Weekly Roundup: January 12, 2020
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, Facebook, and Instagram.
Haven’t subscribed to the Her Hoop Stats Newsletter yet?
The Roundup
My, oh my … It has been quite a week. From Thursday to Sunday, the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 teams in the AP Poll all lost including two against unranked teams. From Monday until Sunday, 12 total ranked teams lost, including a whopping seven ranked teams on Thursday! We announced a competition to predict which team would be the final undefeated team in the nation on January 2. Anyone who used the hashtag #LastUndefeated with the team they predicted would get their subscription to the herhoopstats.com refunded. In less than two weeks, the list of undefeated teams vanished from nine teams all the way to just one as of this writing—UCLA. The undefeated teams disappeared so quickly, nobody even guessed UCLA. I guess we need to come up with a new competition!
UCLA had to scratch and claw to avoid their first loss on Sunday afternoon, fending off a furious comeback attempt against Pac-12 foe Colorado to win 65-62. The lesson in all of this is that a number of major conferences are still completely up in the air. Something that frequently comes up in conversation at HHS is that everybody in the Pac-12 wants to win the title, while it appears that nobody in the Big Ten wants to.
Oregon looked like clear favorites to begin the season in the Pac-12, but teams like Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, and Arizona are much closer than expected. Meanwhile, the Big Ten is somehow even more wide open than anyone predicted to begin the season. Maryland and Indiana have both looked shaky at times, while Purdue, Minnesota, Rutgers, and Northwestern have all shown they are capable of being Top 25 teams at different points in the season.
What We’re Working On
Following the theme of upsets happening left and right, Calvin Wetzel wrote about several measures of parity this season compared to the past few years. (Link)
Megan Gauer was on hand for No. 6 Baylor’s upset of No. 1 UConn and shared some key takeaways from the XL Center. (Link)
We released the 15-player mid-season watch list for the Mid-Major Player of the Year Award, which we will continue to narrow down until a winner is announced on April 1. (Link)
Derek Helling wrote about one of the 15 players on the Mid-Major Player of the Year Watch List, Ericka Mattingly, and her senior season push to establish herself as an upper-echelon player. (Link)
Back by popular demand, Jenn Hatfield wrote a pair of stories about the best names in college basketball for the second consecutive season. Head Coach Names (Link), Player Names (Link)
Weekly Series
We had two podcast episodes drop since the last Weekly Roundup—one with John Liddle talking with Marshall head coach, Tony Kemper, and the latest a special edition of the Unplugged series with some bonus content, courtesy of John, surrounding the UConn vs. Baylor matchup.
The past week had a slate of exciting games, and we were surprised with some unexpected games like the previously mentioned losses by No. 2 Oregon and No. 3 Oregon State against unranked teams. This week’s games of the week article has not yet been released, but you can expect to see a pair of matchups in the Pac-12 with major conference standing implications, as well as an intriguing matchup in the wide-open Big Ten.
Although a lot has changed in the past two weeks, the Dec. 30 edition of the AP Top 25 Poll analysis from Morgan Reeder still has some great nuggets to check out if you missed it, including a quick look at the 2010’s thanks to acrossthetimeline.com. In last week’s installment of the series, Morgan looked at a number of ‘pockets’ in the poll where teams have clustered together.
You can support our work by subscribing to herhoopstats.com. For just $20 per year, you’ll get access to in-depth, easy to access statistics for women’s basketball. A subscription is perfect for coaches and players of all levels, SIDs, broadcasters, and fans.
What We’re Reading
The Athletic, including our own Aaron Barzilai, had a great roundtable piece talking about hypothetical awards as the season is nearing its halfway point. (Link $)
Jenn Hatfield (for High Post Hoops) compared Aliyah Boston to some past Gamecock greats to see how the star freshman stacks up. Spoiler alert, she stacks up very well. (Link)
Madeline Kenney with some insight into the isolated lifestyle that can come from playing professionally overseas, focusing on Stefanie Dolson of the Chicago Sky who is currently playing in China and has found comfort in a group of other players facing similar challenges. (Link)
Hawk Central wrote about Iowa’s continued success in a post-Megan Gustafson world, a timely piece after the Hawkeyes’ upset win over Indiana. (Link)
Across The Timeline recently rolled out some new WNBA features, and you can check out those new possibilities in this write-up. (Link)
We’re also keeping an eye on the WNBA’s CBA negotiations. Although there hasn’t been a lot of new information since the deadline extension several weeks ago, the general sense is that the negotiations are moving in a positive direction. The new CBA, barring further delays, is scheduled to be announced on Wednesday, Jan. 15 with free agency beginning on Feb. 1.
All statistics via herhoopstats.com and are up to date as of December 29, 2019.