The Weekly Fast Break: Rivalries run deep

College athletics gives us some of the best rivalries we know in sports. We are lucky to have interstate rivals that duke it out once a year or if you are in the same conference, maybe you tussle twice during the season. While we here at The Weekly Fast Break are impartial to college basketball, we do enjoy the college football season. The passionate crowds, the pageantry of tailgating and the battles on the field are what keeps us coming back. This past weekend was full of great games on the gridiron but also a host of rivalry games that boiled over. While planting a flag on your rival’s field after the big win may sound like a good idea or pushing one too many linemen at midfield seems like a good move, we would advise against it. Hot tempers mixed with deep disappointment after a loss gets us what we had over the weekend — rivals fighting it out in the wrong way.

As the college basketball season progresses, we will get our rivalry games and then some. We will have rising stars going at veterans, big upsets on the road and buzzer-beaters that secure a necessary home win. So, while we preach our motto from the late Pat Summit of “offense sells tickets; defense wins games; and rebounding wins championships”, we need everyone to keep their elbows to themselves and play the game as it was intended. You each have 40 minutes to go at your rival — leave it all out on the court.

---

Order ‘Rare Gems’ and save 30%

Howard Megdal, founder and editor of The Next and The IX, released his latest book on May 7, 2024. This deeply reported story follows four connected generations of women’s basketball pioneers, from Elvera “Peps” Neuman to Cheryl Reeve and from Lindsay Whalen to Sylvia Fowles and Paige Bueckers.

If you enjoy his coverage of women’s basketball every Wednesday at The IX, you will love “Rare Gems: How Four Generations of Women Paved the Way for the WNBA.” Click the link below to order and enter MEGDAL30 at checkout.

---

Tip-Off

Nothing but NET

Welcome to the beginning of months of handwringing for women’s college basketball fans — the first round of NET rankings for the 2024-25 season have dropped. The “NCAA Evaluation Tool” (NET) is updated daily on NCAA.com starting Monday, Dec. 2. For women’s basketball, NET rankings serve as a sorting tool used to measure a team’s quality and helps evaluate team resumes for selection and seeding in the NCAA Tournament. In the simplest of terms, a team’s NET ranking is determined by who you played, where you played, how efficiently you played and the results of those games. 

The NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Selection Committee did approve this summer the use of quadrants on team sheets during the selection of the field of 68. The 2024-25 NET rank quadrant ranges for women’s basketball are based on expected winning percentage versus a given opponent’s rank (in NET) with respect to game location, across all games. The ranges are as followed: Quad One (home 1-25, neutral 1-35, away 1-45); Quad 2 (home 26-55, neutral 36-65, away 46-80); Quad Three (home 56-90, neutral 66-105, away 81-130); and Quad Four (home 91-plus, neutral-106 plus, away 131-plus).

While everyone is analyzing the numbers to see where their team falls (12 of the top 25 teams in the NET have at least one loss), please remember this is DAY ONE of the rankings. We have a long way to go until Selection Sunday when the committee will evaluate the field based on NET and additional criteria. We urge you to keep the handwringing to a minimum and enjoy the season.

Roll Tide Roll

Alabama has made back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Tournament and appeared in the 2024-25 AP preseason Top 25 at No. 24. Over the first month of the season, the Crimson Tide are 9-0 (their best start since the 2020-21 season) and have moved up to No. 19 in the AP Poll, which is the program’s best ranking in 25 years. Guard Sarah Ashlee Barker leads ‘Bama in scoring at 16.6 points per game and leads the team in steals. Guard/forward Aaliyah Nye has picked up where she left off a season ago from behind the arc, shooting 42% so far this year with 32 makes drained from deep. While the schedule has not been overly difficult for head coach Kristy Curry’s squad, they are winning in a decisive manner (+33.9 scoring margin). Up next for the Tide is a trip to Cal on Dec. 5 for the SEC/ACC Challenge. Big Al, ‘Bama’s happy-go-lucky mascot, is skipping throughout Tuscaloosa right now with all the success on the hardcourt.

