The last two weeks of the women’s college basketball season have been pure insanity. I’m talking upsets, and there is plenty to unpack from the team and individual performances.

In the first two weeks of the 2021-22 season, there were three upsets; since then, there have been 20. What does that mean for rankings and for the teams on either side of the dreaded u-word? Let’s discuss.

No. 23 South Florida 71, No. 9 Oregon 62 (Nov. 22)

South Florida and Oregon have both been mainstays on the upset list over the last 14 days. Let’s start with South Florida, a team that nearly topped No. 2 UConn a day prior, eventually losing by seven points. The Bulls unleashed their defensive pressure on the Ducks, forcing Oregon into 25 turnovers. Elisa Pinzan led her team with a double-double of 26 points and 10 assists. She and teammate Sydni Harvey each made four 3-pointers and were efficient at the free-throw line. Harvey had 22 points, and Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeau scored 17 off the bench.

South Florida is not a bad loss for the Ducks by any means, but the way they lost is concerning. Coach Kelly Graves told the Register-Guard, “I don’t know if I’ve been in a game where my team had 25 turnovers.”

I gave the Ducks the benefit of the doubt after this one because South Florida is clearly better than its No. 23 ranking, and its defense has disrupted plenty of teams (hey there, UConn). But, sorry Oregon fans, the Ducks aren’t out of the upset woods yet.

No. 5 NC State 78, No. 2 Maryland 60 (Nov. 25)

I don’t really consider one top 10-team beating another much of an upset, but by definition, NC State’s win does count. And semantics aside, this loss exposed a Maryland flaw that always had potential to hurt the Terrapins: defense. They are without Katie Benzan and Diamond Miller, but Maryland is used to blowing past opponents with its high-powered offense. When that offense isn’t there, the Terrapins struggle.

Elissa Cunane had 20 points and 10 rebounds, and Jakia Brown-Turner also had a double-double with 12 points and 11 boards. Raina Perez added 11 points, and Diamond Johnson had 17 off the bench. The Wolfpack also out-rebounded Maryland 47-34 and held the team to 34.3 percent shooting. Was it an off-night for Maryland without two key pieces? Maybe. But it could also be a precursor to what’s to come for the Terps this postseason. Meanwhile, NC State looked like a Final Four-caliber squad.

No. 7 Stanford 69, No. 4 Indiana 66 (Nov. 25)

Again, No. 7 over No. 4 isn’t crazy, but this game was big for Stanford. The Cardinal were nearly upset themselves four days earlier when they squeaked by unranked Gonzaga 66-62 on the road, and they were upset by Texas on Nov. 14. Stanford needed a win, and Cameron Brink delivered a victory and a breakout performance with 22 points, 21 rebounds, five blocks and five assists. They also did it while not at 100 percent, most notably with Haley Jones fighting an injury.

BYU 61, No. 17 Florida State 54 (Nov. 25)

BYU has been on the verge of being in the top 25 since preseason, and the undefeated Cougars played themselves up to No. 21 in the AP poll with this upset. Shaylee Gonzales was excellent for the Cougars with 24 points and a 10-for-11 performance from the free-throw line. Neither of these teams were done with upsets after this one, so more on them later.

No. 18 South Florida 57, No. 7 Stanford 54 (Nov. 26)

Told you we weren’t done with South Florida. The Oregon win moved the Bulls up to No. 18, and topping Stanford got even more eyes on them. Again, I don’t think this is a bad loss for a Stanford team that is clearly figuring some things out. At this point, I thought South Florida was a top-10 team. But, chaos continued to ensue, and well, you’ll see. Back to Stanford for now.

Haley Jones is still clearly injured, as the Cardinal star didn’t record a point in this loss. Anna Wilson was battling something, as well — she played only four minutes — and, as a result, the Stanford offense struggled to get going. There were two bright spots, though. Brink again recorded a double-double of 23 points and 11 rebounds, and freshman Brooke Demetre came off the bench to deliver 14 points.

