Women’s College Basketball Top 10, Bubble Team NET Rankings: Tourney Time

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 March 2, according to NET. The Top 10 10. Duke (previous: 10) Duke recovered from being upset by Clemson with a dominant win over Florida State, but was then defeated by UNC, 74-69. Luckily for the Blue Devils, second-place Louisville also dropped its final game, and the Tar Heels were too far behind to take advantage, leaving Duke the top seed and the regular-season title in the ACC on the women’s side, too. 9. Iowa (previous: 9) Iowa finished strong: after losing to Minnesota and UCLA to start February, the Hawkeyes won out from there, taking out Washington, Nebraska, Purdue, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin. Most of these teams were either ranked recently, when Iowa faced them or are hovering around the bubble, which is to say that the Hawkeyes had a great month despite those early defeats. 8. Minnesota (previous: 8) Minnesota lost to now-No. 18 Michigan State on Sunday, but recovered with a dub against the Fighting Illini. There was also no shame in losing to the Spartans, considering they rank 15th in NET. While the win against Illinois was a close one, the Illini are 32nd in NET themselves. 7. Vanderbilt (previous: 7) Alabama was ranked when Vanderbilt faced it, but losing 85-60 ended that. Tennessee is also no longer ranked, but that happened prior to the Commodores facing the Lady Vols. Still, Tennessee has looked a bit better of late, just without the motor to keep pace with top teams like LSU and Vandy for four quarters, and the Lady Vols are still 21st in NET, as well. That wasn’t enough to move the Dores up in the NET rankings, no, but as you have seen and will continue to see, simply staying put is its own victory at this point in the season. 6. Michigan (previous: 6) The Wolverines had an eventful final week, defeating ranked Ohio State in overtime, 88-86, then toppling ranked Maryland by 17 points. There was plenty to worry about against the Buckeyes, like Michigan’s propensity to sometimes play sloppy against aggressive defenses, but the Wolverines still won in the end, too. And ugly wins will count the same as pretty ones in the Big Ten tournament and March Madness. 5. LSU (previous: 5) LSU looked vulnerable against Tennessee in the first half on Thursday, but a strong second made it so that you would never know it from just looking at the final score. The Tigers closed the season with a 72-63 win against Mississippi State as well, and now head to the SEC tournament as the fourth seed with a double-bye to the quarterfinals, where they will await one of Florida State, Mississippi State or Oklahoma. 4. Texas (previous: 4) The only “loss” Texas suffered this past week was ceding the 2-seed in the SEC to Vanderbilt due to the head-to-head tiebreaker — the Longhorns toppled both ranked Georgia and Alabama in its two matchups. 3. South Carolina (previous: 3) South Carolina obliterated Missouri, 112-71, but then played a surprisingly close game against Kentucky, 60-56. Kentucky was ranked No. 16 then (and is now No. 17), but the Gamecocks have had far less trouble than that with non-elite ranked teams this season. (Yes, Oklahoma was just No. 16 when the Sooners beat South Carolina, but O-U is now No. 7, and for a reason.) The Gamecocks are the top seed in the SEC tournament and its favorite, though, there are no shortage of teams in the conference that could spoil that. Which is more commentary on the SEC than South Carolina, a terrifying basketball team. 2. UCLA (previous: 2) Speaking of terrifying teams, UCLA wrapped up a perfect 18-0 run in Big Ten play, which should be impossible given how loaded the Big Ten is. Maybe it’s not the SEC in terms of the elite, but it’s not far off, either: 12 of the top 32 teams by NET are in B1G, while 11 of 39 are SEC. And UCLA is the best of the bunch. 1. UConn (previous: 1) UConn finished the regular season as the lone undefeated team in women’s Division I basketball, and tied for the fifth-longest winning streak in D-I women’s history, too, at 47 games. The Huskies are 31-0, and will seek to wrap up Big East play with another conference championship and automatic bid this weekend. Then, it’s on to all the Power 4 opponents of March Madness, plus the best the mid-majors have to offer. 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… 5. South Alabama, 210 to 194: It’s been a great week for South Alabama, which beat Southern Miss and Troy in its final two games of the regular season, and then defeated 13-seed App State in the opening round of the Sun Belt conference tournament on Tuesday. 4. Liberty, 170 to 151: Liberty’s season isn’t over yet, but it beat Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky last week and has a chance to finish the regular season in the top 150 in NET, and in a higher seed in Conference USA, should it topple Delaware on Saturday. 