Women’s Basketball AP Poll: 3 Things We Learned from Feast Week

Another week, another top 5 team stumbles. Notre Dame, previously ranked No. 3 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll after a big win over USC, suffered a fall with back-to-back losses in its Feast Week tournament appearance. The only other program in the top 10 to lose last week was Oklahoma in a thrilling overtime battle against top 15 Duke.

In terms of advancing teams, South Carolina bounced back from its worst loss since 2019 with a clean sweep of Iowa State (76-36) to restore its luster to voters. And TCU secured its decisive win against the Fighting Irish, although that now raises some questions given Notre Dame’s subsequent work.

Here are three things we learned (or didn’t learn) in a week of games.

LSU’s success relies on Flau’jae Johnson

LSU was fortunate to avoid an upset by Washington in the first round of Baha Mar Hoops.

“I don’t know how we won that game because Washington played really, really well,” LSU head coach Kim Mulkey said on the broadcast, a claim that was repeated several times last week.

That’s because LSU plays like Flau’jae Johnson, and Johnson wanted her team to hang in there, slowly clawing back from a seven-point deficit in the final three minutes. She scored or assisted on seven points, including an aggressive pass through the defense to cut the deficit to one and chasing down an errant ball to prevent a backcourt injury on the final possession. Kailyn Gilbert found the ball in a scramble, scored the winning basket and secured a steal on the following play to win.

Johnson, who scored 19 points despite an overall difficult shooting day for LSU, is averaging a career-high 22.3 points (10th in Division I) on 54.7% shooting, 43.2% from three and 85.4% from the free throw line. It’s a small sample, just nine games into the season and without top-level competition, but all are four to five percentage points better than their previous two seasons. Her 6.3 rebounds and three assists per game are also career highs. The junior captain led LSU in scoring in six of nine games.

“She’s just more mature,” Mulkey said after Johnson’s 22 points against North Carolina Central on Sunday and Mulkey’s 100th win at LSU. “Every year you should get better. You don’t need a coach to tell you what you need to work on. It just has to be played. And when you play, you remember things from the previous year. And I just think Flau’jae has this crazy work ethic. … She is reaping the rewards of her hard work.”

Johnson may have stayed a bit under the radar in previous seasons with Angel Reese in town, but as she showed in the 2024 NCAA Tournament, this is her team now and they will go as far as she can take it. LSU’s non-conference schedule includes Stanford on Thursday and Seton Hall on Dec. 17 before SEC play begins.

Notre Dame: What goes up must come down

That’s why we don’t crown champions in November.

Notre Dame appeared to be a strong Final Four contender last week with its win over JuJu Watkins and Southern Cal (its defense was particularly impressive), but the Fighting Irish didn’t have a great vacation in the Cayman Islands. They lost two games in a row for the first time since March 2021, which was head coach Niele Ivey’s first season and the first time the program missed the NCAA Tournament since 1995 (excluding the canceled 2020 tournament).

The 76-68 loss to then-No. 17 TCU was one thing. Fifth-grader Hailey Van Lith has developed into a strong pick-and-roll guard with 6-foot-2 senior center Sedona Prince, who prevailed in her matchup against oversized and less experienced freshman Kate Koval. But that was followed by a 78-67 loss to Utah, a team that played for interim coach Gavin Peterson after Lynne Roberts left for the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks. Koval went scoreless in both games after averaging a double-double early in the tournament.

Ivey said playing two games in two days against “two really good teams” with a short bench and starters in foul trouble ultimately made the difference. That’s a fair claim, but they need to limit turnovers and take smarter shots to break opponents’ breakthrough runs.

No matter why the Irish lost and fell in the rankings, the impact will be felt elsewhere. USC’s home loss to Notre Dame now looks worse. How would TCU’s win be assessed if Notre Dame couldn’t handle Utah? And Utah, which lost its two previous Power Four games by a total of six points, secured its non-conference resume builder ahead of Big 12 play.

Stars of the festival week earn more

The main course of the week was the Ball Dawgs Classic championship game between Duke and Oklahoma. Refusing to give up, the Sooners rallied from a 15-point deficit and eventually forced Payton Verhulst’s 3-pointer at the regulation buzzer into overtime. The third quarter also ended with a buzzer-beating shot from Duke junior guard Ashlon Jackson, whose 65-foot throw put the Blue Devils up by seven. Verhulst had 29 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, but Reigan Richardson scored or assisted on 12 of Duke’s 15 points in overtime and won 109-99. She scored an efficient career-high 35 points (13 of 22) with seven assists.

Unfortunately, few saw or were able to enjoy these performances on the evening before Thanksgiving, as the game was one of hundreds buried on FloSports. The subscription service costs $30 per month and the image quality is comparable to the cameras that overzealous parents set up in a high school gym. Jackson’s buzzer-beater was not repeated, although the program talked about it in awe for several minutes. When replayed to viewers outside halftime, the camera shot was a close-up of Jackson and did not show the actual ball path.

This situation is no different than years ago. It’s now common for top-ranked teams to fall behind in tournament play as parity increases and coaches build challenging non-conference schedules. What is different is the environment. Women’s basketball has never been more popular or discussed, as evidenced by viewership and a major media rights deal for the tournament. It’s time to provide more ways to watch these big matchups with a quality viewing product.

Games of the week: SEC/ACC Challenge

It’s women’s basketball’s first real reminder of conference realignment, with SEC/ACC Challenge matchups highlighting Thursday’s schedule. Some could be previews of late NCAA Tournament games.

Kentucky (7-0) at North Carolina (7-1), 5:00 p.m. ET, ESPN2: Wildcats head coach Kenny Brooks and fifth-year point guard Georgia Amoore know the Tar Heels after four years together at the Virginia Tech good. They took an 8-2 lead.

Texas (6-0) at Notre Dame (5-2), 7 p.m. ET, ESPN: This game features four All-Americans: Rori Harmon and Madison Booker (Texas) and Olivia Miles and Hannah Hidalgo (Notre Dame).

Ole Miss (5-2) at NC State (4-3), 7 p.m. ET, ESPN2: NC State needs a win to improve its resume after losses to South Carolina (14 points), TCU (3) and LSU took a hit (17).

Duke (8-1) at South Carolina (7-1), 9 p.m. ET, ESPN: Two of the best steal rates in the country. Their top 10 recruits in the 2024 class (South Carolina’s 6-foot-3 Joyce Edwards at No. 3 and Duke’s 6-2 Toby Fournier at No. 10) will get their first look at each other.

Stanford (7-1) at LSU (8-0), 9 p.m. ET, ESPN2: It’s the third time in history the two programs have played. LSU is 2-0.

Official AP Rankings

1.UCLA
2. UConn
3.South Carolina
4.Texas
5.LSU
6. U.S.C
7. Maryland
8th Duke
9. TCU
10. Notre Dame
11.Oklahoma
12. Ohio State
13. Kansas State
14.Kentucky
15. West Virginia
16. North Carolina
17.Iowa
18. Ole Miss
19.Alabama
20. Iowa State
21. Illinois
22. Louisville
23.Michigan
24. Michigan State
25. Nebraska

Yahoo Sports AP Voting

1.Connecticut
2.UCLA
3.Texas
4.South Carolina
5. Maryland
6. U.S.C
7th Duke
8.Oklahoma
9. Notre Dame
10. LSU
11. Kansas State
12. Ole Miss
13. West Virginia
14.Kentucky
15. TCU
16. Ohio State
17. North Carolina
18. Iowa State
19.Iowa
20. Nebraska
21. Illinois
22. Alabama
23.Michigan
24. NC State
25. Creighton