The top 25 rankings are important for understanding just who is killing it in college basketball, but we can go deeper — all the way to the bubble and beyond.
The NCAA Evaluation Tool, or NET, is a rankings system used in Division I basketball to help figure out which teams are going to participate in March Madness. As the NCAA puts it, NET “takes into account game results, strength of schedule, game location, net offensive and defensive efficiency, and the quality of wins and losses,” the latter of which is determined by placing every Division I matchup into different quadrants, ranked 1 through 4, with 1 being the strongest teams and 4 the weakest — Quads aren’t just determined by record, but also whether a game was played at home, on the road or at a neutral site.
Using NET, we can get a sense of which teams are the best at a given moment, as well as which ones are on the bubble for selection in March. While updated daily by the NCAA, we’ll track changes weekly.
With that, here are the top 10 women’s college basketball teams through Feb. 9, according to NET.
The Top 10
10. Minnesota (previous: 10)
Minnesota still has not made the poll, which, given its placement in the NET rankings, is egregious. If the Golden Gophers keep playing as they have been of late, however — they upset ranked Iowa amid a six-game win streak — then it’s only a matter of time. As is, Minnesota picked up 42 points in the latest poll; No. 25 Washington received a vulnerable 44.
9. Duke (previous: 14)
A significant week for Duke, which also surged in the poll to jump from No. 17 to No. 11, and also leapt five spots into the top 10 of NET. The Blue Devils are riding a 14-game winning streak, which in the past week included just getting by ranked Louisville in a 59-58 upset, and absolutely obliterating SMU, 95-36. SMU isn’t a bottom-tier team, but Duke certainly made the Mustangs look like one.
8. Vanderbilt (previous: 9)
Vanderbilt has recovered pretty well from consecutive losses to South Carolina and Ole Miss by defeating this past week’s ranked opponents, Kentucky and Oklahoma. Vandy’s win against the No. 10 Sooners was even less close than its final score of 102-86 suggests, too. While the Commodores aren’t as well-regarded by NET as by the poll — they are No. 5 there — they do have the sixth-ranked offense by Offensive Rating and are 11th in Net Rating. This is a great basketball team, even if it’s not quite in the same weight class as the Big Four of women’s college ball.
7. Louisville (previous: 8)
A loss to Duke didn’t push Louisville off of its path overly much, in part because the Cardinals recovered by beating Syracuse 84-65, and thanks to the struggles of others around them. Michigan State fell out of the top 10 after losing to Maryland and beating Penn State by less than the Spartans should have, from 7th to 11th, which opened up room for Louisville to shift up despite taking an L.
6. Michigan (previous: 6)
Another hint at how subtle Louisville’s upward shift was is that it stopped at 7th, despite both Michigan and LSU losing games in the past week. To be fair to Michigan, the Wolverines’ defeat did come at the hands of UCLA, which is looking like it might be special even among the best of the best in women’s basketball this year.
Michigan got close, but couldn’t stop UCLA’s domination of the Big Ten. (Photo by Jaime Crawford/Getty Images)
5. LSU (previous: 5)
LSU, similarly, lost to Texas — there is little shame in that. Although it is a little worrisome for the Tigers that they couldn’t hang in a grind-it-out game with the Longhorns, which have an inconsistent offense at times but are always a tough nut to crack on defense. Because of the problems elsewhere in these rankings, though, and Texas being what it is, LSU stuck in 5th.
4. Texas (previous: 3)
Wins against LSU and No. 18 Kentucky were not enough to push Texas forward, but that has more to do with what the team that replaced it in the rankings did than anything the Longhorns necessarily did wrong.
3. South Carolina (previous: 4)
South Carolina has been terrifying over the past few weeks, dropping 103 points on Vanderbilt, beating bubble team Auburn by 30, besting Texas A&M by 25, crushing Mississippi State 88-45 then treating then-No. 19 Tennessee like a nobody, 93-50. Just the wins against the Bulldogs and Lady Vols count in the past week’s NET changes, but the Gamecocks made a statement at a volume that Texas did not.
2. UCLA (previous: 2)
UCLA did not run over Michigan like it has its many other opponents during a 17-game win streak that dates back to Nov. 27, but the experience of its lineup shone through when senior center Lauren Betts made a clean game-winning shot impossible for Michigan’s Syla Swords. This is a well-coached, seasoned team, and one that is scoring a leading 122.2 points per 100 possessions.
1. UConn (previous: 1)
UConn has been sitting freshman forward Blanca Quinonez, who has been a revelation off the bench all season, thanks to a shoulder injury. And on Saturday against Butler, the Huskies sat sophomore forward and potential player of the year Sarah Strong to give her a rest, anyway. UConn still won, 80-48, and now owns the 10th-longest win streak in D-I women’s basketball at 41 games.
Risers and Fallers
In the span of a week, some teams can see their spot in the rankings dramatically shift. Here are the five teams that rose the most in women’s college basketball in the last week…
5. New Mexico State, 295 to 280: New Mexico State won against Sam Houston, which more than offset a loss to Louisiana Tech. Sam Houston was ranked 145th in NET this time last week, while Louisiana Tech was 91st. An upset and an expected loss for a team that started out as barely top-300 is a solid showing.
