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 Dec. 22, according to NET.
The Top 10
10. Maryland (previous: 9)
Maryland defeated Delaware State 91-21 — not a typo — and then followed that up by beating Central Connecticut 98-30. Dropping a spot here is less about their (flawless) performance and more about another team in the top 10 moving up.
9. TCU (previous: 8)
See, TCU dropped a spot as well, and they are playing some terrifying basketball at the moment thanks to fifth-year guard Olivia Miles, who had a shot at four-consecutive triple-doubles in Saturday’s 77-55 W against Kansas State.
8. Michigan State (previous: 10)
Michigan State is the why of Maryland and TCU hopping back in line a spot each, as they defeated DePaul, Indiana State and then upset No. 15 Ole Miss on Monday in their first Quad 1 matchup of the season, 66-49. Michigan State might be just No. 24 in the poll, but NET says they are a much better team than that suggests. Ole Miss can probably vouch for that.
7. Kentucky (previous: 7)
Kentucky played just one game in the last week, but they made it count: the Wildcats topped Wright State, 96-53. That’s taking care of business.
Olivia Miles had three consecutive triple-doubles and a shot at an NCAA record fourth for TCU this week. (Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images)
6. Michigan (previous: 4)
Michigan played just the one game this week, and it was against Oakland. The game went well — the Spartans won 97-54 — but it cut into the average NET opponent ranking that had them up in fourth. This math has layers.
5. LSU (previous: 5)
LSU might be 13-0, and they might have four road wins — second among top-10 teams behind Kentucky — but they have also played 11 Quad 4 matchups. Everyone ahead of them in NET has at least four Quad 1 games behind them compared to LSU’s one, and they rank 324th out of 363 schools in opponent NET rank. This is a great team, but they won’t be tested for real until after the holidays.
4. UCLA (previous: 3)
Cal Poly and Long Beach State both went down hard to UCLA, but they are also two of the lowest-ranked schools in Division I and a combined 0-20. Sometimes the schedule just works out that way.
3. Texas (previous: 2)
Texas tore Northwestern State apart, 96-38 and then defeated San Diego State by 19 points, so nothing they did was wrong, but they aren’t the only team hanging around this part of the rankings.
2. South Carolina (previous: 6)
South Carolina is 12-1, and they just now got healthy. And they sure looked it, destroying South Florida, 103-44, and following that up with a 105-43 victory against Florida Gulf Coast. Neither of those are bad basketball teams — especially not South Florida — but you wouldn’t know it from the way South Carolina handled them.
1. UConn (previous: 1)
South Carolina has woken up, yes, but UConn matched their energy by disposing of Big East conference rival Marquette in an 89-53 win, then followed that up with an even more impressive dub against then-No. 11 Iowa, which the Huskies won 90-64. Once again, the top of the women’s basketball ranking are loaded this year.
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…
T5. Providence, 196 to 164: Providence beat Georgetown in OT — the Hoyas are nearly a top-50 team in NET — but now the Friars have to go up against South Carolina and UConn in back-to-back games after Christmas.
Providence now has to face both South Carolina and UConn before the new year. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
T5. Binghamton, 220 to 188: Losing to Syracuse isn’t the kind of thing that hurts a team in Binghamton’s position — they actually moved up to 204 in NET thanks to losing by just 18 — but beating Colgate by 28 points helped them even more.
4. Utah State, 255 to 222: Utah State upset Air Force, 65-53, then lost to Colorado State 55-46 — keeping it that close against what was then the 57th team by NET was an even bigger deal for them.
3. Northern Colorado, 242 to 204: Losses to on-the-bubble Colorado and solid Sam Houston were offset by a win against UC Davis — all three teams were supposed to be a problem for Northern Colorado, but they kept it close with Sam Houston and beat UC Davis.
2. Portland, 188 to 145: Portland lost to Oregon, 85-59, but Oregon is a top-25 team by NET, so that didn’t hurt as much as crushing Portland State helped.
1. Northern Arizona, 272 to 217: Northern Arizona defeated Cal State Northridge and UC San Diego back-to-back, and while CSUN was even lower ranked than Northern Arizona, UC San Diego was 140th in NET before they took the L.
…and the five that fell the furthest.
T5. Louisiana-Monroe, 156 to 195: Louisiana-Monroe has now dropped five in a row, including to Arkansas State and Texas State in the past week.
T5. Stetson, 100 to 139: Stetson lost to William & Mary 81-75, then rebounded against Stonehill the very next day. The problem is they beat Stonehill by just six points despite them being a bottom-tier team.
T5. Sam Houston, 115 to 154: Sam Houston got rocked by Alabama, 73-36, and their week didn’t improve from there. They also lost to SMU and then barely beat Northern Colorado.
4. Western Michigan, 222 to 262: Dayton defeated Western Michigan 65-58, but then ranked Ohio State crushed them 95-47. Not that they were supposed to beat the Buckeyes, but it has to be closer than that to avoid slipping.
3. Iona, 234 to 276: An overtime loss to Sacred Heart — which ranks 304th even after picking up this win — and another defeat at the hands of Mount St. Mary’s doomed Iona here.
2. Houston Christian, 235 to 279: Houston Christian lost to Nicholls and Rice by a combined 43 points in the past week.
1. Dartmouth, 195 to 248: Dartmouth defeated Division II Franklin Pierce by just 18 points, which did not bode well for their matchup against New Hampshire. UNH took them out, 74-38, and jumped up 42 spots in NET for their trouble.
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. UC Irvine (previous: 82): UC Irvine leapt into bubble territory by posting wins against New Mexico State and UTEP. Taking care of business pays off.
72. Penn State (previous: 73): Penn State recovered from having to face South Carolina two weeks ago with a dub against VCU, but then gave some of that back by losing to Richmond. That’s a top-50 team, however, so Penn State only took so much damage here.
Penn State’s schedule isn’t getting any easier, with ranked matchups against Iowa, UCLA and Michigan in the next couple of weeks. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
71. Colorado (previous: 60): A tough week for Colorado, as they beat Northern Colorado but not by all that much, and then they were defeated by Arizona State. The latter is an undefeated top-50 team, so the slide wasn’t enormous, but there it is.
70. Columbia (previous: 66): Columbia slipped back mostly due to inaction. They played one game and won, 70-65, against a solid UTSA squad, so they are for all intents and purposes in a holding pattern this week.
69. Kansas State (previous: 72): A little bit of a bump for Kansas State, which lost to ranked TCU but did manage to keep Olivia Miles from making NCAA history, which isn’t nothing at this point.
68. Wisconsin (previous: 62): Wisconsin walked backward into the bubble thanks to playing just one game in which they beat IU Indy, 81-72. A bubble team has to do better against a low-tier opponent than that.
67. George Mason (previous: 70): A little bit of a drop here for George Mason, which lost their lone game this week to ranked Princeton, yes, but in overtime and by just two points.
66. Troy (previous: 75): The Sun Belt’s rebounding wonders handled Old Dominion no problem, then kept the deficit to 18 against Alabama, which NET has ranked 27th. That was enough to make their way into bubble territory.
65. Saint Joseph’s (previous: 77): Saint Joseph’s dropped 100 points on a Division II opponent, and took down Delaware, 73-66, resulting in a jump into the bubble.
64. Auburn (previous: 64): Auburn played two games this past week, and the Tigers won them both, making for a complete turnaround from the previous two games in which Syracuse and Seton Hall defeated them.
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