The upset bug is alive in women’s college basketball, as 11 teams in my top 25 lost to lower-ranked or unranked opponents in the past week.
Some of the losses are tinged with injury: Iowa played its first games after Taylor McCabe’s torn ACL, Princeton lost Madison St. Rose to a knee injury in its loss to Columbia, veteran starter Maddie Scherr has been limited for TCU, and Maryland has slowly seen the decimation of its entire rotation.
Others fell victim to unfriendly road environments. Baylor committed 30 turnovers in “Press” Virginia, while those same Mountaineers surrendered a 3-point barrage in Utah.
But there weren’t excuses for every team. Vanderbilt was gifted a neutral site when winter weather forced its game to be moved from Mississippi to Alabama and still came out flat in its second consecutive defeat. Tennessee might have been looking ahead to UConn and was beaten soundly by Mississippi State in Knoxville, Tenn. Washington had a chance to make up some ground after a win over the Terrapins but instead trailed the entire second half at home against Illinois. Texas Tech never led in its loss to Iowa State, and Georgia followed up two strong wins over Ole Miss and Kentucky with two single-digit quarters against Alabama.
Outside of the very top teams (really only UConn, though the other reigning Final Four squads have had their moments), consistency has been hard to find this season. Perhaps it’s a result of super conferences that force so many ranked teams to face each other on a regular basis, disrupting any chance of rhythm as they beat up on one another. It makes it all the more important to savor the wins because the losses are soon to follow.
| Rank | Team | Previous rank |
|---|---|---|
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1
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1
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2
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3
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3
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2
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4
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4
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5
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6
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6
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5
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7
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8
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8
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9
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9
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10
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10
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15
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11
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17
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12
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18
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13
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7
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14
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16
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15
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11
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16
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12
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17
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21
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18
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13
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19
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23
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20
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14
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21
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20
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22
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22
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23
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24
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24
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25
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25
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NR
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Dropped out: Georgia (19)
Also considered: Oregon, Richmond, Virginia Tech
As if UConn needed more depth
Azzi Fudd is a potential No. 1 pick in the WNBA Draft. Most teams might struggle on offense if their best shooter played under the weather and shot 2 of 12 from the floor — Fudd even missed her first free throw of the season against Xavier! Most teams aren’t UConn. They don’t have a player like Allie Ziebell waiting on the bench to do a pitch-perfect Fudd impression and provide all the spacing and shooting a roster could need with a school-record 34 points off the bench.
Just how impressive was Ziebell’s feat? She became the 18th player since the 2009-10 season to make 10 3-pointers in a game against a power conference opponent. (To accommodate UConn’s conference realignment, both the Big East and the AAC count as power conferences during this stretch.) The only player to do so in fewer minutes was also from UConn: Katie Lou Samuelson in the 2017 AAC tournament. Ziebell’s point total is also the second-highest for a reserve this season and the highest in a power conference.
The Huskies’ offense creates enough spot-up looks that Ziebell didn’t have to do too much work off the dribble: just load up the cannon above her right shoulder, and let it fly. In fact, every one of Ziebell’s 10 triples came right off the catch — no dribbles required. Somehow, the Musketeers kept giving her space.
After the game, coach Geno Auriemma said: “The number isn’t as impressive to me as watching her just play with so much confidence. … That’s the Allie I saw play in high school, that’s the Allie I saw play every summer, that’s the kid we recruited and why we recruited her.” If that version of Ziebell has arrived at the college level, that’s a scary thought for the rest of the Big East and the rest of the country.
Game of the year in Michigan?
Michigan and Michigan State faced off for the first time as top-15 teams in the AP poll, and the matchup was as good as any the two rivals have ever played. It’s the leading contender for the best game of the season with the stakes, the quality of play, drama throughout and a dash of in-state animosity. Both teams shot over 50 percent from the field and 40 percent from 3-point range, though Michigan’s free-throw shooting left something to be desired. Neither squad has a traditional rim protector, so both guard groups were emboldened to drive to the basket with abandon. Nine players scored in double figures, including four crossing the 20-point threshold.
There were 13 ties and 17 lead changes between the schools, and neither team had a double-digit lead — including in overtime — as the majority of the game was played within one possession. The Wolverines had a four-point lead with less than a minute to play, and somehow Michigan State had a game-winning field-goal attempt at the buzzer after forcing a turnover on Michigan’s last inbound of regulation. It was one of the most impressive half-court heaves you’ll see, and I still think it’s going in on replay.
Michigan State falls to Michigan 94-91 in overtime. However, Inés Sotelo was this 🤏🏽 close to winning it for the Spartans at the buzzer! pic.twitter.com/cdzbhmIkQy
— Marcus Richardson (@MarcusRich99) February 1, 2026
The Big Ten is a bloodbath, and the Wolverines are hanging on to second place by a thread after outlasting the Spartans in overtime. The meat of Michigan’s schedule is yet to come, however, with games against UCLA, Iowa, Ohio State and a rematch against Michigan State remaining. A win next week against the Bruins — who are playing inspired basketball at the moment — would give the Wolverines an inside track to the conference title. But as the game against the Spartans proved, getting even one win in this league is a battle every night.
