Michigan took down UConn without its starting point guard, USC showed it doesn't need JuJu to be JuJu, and South Carolina almost gave away a 28-point lead in Paris. Plus LSU hanging 131, judges deciding rosters, freshmen skipping the learning curve, a long injury list, and a week of mid-majors making noise.
Michigan Didn't Need Its Point Guard
Thursday night was the first top-five women's game ever played at Crisler Center, and #5 Michigan made it count. The Wolverines beat #2 UConn 77-66, the third win over a top-five opponent in program history and the first against a team ranked as high as second. The win also snapped UConn's 39-game regular-season winning streak.
They did it without Mila Holloway. Michigan's point guard started all 35 games last year, and she's been out indefinitely with a left leg injury since early September. That gave Michigan two months to figure out life without her, and Thursday showed it did. Playing without your floor general against the defending national runner-up is supposed to be the excuse you make after you lose. Instead, playing without her makes this win that much more important.
Te'Yala Delfosse scored a career-high 22 with nine rebounds. Olivia Olson added 19 points. Courtney Ogden, in her first game since transferring from Stanford, scored 12 points. Syla Swords hit three 3-pointers and finished with 10 points. With no one player asked to replace Holloway, four Wolverines reached double figures.
I can't help but notice who led them. Olson and Swords are the names on every preseason list, the two players the program is built around. Neither led the team in scoring on the biggest night in Crisler history. Delfosse did.
The game script turned on two things. In the second quarter, UConn scored eight points, and Michigan flipped a 21-17 deficit into a 35-29 halftime lead. In the fourth, Michigan opened with a 13-2 run that Geno Auriemma burned two timeouts trying to stop. It didn't work. Michigan won the fourth quarter 22-13.
The numbers show the whole story. Michigan shot 45% from the perimeter. UConn shot 25.8%. UConn turned it over 19 times. And Sarah Strong, the reigning AP Player of the Year, went to the bench with three fouls and no points in the first half, then fouled out with 13. The best player on the floor never had a chance to settle in.
Here's my takeaway: this wasn't a fluke, and it is not just a Strong foul-trouble story. Michigan beat UConn the way you beat any top-five team: it shot well from the perimeter, forced turnovers, and won the boring possessions. It did it all with a rotation that will get better when Holloway comes back.
The case against? It's one game, at home, in November, against a UConn team that got only one other double-digit scorer besides Strong. Freshman Jovana Popovic led everyone with 25. UConn will be fine. There's plenty more against ranked teams, starting with #10 Iowa on Sunday.
Michigan entered the season with its best preseason ranking in program history and a goal it's never reached: the Final Four. One night in Ann Arbor doesn't check off that box, but it is evidence that the goal isn't crazy.
USC Didn't Need JuJu Either
Five hundred and eighty-eight days. That's how long JuJu Watkins waited between games after tearing her ACL in the 2025 tournament. On Monday night in Las Vegas, she played like someone who'd counted every single day she was out. She finished with 21 points, five rebounds, two assists, two steals, and a block in 25 minutes as USC beat UNLV 100-68.
That's the story everyone wrote. It's a great story. It's also not the most important thing that happened on that floor, in my opinion.
Look at the two players next to her. Jazzy Davidson scored 23 on 10-of-11 shooting. Saniyah Hall, the #1 recruit in the country per ESPN HoopGurlz, scored 22 on 7-of-8 in her first official college game. That's 45 points on 17-of-19 shooting. On a night the whole world was watching JuJu, USC's other two best players were nearly perfect.
Lindsay Gottlieb said afterward that Watkins is on a minutes restriction and that the team is still "finding that rhythm." That's the honest version of where USC is right now early in the season. Their superstar looks great, but she isn't fully back yet. And the Trojans still put up 100.
Last year, USC without JuJu was a 9 seed. The fear coming into this season was that the Trojans were a one-player team that had gotten that player back. Monday said otherwise. If Davidson can prove that she is a second star and Hall is already an excellent third option this early in the season, the minutes restriction isn't a vulnerability. It's a luxury to have.
