Women’s College Basketball Top 10, Bubble Team NET Rankings: Iowa Joins Top 10

The top 25 rankings are important for understanding just who is killing it in college basketball, but we can go deeper — all the way to the bubble and beyond. The NCAA Evaluation Tool, or NET, is a rankings system used in Division I basketball to help figure out which teams are going to participate in March Madness. As the NCAA puts it, NET “takes into account game results, strength of schedule, game location, net offensive and defensive efficiency, and the quality of wins and losses,” the latter of which is determined by placing every Division I matchup into different quadrants, ranked 1 through 4, with 1 being the strongest teams and 4 the weakest — Quads aren’t just determined by record, but also whether a game was played at home, on the road or at a neutral site. Using NET, we can get a sense of which teams are the best at a given moment, as well as which ones are on the bubble for selection in March. While updated daily by the NCAA, we’ll track changes weekly. With that, here are the top 10 women’s college basketball teams through Feb. 23, according to NET. The Top 10 10. Duke (previous: 10) Duke would have been bumped from the rankings for losing to Clemson, but lucky for the Blue Devils a different ACC team took the fall here — Louisville being upset by Virginia pushed the Cardinals all the way from 8th in NET to 12th, keeping Duke in place when another team leapfrogged the two of them. 9. Iowa (previous: 12) Said team is Iowa, which handled Michigan better than anyone else has this season en route to a 66-44 win in which the Hawkeyes forced the Wolverines into 24 turnovers and played an overall stifling defense that kept Michigan from ever getting consistently good looks. Iowa has Illinois and Wisconsin left on the schedule, and is tied with Michigan for second in the Big Ten. [College Basketball Players of the Week: Iowa’s Ava Heiden Earns Honors] 8. Minnesota (previous: 9) Minnesota’s winning streak finally ended but as it was against No. 15 Michigan State — up from 15th to 13th in NET itself because of the win — the fallout wasn’t too significant for the Golden Gophers, especially as they had just upset Ohio State right before that. There is just one game left in the regular season for Minnesota, against Illinois, which also means just one more chance to secure a double-bye in the Big Ten conference tourney. 7. Vanderbilt (previous: 7) Vanderbilt rebounded from an upset against Georgia by taking down ranked Kentucky, 81-79. The schedule doesn’t get any easier from here, but the Commodores have shown themselves capable of handling what No. 24 Alabama and a now-flailing Tennessee team can dish out. 6. Michigan (previous: 6) Michigan not dropping in NET despite a loss to Iowa is easily explained when you remember that this isn’t the poll, and that Iowa was already well-regarded by the system. Plus, this is the same team that, just before last week’s check-in, demolished Michigan State, another top-15 squad. Now, that isn’t to say the Wolverines have nothing to work on, because right now there is a clear gap between Michigan and at least four of the teams in front of it in NET, per Wins Above Bubble. [Meet Olivia Olson: 5 Things to Know About the Michigan Guard] 5. LSU (previous: 5) LSU came back to win against a ranked Ole Miss team on Thursday, and then demolished Missouri, 108-55, on Sunday. While the Tigers have some issues still, there is no denying that their offense can seriously cook if a defense lets up even a little. 4. Texas (previous: 4) Texas beat Mississippi State by 50 points, which is wild since the Bulldogs were ranked 35th in NET heading into the matchup. Remember that gap in quality mentioned a couple of teams ago? There it was in action, Mississippi State can tell you all about it. Texas has to finish its regular season against No. 23 Georgia and No. 24 Alabama, which should give a couple more teams an indication of how these rankings can be read as exponential like Richter Scale readings sometimes. 3. South Carolina (previous: 3) South Carolina also cut through a couple of ranked teams like it was nothing last week, downing Alabama (76-57) and Ole Miss (85-48), with the win against the Rebel especially brutal since not a single started even played 30 minutes for the Gamecocks, with Ta’Niya Latson just picking up 20. 2. UCLA (previous: 2) The outright Big Ten regular-season champions do not need the double-bye granted them in order to carve a path through the conference tournament, but UCLA has that in addition to everything else it already possessed. UCLA isn’t the top team in NET, no, but it is first in Wins Above Bubble, thanks to the Bruins feeding on Big Ten opponent after Big Ten opponent, giving it the third-toughest schedule in Division I women’s basketball. 