Less than a week from now, the women’s college basketball regular season will come to a conclusion and conference tournament brackets will be finalized.
It’s the first, of many reminders, that March Madness is just around the corner.
But until then, teams around the country will clash against each other in the final games of the regular season in hopes of either keeping their current projected seeding line alive or making up some late season ground.
Two top-15 matchups between teams from the latest USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll are taking place this weekend. But there are also highly anticipated matchups taking place around the country over the next three days — some of which may be well-known by avid women’s basketball fans that have been following the season since November — making for an action-packed weekend of hoops.
Here’s our Starting Five for the weekend’s best games in women’s college basketball:
No. 1 Notre Dame at No. 12 NC State
Time/TV: Sunday, noon ET, ESPN (Fubo)
The Sunday headliner is also the biggest game of the entire weekend between No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 12 NC State — two top 15 teams that are legitimate Final Four contenders. At the start of the week, this game was gearing up to be a pivotal game for first place in the ACC but with NC State’s loss to No. 10 North Carolina earlier this week those implications have lessened a bit. Led by National Player of the Year candidate Hannah Hidalgo, the Irish have been one of the hottest teams in the entire country since the start of December, highlighted by their 19-game win streak and undefeated 15-0 mark in ACC play. If NC State wants to play spoiler to Notre Dame’s dreams of ending the ACC regular season undefeated and move closer in the league standings, it will need to do so by limiting the amount of fast break points by the Irish. The Wolfpack will also need to find a way to give the ball to Aziaha James, who Notre Dame will surely try to double team and limit her production to a minimum.
No. 17 West Virginia at No. 9 TCU
Time/TV: Sunday, noon ET, ESPN2 (Fubo)
There will also be conference tournament seeding implications in play in the Big 12 on Sunday, as No. 17 West Virginia travels to No. 9 TCU. Things have turned the corner for the Mountaineers in the last month, as they’ve won five of their last six since getting upset by unranked Arizona on Jan. 25 — a stretch that has West Virginia just three games back of TCU in the Big 12 standings. TCU is in the midst of one of its best seasons in the last handful of years, thanks to the trio of Sedona Prince, Hailey Van Lith and Madison Conner. The Horned Frogs are coming off a 82-66 rout of Arizona State on Wednesday, where Conner scored all her 22 points in the second half. Expect a close one here.
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No. 3 UCLA at Iowa
Time/TV: Sunday, 2 p.m. ET, Peacock
Lauren Betts and No. 3 UCLA travel to Carver-Hawkeye Arena for the first time as a member of the Big Ten to take on Iowa. The Bruins have bounced back from their loss last week to USC with back-to-back top 25 wins over Michigan State and Illinois, while the Hawkeyes look to get back in the win column after an early week loss to No. 8 Ohio State. Expect UCLA to feed the ball a lot to Betts, one of the leading candidates for National Player of the Year, and Kiki Rice, their top two scorers. The ball for Iowa will go through Lucy Olsen, who is sixth in the Big Ten in scoring at 17.8 points per game. But for the Hawkeyes to come out with their second top-five win in the Jan Jensen era, they might need a big game out of Hannah Stuelke. If not, the Bruins could be walking out with a celebratory Carver Ice Cream cone. All that will be decided though on Peacock at 2 p.m. ET on Sunday.
Illinois at No. 4 USC
Time/TV: Sunday, 4 p.m. ET, Fox Sports 1 (Fubo)
We stick in the Big Ten for this clash between Illinois and No. 4 USC, who are two of the conference’s 11 projected to hear their names called on Selection Sunday per ESPN’s Charlie Creme. The Illini are in need of a big win for their NCAA Tournament resume after falling short of grabbing one Thursday against UCLA. While the Trojans are riding a five-game win streak and have lost just once since the start of the month, and that came at the hands of Iowa on Caitlin Clark Day at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. JuJu Watkins has been on a tear of late for USC, as one of the sports’ biggest stars is averaging 23.5 points per game in the last month. The Trojans will need to have keep the Illini off the free throw line and take care of the ball, if they want to keep their 12-game home win streak alive. Illinois ranks in the top 15 in the country in both turnovers and free throw’s made per game.
No. 7 LSU at No. 14 Kentucky
Time/TV: Sunday, 4 p.m. ET, ESPN (Fubo)
Rounding out the Starting Five is a trip to the Southeastern Conference for a top-15 matchup that could determine who gets the three or four seed in next month’s conference tournament. One game currently separates No. 7 LSU and No. 14 Kentucky. This game will be likely decided by who can play a more sound game on defense, get stops down the stretch and limit extended runs. One thing to watch for with LSU is how they defend Kentucky’s 3-point shooting, as the Wildcats trio of Georgia Amoore, Amelia Hassett and Dazia Lawrence are averaging a combined near seven 3-pointers per game this season. Kentucky is averaging 8.6 3-pointers per game as a whole. One thing to watch out for with Kentucky is can they hold LSU’s high efficient offense to under to under 40% from the field. If they can, they will — and they have all but seven times this season against opponents — the Wildcats can come out with a big win at home.
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