T3. Bucknell, 307 to 290: Bucknell played twice in the past week, and won both matchups. Neither was against a superior opponent — both American and Colgate ranked below the Bison entering play — but Bucknell won by a combined 23 points to differentiate itself a bit.
T3. Merrimack, 241 to 224: A meaningful week for the Warriors, as Merrimack picked up a huge win by a couple of different definitions of the concept. On Saturday, the Warriors defeated Rider, 73-37, but before that took down Sacred Heart by 22 points to move ahead of them and into sole possession of third in the MAAC standings, behind Fairfield and Quinnipiac.
2. Jacksonville, 165 to 147: The Dolphins defeated West Georgia with ease, then took down FGCU as a followup to move into a tie for second in the Atlantic Sun conference with the former. Jacksonville has now won five in a row.
No Sarah Strong? No Blanca Quinonez? UConn won, anyway. (Photo by Federico Torres/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
1. Dayton, 208 to 185: Two close dubs, but dubs nonetheless. Dayton won against La Salle, 68-60, then edged Saint Joseph’s by a bucket, 75-73. The Flyers are hanging around the middle of the Atlantic 10, at 6-7, but has to face 10-1 George Mason next.
…and the five that fell the furthest.
T5. Southern University, 210 to 228: The Jaguars suffered defeat against Alabama State (61-57) and Alabama A&M (56-54), both of which were rated below them in NET. The Bulldogs, at least, have now pulled ahead of Southern.
T5. Saint Louis, 193 to 211: While Saint Louis’ men have been playing high-quality ball for most of the season, the women’s team has struggled more, and is coming off of five-straight losses. Richmond beat the Billikens by 48 last Wednesday, then Rhode Island managed a 31-point margin of victory on Sunday.
T1. Albany, 166 to 186: Losing to UMass Lowell hurts: not only were the Riverhawks the 350th team in NET out of 363, but it was their first America East win in 11 tries.
T1. Purdue Fort Wayne, 124 to 144: Losing to Wright State by 3 points doesn’t sound terrible until you look at the Raiders’ NET ranking — Purdue Fort Wayne was upset by a bottom-50 team. Losing to Cleveland State after was not as bad, but it was still salt in the wound, especially since the Vikings won 73-56.
T1. Houston Christian, 286 to 306: The Huskies lost to McNeese by 48 points, which is also more than Houston Christian managed to score. By 13. The second L of the week, to SLU, was closer but terrible for a different reason, since Southeastern Louisiana was bottom-20 in NET.
On the Bubble
Of the 68 March Madness teams in the tournament, 31 of them are conference champions who receive automatic entry into the tournament. The other 37 spots are at-large bids. With that in mind, we will look at the teams ranked between 64-to-73 in NET each week, as those are the ones who are the most on the bubble for the tourney.
73. Auburn (previous: 71): Being able to get away from ranked South Carolina and Ole Miss should have been a blessing for this bubble team, but Auburn lost 61-53 to Florida and then had LSU beat it by 33 points. Auburn hasn’t won since upsetting Alabama on Jan. 15.
72. Missouri (previous: 72): Missouri beat Arkansas but lost to Georgia, which had it running in place as far as NET is concerned.
71. Purdue (previous: 68): An overtime loss to Penn State followed by Indiana winning by 15 points has the Boilermakers heading in the wrong direction.
70. Quinnipiac (previous: 76): Quinnipiac, 15-0 in conference play, is hooping in a way that has made Fairfield as the MAAC representative in March Madness an open question rather than the obvious answer. The Bobcats will face fourth-place Siena next, then have a rematch with the Stags on Saturday, which could end up being very meaningful in both the MAAC and in NET.
Quinnipiac has entered the bubble and made life difficult for MAAC favorite Fairfield. (Photo by Dan Squicciarini/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
69. Davidson (previous: 63): Davidson lost to St. Bonaventure but then won against George Washington. The problem is that the loss hurt NET more than the win helped it, so the Wildcats went from nearly exiting the bubble in the right direction to the opposite.
68. Ball State (previous: 74): The Cardinals had a significant boost in NET, as far as the bubble is concerned, thanks to crushing NIU by 35 points and then (slightly) upsetting Troy, 87-86.
67. Montana State (previous: 60): A loss to Idaho in overtime was not great for Montana State, which could have overtaken the Vandals for first in the Big Sky with a W. Bubble or no, there is likely just one road to March for this conference, so the Bobcats need to earn passage the old-fashioned way.
[Get to Know a Mid-Major: Big Sky]
66. George Mason (previous: 65): George Mason has had a fairly light schedule of late, with just one game in February. That was a 71-57 loss to Richmond, but the Spiders didn’t ruin George Mason’s NET given they sit 41st. That’s a tough opponent.
65. Troy (previous: 64): Troy defeated App State by 10, but then lost to Ball State in a slight upset. The result? Nearly imperceptible!
64. Rice (previous: 66): Rice played just one game in the last week, but made it count: an 82-65 win over Memphis to stay undefeated in American conference play. Wichita State is next up, then a decent test against North Texas.
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