Poll watch

Only seven of the spots in this week’s AP Top 25 Poll remained unchanged, including the top two, which are anchored down by No. 1 UCLA and No. 2 UConn. TCU vaults into the Top 10 for the first time in program history to No. 9 after two decisive wins in the Cayman Islands, including a 76-68 win over Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish dropped to No. 10 after the TCU loss and a 78-67 loss to Utah. Duke rises to No. 8 after their two wins over ranked teams in Las Vegas (K-State and Oklahoma). Iowa moves up five spots to No. 17 and Alabama rises four to No. 19. Michigan and Michigan State have been hovering outside the Top 25 for weeks now and each have broken in at No. 23 and No. 24 respectively. NC State and Oregon fall out of the Top 25 while Richmond received 13 votes this week out of the Atlantic 10 after starting the season 8-0.

Star power

There is one thing we hold true to here at The Weekly Fast Break and that is star power shines bright for players who register triple-doubles. Oklahoma senior Payton Verhulst posted a monster stat line on Nov. 27 in the finals of the Ball Dawgs Classic in Las Vegas. The 6’1 guard had 29 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in a 109-99 overtime loss to now No. 8 Duke. Verhulst hit the game-tying 3-pointer to send the game into OT. This is the first triple-double of her career and just the fourth in Sooner program history, the last coming in March 2006 by star Courtney Paris. Verhulst was named Co-Player of the Week in the SEC for her stellar performance, sharing the honor with Aneesah Morrow of LSU.

Payton Verhulst is the SEC Co-Player of the Week 👑@OU_Athletics // @SEC pic.twitter.com/bCJl58Xn2R

— Oklahoma Basketball (@OU_WBBall) December 3, 2024

While the conversation off the floor may be about a ground-breaking shoe deal with Nike, UConn’s Paige Bueckers is letting her game do the talking on the court. The redshirt senior was named BIG EAST Player of the Week after averaging 26 points, 3.5 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 2.0 steals per game in two Husky wins at the Baha Mar Championship in Nassau, Bahamas. The 6’ guard dropped 23 points and dished six assists in the 71-52 win against Oregon State on Nov. 25. She was named the Baha Mar Women’s Championship MVP after she tied a season-high with 29 points in the 73-60 defeat of then-No. 18 Mississippi on Nov. 27.

It’s hard not to see that the success in November of the TCU Horned Frogs is directly related to the stellar performances of Sedona Prince. The 6’7 center was named Big 12 Player of the Week for the fourth time in her career after leading her team to two wins at the Cayman Islands Classic. Prince had 20 points, 20 rebounds, eight blocks, four assists and three steals in TCU’s upset of then-No. 3 Notre Dame, 76-68 on Nov. 29. It was the highest-ranked win in program history. She became the first player in NCAA history to record 20 rebounds and eight blocks in a game against an AP top five opponent. Prince followed her historical performance with a 17-point, 13-rebound double-double to lead TCU in an 87-46 win over South Florida Nov. 30. The Liberty Hill, TX native joins K-State’s Ayoka Lee as one of only two active Big 12 players to garner the Player of the Week award on at least four occasions. 

Ivy League Player of the Week honors went to Kitty Henderson of Columbia after two game-high performances last week. The 5’10 senior guard had a career-high 24 points along with six rebounds, four assists and four steals to lead the Lions to a 69-62 win over Ball State on Nov. 25 in the consolation bracket final of the Battle 4 Atlantis. Henderson, a native of Australia, posted a game-high 20 points to go along with five rebounds, four assists and three steals in a tough 77-61 road loss at Duke on Dec. 1.

‘She’s the example’: How Columbia senior Kitty Henderson has stepped up as a scorer

Tulane freshman Kendall Sneed was named American Athletic Conference (AAC) Freshman of the Week for the second straight week after posting two great performances at the St. Pete Showcase in St. Petersburg, FL. The 5’8 guard registered her second-straight double-double with 22 points and 11 assists in the Green Wave’s 83-31 win over Florida on Nov. 28. She followed it up with 14 points and five assists in their 87-70 loss to Northern Arizona two days later. The China, TX native is the only freshman in the nation this season with multiple 15-point double-doubles and is the only Tulane freshman besides her head coach, Ashley Langford, to record a double-double with assists.

---

Want even more women’s sports in your inbox?

