And just like that, we are through the first week of the college basketball season! If the opening salvo of hoops is any indication of what we're in for this winter...I think it's going to be a fun ride. There were record-setting individual performances, titanic ranked-versus-ranked clashes (both in the United States and overseas), and ESPN+ becoming integrated right into YouTube TV, which might be the single greatest development for college basketball fans since television was even invented.

Oh yeah, I forgot to introduce myself. How rude of me! My name is Drew Hamm and I'll be writing some posts around these parts on the women's basketball side of the ledger. I've been a guy around the internet for some time now and I'm pleased to say that I finally bothered Skim and Trilly enough on the Discord that they figured it would be easier for them if they just let me write here. I am from the Philadelphia suburbs, graduated from the University of Wisconsin, and currently live in the Twin Cities with my wife (sick brag, I know) and two kids. None of them are super into basketball, so that means most of my thoughts will be your problem, dear reader.

Enough nonsense! Let's talk about the best parts of Women's College Basketball Week 1!!

TEAM OF THE WEEK

I'm going to go in a bit of a different direction here than you might be expecting. Yes, of course South Carolina had a good week. So did Michigan; we all know this! But did you know only one team in the nation is 3-0, and all their wins are over teams ranked in the top-100 on Bart Torvik's site? That team, and my first ever Team of the Week, is the West Virginia Mountaineers.

Click to view the full team profile.

Mark Kellogg's crew has beaten Rhode Island (94th), George Washington (96th), and Georgia Tech (73rd) so far this year, with each win more impressive than the last. It makes sense that the 'Eers are improving as they play more games together because, well, they only have two players from last year's roster on this year's roster.

WVU was only running with 11 rostered players last year, and when five of them graduate and four of them transfer, that :: gets out TI-83 calculator:: leaves two. One of the returners, senior guard Gia Cooke, is helping lead the way this year with 18.3 ppg, 3.0 apg, and 2.3 rpg, while Marquette transfer forward Skylar Forbes is leading the team with 19.0 ppg. True freshman Divine Tumba is averaging 10.3 ppg and 6.7 rpg, while George Mason transfer and Cheryl Miller Small Forward Preseason Watch List member Zahirah Walton leads the team in assists, steals, and blocks.

Anyways, Kellogg doesn't even have this team forcing turnovers at WVU's usual manic pace yet, so I feel like other Big 12 teams should, at minimum, be eyeing this new group of Mountaineers warily.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Can I be honest with you all for a second? I was not expecting to ever be CONSIDERING a Rutgers player for this prestigious award, let alone PICK one, and yet...here I am. The best player in the nation this past week was sophomore guard Mia Pauldo of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.

Get a load of these freakin' stats through three games (three wins btw), baby:

  • 32.4 minutes per game
  • 25.3 ppg
  • 5.0 rpg (she's 5-foot-6 btw)
  • 6.0 apg
  • 5.0 spg (!!!)
  • She's not having the most efficient shooting start to the season, but since I'm not a nerd, I don't care about that and also she's making up for it by getting to the free throw line an average of nine times per game
  • Her turnover numbers are high, but so is her usage and her turnover rate is only 9.4%, which is in the 78th percentile nationally, er, so the nerds tell me

Her stat line from RU's win over Indiana State on Sunday is one of the more insane ones I've seen. She went off for 33 points (7-of-21 FG, 3-of-7 3P, 16-of-17 FT), five boards, seven assists, seven steals, three turnovers, zero fouls, all in 37 minutes of playing time.

To round out the weekly starting five, here are four other players who hooped at a high level this week. All players must have played at least three games to be considered.

  • Kiyomi McMiller (Florida) leads the nation in scoring at 29.7 ppg and is shooting 49.2% from the field and 38.9% from beyond the arc.
  • Fadima Tall (Princeton) leads the nation with 13.3 rpg and is also scoring 23.7 ppg, which is, quite frankly, crazy.
  • Kailyn Gilbert (Texas A&M) is stuffing the stat sheet so far this year with 22.7 ppg, 9.3 rpg, 7.0 apg, 1.0 spg, and 0.3 bpg.
  • Sarah Strong (UConn) went supernova on Sunday to help the Huskies dispatch Iowa as the reigning Player of the Year dropped a career-high 39 points on the Hawkeyes' heads. She is averaging 23.7 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 3.3 apg, 2.7 spg, and 0.7 bpg this season.
  • Honorable mention: Chloe Donnell (Northwestern State) hit 14 three-pointers in one game; Sayvia Sellers (Washington) had the first triple-double of the season

GAME OF THE WEEK

Click to see the full box score.

This one seemed pretty self-explanatory to me. Not only was it a potential Final Four preview for this year, but it was ALSO a rematch of one of last year's best non-conference games. UConn has set up one of the most mind-bendingly difficult non-conference schedules the sport has ever seen this year and the first test (of so, so many) came at Michigan last Thursday.

The Wolverines were looking for revenge after falling to the Huskies by a mere three points last season and I'd say they got it. Michigan's Te'Yala Delfosse exploded for 22 points (4-of-6 3P) and nine rebounds and All-America candidate Olivia Olson added 19 points, eight boards, four assists, and four steals. New point guard Dallas Loughridge had a dreadful shooting night (1-of-9 FG) but also dished out nine assists and only turned the ball over once while playing 39 of 40 minutes.

Michigan leaned heavily on their starters in this one. Syla Swords joined Loughridge in the 39-minutes-played club, while Olson played 38, and Delfosse a meager 32. On the other side of the court, UConn struggled to keep their top players on the court at all. Sarah Strong was in foul trouble for most of the game (she fouled out and didn't play one second in the second quarter after picking up her third foul near the end of the first quarter) and played only 27 minutes. Kayleigh Heckel also fouled out, although that may have benefited UConn with how Heckel was playing.

Dominant second and fourth quarters, in which Michigan outscored the Huskies 40-21, and a raucous crowd dressed in maize and blue helped Kim Barnes Arico's squad earn the biggest home win in program history. That probably justifies calling it the best game of the week, too.

Honorable mention: Maryland and Addi Mack mounting a valiant second-half comeback effort against South Carolina in Paris.

UPSET(S) OF THE WEEK

Any time UConn loses, it could probably qualify for a spot here, but we already talked about that game, so let's look elsewhere. After poring over the data, I couldn't decide on one upset from this past week that was monumental enough to stand alone...so here are three instead!

Creighton 73 - South Dakota State 71: After the Jackrabbits ran the Bluejays out of the gym at home last year, Creighton went on the road this year and, thanks to a buzzer-beating jumper from Ava Zediker, got their lick back. SDSU is almost always an NCAA Tournament team, so this result has the potential to boost Creighton's at-large resume come March

Cleveland State 62 - Penn State 61: even though PSU has a new coach and an entirely new roster (sans one player), this is a bad loss for the Nittany Lions. On the other side of the coin, however, it's a great win for Cleveland State, who also happens to have a new coach and a bunch of new players. Making it all the more fun for the Vikings, their new coach, Bob Dunn, is a Cleveland native, had already been an assistant at Cleveland State, and last year he was...an assistant at Penn State!

Incarnate Word 63 - Tulsa 57: this was the largest gap I could find between Torvik rankings in an upset this week. Tulsa, the home team, entered the season at 89th, while Incarnate Word was 317th. That's a difference of 228 places!!! The Golden Hurricane will most likely have nightmares the rest of the season about Kayanna Cox who came off the bench for UIW and scored 23 points and blocked four shots in just 18 minutes of run.