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
Anna Trusty
Oral Roberts does not have an easy road ahead this week and will need a great week of play out of Trusty to notch a few conference wins. After getting off to a slow start to the season, she has turned it on as of late. In her last six games, she has scored 23 or more points in three games and had her season high of 26 points on the road at Kansas. With games against North Dakota and North Dakota State this week, Trusty will need to play her best for her team to go 2-0 in their two conference games.
Ali Saunders
Southern Indiana has been a tough team to pin down this year, as three of their eight wins have been against non-D1 competition. One thing is for sure though: Saunders is a highly skilled guard who does an excellent job of leading her team. She had a 35-point outburst against Morehead State, a 23-point outing against Murray State, and scored 21 points against Middle Tennessee State. She is playing her best against the teams on the schedule that are considered Southern Indiana's peer programs. They will face off with SIU Edwardsville and Lindenwood on the road this week, and Saunders will need to be at her best.
Jada Wynn
Wynn has been an excellent piece for the UC Irvine offense all season long. Last season at Texas Tech, she had an offensive rating of 74.7, and this season she has improved that to a 118.5 offensive rating. She has also improved her 3-point percentage nearly 20% from last season. She is a skilled rebounder from her spot on the floor and has produced a 24.7 defensive rebound percentage so far this season. She and Hunter Hernandez have both excelled this season for UC Irvine, and this week is going to be another week where they can prove themselves.
Natalie Pasco
Boise State has not gotten off to the start to conference play that they had hoped, but there is a ton of time to get back on track, and this week is as good as any to do so. Pasco has been quietly excellent so far this season, knocking down 48% from behind the arc and rarely turning the ball over. She has scored in double figures 10 times this season already and is the type of player who you have to mark as a defense. With two tough games against Nevada and Grand Canyon coming up this week, Pasco is going to have to continue to knock down shots.
Nat Martinez
Staying in the Mountain West, Nat Martinez has been very good for San Diego State thus far this year, and she has seemed to rise to the occasion against the best competition. In her four games against Top-100 teams, she is shooting 48% from the perimeter and has scored in double figures in all four of those games. Against Kansas State she scored 22 points, and she put up 24 points against Penn State. She has simply been an elite player against the toughest competition; however, San Diego State has multiple players who can make plays for this team. With two games this week, Martinez is going to look to help her team not slip up early in conference play.
5 Teams to Watch This Week
Michigan
Michigan has had about as good of a start to the season as you could want, as they sit at 10-1 with the lone loss coming to UConn by three points. They've blown out both Syracuse and Notre Dame and now are jumping straight into conference play with their toughest road swing of the season. They will be taking on both Oregon and Washington on the road this week and will look to continue their hot start with two excellent wins that won't come easy.
Rice
Rice is a team who I thought coming into the season would be able to generate some noise in the AAC. They haven't let me down so far this year, as they've started out 10-3 this season with losses to South Dakota State, Princeton, and UCF. They now have their toughest game of the conference slate as they open on the road at South Florida and will look to notch an early big win. Rice also takes on Florida Atlantic this week in a game that they'll need to win if they are looking to win a conference title.
Nebraska
The trend of tough starts to the Big Ten slate continues with Nebraska, who gets to stay a bit closer to home. They are one of the remaining 12 teams in the country without a loss, and if they move to 14-0 this week, then they will surely feel great about the rest of the season. USC comes in to take on Nebraska on Monday, and then Nebraska travels to take on Iowa just three days later. That is as tough of a stretch as anyone will have this week. They also will host Purdue on Sunday.
LSU
LSU now leaves their non-conference slate and will see a huge step up in competition. Their toughest non-conference game was a game against Duke, and that win looks better and better each day with how Duke has been playing. LSU opens up conference play by hosting Kentucky and then heading on the road to play Vanderbilt. With all the talk about their non-conference schedule, people have overlooked that this team is just a good basketball team. They have a chance to prove it by grabbing two ranked wins this week.
Saint Mary's
This has been a team that has been a bit of a roller coaster thus far this season, and they have a big week ahead of them in conference play. They sit at 0-1 in conference after losing to Portland yesterday, but they can turn things around quickly as they play three more games this week. They host Oregon State and then travel to take on both San Diego and Pepperdine to finish the week off. Saint Mary's needs a 2-1 stretch here badly, and a 3-0 week would be extremely well received in terms of the conference race.
5 Stats to Know
0
I've said it before, and I'll say it again now that Michigan State is 13 games into their season. Emma Shumate STILL doesn't have a turnover this year and is playing over 17 minutes per game this year. It's incredible, really.
94.6%
Naomi White is leading the country by playing in 94.6% of her team's minutes this season. She has played less than 37 minutes in one game this season, and that was due to foul trouble against Arizona. White is being relied on heavily this season for Northern Arizona, and that will continue to be the trend as the season goes forward.
.787
This is the winning percentage of Southern's opponents so far this year. Southern has the toughest strength of schedule, as they've already played six Quad 1 games this year. Southern has made it a goal of theirs to play as many power conference opponents as possible and have had some success doing so, as they've grabbed wins over Houston and Arizona.
17.9%
This is the 3-point rate for Texas this season, which puts them last in D1 basketball with the lowest rate of perimeter shots attempted. They aren't shooting the ball poorly from the arc but just are not taking many of them this year. This rate is a full 1.2% lower than the 2nd worst team in the country, and I don't see this number climbing much higher this season.
10
This is the number of teams that have not notched a win yet this season. Three of those teams hail from the NEC, so it's very likely that all three have a good chance to notch a win this year. No one should go through an entire season without winning a game, so we should all be called to root for some wins this week.
5 Games to Monitor
12/29 - Minnesota @ Indiana
Both of these teams are going to be fighting for an NCAA tournament bid this season, and this Monday evening game is going to be huge for their resumes. Minnesota needs this game more than Indiana does, but a win by Indiana will only solidify their start to the season thus far. This game will be won by whoever can get their stars going quicker.
12/31 - Baylor @ Oklahoma State
After a loss to Texas Tech to head into the holiday break, Baylor will be hungry to get back on track and notch a win over Oklahoma State. Baylor's start to the conference season is not an easy one, and trying to defend the Oklahoma State offense is not an easy task. Oklahoma State's offense has been humming along this year, and they'll look to continue and perform well against a Baylor team that has been excellent defensively this year.
12/31 - Richmond @ Rhode Island
This is one of the best mid-major contests of the week, and two of the best Atlantic 10 programs get together in an early-season conference battle. Richmond has shown the ability to beat excellent teams this year, and they likely hold the upper hand in the conference race. Rhode Island would like to provide some resistance to that thought as they look to notch a big home win. This is going to be a very competitive game.
1/3 - USC @ UCLA
I think that there are "better" games this week, but the storylines surrounding this game are going to be great. Both teams are going to put a ton of importance on this game, and for good reason. USC will try and use their defense to slow down UCLA, while UCLA will look to come out and blitz USC with all of their scoring options. Make sure you tune into this one.
1/3 - Georgia Southern @ Coastal Carolina
This is a fun game because of the difference in styles that both teams play with. Georgia Southern loves to push the ball up the floor, and they look to get as many possessions per game as they can. They rank top-20 this season in pace, while Coastal Carolina is the opposite, and they look to limit possessions. Coastal Carolina ranks #300 in total possessions per game. This will be a game where both teams are looking to force each other to play their preferred style.
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