Tag: Women’s college basketball

ACC women’s basketball player survey: Respect growing for Virginia Tech’s Georgia Amoore

Players like playing at Louisville, hate playing at Syracuse, and think that N.C. State has small visitors’ locker rooms.

On Tuesday at the ACC Tip-Off — the conference’s annual media day event in Charlotte — Georgia Amoore’s name came up quite a bit, and for good reason. Amoore, a guard at Virginia Tech entering her fourth season, is coming off a year in which she was named ACC Tournament MVP and the Most Outstanding Player of the Seattle 3 Regional. She also broke the Hokies’ program record for career assists last season and set the mark for the most 3-pointers made in a single season as Virginia Tech advanced to its first-ever Final Four.

And players around the ACC have taken notice of Amoore’s skills. North Carolina’s Deja Kelly recognized Amoore’s talents when both were part of Kelsey Plum’s “Dawg Class” in April. Plum was teaching the players different footwork techniques and Amoore executed a step-back with relative ease. Kelly turned to her and said, “Listen, you better not pull that out when we play you.”

Amoore received votes for a spot on the AP All-American Preseason Team that was released earlier this week. On Nov. 9 in Charlotte, she’ll go toe-to-toe with the team’s lone unanimous selection, Caitlin Clark. And later in month, she and Virginia Tech will get another shot at LSU.

A handful players named the 5-foot-6 Australian guard as the best player in the league when they were polled by For The Win on a variety of topics on Tuesday at ACC Tip-Off. And Kelly’s name came up too as the players dished on top scorers, best arenas, worst locker rooms, basketball movies and pregame meals.

10 incredible photos from Iowa’s record-setting outdoor women’s basketball game at Kinnick Stadium

Over 55 thousand fans watched Caitlin Clark and the Hawkeyes on Sunday.

In late August, over 90,000 Nebraska volleyball fans piled into Memorial Stadium for a match between their Huskers and Omaha. It was a record-setting day as the 92,003 crowd was the most to ever take in a women’s sporting event.

MORE: These photos show just how incredible Volleyball Day at Nebraska was

Sunday afternoon, Caitlin Clark and the Iowa women’s basketball team followed suit and put on a scrimmage against DePaul in Kinnick Stadium. Usually the home of No. 24 Iowa football team, Kinnick has become well known in recent years due to the Hawkeye Wave where fans turn at the end of the first quarter to wave at the patients of the UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital that is co-located with the stadium.

As part of the event, Iowa raised $250,000 for the Children’s Hospital. Of course, they also took part in the Hawkeye Wave.

There were 55,646 fans in attendance for Sunday’s game, setting a new record for an NCAA women’s basketball game. Just like with Volleyball Day at Nebraska, the photos from the event are breathtaking.

Haley Cavinder surprisingly entered the transfer portal and may not be done with college basketball after all

Haley Cavinder might not be done with college basketball just yet.

Haley Cavinder isn’t done with college basketball quite yet apparently.

ESPN reported on Friday – and sources familiar with the situation later confirmed to For The Win – that Cavinder is in the transfer portal.

Fans might remember that Haley and her twin sister Hanna retired from college basketball after a season at Miami, in which they helped Katie Meier’s Hurricanes go on a historic March run, making the Elite Eight for the first time ever and notching upset wins over Oklahoma State, Indiana and Villanova along the way.

Despite each having a year of eligibility left, the Cavinders left the life of being a college athlete behind to capitalize on their following of 4.5 million on TikTok to become full-time influencers, signing on with Jake Paul’s Betr and working with the WWE.

But Haley apparently misses the game of basketball. She is in the portal, while her sister Hanna is not.

@cavindertwins

missed it, see you next szn❤️ #fyp #basketball #foryou

♬ original sound – Hanna & Haley Cavinder

It’s too late in the year for Cavinder to transfer somewhere now and be eligible to play this season, so she’ll return to the court in the 2024-25 campaign.

ESPN’s report said that Cavinder entering the transfer portal is “exploratory and that staying at Miami is certainly possible.” But that might prove to be tricky as Miami already brough in a new starting point guard via the transfer portal in Shayeann Day-Wilson, a former ACC Rookie of the Year at Duke.

