March 3, 2025
Locked On Women’s Basketball: Monday musings and conference champions
By The Next
Breaking down a coin flip for the ages and mid-major teams to watch
In the latest episode of Locked On Women’s Basketball, The Next’s Missy Heidrick looks back at an exciting weekend of college basketball games, including several that decided regular-season conference champions. She also discusses the AP top 25 poll and coaching changes that are already underway.
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In a bit of an oddity, AP No. 1 Texas will not even be the No. 1 seed in its conference tournament after the SEC had to resort to a coin flip to break a tie between Texas and South Carolina for the regular-season title. Heidrick talks about what happened and why it matters:
“The seeds for the upcoming SEC Tournament all came down to what side of the coin landed up, and that went to the South Carolina Gamecocks. Dawn Staley‘s team will be the No. 1 seed in the SEC Tournament. Texas will be the No. 2. How that changes things for those two teams, really, it’s ultimately going to be about who those semifinal opponents and what you are going to face, but all of them [have] a lot of rest and opportunity to get themselves healthy.
“And I think Texas maybe [has] a little bit of chip on their shoulder, but in their first year in the SEC they share the regular-season title. … This could be very well one of the best teams, if not the best team, Vic Schaefer has had in his time at Texas.”
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Later in the episode, Heidrick talks about some mid-major teams to keep an eye on in March. Staying in the state of Texas, she begins with the UTSA Roadrunners:
“The Roadrunners [are] 25-3, 16-1 in conference play. A huge kudos to head coach Karen Aston, who I think is one of the best people in this business. If that name sounds familiar, she was the head coach at Texas back when they had a run of success in the Big 12, before she was gone and Vic Schaefer was brought on to take that job.
“She lands at UTSA. She’s built a program there with players that have stayed, the freshmen recruits that have stepped up, players that have come in and found a home there via the portal. And I just think that it has been an outstanding job done by her and her staff.”
Related content from the archives: Locked On Women’s Basketball: Karen Aston has UTSA’s program growing, since that is what she does
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