USWNT, Unrivaled Champ, and NCAAW heated match ups

SheBelieves Cup

The tournament is finally here, and four teams are competing: the USA (#1), Australia (#15), Japan (#8), and Colombia (#21). All four teams participated in the 2024 Paris Olympics. The tournament is going to be fun to watch. The first game will be on February 20th in Houston. The next games will be on February 23rd in Phoenix and on February 26th in San Diego. The winner of the tournament will be determined by total points. With the teams roster announced, there were some key players not called up from the USWNT. Firstly, the roster was not announced until February 11th, which is 9 days before the first game. There have been camps, but there was some speculation of who will be in the roster for this tournament. Out of the players called up, 12 were at the Paris Olympics. The elephant in the room is that the triple espresso and Naomi Girma were not called up. Each has their reasons, but that does not mean the other players called up will not rise to the challenge. There are only 4 uncapped players and 10 players that have a few caps under their belt. The most interesting thing is that the Thompson sisters will be the 3rd set of sisters to be called in the USWNT. Sonnett will be celebrating her 100 cap on February 20th in Houston. That is quite an accomplishment.

Unrivaled Champion

The 1-on-1 tournament was a 3-day tournament that started on February 10th. It was a fun way to see the WNBA top talent battle against each other in an old-fashioned fashion on one-on-one match-up to see who was the best. This tournament most definitely did not disappoint. There were so many assumptions/questions on what qualities it takes to win this tournament. Does height factor in? Speed? Making 3s? Physicality? All the players that participated are some of the best in the WNBA. From the very first day, we had got to see firsthand that the factors that clearly mattered the most were endurance and shooting. In some of the shocking upsets like when Aliyah Edwards defeated raining WNBA champion Breanna Stewart in dominating fashion, winning 11-0, and Shakira Austin beat the “point god” Chelsea Gray, it was a matter of making shots and not letting the opponent get a chance as the rules were make-it take it style. What made this tournament so intense and hyped was that the winner won 200K and 10k was awarded to the player’s team, while the runner-up got 50k and the semi-finalist 25K each. No player held back, which in turn made every match-up so intense. On the final day, the last two standing ironically happened to both be UCONN alums Aliyah Edwards and Unrivaled co-founder Napheesa Collier. It was a battle of veteran vs rookie, the No.1 seed vs No.8 seed. Unlike the other rounds, this final match-up was the best of 3 for the 200k. The youngster Aliyah Edwards came out strong and won game one, but maybe that all Edwards might have left in the tank because Napheesa turned it up a notch and came back to win two straight games, getting the win and the 200k. It was clear that although a short game, the quick pace of the game proved a little too much for Edwards as her endurance started to twindle throughout those final two games. Napheesa was overall just dominant in this tournament, and it showed how much work she has put in her ability to create and make shots when it matters. When asked about how she felt about winning the first ever Unrivaled 1v1 tournament and the big check, she said, “My entire WNBA salary is what I got for 30 minutes of playing 1-on-1- which is insane to even say.”. This league is not only making history by providing a professional 3v3 league but also allowing these amazing athletes to win/earn the money they deserve. Although the 1-v-1 tournament is over the excitement of the league, make sure to tune in on TNT this Tuesday at 7:30 PM E.T. for the start of the second half of the season.

March Madness In February: A week full of intense match-ups in women’s basketball 

This week was full of top 10 match-ups from 1 UCLA vs 6 USC, 4 South Carolina Vs 7 UConn, and 3 Texas vs 5 LSU. These match-ups gave us a feeling of early March madness as many of these teams are likely to be ranked high when the March madness brackets do come out. But back to the present, Thursday night kicked off the crazy weekend with a late night rivalry between the undefeated 1 UCLA and a 6 USC looking to knock off the top dogs. It was a home game for USC, who were looking to bounce back after their loss to Iowa had clear intentions to give their cross-town rivals their first loss of the season. From the start, Juju Watkins had the hot hand she just couldn't miss from the three, which was something she struggled on in the Iowa game. UCLA, on the other hand, was struggling to get their star big Lauren Betts the ball. In the first half, she struggled getting to her spot and was unable to have any effect on the game until the second half. In the second half, UCLA woke up and put the pressure on USC, but pressure is nothing for star Juju Watkins because she met the pressure head on and scored 38 points to lead her team to victory. USC not only got upset against their rivals but also handed UCLA their first loss of the season, making it now zero teams left undefeated.

Sunday kicked off with the UConn vs SC game. Last week, we mentioned how brutally honest UConn head coach Geno Auriemma was about his stars needing to step up in big games after their loss to Tennessee. One thing that Geno is good at is saying things that he knows will push his players because his stars shined bright in the game on Sunday. UConn Senior shooting guard Azzi Fudd had her best game of the season and carried UConn. South Carolina struggled shooting from the outside and fell behind because they just couldn’t match up from the 3-point line. The game was never close, and UConn won in dominating fashion 87-58 snapping SC 71-game home win streak. The final top-ranked game was between LSU vs Texas, a battle in SEC that could very well determine who will get the regular season trophy. LSU had a great first half while Texas guard Madison Booker failed to find her rhythm. The second half, on the other hand, was the opposite. Booker was able to find her shot, and Texas defense proved too much for LSU at the end. Texas was able to win 65-58 and bag another top 10 win on the season.