1. UConn (previous: 1) UConn was looking a little vulnerable there — at least compared to earlier in the season — thanks to Marquette and Villanova succeeding against the Huskies in the first half of their respective matchups. UConn has Blanca Quinonez back from a shoulder injury that cost her significant time, however, and star sophomore forward Sarah Strong is looking like she is over whatever illness had her take a game off for rest, as well. Part of the result of that? Providence turned the ball over 39 times against UConn last time out, tying a program record for the Huskies. UConn is two wins away from an undefeated regular season, and already secured the top seed in the Big East tournament. Risers and Fallers In the span of a week, some teams can see their spot in the rankings dramatically shift. Here are the five teams that rose the most in women’s college basketball in the last week… T5. Oakland, 272 to 257: You will see Purdue Fort Wayne later, on the list of teams that fell the furthest in the past week. The reason for that? Losing to Oakland, which also bested Robert Morris in another upset. T5. Northern Colorado, 157 to 142: Northern Colorado played just one game, against Northern Arizona, but made it count with a 28-point margin of victory. T5. FIU, 186 to 171: The Panthers crushed Delaware and Liberty by a combined 47 points, which is not how those games were supposed to go. Wins by FIU, sure, but by that much moved the Panthers up. T2. UIC, 221 to 204: The Flames took down Indiana State (95-80) and Drake (69-61) this week, pushing them to 8-8 in Missouri Valley play and sixth in the conference. [Get to Know a Mid-Major: Missouri Valley] T2. Pacific, 223 to 206: Beating San Francisco (169th in NET) by 21 points was a net good — or NET good, rather — and losing to Gonzaga by 15 points barely registered since that’s a possible tournament team. T1. Youngstown State, 149 to 130: Youngstown State beat Northern Kentucky by 20 points and then gave Purdue Fort Wayne the other loss you will see it for later on, too. The gap between the Penguins and Norse wasn’t supposed to be big enough for a 20-point margin of victory to fit in. T1. Utah Valley, 220 to 201: The Wolverines snuck by a top-140 team in Cal Baptist, 63-61, then followed that up by beating UT Arlington by 17 points. …and the five that fell the furthest. T5. UT Martin, 229 to 244: UT Martin was, at one point, 9-5 and looking like it could challenge anyone in the Ohio Valley Conference on the right day. That was four games and four losses ago, however, with the last two, against SEMO and Little Rock, responsible for the latest part of the slide. T5. Middle Tennessee, 146 to 161: The Blue Raiders played one game last week, against Western Kentucky, and took the L. As Western Kentucky was ranked 300th in NET, that did not reflect well on Middle Tennessee. 4. Delaware, 212 to 228: Just a brutal week for the Fightin’ Blue Hens, which lost by 26 points two games in a row, and scored just 36 in the first of those against FIU. T2. Purdue Fort Wayne, 137 to 155: Purdue Fort Wayne fell out of the top-150 thanks to losing to both Oakland and Youngstown State. Neither were blowout losses or anything of the sort, but the first, at least, was a game that the Mastodons were not supposed to lose at all. T2. Longwood, 196 to 214: The Lancers held Gardner-Webb to 53 points but lost, anyway, then dropped a game in overtime to USC Upstate. That is two of the 40 or so worst teams in Division I women’s basketball this year, meaning the only positive is that the losses weren’t by even more — that would have obliterated Longwood’s NET. 1. East Texas A&M, 259 to 278: Houston Christian and Incarnate Word both took down East Texas A&M in the past week — Houston Christian, even after the W, is 304th in NET, while Incarnate Word has set up shop in East Texas A&M’s old ranking. On the Bubble Of the 68 March Madness teams in the tournament, 31 of them are conference champions who receive automatic entry into the tournament. The other 37 spots are at-large bids. With that in mind, we will look at the teams ranked between 64-to-73 in NET each week, as those are the ones who are the most on the bubble for the tourney. 73. Troy (previous: 69): One of those odd weeks where Troy won both of its games, but maybe not by enough considering the opponents. Of course, for the Trojans to make it to March, they will likely have to win the Sun Belt championship, anyway. 72. Purdue (previous: 70): There is no shortage of talented teams in the Big Ten, and unfortunately for Purdue the Boilermakers faced two of them last week in Iowa and Maryland. 71. Georgia Southern (previous: 79): Jumping up eight spots this late in the year, at this area in NET, is significant. Georgia Southern did it with wins against Marshall (90th in NET) and ULM (147th), however. 70. Davidson (previous: 74): The Wildcats took down VCU and Dayton, and while neither team rates particularly well, Davidson did torch VCU by 27 and limited it to 39 points. 69. San Diego State (previous: 72): Two wins, and against solid, but not great, teams. That was enough to head in the right direction, at least. San Diego State is oh-so-close to being a bubble team via Wins Above Bubble, as well, as it’s currently 54th with a score of -0.64. 68. Ball State (previous: 67): A big win against Buffalo — 88-55 — was negated at least a little bit by a loss to Miami (OH), which unfortunately for the Cardinals is also their most significant competition for the MAC regular-season crown and top seeding in the conference tourney. 67. Marquette (previous: 62): Marquette was ranked as the No. 2 team in the Big East behind UConn to begin the season, but the Golden Eagles have not had their season work out quite that well. In its one game this week, Marquette lost to Villanova by 25 points and scored just 39. 66. Texas A&M (previous: 76): The Aggies got a significant boost from beating Tennessee and knocking it right out of the poll, and then followed that up with a 78-57 W against Arkansas. Texas A&M now has a WAB score of 0.93, so if it can keep it going for a couple more weeks, it might be tourney material in the eyes of the Selection Committee. 65. Harvard (previous: 65): The Crimson routed Cornell, 74-37, but that’s just kind of life for the Big Red, so Harvard stuck at 65th. 64. Montana State (previous: 66): The Bobcats crushed Weber State, 81-36, then beat Idaho State by 6 points. That’s taking care of business, and the reward was a slight bump in NET.