Davidson isn't going 10-of-11 every night, and Hall will surely hit a freshman wall at some point; they always do. But if you're looking for the national-title takeaway from opening week, it isn't that JuJu can still score. Everyone knew she could. It's that USC didn't need her to.
Three Things
South Carolina Took a Half Off
At halftime in Paris, #1 South Carolina led #20 Maryland 61-33. The Gamecocks had 27 fast-break points and 21 off turnovers in the first half, and the lead reached 31 in the third quarter. It finished 101-93, and Maryland cut the lead to 96-90 with 43 seconds left.
Maryland won the second half 60-40. Addi Mack scored a career-high 35, with 31 after halftime and 17 in the third quarter alone, and went 6-for-10 from three. Dawn Staley called out a lack of "competitive spirit" in the third quarter.
South Carolina had plenty of positives. Joyce Edwards had 23 points and 8 rebounds, Agot Makeer added 20 points, Chloe Kitts was back from injury with eight points, seven rebounds, and five assists, and Jerzy Robinson scored 15 points in her debut. This is still the best roster in the country. But taking a half off is how the best teams in the country lose a game they shouldn't. UConn had one bad quarter in Ann Arbor, and that was enough.
Chloe Donnell: Remember the Name
Northwestern State's Chloe Donnell made 14 three-pointers against Ecclesia on Monday, tying the NCAA single-game record, and scored 46 points, the third-most in school history.
Yes, it was Ecclesia, a non-DI school. No, that doesn't make 14 threes normal. You can't make 14 of anything in a college game unless you're getting shots off from everywhere and can make them. Northwestern State is a Southland program most of the country won't see until March in the conference tournament, so consider this your warning to watch Donnell.
The Number: 5
That's how many non-Division I teams beat Division I teams in the first week of the season. Virginia State (DII) beat Norfolk State 63-62. Talladega (NAIA) beat Alabama A&M 59-53. Minnesota Crookston (DII) beat North Dakota 81-68. Illinois Springfield (DII) beat Southern Illinois 75-70 behind 30 from Kayla Rice. And on Thursday, Frostburg State (DII) went into Towson and won 94-92 in double overtime, with Jenna Muha putting up 29 points and 13 rebounds.
One might be a fluke or a bad scheduling idea. Five in the first week says something about how many DI rosters get rebuilt from scratch every spring. When half your team is new, the small college team that has played together for three years has a chance to win in November. It won't last, but it's worth knowing early.
The Bigger Picture
Cupcake Week, by the Numbers
LSU beat Texas Southern 131-22 on Thursday, a school-record 109-point margin. Texas Southern actually led 3-2 early. Then LSU went on a 50-0 run that started early in the second quarter and didn't end until midway through the third. Texas Southern went the entire second quarter without a point. Jada Williams had 16 of her 18 points in that quarter alone. That came after a 129-35 win over Southeastern Louisiana in the opener, when ZaKiyah Johnson had 33 points, 13 rebounds, and 5 steals. That's 260 points in two games.
LSU didn't even have the week's highest score. Stephen F. Austin put up 136 on Dallas on Wednesday. Radford beat Bluefield 128-24. Kansas City scored 120 on Baker. Louisville hung 119 on Bellarmine on Monday, and Bellarmine turned it around, scoring 113 on Simmons on Thursday. Alabama put up 118 on New Orleans, Vanderbilt scored 112 on Lipscomb, and Penn beat Swarthmore 110-27. TCU's 99-43 win over Oral Roberts was the biggest opening-night margin in school history.
Since I picked LSU as the team most likely to pack a bag, I'll say this now: none of this changes anything. Scoring 131 on a SWAC team in November is what LSU does. It doesn't tell you anything about the six newcomers or the thin frontcourt. UConn in Nashville will.
The Courtroom Is Part of the Roster Now
Two of the offseason's more consequential roster decisions weren't made by coaches. Judges made them.
Amber Scalia averaged 13.7 points per game at Miami (OH) last year. In June, she took a coaching job at Evansville. Then she won a preliminary injunction to return to the RedHawks for another season. Miami is 2-0, after a 59-52 win over James Madison and a 75-52 win at Southeast Missouri State on Thursday.