Kent State 75, No. 19 UCLA 69 (Nov. 26)

This was a bad loss for UCLA. The Bruins took care of the ball, turning it over only five times, but their offense was still less than desirable. UCLA shot 35.7 percent from the field, while Kent State shot 50 percent, including 53 percent from beyond the arc for nine made 3s.

Missouri State 76, No. 24 Virginia Tech 68 (Nov. 26)

I had Missouri State ranked 25th to start the season, so this upset makes a lot of sense to me. The Bears had a well-balanced attack, with four players in double figures. Jasmine Franklin led the way with 21 points and 12 rebounds, but the real difference-maker came at the free-throw line. Missouri State went to the line 30 times and made 27 of their shots (90 percent). Conference play isn’t helpful for the Bears, as the Missouri Valley doesn’t have any top teams, so this win may be their best resume-builder come tournament time. And free-throw efficiency will only help them as the season progresses.

No. 7 Stanford 86, No. 2 Maryland 67 (Nov. 27)

Maryland suffered the same problems against Stanford as it did in the loss to NC State. The Terrapins shot 30 percent from the field and had little offensive production outside of Ashley Owusu’s 29 points. Meanwhile, Stanford got offense from a lot of different — and somewhat unexpected — places, shooting 51.7 percent from the field and 40 percent from beyond the arc. Hannah Jump led the Cardinal with 21 points, while Fran Belibi, Lexie Hull and Haley Jones each had 15.

Stanford is playing a tough schedule this season — No. 11 Tennessee and No. 1 South Carolina still await this month — so even though there are some clear issues to work through, I think Stanford is in great shape. Wins over teams like Maryland and Indiana prove that.

Notre Dame 64, No. 16 Oregon State 62 (Nov. 27)

Oregon State was down 20 points heading into the fourth quarter before a monster comeback made this one close. If Kennedy Brown makes her one-and-one free throws at the end of regulation, this one heads to overtime; and if Oregon State wins, we chalk this game up to a close call. But, as things stand, this game was a good indicator of where both teams stand. The Beavers have one other loss, to No. 12 Michigan, and Notre Dame dropped games to a good Georgia team and a great UConn squad. The slim margin in this one leads me to believe that both Oregon State and Notre Dame are teams in the 20-25 range of the rankings.

Purdue 66, No. 17 Florida State 61 (Nov. 27)

Losing to BYU, no big deal. Losing to Purdue? A bit bigger of a deal. This is the loss that nearly booted Florida State out of the AP poll. Purdue isn’t bad, necessarily, but the Boilermakers are a squad that a No. 17 team should beat. Purdue quite literally didn’t score in the second quarter and still managed to make a comeback. Meanwhile, Florida State received no production from its starting five, with Kourtney’s Weber’s 11 points being the highlight. AP voters just bumped Florida State from the top-25 rankings, as did I. The Seminoles have ACC play coming up, though, and there is potential for them to get on the other side of an upset. If that happens, I may have to reconsider.

South Dakota State 76, No. 19 UCLA 66 (Nov. 27)

Remember when I said Kent State was a bad loss for UCLA? Well, being upset by the 3-4 Jackrabbits might be worse. Particularly because there were no massive bad spots for the Bruins, they just got outplayed. Izzy Anstey had some early foul trouble that kept her on the bench. Iimar’i Thomas came in and made up for it with 18 points, and yet, UCLA still couldn’t top the Jackrabbits. The odds were stacked against UCLA coming into the season, with Emily Bessoir’s ACL injury and the task of working in several players who were absent last year due to COVID-19. As it stand, the Bruins still seem to be figuring those things out.

BYU 58, No. 22 West Virginia 57 (Nov. 27)

BYU is a good team, and one worthy of a top-25 spot. Two upsets in two days secured that ranking for the Cougars, as they made their way to No. 16 in this week’s poll. There is a lot to like about this BYU squad, and one of the bright spots comes in two sophomores: Shaylee Gonzales and Lauren Gustin. Gonzales, a guard, is BYU’s leading scorer with 17.6 points per game, and Gustin is third with 11.2. These two make a great pair, and their youth means they will only get better with more experience this season. An upcoming battle with 6-1 Washington State — a team that has one of the best players in the country in Charlisse Leger-Walker — will serve as another test and potential benchmark for the Cougars.

