Best Games to Watch of the Women’s College Basketball Week 11 Slate

Good luck to anyone attempting to use the transitive property to figure out how to sort through a loaded SEC. (Vanderbilt beat LSU. LSU just beat Texas. Texas beat South Carolina. So, naturally, the Commodores are the top team in the conference? Life is never so simple.) Fortunately, this week’s slate offers two top-tier games between SEC heavyweights, along with a host of intriguing Big Ten and ACC matchups.

Here’s who to watch and where the games can be found for this week’s best women’s basketball games:

West Virginia vs. No. 10 TCU

Wednesday, Jan. 14, 7:00 p.m. ET, ESPN+

The Mountaineers gave undefeated Texas Tech a scare last Wednesday—West Virginia held a four-point lead with under two minutes to go—but lost control of the game on a pair of missed threes and a pair of bad passes. Even if West Virginia doesn’t have an abundance of firepower, it has enough talent on offense to keep games close and make opponents uncomfortable, as it did when it beat Iowa State on the road. The Mountaineers will play with the type of toughness that will make this matchup a test of the Horned Frogs’ mettle.

No. 23 Notre Dame vs. No. 9 Louisville

Thursday, Jan. 15, 6:00 p.m. ET, ACC Network

The Irish have a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde streak this season. In November, they lost by 39 to Michigan, then beat USC. This month, Notre Dame lost to Georgia Tech and Duke, then beat North Carolina. Which version will show up in South Bend, the team that hunkers down on defense or the one that has trouble stopping opposing offenses? Louisville, which has dominated in conference play and is undefeated on the road, would obviously prefer the latter.

No. 2 South Carolina vs. No. 4 Texas

Thursday, Jan. 15, 7:00 p.m. ET, ESPN2

Thursday will mark the final time the Gamecocks and Longhorns face off in the regular season. Texas guard Rori Harmon put the Gamecocks away in the two teams’ last contest, a close 66–64 game at the Players Era Championship. But this week’s game will have different stakes: Texas looked mortal in an upset loss to LSU, and the Gamecocks are riding a 10-game winning streak. With Ta’Niya Latson back in the fold after a three-game absence, some home cooking could be enough to put South Carolina over the top.

No. 15 Michigan State vs. No. 24 Nebraska

Thursday, Jan. 15, 7:00 p.m. ET, Big Ten Network

The Spartans shot up to No. 15 in last week’s AP Top 25 poll, and made good on their ranking by beating both No. 23 Washington and Oregon on the road during a two-game West Coast trip. It’s worth pausing to wonder where Michigan State fits into the national picture—the Spartans have also beaten Ole Miss and lost to Wisconsin—and Thursday’s matchup against Nebraska should provide some clarity. The same holds for the Cornhuskers, who don’t have a win against a top 25 opponent this season and lost by 22 to UCLA on Sunday.

No. 13 Oklahoma vs. No. 6 LSU

Sunday, Jan. 18, 3:00 p.m. ET, ESPN2

While South Carolina and Texas define the SEC’s upper echelon, Oklahoma and LSU will be fighting for positioning in the crowded second tier. (No. 7 Kentucky, with wins over the Sooners and the Tigers, and No. 5 Vanderbilt, with a win against LSU, are in that group, too.) So, where do things stand? After toppling the Longhorns with strong defense and rebounding, the Tigers finally showed ceiling potential against a top team in the conference. Oklahoma, meanwhile, dropped a close game against Kentucky after having its worst three-point shooting night of the season. The Sooners will be looking to avoid dropping their third straight conference game.

Other games to watch

Wednesday, Jan. 14:

8:00 p.m. ET, Big Ten Plus: Minnesota vs. No. 3 UCLA (Sienna Betts’s minutes have trended up and Angela Dugalić’s minutes have trended down of late. Will that continue against the Gophers?)

Thursday, Jan. 15:

7:00 p.m. ET, FS1: No. 1 UConn vs. Villanova (The Wildcats will be the Huskies’ strongest opponent in nearly a month. Of course, UConn will still be overwhelming favorites.)
9:00 p.m. ET, Peacock: USC vs. No. 12 Maryland (Both of these teams are trending in the wrong direction. The Terrapins may have more on the line here, as they’ll go on to face UCLA, Iowa, Washington, Oregon, Michigan State and Nebraska in a murderers’ row of Big Ten contests.)
9:00 p.m. ET, FS1: No. 11 Iowa vs. Oregon (Like Maryland, Iowa will go on to face a tough stretch of Big Ten opponents after this game. The Hawkeyes won’t want to get off on the wrong foot against a pesky Ducks squad.)

Sunday, Jan. 18:

1:00 p.m. ET, ESPN: Oklahoma State vs. No. 19 Iowa State (Without Addy Brown, the Cyclones suffered one of the most confounding losses of the season to Cincinnati. They then lost by 13 to West Virginia. Iowa State can’t afford another loss here.)
1:00 p.m. ET, ESPN2: NC State vs. No. 9 Louisville (The Cardinals have won nine games in a row. Can the Wolfpack make a stand at home and get back into the top 25?)
2:00 p.m. ET, SEC Network: No. 21 Alabama vs. No. 20 Tennessee (The Crimson Tide are better than you think, and the Lady Volunteers could use a quality win here.)
8:00 p.m. ET, Big Ten Network: No. 11 Iowa vs. No. 15 Michigan State (Iowa’s previously mentioned tough stretch of conference opponents starts with Grace VanSlooten and the Spartans.)