The NCAA Women’s Division I Basketball Tournament will tip off Sunday starting at noon ET from a pseudo bubble in central Texas — mostly in San Antonio.
Though not as widely celebrated as its male counterpart, the women’s tournament is never without its fair share of clutch moments, drama and all the excitement you could ever want in any kind of high-level one-and-done basketball tournament.
Before play gets underway, here’s a look at the tournament, including the favourites to win it all, Canadians to watch for and WNBA Draft prospects to keep an eye on.
The disparity between the women’s and men’s tournament
Before discussing anything else on the court, take a look at this video:
The difference in the amenities between the women’s tournament and the men’s tournament is so disgustingly stark it’s downright offensive.
And something that might be even worse was the response from NCAA President Mark Emmert who, only after the drastic differences between the two tournaments was outed, released a statement expressing how “deeply disappointing” the apparent inequality between the two tournaments is and that “this is not something that should have happened.”
Thanks, Captain Obvious, but just being sorry for a supposed “mistake” simply doesn’t cut it and if you want to know why then allow South Carolina head coach, and basketball Hall-of-Famer, Dawn Staley to explain:
“The real issue is not the weights or the ‘swag’ bags; it’s that they did not think or do not think that the women’s players ‘deserve’ the same amenities of men.”
The NCAA must do better.
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Tournament Favourites
The four No. 1 seeds are Stanford, UConn, South Carolina and North Carolina State.
Along with this quartet, teams like the No. 2 seeds Louisville, Baylor, Maryland, Texas A&M and even No. 3 seeded Arizona are expected to have shot, according to oddsmakers.
However, since we’re being honest here, this is a tournament that seems to mostly come down to two teams that look destined to meet in the national championship game, Stanford and UConn.
Stanford
The Cardinal are coming in as the No. 1-overall seed, and for good reason. They’re the deepest team in the tournament and can get contributions from all over their lineup as a team that has had seven different players as the team’s leading scorer through their outstanding 25-2 season.
Additionally, Stanford boasts one of the best senior leaders in college basketball in guard Kiana Williams, who also happens to be a San Antonio native and could see a little home-court advantage from that.
Not that the completely neutral site that the tournament is taking place in will matter to the Cardinal. This is a team that’s most likely to be the least bothered by prolonged hotel living during the event as they had to do so already during the season for nine weeks because of COVID-19 regulations in Santa Clara County.
UConn
Possibly the most storied program in college basketball, the Huskies once again look like a dangerous title threat, even if they’ll be handicapped in some ways.
For one, this is a team that will be without its great head coach Geno Auriemma for at least the early rounds of the tournament. Auriemma tested positive for COVID-19 last Sunday and is at home quarantining. Thankfully for the Huskies, long-time associate head coach Chris Dailey will still be on the sideline so even without Auriemma, UConn still figures to be just as prepared as they would normally.
Another possible problem for the Huskies is the team’s youth. This is a team that features seven freshmen and no seniors and even though they went 24-1 this season and cruised to yet another Big East title, it didn’t come easily as Auriemma expressed frustration with the group over time for making mistakes that are uncharacteristic to teams that he coaches.
However, these Huskies have steadily improved and are probably playing their best basketball at just the right time.
But the single biggest reason why the Huskies can win it all is that they have the best player in college basketball today: Paige Bueckers.
The freshman phenom leads the Huskies in scoring and assists, scoring 19.8 points per game and dropping 6.1 dimes per game. That was part of a historic first season in Storrs that included becoming just the second Big East player to win both Freshman of the Year and Player of the Year awards (the other player was Maya Moore, by the way), becoming the first UConn player to record three straight 30-point games and being a finalist for the NCAA’s National Player of the Year award.
In short, this five-foot-11, skinny-looking kid from Hopkins, Minn., is an absolute monster and is already good enough to possibly lead a relatively inexperienced Huskies squad to a national championship — and she’s still only a freshman!
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Canadians to watch
There are 27 Canadian women that will participate in the tournament starting Sunday. You can check out a full list of the Canadians in the tournament here.
One of the coolest facts of this year’s Canadian crop in the tournament is that all four top seeds feature a Canadian on their team roster. Here’s a little more on these four women, plus one more.
Laeticia Amihere, South Carolina
The Mississauga, Ont., native is the Gamecocks’ secret weapon off the bench, averaging 6.5 points and 5.2 rebounds per game this season.
Amihere is best known for going coast-to-coast and dunking the ball as a 15-year-old but her game is so much more as her natural strength, length and athleticism will surely make her an intriguing WNBA prospect perhaps as soon as next year.
Rebecca Demeke, North Carolina State
A sparsely-used player for the Wolf Pack, the freshman Toronto native played more during the earlier portions of the season, but it’s unclear if she’ll get a chance to see the floor during the tournament this year as she didn’t play during the ACC Tournament.
