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This roundup will be biweekly, but we thought we’d start now and talk about what we’ve seen after just one week…
Weekly Recap:
Boston College dropped two of its three games this week, a 68-59 setback at Harvard and an 82-64 home game against then-No. 14 Ohio State. Wake Forest picked up its first conference (and overall) loss with an early ACC game against Virginia. While ultimately winning all their games, a few teams had scares – two of Florida State’s three wins this week were single-digit victories, and then-No. 7 Louisville picked up a narrow five-point win over Belmont on Sunday night. Despite a strong shooting performance from the Bruins (52% from the field, including 58% from long distance), the Cardinals pulled out the road win on the strength of Hailey Van Lith’s 25 points and Olivia Cochran’s 13-point, 13-rebound double-double.
Flipping back to Florida State, in the Seminoles’ win over Kent State on the road, they were down three after three quarters but outscored the Golden Flashes 21-9 in the fourth quarter to pick up the 80-71 victory. In their next game against Georgia State, it was the Seminoles’ turn to only score nine in the fourth quarter. FSU had to rely on its lead built up over the first three quarters to pull out the win.
Which leads us into our next segment…
HHS ACC Player of the (bi-)week: This may not always be the case, but this week we are on the same page as the conference office. Ta’Niya Latson of Florida State, who put up 28 points, nine rebounds and two apiece of blocks, steals, and assists in her collegiate debut in the Seminoles’ 113-50 win over Bethune-Cookman. She followed that up with 34 points in FSU’s much-closer 80-71 victory over Kent State. In her third game for FSU, she had “only'' 19 points, but added five rebounds, three blocks, a steal and an assist as the Seminoles defeated Georgia State by five.
Runner-up: Reigning ACC Player of the Year Elizabeth Kitley of Virginia Tech, who averaged 17.7 points, 10.7 rebounds, and 3.0 blocks in the Hokies’ three games over the past week.
Looking ahead:
This portion won’t be as long in a lot of future roundups, but with (pre-)Thanksgiving tournaments occurring before our next one, I decided they deserved their own segment.
I would argue that the two biggest sets of games to look out for bookend the break, starting with Louisville’s trip to the Bahamas before the holiday.
The Cardinals are heading to the Bahamas this weekend for the Women’s Battle 4 Atlantis, where they’ll start off with a big game against perennial WCC power Gonzaga. The Bulldogs have appeared in the last five NCAA tournaments and have only missed one since 2009 (of course, not counting the unplayed 2020 tournament). In fact, the Zags will be looking to avenge the game that knocked them out of last year’s tournament, as the Cardinals were victorious by just nine points on their home floor at the KFC Yum! Center. After that, Louisville will face more strong tests in some combination of Marquette, Texas, Rutgers, UCLA, Tennessee, and/or South Dakota State. Out of those six, two made the tournament in the Longhorns and Lady Vols, and two were among the first four out in the Bruins and Jackrabbits.
The other contender for best Thanksgiving week action (although the Bahamas certainly wins for the best weather for anyone looking to escape winter) will take place in Portland, Ore., in the Phil Knight Legacy and Phil Knight Invitational tournaments. UNC starts off the Invitational with home-ish (two hours from Matthew Knight Arena) squad Oregon. After that, the Tar Heels will either face Iowa State or Michigan State. Meanwhile, in the Phil Knight Legacy tournament, Duke will take on UConn and then either face Iowa or Oregon State. In both cases, the Iowa team is the tougher second game to look out for.
Other games to keep an eye on over Thanksgiving include six ACC versus SEC matchups on neutral floors. As I discussed in the beginning of my ACC preview, the ACC and SEC are the two strongest conferences in women’s basketball this season according to many experts. Wake Forest and Virginia Tech arrive in the Bahamas as Louisville leaves, and they’ll each take on Missouri. In addition, the Deacs will play Alabama, while the Hokies will face Kentucky. NC State will take on Vanderbilt in Cancun, and Clemson is scheduled against Arkansas in the US Virgin Islands.
Finally, we have to note that Pitt will have two very tough games in Fort Myers, Florida, as they’ll face both Maryland and DePaul.
As for other games to watch in the next two weeks, we’ve got quite a few intrastate or even intracity rivalry games coming up!
Games to Watch the next two weeks, besides (pre-)Thanksgiving tournaments:
Florida @ Florida State, tonight at 6:00 p.m. ET on ACCNX
NC State @ UConn, 11/20 at 1:00 p.m. ET on FS1.
Honorable Mentions:
South Carolina @ Clemson, 11/17 at 6:00 p.m. ET on ACC Network
Texas A&M @ Duke, 11/17 at 7:00 p.m. ET on ACCNX
Duquesne @ Pitt, 11/19 at 6:00 p.m. ET on ACCNX
Georgia @ Georgia Tech, 11/20 at 2:00 p.m. ET on ACC Network
Standings/Tiers:
As things start to shake out, we’ll begin to see separation amongst the squads and separate them into tiers, but for the first part of the season, we’ll just include the standings:
Thanks for reading the Her Hoop Stats Newsletter. If you like our work, be sure to check out our stats site, our podcast, and our social media accounts on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.