Biggest Takeaways From First Month of the Women’s College Basketball Season

Surprises, bold predictions, plus what we learned from the Cy-Hawk game Wednesday.

After Duke started the season ranked at No. 7, Kara Lawson (left) has seen her Blue Devils quickly tumble out of the Top 25. / Chris Jones/Imagn Images

With the women’s college basketball season now a little more than a month old, we have a healthy look at which teams are living up to their preseason hype, which ones aren’t and which ones are even overperforming. 

For this week’s roundtable our writers give their top takeaways from the start of the season and predict what we might see come tournament time. 

What’s been the biggest surprise of the season so far? 

Emma Baccellieri: I know we’ve touched on this subject in previous roundtables, but for me, the biggest surprise is Duke. Yes, it was a challenging early schedule for the Blue Devils, and they were hampered by injuries. (How much of a difference might it have made to have a healthy Emilee Skinner?) But it’s still a bit striking just how rough these early losses were. Even if you put aside the defeats at the hands of No. 2 South Carolina, No. 4 UCLA and No. 5 LSU—though it’s worth noting that UCLA was without Lauren Betts and still beat Duke by 30—you still have to grapple with the fact that Duke also fell to an unranked, shorthanded West Virginia and gave up 85 points in a loss to South Florida. This defense has generally still been strong: It ranks 10th in Division I in Her Hoops Stats’ defensive rating. But it’s been prone to occasional breakdowns, and even the strongest, most punishing defense is unable to cover for an offense that can look this lackluster. The Blue Devils started the season ranked at No. 7. They’re now out of the Top 25, and with the state of the ACC, it will take quite a lot to get them back in. 

Dan Falkenheim: UConn’s depth, although maybe it shouldn’t have been a surprise. Remember, Jana El Alfy started at center during the team’s championship run, and now she has yet to play more than 14 minutes in a single game this year. That’s a credit to the pieces on this roster. Freshman forward Blanca Quiñonez has flashed at points this season. So too have guards Kayleigh Heckel and Allie Ziebell. It’s not hyperbole to say that the Huskies are deeper than they were last season.

What’s your bold prediction for the rest of the season? 

Baccellieri: I’ll stick with the ACC and say that no team from the conference ends up hosting tournament games come March. The preseason AP poll had four ACC teams in the top 16: Duke, NC State, UNC and Notre Dame, with Louisville just behind at No. 20. But now only UNC remains in a position to host at No. 12. The ACC/SEC Challenge ended in a sweep: This is the most disjointed the conference has looked in years. And while there have certainly been flashes of quality play here—particularly from UNC, Notre Dame and Louisville—in the interest of going bold, I’m going to say that none of the above will prove strong enough to be in tourney hosting position in a few months.

Falkenheim: TCU finishes the season as a top-four team and earns a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Simply put, the trio of Olivia Miles, Marta Suarez and Donovyn Hunter has been fantastic, and the Horned Frogs’ defense has been even better. (TCU is holding opponents to a D-I-low 29.4% shooting percentage from the field.) Their schedule may have a part to play in that—TCU’s only matchup against a top-25 team resulted in a win against a wayward NC State squad—but that isn’t about to change. The Horned Frogs’ remaining games against ranked opponents are at home against Ohio State (No. 21), home and away against Baylor (No. 13) and home against Iowa State (No. 10). Questions about how they’ll fare once they get to the tournament can come later. (To make the prediction even bolder: TCU goes undefeated.)

History was made in The Super Pit today.

Megan Nestor record the just the THIRD 30-point, 30-rebound game in Division I since the 1981-82 season!#GMG🦅 I #PremiumGasOnly⛽️ pic.twitter.com/BUVfmBr5jz

— UNT Women's Basketball (@MeanGreenWBB) December 6, 2025

Performance of the week 

North Texas senior forward Megan Nestor said she “wasn’t satisfied with my rebounding performance in the last few games” before playing Texas Southern on Saturday. Well. Nestor scored 34 points and had 31 rebounds in an 81–52 victory against the Tigers, setting the American Conference record for rebounds in a game. Her 31 rebounds were the most in a Division I game since 2016, and she also became the just third D-I player since 1981–82 to have at least 30 points and 30 rebounds in a game. Her feat is even wilder with context: Nestor, who’s from St. Lucia, grew up playing netball and hadn’t played basketball until college. —Falkenheim

What did we learn from the Cy-Hawk game?

First, that Iowa State and Iowa can put together a hell of a game: This was among the most entertaining matchups so far this year. Beyond that, a win here was critical for the Cyclones, whose early schedule has otherwise come against relatively soft competition. And while most of the focus here will (reasonably!) end up on another 30-point, 10-rebound night for Audi Crooks, I’m almost more struck by what Iowa State got from Addy Brown (20 points, 12 rebounds) and Jada Williams (11 points, 12 assists). If the Cyclones are going to set themselves up for a series run this spring, they’ll need Brown and Williams to be able to bring it against tough competition just as much as Crooks, and they showed they can hang Thursday.  —Baccellieri

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