Brooklyn Meyer's path back was even stranger. Last season, she was the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year, averaging 22.6 points and 8.0 rebounds on 64.6% shooting. That was supposed to be her last basketball season, so she stayed at South Dakota State to play volleyball as a middle blocker, using an NCAA rule that allows a fifth season in a different sport. She played in two matches, then left the program to pursue basketball. She was granted a temporary restraining order that made her eligible for basketball again, and she was added to the roster the week before the opener.
Think about what that does to a program. You're building a rotation, building around a player, maybe passing on a portal target, all on a ruling that could change. For a mid-major like South Dakota State, a fifth year of Meyer might be the difference between an at-large bid and a one-bid league. For Miami, it's the difference between a middle-of-the-pack MAC team and one that can win it.
This should be a one-year problem. The NCAA's new eligibility rule covers everyone from the 2023 class on, so it's the 2022 class, caught between the old rules and the new ones, that's taking this to court. But for this season, every preseason projection, mine included, comes with a footnote: "pending lawsuits."
Freshmen Aren't Waiting Their Turn
The best scorer on the floor in Michigan-UConn was a freshman: UConn's Jovana Popovic, with 25 points. Saniyah Hall's 22-point debut at USC had company too. Oklahoma freshman LeeLee Bell scored 25 with 8 rebounds in a 91-79 win over #12 North Carolina in Paris. South Carolina's Jerzy Robinson scored 15 in her debut against Maryland. And Iowa's McKenna Woliczko scored 22 against Eastern Illinois on Thursday.
The old rule was that freshmen in power-conference programs earned minutes by February. That rule is gone. Rosters turn over so fast that the wait-your-turn pipeline barely exists, and the best freshmen arrive ready.
When you're judging a team in November, judge its freshmen like veterans. The teams that trust them and throw them into the fire early will be the ones nobody wants to see in March.
The Injury List Is Already Too Long
We're one week in, and here's just some of who's out:
- Michigan's Mila Holloway (left leg), indefinitely.
- Duke's Toby Fournier (lower leg), no timetable.
- Oklahoma's Keeley Parks (ACL), for the season.
- Oregon State's Ally Schimel (foot), indefinitely.
- North Dakota State's Avery Koenen and Abby Krzewinski (lower leg), no timetable.
- Columbia's Marija Avlijas (foot/ankle surgery), for the season.
- Bradley's Claire McDougall (ACL and meniscus), for the season.
That's two preseason top-10 teams already missing a key player, plus five more programs down a critical piece, and there are more not mentioned here.
There's some good news too. South Carolina got Chloe Kitts and Ashlyn Watkins back in Paris, and Auburn's Jessica Peterson returned Thursday with 14 points and 19 rebounds against Southern Miss.
It's only the first week of November, but injuries are already changing the outlook for several teams. Michigan, Duke and Oklahoma are going to have to figure out how to survive without important pieces. That's a lot easier to do when you have someone capable of stepping in.
Mid-Major Notes
South Dakota State already has a tough loss and a brutal schedule. Creighton's Ava Zediker hit a fadeaway at the buzzer to win 73-71 in Brookings, and the Jackrabbits still have #6 Texas, #22 Oklahoma State, #14 Kentucky, and #19 Ole Miss on the non-conference schedule. They've won four straight Summit tournaments, but North Dakota State took the regular-season title last year, so this team needs resume wins more than it used to. And North Dakota State, the team that beat them for that title, nearly won at Gonzaga, losing only 62-56 in Spokane. But the Bison lost Avery Koenen and Abby Krzewinski to lower-leg injuries in that game, and both will miss time for the foreseeable future. That could reopen the Summit race.
Green Bay gave Duke a scare. The Phoenix led after the first quarter and were up six in the second before Duke pulled away 76-60. Maddie Skorupski had a game-high 16 points, and Kristina Ouimette added 14. Duke was without Fournier, so it comes with an asterisk. But Green Bay going into Cameron and leading a top-10 team for a quarter and a half shows how tight the margins can be.