Subscribe now to our sister publication The IX and receive our independent women’s sports newsletter six days a week. Learn more about your favorite athletes and teams around the world competing in soccer, tennis, basketball, golf, hockey and gymnastics from our incredible team of writers.

Readers of The Next now save 50% on their subscription to The IX.

---

Film session

It’s not very often that our attention turns to a game that was looking to be surefire blowout, especially if you saw the score after three quarters. On Dec. 1, Hampton University from the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) traveled to take on Georgia. Going into the final 10 minutes, the Bulldogs were cruising along with a sizable lead of 62-48. That is where things turned for the Lady Pirates on the road in Athens as they rallied to outscore Georgia 22-8 in the fourth. They forced overtime on a deep 3-point make from the corner by senior guard Amyah Reaves with 4.9 seconds remaining which then set up an overtime frame that was full of its own drama. Hampton snapped its four-game losing streak on a buzzer-beating jumper in the lane by sophomore guard Tyra Kennedy that sealed the win 76-74.

What turned the tide for the Lady Pirates? They hit shots in the fourth, along with going 8-for-10 from the free throw line. Georgia went cold late in the second half, and they only made four trips to the charity stripe in the final quarter and overtime respectively. The Bulldogs also had 32 turnovers which Hampton was able to convert into 32 points. Guard Jasha Clinton led the Lady Pirates with a game-high 20 points on the day. This was the first win for the program over a Power 4 opponent since 2019. Georgia, who missed the NCAA Tournament a year ago, drops to 5-4 on the season and will need to re-group quickly. They host Virginia Tech in the SEC/ACC Challenge on Dec. 4.

Full court press

If your school was one of many fined over the weekend for on-the-field antics in the last weekend of the college football regular season, we hope you get to start the month of December with a clean slate. The good news is this week is full of great games to sit back and watch, including the 2024 SEC/ACC Challenge. Tempers will be hot and the intensity even hotter, but that is exactly how we like it (check your local listings for game times and broadcast availability):

Dec. 4

Oral Roberts at Northern Arizona
Utah State at Utah
Washington State at R/V Oregon
DePaul at Northwestern
R/V Florida State at R/V Tennessee (SEC/ACC Challenge)
R/V Mississippi State at R/V Georgia Tech (SEC/ACC Challenge)
No. 11 Oklahoma at No. 22 Louisville (SEC/ACC Challenge)
R/V Vanderbilt at Miami (SEC/ACC Challenge)
Syracuse at Texas A&M (SEC/ACC Challenge)
Virginia Tech at Georgia (SEC/ACC Challenge)

Dec. 5

Boston College at Arkansas (SEC/ACC Challenge)
No. 19 Alabama at Cal (SEC/ACC Challenge)
Florida at Clemson (SEC/ACC Challenge)
No. 8 Duke at No. 3 South Carolina (SEC/ACC Challenge)
No. 14 Kentucky at No. 16 North Carolina (SEC/ACC Challenge)
No. 18 Mississippi at R/V NC State (SEC/ACC Challenge)
No. 4 Texas at No. 10 Notre Dame (SEC/ACC Challenge)
SMU at Missouri (SEC/ACC Challenge)
R/V Stanford at No. 5 LSU (SEC/ACC Challenge)
Auburn at Virginia (SEC/ACC Challenge)

Dec. 6

Western Illinois at Cincinnati
Wyoming at Missouri State
Princeton at Portland

Dec. 7

Indiana at Penn State
Middle Tennessee at Belmont
No. 7 Maryland at Purdue
R/V Creighton at UNI
No. 6 USC at R/V Oregon
R/V Tennessee at No. 17 Iowa
No. 22 Louisville at No. 2 UConn

Dec. 8

No. 10 Notre Dame at Syracuse
R/V Minnesota at No. 25 Nebraska
Stony Brook at Holy Cross
Villanova at Fairfield
UNLV at R/V Baylor
Virginia Tech at No. 8 Duke
No. 13 K-State at Texas A&M
Princeton at Utah
No. 3 South Carolina at No. 9 TCU

Dec. 9

Yale at Quinnipiac

Dec. 10

South Dakota at UNI
Denver at Colorado
Ball State at No. 12 Ohio State
North Dakota State at Tulane
Fresno State at No. 6 USC

*All statistics cited in this column are sourced from university and conference provided statistics