It’s the final weekend of the women’s college basketball regular season for in the Power Four conferences and a handful of mid-major leagues, so there are several games of importance.
Duke and North Carolina are meeting for the second time this year, UConn will try to close out its regular season undefeated when it takes on St. John’s, TCU is hosting Baylor with ESPN’s College GameDay in town, Maryland travels to Michigan, and UCLA will travel to crosstown rival USC.
With Selection Sunday just more than two weeks away, much of the focus will be on brackets and bubble teams.
Last weekend, Clemson and Virginia picked up the marquee wins they needed to secure their positions in the field of 68. Arizona State will have the chance to do the same at Texas Tech on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, ESPN+).
In Molly Miller’s debut season, the Sun Devils have reached 22 wins for the first time since the 2018-19 season — the last time they appeared in March Madness. Miller flipped the roster with the transfer portal, and it has helped Arizona State go from a team that won three Big 12 games last season to one that’s on the cusp of punching its ticket to the Big Dance.
But in USA Today Sports’ latest bracketology, Arizona State is on the wrong side of the bubble as one of the first four teams out. Hurting the Sun Devils’ chances are their lack of Quad 1 wins. Arizona State is 0-4 in such games, and several teams ahead of them on the bubble have at least one. Clemson has three, Virginia has two, Mississippi State has two and even a team like Fairfield has two.
Texas Tech enters this weekend safely in the tournament field with a NET ranking of 30th, which makes them a Quad 1 opponent for Arizona State. A win for the Sun Devils would give its resume a much-needed boost and perhaps provide Miller’s team with some momentum going into the Big 12 tournament, where they’d likely need to pick up a win or two to further pad their metrics.
Here’s a few other games worth paying attention to this weekend.
Game that could impact top 16 seeds: Duke at North Carolina
Sunday, 12 p.m. ET (ESPN)
North Carolina is trying to play its way into a top 16 seed. After Ole Miss lost Thursday to Florida, the Tar Heels’ path to hosting games during the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament is a bit more manageable. Getting a win over a team ranked inside the NET top 10, like Duke, would go a long way in helping Courtney Banghart’s team make its case. If UNC can combine a victory over the Blue Devils with a win or two in the ACC Tournament next week in Duluth, Georgia, they should be in decent shape to land a top-four seed. Meanwhile, Duke is trying to play its way onto the two-line. The path to doing so begins with completing a regular season sweep of its Tobacco Road rival.
Must-watch player matchup: UConn at St. John’s
Sunday, 7:30 p.m. ET (TNT)
UConn beat St. John’s by 45 points earlier this season. But this game is worth watching because it presents the opportunity to see Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong — both first-team All-American candidates — play in Madison Square Garden.
Mid-major matchup worth watching: Georgia Southern at Marshall
Friday, 6 p.m. ET (ESPN+)
The Sun Belt has a competitive race at the top this season, with Georgia Southern and Troy tied for first place, then Marshall, Arkansas State and James Madison each two games back of the top spot. In Hana Haden’s second season at the helm in Statesboro, Georgia, the Eagles have a chance to win the Sun Belt’s regular season title outright for the first time with a victory at Marshall. Should Georgia Southern wind up winning the Sun Belt tournament in Pensacola, Florida, it’ll be the first time since 1994 that it has gone dancing.
Big stakes for a bubble team: LSU at Mississippi State
Sunday, 4 p.m. ET (SEC Network)
The Bulldogs have lost three straight games and five of their past seven, putting their NCAA Tournament hopes on shaky ground. If they can’t pull off an upset at home over Kim Mulkey’s mighty LSU, they will likely have to win multiple games next week at the SEC Tournament in Greenville, South Carolina, to play their way back onto the right side of the bubble.
Sickos Game of the Week: Florida State at Wake Forest
Sunday, 4 p.m. ET (ACC Network)
The loser of this game gets to be the lowest-seeded team in the ACC Tournament next week.
Also watch…
Maryland at Michigan: Saturday, 2:30 p.m. ET (FOX)
Princeton at Harvard: Saturday, 6 p.m. ET (ESPN+)
South Carolina at Kentucky: Sunday, 3 p.m. ET (SEC Network+)
Baylor at TCU: Sunday, 4 p.m. ET (ESPN)
UCLA at USC: Sunday, 6 p.m. ET (FS1)