Even if a return to the Hurricanes’ roster doesn’t happen, there are many teams who would happily add Cavinder to their roster for a year. After winning the Mountain West Conference Player of the Year award and averaging 19.8 points per game in back-to-back seasons at Fresno State, Cavinder proved she could play at the Power Five level at Miami, where she started in each of the Hurricanes’ 35 games last season and shot a career-best 40.4 percent from behind the arc en route to earning a spot on the All-ACC team.

For her career, Cavinder averages 16.7 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game while shooting 35.9 percent from 3-point land.

Meanwhile, while Hanna Cavinder was a two-time All-Mountain West selection at Fresno State, she was a reserve at Miami, playing 16.7 minutes per game and scoring a career-low 3.8 points per game. By not entering the portal like her sister, it seems like Hanna will remain on the sidelines as Haley returns to the court.

Behind the AP Top 25 Poll: Why LSU is No. 1 on this preseason women’s basketball ballot

Paige Bueckers is back and so is Caitlin Clark, but can UConn or Iowa top LSU as the No. 1 team?

The start of the 2023-24 women’s college basketball season is less than a month away. It’s going to begin with a bang, as Notre Dame faces South Carolina in Paris, and Virginia Tech battles Iowa in Charlotte in a pair of noteworthy non-conference clashes in the opening week. Later in November, we’ll also see a few other ranked-versus-ranked matchups in the inaugural SEC-ACC Challenge.

This season will feature the return of UConn’s Paige Bueckers, the introduction of an anti-flopping rule, and the final year of the Pac-12 as we know it — where players like Stanford’s Cameron Brink are expected to shine and be the face of the league.

And of course, Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and LSU’s Angel Reese — the latter of which received some noteworthy reinforcements from the transfer portal — are back again too, poised to lead their teams back to the Final Four.

This is my fourth season as a voter in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll for women’s college basketball. Each week during the season, I’ll break down my ballot here after turning it in to give some thoughts on the best teams in the nation.

Before the season starts, us voters are asked to submit preseason ballots. Here’s how mine shook out.

Also considered: Marquette, Kansas, Illinois, Creighton

Top-4 highest-scoring individual performances in women’s March Madness history

The March Madness moniker only started being used in conjunction with the women’s side of the tournament in 2022.

The WNBA playoffs have started and there are 42 Division I schools and 12 countries represented. That means the college basketball season is only a couple of months away, which means March Madness is fast approaching.

The March Madness moniker only started being used in conjunction with the women’s side of the tournament in 2022. Even though it has been more than 40 years since the first women’s NCAA DI tournament in 1982, a win is a win.

The women’s side of the game has had many record-setting moments during those 40+ years. The tournament also expanded from 32 teams in 1982 to 64 teams in 1994. Additional post-season expansion was announced earlier this year when the NCAA created the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament. The postseason tournament will consist of 32 teams and will begin in 2024. The tournament is owned and funded by the NCAA.

Now, let’s take a look at the top-4, highest-scoring individual performances in women’s March Madness history:

Women’s Final Four rematch of Virginia Tech vs. LSU headlines stacked ACC-SEC Challenge slate

The schedule also features Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks visiting North Carolina, and Notre Dame at Tennessee.

The ACC switched up its partners this year for its annual cross-conference challenge in men’s and women’s basketball. The Big Ten is out, and the SEC is in.

When the deal was announced, a lot of folks figured this to be a good thing for women’s basketball by creating the potential for some interesting and spicy matchups. The ACC had eight teams make the NCAA tournament last season – more than any other conference – and the SEC put two teams in the Final Four. The ACC also had three teams in the Elite Eight.

Pairings for the inaugural ACC-SEC Challenge in women’s basketball were released Wednesday and the slate does not disappoint.

Six of the 14 games are matchups between squads that went dancing last March, and headlining the schedule this season is a clash between Virginia Tech and LSU – a rematch of the national semifinals. In that game, the Hokies led by as much as 12 points in the third quarter before the Angel Reese and Old Bay-powered Tigers roared back to win by seven. Reese and LSU went on to win the national title.

