SI:AM | 🏀 It’s Almost March …
Good morning, I’m Josh Rosenblat, filling in for Dan, and I’m ready for March.
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South Carolina and Stanford are on a collision course
SI:AM asked Ben Pickman a few questions to take us through some of the top story lines in women’s college basketball this season. You should read his work here and give him a follow on Twitter at @benpickman.
No. 1 South Carolina and No. 2 Stanford are on a combined 28-game win streak right now. Are we headed for a South Carolina-Stanford rematch? What makes them appear to be ahead of the pack right now?
It might be too simplistic to say, but both South Carolina and Stanford feature supreme individual talents in Gamecocks junior forward Aliyah Boston and Cardinal junior guard Haley Jones; Hall of Fame coaches in Dawn Staley and Tara VanDerveer; and deep supporting casts. It’s not surprising then that when you add all that up South Carolina and Stanford are No. 1 and No. 2 in Her Hoops Stats’ advanced rating and No. 1 and No. 2 in net rating at this point in the season. It’s certainly possible that either team could fall in March, but everything is setting up for a rematch of last year’s Final Four thriller. And if we do get that rematch, it seems like it will be a tightly contested affair yet again.
Is there a team you have your eye on that could break up that duo?
What NC State has done this season has also been super impressive. They have rolled through the ACC, and enter Sunday’s regular-season finale 16–1 in conference play. They possess one of the country’s top offenses and have incredible balance on that end of the floor—five players are averaging between 8.5 points and 13.1 points per game. Six-foot-five big Elissa Cunane is also poised to become an even bigger name in March than she already is.
What's the biggest story line you're watching as we head into March?
If you’re going to keep a close eye on one conference, watch the SEC. It has four teams—South Carolina, LSU, Florida and Tennessee—capable of making very deep postseason runs.
But if we’re looking for more of a thematic story line, how about this: What does March hold for supreme talents Paige Bueckers and Caitlin Clark?
The status of Bueckers, last year’s Player of the Year, remains in question. UConn battled injuries all year, with Bueckers’s absence being the most significant. If she is healthy and performs up to her level, UConn could go on a deep run.
Iowa’s Clark has been one of the most prolific players in the country all season, captivating fans and frustrating her opponents on a nightly basis. Still, the Hawkeyes enter tonight’s contest vs. Rutgers 18–7 on the season and ranked No. 21 in the AP poll. If Clark gets more help from her teammates, the Hawkeyes could go on a deep run, but it’s also fully possible they make an early tournament exit.
These blue-blood programs are sweating on the bubble
To examine where men’s college basketball stands, we called on Kevin Sweeney. You can find all his work here and make sure to give him a follow on Twitter at @CBB_Central.
Which bubble teams still have work to do over the last couple weeks of the season? And what key games will you be plugged into to watch them?
North Carolina’s probably the highest-profile team truly sweating, currently among the “First Four Out” primarily because of a lack of quality wins. That makes the program’s final trip to Cameron Indoor Stadium to face a Coach K–led Duke on March 5 one of the games of the season.
Meanwhile, Big Ten squads Michigan and Indiana are on the right side of the cut line for now, but there’s work left to be done to punch tickets. After picking up a solid win over Rutgers last night, all four of the Wolverines’ remaining regular-season games are against teams in the top 30 of the NCAA’s NET rankings, including a road showdown with rival Ohio State to close the regular season on March 6.
What mid-major conference tournaments will you keep your eye on?
The Mountain West tournament has a chance to be the best conference tournament of the year, regardless of level. There’s tons of star power, such as Colorado State’s David Roddy and Wyoming’s Graham Ike, among others. The coaching from top to bottom in this league is awesome, and there’s a desperation at play in this one as teams fight for NCAA tournament bids. The league might produce as many as four bids this year, potentially topping the Pac-12.
Some other fun ones:
- The Missouri Valley, which won’t be easy for recent March darling Loyola Chicago to skate through.
- The Summit League, where Max Abmas and Oral Roberts will challenge a South Dakota State team that is explosive on offense and is undefeated in conference play.