She is still a freshman, however, and NC State is a program such that she’s likely to get her opportunity at some point.
Aaliyah Edwards, UConn
A standout player for the Huskies, the Kingston, Ont., native was named the Big East Sixth-Woman of the Year for her averages of 10.2 points and 5.4 rebounds per game.
She’s capable of putting up huge numbers, as her 24-point, 16-rebound showing against Butler proved, and there will likely be a game during the tournament where Edwards, and her relentless style of play, will explode.
For more on Edwards, check out this piece from Sportsnet.ca’s Hayley McGoldrick.
Alyssa Jerome, Stanford
Another Toronto native, Jerome is a six-foot-three senior forward for the deep and talented Cardinal.
She doesn’t play a lot of minutes, but she’s a good example of the kind of depth Stanford boasts. If any of their regular frontcourts gets into foul trouble Jerome is an experienced, reliable player who can be turned to.
Shaina Pellington, Arizona
A member of the senior women’s national team hailing from Pickering, Ont., Pellington is a redshirt junior, transferring from Oklahoma where she was named the 2018 Big 12 Freshman of the Year.
Pellington is a key backup guard for the Wildcats and can be a streaky scorer when she gets going.
WNBA prospects to watch
First things first: If Bueckers were eligible, she would be the first name on this list, and without a doubt the first pick in the WNBA draft. But she’s not eligible until after her junior season, and there’s no guarantee she leaves before playing all four years (technically, she could even play a fifth). So college hoops fans — and UConn fans in particular — get at least two more years to bask in her glory.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some draft-eligible players who will be suiting up in the tournament. Here are a handful to keep your eye on:
Charli Collier, Texas
A second-team All American, Collier is a six-foot-five forward-centre who averaged 20.9 points, 12.4 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game on 51.8 per cent shooting this season. She can play inside and shoot jumpers, averaging nearly a three per game last year before falling off a bit percentage-wise in 2020–21.
Collier’s kryptonite this year was the Baylor Lady Bears, who held her to two points on Feb. 14 and three on March 13. Luckily, should her sixth-seed Texas team make a run in the tournament, she can’t meet Baylor until the final — where you’d be wise to bet against a third straight subpar performance.
Dana Evans, Louisville
Standing in the way of that potential Texas run mentioned above is Evans and her Louisville squad, who own the No. 1 seed in the Hemisfair Region on the bracket. Evans is a five-foot-six senior guard whose shooting efficiency has actually improved as she’s been called upon to do more in her four years at Louisville.
She was named a first-team All American, has defended her title as ACC Player of the year and has been nominated or shortlisted for a slew of other individual awards.
Rennia Davis, Tennessee
Davis is the type of prototypical, positionless, do-everything player every team in the modern era wants and needs. She’s six-foot-two and can guard multiple positions, and put up 17.2 points and 8.8 rebounds for the Lady Vols this year. Her perimeter shooting (27.1 per cent from three this season) has been a question mark, though it must be said she shot 40.9 per cent from beyond in the arc in her final six games, and that stretch included a tough ouster game on March 6 against South Carolina after she torched the Gamecocks with 24 and 12 on Feb. 18.
Natasha Mack, Oklahoma State
Mack has one of the more interesting stories of the players on this list in that she dropped out of her freshman year at Houston after two months and spent time working in a processing plant cutting chicken wings. Now, after coming back to basketball via the junior-college route, she’s less than a month away from becoming a top-10 WNBA pick.
An intimidating inside presence and traditional big, Mack is six-foot-four with a six-eleven wingspan — the type of measurables that spawned the infamous Jay Bilas draft-night drinking game. She led all Div. I players with 4.1 blocks per game, was eighth with 12.3 rebounds and even managed to finish 0.1 points per game ahead of Bueckers for 33rd on that leaderboard as well.
In the round of 64, Mack’s 18-8 No. 8 seed Oklahoma State team gets a Wake Forest squad that finished the season just 12-12, so there’s a decent chance we get at least a couple of games out of Mack.
Arella Guirantes, Rutgers
Though her Rutgers team’s season was limited to 17 games due to COVID-19 concerns, Guirantes balled out across the board when she got the chance, setting or tying career highs in points (20.8), rebounds (6.0) and assists (5.3). The five-foot-11 guard also earns plaudits for her defensive play, putting up 1.9 blocks and 2.1 steals.
Arella Guirantes:
Consecutive unanimous selections to the First Team
Ranked in Top 5 in steals and blocks per game pic.twitter.com/MqWStRcKFA
— Rutgers W.Basketball (@RutgersWBB) March 8, 2021
The redshirt senior could’ve entered last year’s WNBA draft, but chose to come back for one last year to — among other reasons — “win a championship with Rutgers basketball.” Now, after a stop-and-start season, she gets that chance.