In December, Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer became the all-time winningest coach in women’s college basketball, passing the late Tennessee legend Pat Summitt. Yet at the moment she recorded her milestone 1,099th win, VanDerveer hadn’t won a national championship in 29 years. That drought ended Sunday when her Cardinal, the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed, defeated Arizona […]
The level of star power in this year’s NCAA women’s Final Four is astonishing to behold. Not just the amount of talent involved, but the diversity of it, promises a wild weekend ahead, with Stanford facing South Carolina, Connecticut taking on Arizona and the winners facing off on Sunday for the national title. The coaches […]
As they prepared for a conference home game against the University of the Pacific on Jan. 23, the Gonzaga Bulldogs were 14-0 and ranked No. 1 in Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted efficiency rankings. That night, they scored 1.28 points per possession, led 34-8 midway through the first half and won 95-49. But by the time they […]
In the semifinals of the Big 12 men’s basketball tournament, Baylor’s indomitable defense was mauled by phenom Cade Cunningham and the Oklahoma State Cowboys. The Bears allowed 83 points in the loss — the most they had given up all season in a non-overtime game. To hear the Bears tell it, that effort — one […]
The women’s NCAA Tournament is well-known for its chalk-filled brackets. Although it offered us the ultimate upset in 1998, a full 20 years before a 16-seed beat a 1-seed on the men’s side, that was a huge exception to the general rule: Favorites dominate the women’s tourney. And that trend had been especially true in […]