be a touch clearer as the top half of the conference all seemingly has games against each other this week.
Cal Baptist
Today I learned that members of the WAC conference play each other three times during the season. The conference consists of seven members, and they play an 18-game slate over the course of a season. Cal Baptist currently leads the conference but still has some of their toughest games to come this season. Starting with this week, they are going to need to prove themselves as the best team in the conference. They sit at 8-1 this season in conference play with a lone loss to Abilene Christian, whom they have to play twice more this season, and both games are on the road after hosting them in the first game of the series. They will also need to play Tarleton State twice more, both on the road as well, and per Bart Torvik, Cal Baptist is just a 1.8 favorite in both of those contests. This week will tell us a lot about this team as they travel to both the aforementioned Tarleton State and Abilene Christian for games. A 2-0 week would do wonders for their conference title hopes.
High Point
All High Point has done over the past few years under Chelsea Banbury in the Big South has been win conference games. They have gone no worse than 13-5 in the past five seasons under her in conference, and this year will be no different. In fact, it might be her best team yet. They sit unblemished atop the Big South currently, as they've gotten out to a 9-0 start and sit two games up in the race for the conference title. Their schedule has been favorable this year as well in the conference, as they've managed to draw an extremely easy schedule. So far, they've played the easiest schedule in the Big South and have the second easiest schedule remaining in the conference. It does help that they don't have to play themselves in conference play. This week, they travel to Radford to take on the second-place team in the conference. If High Point comes away with a road win, then you can chalk up the Big South race as High Point's to lose barring an epic collapse, and you probably can already do that.
Rice
Similar to High Point, Rice has been head and shoulders above everyone else so far in conference play. The unfortunate part for the rest of the American Conference is that Rice has been playing some of their best basketball once getting into conference play. They are 9-0 in conference play and have played the fourth toughest conference schedule to date. Unfortunately for the rest of the conference, the reason of the season for Rice provides the sixth easiest schedule in the conference. This is not a good sign for the hopes of everyone else when Rice has already extended a two-game cushion. The silver lining is that the American is a very tough conference to win consistently in, and at any point in time, you can be beaten. Rice only has one game this week, and it's a very winnable game, so they might be able to sit back and watch their lead in the conference continue to grow this week.
5 Stats to Know
3
There are still three teams in the country that have yet to win a game this season: Central Connecticut, Niagara, and Valparaiso. The good news? Central Connecticut plays both Chicago State and Wagner this week, and they have about a 10 percent chance to win one of those games. Niagara plays Canisius this week, and they have a 12 percent chance to win that one. Valparaiso plays Evansville and Southern Illinois, and they have a better than 10 percent chance in both of those games to win. The bad news? None of these three teams are likely to win this week no matter how hard we root for them.
132.9
This is the offensive efficiency for UCLA this season, which, on paper, gives them the best offense in the country. They are playing with six future WNBA draft picks on their roster and can hurt you in so many different ways. They can feed the ball inside to score and can hit a shooter around the perimeter for an easy shot. There is no easy way to beat UCLA this year, and so far only Texas has cracked that code.
66.2
As elite as UCLA has been on the offensive side of the ball, UConn has been even better on the defensive side of the ball. Their defensive efficiency is leaps and bounds better than the team in second place, and no one has finished the season with a defensive efficiency in the 60s since South Carolina did in their 2022 National Championship season.
25.9
Audi Crooks leads the country in scoring at 25.9 points per game. Hannah Hidalgo is right behind her at 25.3 points a game, and Mikayla Blakes is at 25.1 points a game, but the current scoring title belongs in Ames with Crooks. It will be a battle down the stretch to see who can end the year as the top scorer in the country between these three.
3
There were three triple doubles this past week, and all three players got them in different ways. Camryn Runner of Evansville had the typical points-rebounds-assists triple double, while Montana State's Taylee Chirrick had a points-rebounds-steals triple double. Northern Iowa's Ryley Goebel gave us the first points-rebounds-blocks triple double of the season.