Cleveland State beat Penn State, 62-61. A Horizon League team winning at a Big Ten program in the opener is a great result, not a fluke. Between this and Green Bay's start at Duke, the Horizon showed up in Week 1. The Vikings came back down to earth a bit Thursday, losing 77-73 at Bowling Green.
Cal Baptist stole one in Corvallis. Oregon State took a one-point lead with 14 seconds left. Then Lauren Olsen missed a jumper, grabbed her own rebound, and scored the go-ahead layup. Oregon State committed a five-second violation on the final inbound, and Cal Baptist won 79-77. Taylor Young scored 22 points, and Jenna Villa had 21, so they did plenty for the Beavers, but a WAC team just picked up a road win it can use in March if needed.
Boston College is 0-2 against its Massachusetts neighbors. Holy Cross beat the Eagles 64-54. Then Harvard beat them 81-51 on Thursday. Two Bay State mid-majors, two losses, and the second one wasn't close.
Rhode Island didn't go quietly. The Rams trailed #24 West Virginia 60-43 with 6:28 left, then closed on a 21-8 run to lose 68-64. Delanie Hill scored 26 and made 7-of-10 from deep, and West Virginia's Gia Cooke put up a career-high 28 to hold them off. Finishing like that in Morgantown is a good sign for an A-10 team.
Loyola Chicago found a second quarter. The Ramblers trailed Wright State 28-11 late in the first quarter, won the second quarter 21-4, and held on 73-71 to give Morgan Paige her first win as a head coach.
Incarnate Word won at Tulsa, 63-57. A Southland team won in an AAC building, with Kayanna Cox scoring 23 and blocking four shots.
Illinois State won at Dayton in overtime, 91-87. Trista Fayta had 28 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists. That's a Missouri Valley team taking an A-10 road game, and Fayta is a name to know.
Northwestern can't shake the mid-majors. Milwaukee nearly got the Wildcats in the opener, losing 64-60 in Evanston. Xavier finished the job Thursday, winning 91-78 at Welsh-Ryan.
Stat lines you missed. Hawai'i's Ritorya Tamilo had 27 points, 19 rebounds, and six blocks in an overtime loss at San Francisco. Coastal Carolina's Olivia Klanac had 21 points, eight rebounds, and 11 steals against Johnson. Colgate's Ella Meabon went for 16 points, 15 rebounds, and nine assists in the opener. Jacksonville freshman Samirah Mamoudou added 21 points, 11 rebounds, and five steals in her college debut, a 75-64 win at FIU.
Pick your one-point thriller. Seattle beat New Mexico 63-62, Buffalo beat Georgia State 82-81, and UT Martin beat Eastern Kentucky 90-89. Nobody outside those campuses saw them, which is exactly why they're in here.
Princeton didn't miss a beat. Fadima Tall had 29 points and 22 rebounds in Lauren Gosselin's first win as Princeton's head coach. Gosselin is the longtime assistant promoted to replace Carla Berube, so continuity was the whole point, and Week 1 looked like it. The Ivy will run through Princeton until someone proves otherwise.
Last Word
A few more before we go. Sayvia Sellers posted the season's first triple-double in Washington's 79-63 win over UC San Diego (25 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists). Talayah Walker scored 40 for Georgia Tech against Hofstra. Hannah Hidalgo opened with 32 points, seven rebounds, and eight assists in Notre Dame's 99-75 win over Villanova in Rome. Audi Crooks scored 22 in her Oklahoma State debut. And Stanford opened with an 84-69 loss to Arizona in Las Vegas.
But the week belongs to Kiyomi McMiller, who didn't wait long to make Florida her team. The Penn State transfer scored 42 in a 95-65 win over UCF on Thursday, shooting 14-of-25 with seven threes. That's a career high, the fourth-most points in program history, and her second straight 30-point game after 31 in the opener. Tammi Reiss is 2-0 in Gainesville, and she already has a player she can rely on to get buckets.