Is Jada Richard LSU’s point guard answer?
As the modern game of basketball becomes more positionless, LSU coach Kim Mulkey is as rigid as ever in wanting a traditional point guard to run her offense. When she doesn’t have that player, like with Hailey Van Lith in 2024 or the two-headed tandem of Shayeann Day-Wilson and Kailyn Gilbert in 2025, the Tigers’ upside is limited. It isn’t even so much about individual players’ production — it’s whether Mulkey trusts them enough to let them play through mistakes.
She has finally settled on another point guard who she believes can deliver winning basketball: Jada Richard. The sophomore played limited minutes last season, but she assumed the starting role this season, even with MiLaysia Fulwiley arriving from South Carolina. After LSU’s seventh win in a row, a thorough demolition of ranked Alabama, Mulkey had glowing words for Richard.
“She’s our glue,” Mulkey said. “She’s our coach on the floor. She’s got all the tools you need in a point guard. She knows how to win.”
Richard is averaging about 13 points and 3.5 assists compared to two turnovers during the winning streak. She’s been outstanding as a pick-and-roll ballhandler, producing 1.041 points per possession out of those actions, per Synergy. Pick-and-rolls and transition make up about 60 percent of Richard’s plays, so she’s maximizing her efficiency with what she does best. Richard’s most impressive game in this seven-game stretch might have been against Florida, when she paired her 20 points and two assists with elite defense on Liv McGill, but her perfect shooting in the win over the Crimson Tide was a nice bow on the streak before LSU’s rematch with Texas.
Ole Miss using Christeen Iwuala’s defensive versatility
One thing is certain with Yolett McPhee-McCuin: She can put together a defensive game plan. Coach “Yo” got on the map by upsetting Stanford in the 2023 NCAA Tournament when Ole Miss throttled all of the Cardinal’s pet Princeton actions, sending the No. 1 seed packing early. Since then, the Rebels’ offense has wavered, but their defense has been a calling card.
It was no surprise that Ole Miss was ready to go Friday against Vanderbilt, even though the Commodores boasted the nation’s eighth-best offensive rating. The Rebels had clearly locked in on how Vanderbilt wanted to bring the defense away from the rim and use the baseline to force them into rotation. Ole Miss took away that option while still rebounding the ball and applying pressure at the point of attack, maintaining their trademark aggression within the scout.
The Commodores thought they could create some advantages by forcing the Rebels to switch, but they underestimated Christeen Iwuala’s mobility as a defender. The Ole Miss center was the defensive MVP, switching on Aubrey Galvan and Mikayla Blakes without giving up any drives. Vanderbilt eventually realized that its best gambit was going after the guard defenders in isolation and not involving Iwuala, who finished the game with three steals and two blocks in addition to 14 rebounds.
Iwuala has the best on-off rating among Rebels starters; Ole Miss is 11 points per 100 possessions better when she plays, per CBB Analytics. She takes good shots, rebounds the ball and doesn’t foul. SEC teams are learning that Iwuala doesn’t have a ton of weaknesses to exploit either.
The Yarden Garzon disappearing act
Maryland is in a tough situation. Already without Kaylene Smikle, Lea Bartelme and Ava McKennie for the season, the Terrapins lost freshman Rainey Welson to injury on a recent trip to Los Angeles. That has trimmed the rotation to about seven players. Coach Brenda Frese likes to get a lot of players on the court, but she’s running out of bodies.
That means a larger burden falls on the remaining players, especially the upperclassmen. Too often, Yarden Garzon hasn’t been up to the challenge. On the surface, her numbers are perfectly solid: 12.9 points and 3.0 assists per game while posting a near 50/40/90 season. But when Maryland has needed more, Garzon is becoming more invisible. Against Oregon, she played 38 minutes but finished with three points and two assists, taking only five field-goal attempts.
Garzon’s sterling 3-point shooting percentage is less impressive when considering all the shots she refuses to take because she isn’t wide open, even though it’s probably a better look than anything else the Terrapins could get on that possession. Similarly, her free-throw percentage is almost a sad indicator because she’s taken only 18 free throws all season. It sometimes seems like Garzon is actively avoiding the paint or at least avoiding contact. She has taken 50 field-goal attempts in the paint all season.
To Garzon’s credit, she is always available and has a heavy minutes load. She demands defensive attention because of her shooting ability, and she has good size and instincts as a defender. But the Terrapins need her to scale up, and she has not been able to.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Michigan State Spartans, Maryland Terrapins, UCLA Bruins, Ole Miss Rebels, Connecticut Huskies, LSU Lady Tigers, Michigan Wolverines, Women's College Basketball
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