Broadcast information hasn’t been announced yet, but the Hokies’ trip to Baton Rouge for a 9 p.m. ET contest on Nov. 30 will likely attract a big national audience.

After restocking in the transfer portal – landing the likes of Hailey Van Lith and Aneesah Morrow – LSU is favored to repeat as national champs. Virginia Tech brings back super talented guard Georgia Amoore and two-time ACC Player of the Year Elizabeth Kitley, who is back for a fifth season. The scheduling of this game also means that Virginia Tech will face two Final Four teams from last season, as the Hokies are set to face Caitlin Clark and Iowa in Charlotte to tip-off the season.

There are other matchups in the challenge worth paying attention to also. North Carolina hosts South Carolina at 7 p.m. ET on Nov. 30 in a rematch of a 2022 Sweet 16 game. The Tar Heels played the mighty Gamecocks closer than anyone else in their run to the national championship, losing by just eight points. Some of that same core for North Carolina – like Deja Kelly and Alyssa Ustby – remains, while the Gamecocks will looks different this year after having four players drafted by the WNBA in April. Still, a South Carolina team coached by Dawn Staley and anchored by Kamilla Cardoso will be formidable.

Other big-time matchups include Notre Dame visiting Tennessee, Miami at Mississippi State and Louisville at Ole Miss – all of which will be played on Nov. 29.

It’s also worth mentioning that this slate of games is incredibly more interesting than the ACC-SEC Challenge men’s schedule, where there are only four matchups between teams that went to the NCAA tournament last season. And I mean, is anyone really excited for Missouri versus Pitt? How about Texas A&M against Virginia? Didn’t think so.

And while a 1994 title game rematch between Arkansas and Duke – presumably without Bill Clinton – sounds cool in a symbolic sense, it simply lacks the intrigue and star power presented on the women’s side.

Way-too-early 2024 WNBA Draft big board, from Cameron Brink to Angel Reese

If Caitlin Clark declares, she’s probably a slam-dunk lock to go first overall.

With the All-Star Game approaching, we’re nearing the halfway point of the 2023 WNBA season.

It’s been fun so far, with Chelsea Gray dropping dimes, Arike Ogunbowale getting ejected and signing autographs, and Breanna Stewart shining with her new team.

And since the 2023 NBA Draft is behind us, we thought it might be fun to look toward the next basketball draft we’ll see: the 2024 WNBA Draft next April.

So, below is our big board for 2024 WNBA Draft prospects, from Caitlin Clark to Hailey Van Lith – two players we might see clash in the Final Four next year, if we’re lucky.

Is it too early for this? Probably. But that’s part of the fun.

This is not a mock draft for a few reasons. First, we don’t know the draft order yet. And second, teams will draft for need. For example, if the Indiana Fever land the top pick again, they probably won’t take a post player, considering how dominant Aliyah Boston has been as a rookie.

All the players listed below will be eligible for the 2024 draft, but all might not enter, for various reasons ranging from charter flights to NIL to team fit to the lack of roster spots available. The players who have college eligibility remaining beyond the 2023-24 season are noted with an asterisk.

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An anti-flopping rule is coming to women’s college basketball in 2023-24

Flopping could earn women’s college basketball players a technical foul going forward.

At nearly all levels of basketball, flopping has become part of the game. And the folks who make the rules are trying to stop it.

A year ago, the NCAA announced that men’s college basketball would have an anti-flopping rule, which stated that a player “who fake[s] being fouled” could be assessed with a technical.

Now, a version of that rule is coming to women’s college basketball, effective for the 2023-24 season, after the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved it last week.

If a referee thinks that a player flopped, they’ll be given a warning on the first offense, and a technical foul will be charged to the team if that player flops again.

Here’s what else the new rule says:

Under the new rule, the second and any subsequent flop calls will add to the team foul count but would not count toward a player’s five fouls leading to disqualification.

NCAA Women’s Basketball Rules Committee members think the new rule is needed for the sport after receiving feedback from all three divisions about their concerns regarding flopping.

Flopping hasn’t exactly plagued women’s college basketball in recent years, but it has become more common.