3. Hawaii, 159 to 139: The Rainbow Wahine beat UC Davis by 21 points and then Cal State Fullerton by 18; Hawaii takes on UC Riverside and Long Beach State to close out the regular season, as it attempts to be a top-four seed in the Big West. 2. Northwestern State, 241 to 218: The Demons crushed A&M Corpus-Christi, 63-35, right after sneaking by UTRGV in overtime. The former was just taking care of business, but the latter gave Northwestern State a boost. 1. Sacramento State, 239 to 211: Sacramento State surprised Idaho State on Monday, 85-72 — before the matchup, Sac State was 223rd in NET, Idaho State 113th. A huge upset for the Hornets that is now also a preview of the pair’s first matchup in Starch Madness. …and the five that fell the furthest. T4. UAB, 183 to 198: UAB has two games left in the regular season, which feels a little like torture right now given it’s 3-13 in conference play after beginning the season 7-5. T4. Tarleton State, 213 to 228: Tarleton’s last win was on Feb. 7, and in the past week Utah Valley and Cal Baptist both handed it Ls. Next up is UT Arlington, though, it’s too late to change the Texans’ WAC seeding. T4. Binghamton, 165 to 180: The Bearcats finished their season with losses to New Hampshire and Maine, which also kept Binghamton from finishing with the second seed in America East — the Black Bears took it instead. 3. High Point, 124 to 142: High Point had just one final game in the regular season to play, and the Panthers lost it to USC Upstate, one of the 15 or so worst teams in D-I women’s basketball. While High Point remains the top seed in Big South, if it can lose to USC Upstate it can lose to anyone in the conference tournament. 2. West Georgia, 215 to 234: The Wolves lost to Queens and North Alabama to close out the regular season, and they will face 10-seed North Florida in the opening round of the Atlantic Sun tournament on Tuesday — West Georgia is the higher seed and will have to turn things around and play like it, fast. 1. Bryant, 139 to 163: The Bulldogs dropped games to UMBC and NJIT, losing the first in overtime and the second by 33 points. That dropped them to 8-8 in conference play and the 6-seed in America East, where Bryant will take on also-scuffling Binghamton on Thursday. 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. Davidson (previous: 70): Davidson is waiting to find out who its opponent will be in the Atlantic 10 tournament, but considering how far back in the bubble it is at this point the Wildcats might have to hope for friendly seeding. 72. Colorado State (previous: 79): Colorado State defeated UNLV and Air Force last week, and wraps up against San Jose State on Tuesday night. Through March 2, the Rams are tied with Boise State for second in Mountain West, and probably need the automatic bid to see March Madness. 71. Purdue (previous: 72): Purdue did not have much time left to make a positive impression in the regular season, and it then lost to Oregon before beating Northwestern by 5. That’s not going to be enough, but the Big Ten tournament awaits, as well as opportunities for upsets aplenty. 70. Montana State (previous: 64): The Bobcats finished 23-6 after downing Sacramento State and Northern Arizona, but NET was not impressed enough thanks to barely getting by the former. 69. Georgia Southern (previous: 71): The Eagles picked up two wins last week, including an overtime dub against Marshall, and finished as the top seed in the Sun Belt because of it. Georgia Southern will very likely need the conference’s automatic bid to get in, however, given how crowded the bubble is. 68. San Diego State (previous: 69): San Diego State still has to face Air Force, and has made life difficult for its fellow Mountain West teams as it runs away with the conference. It’s still just out of bubble range by Wins Above Bubble, however, so those wins will have to keep coming if it’s to have any hope beyond the automatic bid for winning the conference. 67. Ball State (previous: 68): Ball State won both of its games last week, downing Ohio and Akron, and now Toledo stands in the way. At worst, the 15-2 Cardinals will finish second in the MAC. 66. Marquette (previous: 67): Marquette is going to need to put on a strong performance in the Big East tournament to get out of the bubble and into an at-large bid. First up is Creighton (94th in NET), but after that is a likely showdown against UConn. 65. Harvard (previous: 65): The Crimson beat Penn but then lost to Princeton, 62-49, once again keeping Harvard running in place. NET likes the Crimson plenty, but WAB (104th) is far less enamored thanks to the lower level of competition in the Ivy League. 64. Gonzaga (previous: 62): Gonzaga beat Saint Mary’s but then fell to Portland in overtime, and like with Harvard that automatic bid is looking like the lone way for the Bulldogs to see March Madness given the crowded field.