5 Games to Monitor
2/5 - LSU @ Texas
Do you like watching basketball where there are hardly any 3-pointers attempted? Well, this is the game for you! Texas sits at dead last in the country in 3-pointers attempted, and LSU is...second to dead last in the country. However, both of these teams are very good at what they do on the floor. They want to play an uptempo brand of basketball, and both are Top 5 offenses in the country because they rarely turn the ball over and they force a ton of turnovers. Both rebound the ball great on the offensive glass, and both are among the top defensive teams in the country. Both teams already have two losses in SEC play, and a loss for either team would all but likely knock them out of the race for a solo conference title. This is a game that will be played at the level of a Final Four contest. Must watch TV.
2/5 - Duke @ Louisville
If you watch the LSU and Texas game, you will also want to sit down and be glued to this game. Good news! This one is the lead game on ESPN2 for Thursday and the appetizer to the "main dish." On any other night, this would be the top game of the day. Duke, after getting off to a poor start, has righted the ship and has been playing as well as anyone in the country. Louisville, who hasn't lost in over two months, only has three losses this year, and all three of them were to excellent teams, including South Carolina by two points. Records so far this year aside, it's clear as day that these two teams are the best in the ACC this year, and both enter this game with unblemished 11-0 records in conference play. This is the lone game of the season between the two teams, and so the lights will be bright with the winner gaining the upper hand in the race for the ACC crown.
2/5 - Minnesota @ Iowa
Minnesota is the ugly darling of college basketball this year, as they are, by the metrics, a Top 10 team in the country, but they just haven't had the marquee wins that you need to be recognized by voters in the poll consistently. They have two Quad 1 wins this year, and both have come within the last few weeks; however, the issue is that sandwiched between those two wins were losses to UCLA and Washington. Minnesota has a chance to make a loud announcement with a win over a Top 10 team on the road. Iowa is coming off of a stinker of a road trip to Los Angeles, where an 0-2 trip can almost be excused. It can't be excused in the standings though, as they all but remove themselves from a chance at the Big Ten regular season title because, let's face it, UCLA isn't losing two or more Big Ten games this season. Overall, this is a barometer test for both Minnesota and Iowa. Minnesota needs to get over the hump and win a big game on the road, against a legit opponent, while Iowa needs to make sure they firmly right their ship and not spiral a bit after a tough road trip.
2/5 - Montana State @ Idaho
My two favorite mid majors to watch this year collide again in Big West play. The first game in the series was won by Montana State when they took down Idaho at home, 99-66. Montana State has since lost a tough one against Idaho State, which gave Idaho a chance to get themselves back into the conference race. Idaho has done everything they can up to this point and now will need to turn the tables against Montana State in their turn to host the leaders of the Big Sky. No one in the conference is projected per Bart Torvik to be better than 12-6 during conference play other than these two teams, so this game is amplified quite a bit. The key to the game is going to be simple. How well can Montana State force turnovers, and how well can Idaho prevent turnovers? This is going to be an excellent mid-major battle, and one that might go a long way in seeing who has the upper hand to go dancing in March.
2/8 - UCLA @ Michigan
This is the last real chance for UCLA to lose during the Big Ten season. Of course, upsets can happen, but this UCLA team looks nearly invincible right now. Their closest Big Ten game, and only single-digit win, was against Ohio State back in December, but since then they've blown out everyone who has stood in their way (besides a feisty Illinois team last week who managed to only lose by 13 points.) UCLA is coming off of a dominant performance against Iowa and will have a tune-up against Rutgers prior to Saturday. Michigan has been a little bit more "gettable" over the last few months, but even still, they haven't shown many signs of weakness. They beat Michigan State last week in an overtime thriller, and their last loss was to Vanderbilt a few weeks ago. Michigan is as talented as a team in the country, but do they have the talent to take down a UCLA team? If UCLA doesn't succumb in this one, I'm not sure that there is anyone else in the Big Ten that could put a scare in them this season. A win by UCLA would all but lock up a Big Ten conference title.
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