Here are the other new rules included in changes for the upcoming season:

  • The restricted-area arc will be reduced from 4 feet in the lane to the area directly underneath the basket.
  • Players will be allowed to wear numbers 0-99.
  • Schools will no longer have to submit a waiver for players to wear religious headwear, provided it is safe for competition.
  • An optional rule will allow for live video to be transmitted to the bench area.
  • A new class of technical fouls will be assessed to the team and not an individual offender. Delay-of-game warnings and flopping will fall under this category. (For an example of technical fouls for delay-of-game calls, remember the lame tech Caitlin Clark got in the national championship game?)
  • When the shot clock is off at the end of a quarter or overtime, officials will use the game clock to determine when a 10-second backcourt violation has occurred.
  • The shot clock will be reset to 20 seconds or the time remaining, whichever is greater, when there is a foul by the non-shooting team, but not against the shooter, during a try in flight that does not strike the rim.
  • Officials will be allowed to use replay throughout the entire game for off-ball foul scoring plays; the review would be conducted during the next media timeout or intermission.

Iowa Hawkeyes women’s basketball going global with three games in Italy, Croatia

Ciao, Italia! The biggest star in women’s basketball is going global. Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes are headed to Italy and Croatia.

The Iowa Hawkeyes women’s basketball team captivated the nation last year from Iowa City, to Seattle, to Dallas on their magical run to the Final Four. So, why not take things even bigger and better?

That is precisely what the Hawkeyes are doing. The Iowa women’s team is going to Italy and Croatia in August to play three international games over the stretch of August 4-16. Why not make things global when you have the biggest star in women’s basketball in Caitlin Clark? She took America by storm and now can do the same globally.

Per Iowa’s official site, the team will take an international tour to the Amalfi Coast, Dubrovnik, Naples, and Split. The opponents have yet to be released. These exhibitions will be an experience for the Hawkeyes to travel abroad, experience Italy and Croatia, and spread the rapidly growing game of women’s basketball as some of the best ambassadors of the sport.

“We are incredibly excited to have the resources and opportunity to expose our program and give our players an opportunity to travel abroad. It will add tremendous value to their life experience, education and allow our team to get practice and game reps we wouldn’t get otherwise,” Iowa head women’s basketball coach Lisa Bluder said of the upcoming summer trip.

Longtime starter Gabbie Marshall made the decision to return to Iowa City for another season with the Hawkeyes. Now, she gets to take part in this historic trip for the program.

“We’re all super excited to share this trip with our teammates that haven’t been overseas yet. It should be a great team bonding experience for us,” Marshall said.

It will be the program’s first overseas expedition since the Hawkeyes traveled to Spain in the summer of 2019.

This news comes on the heels of more local news regarding the schedule for next season. Iowa’s men’s and women’s basketball teams will both be playing in Des Moines on Dec. 16 at Wells Fargo Arena. This doubleheader of games will see the women take on Cleveland State and the men face Florida A&M.

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Hailey Van Lith is teaming up with Angel Reese at LSU. Here’s what it means.

Hailey Van Lith and Angel Reese on the same team is sure to make for some spicy basketball.

The newest Death Star in women’s college basketball just got stronger. And it didn’t just add a new laser beam or a couple of Tie Fighters. In sticking with these Star Wars references – look, forgive me, May 4 is next week – this is like Darth Vader linking up with Grand Admiral Thrawn.

Hailey Van Lith is transferring to LSU – the reigning national champions who return the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player Angel Reese and two other key contributors in rapper-slash-guard Flau’jae Johnson and Kateri Poole.

Like Reese, Van Lith has two years of eligibility left, tons of sass, swagger and coolness, and a skillset that’s among the best in the sport. At Louisville, she a three-time All-ACC selection and was an All-American honorable mention this past season. She played in a Final Four as a sophomore, and led the Cardinals to the Elite Eight as a freshman and junior. Van Lith and Iowa’s Caitlin Clark were the only two Power 5 players this season to average at least 19 points, four rebounds and three assists per game.

And now, she’s going to be playing with Reese, one of the game’s best rebounders who also happened to averaged 23 points per game as she powered LSU to its first national championship this year.

Kim Mulkey might not be done with the transfer portal. But in the meantime, here’s what her Tigers landing Van Lith means.