Under the Spotlight: The Intensity of Holding the Top Spot in Womens College Hoops

The Intensity of Holding the Top Spot in Women College Hoops

In any sport, being at the top is a hard job. The task is to be perfect in every game while knowing that every team is saving their best for you. That number 1 ranking by a school name says a lot about a program and a lot about the strength and talent that team has, but imagine a sport where there are at least 15 different teams who could have that Number one spot any given week; ok you can stop imagining now because that sport exists and its called women’s college basketball. Women's college hoops have skyrocketed in popularity in the past couple of years, and the young talent has been living up to it. A few weeks ago, defending champions South Carolina had their 43-game win streak snapped by UCLA. This moved them down in the next rankings, and UCLA took that spot. UCLA has been holding on tight to that spot for the past couple of weeks, but right below them is an undefeated UCONN with superstar Paige Bueckers guiding the way. At number 5, LSU is sitting 9-0 this is the same LSU with Junior guard Flau’jae Johnson, who won it her freshmen year and has been working with teammate Mikaylah Williams to keep LSU in the hunt. Every team in the top ten is either undefeated or has one loss, except Notre Dame, and as the season progresses and more top teams play other top teams, who knows how often that number one spot can change? All we know is that being number 1 in a sport like women’s college basketball is the most intense and requires everything to play out just right.

The USWNT Escape the Dutch

As mentioned last week, the US women’s national team took a trip across the pond to Europe to play the last two friendlies of the year. The last Saturday, Nov 30th, they played England and tied 0-0 after a back-and-forth game. although it was Tuesday's game against the Dutch that gave everyone a jump scare as the Dutch were close to ruining Emma Hayes's perfect record. The Dutch have been out to get revenge on the US after their 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup Final. The first half of the game belonged to the Dutch; they were destroying the US midfielders and bringing constant pressure on the defense. It only took the Dutch 15 minutes to score on the US off of a corner. It looked like they were going to be up 1-0 at the half, but in stoppage time, Dutch defender Veerle Buurman, the same player who scored for the Dutch, scored an own goal for the US. At half it was 1-1 which was a forgiving scoreline giving how bad the US played. In the second half Emma Hayes made a few adjustments in the midfield putting Sam Coffey and young star Lily Yohannas, who recently announced her commitment to the US over the Dutch. With this change the game opened up for them and in the 71st minute Lynn Williams tapped in a whipped in pass from Yazmeen Ryan. When the final whistle blew relief was on every US player face and for Dutch it was pure frustration in the fact that they almost had the win and honestly should have got the win.