- The Atlantic 10, a league with several bubble teams but no NCAA tournament locks. Everyone will be fighting for their basketball lives.
Is there a team out there that could go on an Oregon State-like run? Last year, the Beavers won six of their last seven regular season games, stormed through the Pac-12 tournament, and got all the way to the Elite Eight.
Well, there’s pretty much no precedent for what Oregon State did last season. The Beavers went from bid-stealer to Cinderella in the span of a few weeks, and it’s hard to see that happening again. That said, there are a couple of teams I have my eye on as potential bid thieves—teams not currently in the field that could go on a run and win their conference tournament. Virginia is playing its best basketball (even with the Cavs’ loss last night against Duke) at the right time and the ACC is ripe for the taking for someone.
The best of Sports Illustrated
David E. Klutho/Sports Illustrated
Today’s Daily Cover story focuses on Connie Kunzmann, a forward in the first women’s pro basketball league. “You might know her name today,” Chris Ballard writes, “if not for a horrific act 40 years ago.”
European soccer’s governing body is trying to figure out whether it will move some of its marquee events due to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. … The final stretch of the NBA season starts with the Lakers in the spotlight. … We might never know why Tom Brady kept taking less-than-market-rate contracts. … Alex Miceli writes that Phil Mickelson’s “selfish statements” aren’t very surprising. … Ben Pickman profiles the Blazers’ newest star guard.
Around the Sports World
USWNT players wore wristbands last night during a 5–0 win over Iceland in Frisco, Texas, denouncing the anti-transgender order given by the state’s governor. … Xavier’s Paul Scruggs hit a buzzer-beating three to force triple overtime against No. 11 Providence. The Musketeers couldn’t pull off the upset though, falling 99–92. … New York City mayor Eric Adams made comments alluding to changing the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, which could allow Kyrie Irving to play for the Nets in home games. … Troy Aikman could be heading to ESPN to call Monday Night Football.
SIQ
On this day in 1932, Malcolm Campbell set a new world land-speed record in the car he called the Bluebird. How fast did he go?
- 181.41 mph
- 215.68 mph
- 253.97 mph
- 274.72 mph
Check tomorrow's newsletter for the answer.
Yesterday’s SIQ: When Indiana coach Bob Knight infamously tossed a chair across the floor at Assembly Hall, it wasn’t his first choice of projectile. What did he later say he had initially wanted to throw?
Answer: His jacket. Knight was experimenting with a new wardrobe that night. He usually wore a sport coat on the sideline but for that game went with just a golf shirt. He turned around to grab his jacket off his chair, but when he realized he didn’t have one he just tossed the chair instead.
“I reached for the jacket, and I would’ve sailed the jacket,” Knight told David Letterman in 1987. “And our team doctor … told me later, ‘Soon as I saw you turn around and reach for your jacket—you didn’t have it on—I tried to grab everything you could throw. He said, ‘I grabbed the trainer. The only thing I missed was the chair. You beat me to the chair.’”
From the Vault: Feb. 24, 1964
In the run-up to Muhammad Ali’s (then Cassius Clay) first heavyweight title challenge, Sports Illustrated ran three stories previewing the bout with Sonny Liston. Writer Tex Maule analyzed the boxers’ strengths, there was an artist’s rendering of Liston’s camp and a first-person piece from Ali titled “I’m a Little Special.”
That essay got the cover, a staged shot by Richard Meek. Posing in a bank vault, the fighter, who turned 22 in January 1964, looked back with his gaze focused somewhere beyond the photographer.
“Cassius Clay is a boxer who can throw the jive better than anybody you will probably ever meet anywhere. And right there is why I will meet Sonny Liston for the heavyweight championship of the world next week in Miami Beach. And jive is the reason also why they took my picture looking at $1 million in cold cash. That's how much money my fists and my mouth will have earned by the time my fight with Liston is over,” he wrote.
Ali would go on to beat Liston in Miami Beach on Feb. 25, 1964, earning his first career professional heavyweight title.
Check out more of SI's archives and historic images at vault.si.com.