UC Davis 64, No. 18 Oregon 57 (Dec. 1)

Before getting too critical of the Ducks, it’s important to know they were without point guard Te-Hina Paopao and center Nyara Sabally. But they still lost to a 4-3 UC Davis team. With the caliber of talent Oregon has, The Oregonian called it “the worst loss of the Kelly Graves era.” I remain unsure about the Ducks, especially when you consider they narrowly escaped Portland two days later (62-59). Oregon plays a good, unranked Colorado team to kick off the January calendar, followed by clashes with No. 4 Stanford, No. 7 Arizona and No. 2 UConn. That’s quite the gauntlet, but also a chance for the Ducks to get back on track with a signature win.

Syracuse 97, No. 18 Ohio State 91 (Dec. 1)

This was Ohio State’s first road game of the season. The Buckeyes were winning games by an average of 29.8 points up until this one, and their inexperience in close games showed. Syracuse kept within striking distance in the first half before outscoring the Buckeyes 29-19 in the third quarter. Defensively, Ohio State just didn’t have it, and the Buckeyes allowed Teisha Hyman to score a career-high 30 points on 4-for-6 shooting from beyond the arc. The Orange also won the battle at the line, going 23-for-26, while Ohio State was 15-for-26.

It’s not a great look for Ohio State that its first road game, and first matchup with a non-mid-major opponent, was a loss. The Buckeyes did beat Purdue in dominant fashion on the road a few days later, which isn’t much of a win but shows that maybe they learned from their defeat to Syracuse. Ohio State will need to be in top form if it wants to make an impact in the Big Ten, which I consider the best conference in the country. In other words, no more losing to teams like Syracuse.

Princeton 58, No. 22 Florida Gulf Coast 55 (Dec. 1)

This one hurts Florida Gulf Coast in the long term, simply because in the ASUN, the Eagles won’t have many tests or chances to prove their worth for a good seed come tournament time. It’s not fair to say they have to go undefeated to be taken seriously, but unfortunately, that’s often how it works in a small conference. Earlier in the season, they did beat an LSU team that we will talk about later, and they have a potentially tougher matchup with Michigan State coming up. I don’t think the Princeton loss is any reason to panic, though the poor shooting performance — 36.4 percent from the field, 27.6 percent from beyond the arc and 63.6 percent from the free-throw line — should raise some alarm bells.

Duke 79, No. 9 Iowa 64 (Dec. 2)

The Blue Devils have been in the back of my mind for a while now, and this is the kind of victory that makes them a part of the national conversation. Now 8-0, Duke hadn’t played any high-caliber teams until the matchup with Iowa. The Blue Devils delivered, with an impressive defensive performance guarding prolific scorer Caitlin Clark. She finished with 22 points but scored just four first-half points while going 9-for-27 from the field and 1-for-13 from the 3-point line. Iowa was coming off of a short pause due to COVID-19, and I don’t expect Clark to struggle like this often. Still, this is a great win for Kara Lawson and Duke. It got the previously unranked Blue Devils all the way up to No. 19 in the AP poll and should give them confidence going into a big matchup against No. 1 South Carolina on Dec. 15.

UT Arlington 61, No. 13 South Florida 56 (Dec. 2)

South Florida, say it ain’t so. I didn’t expect to see the Bulls on this side of an upset, and certainly not to UT Arlington right as the team was climbing the rankings. South Florida gained a ton of respect with its wins over Oregon and Stanford, and this is the type of defeat that can have newly-acquired believers changing their minds. It was a dismal offensive performance for the Bulls, who shot 32.4 percent from the field, and 22.7 percent from the 3-point line. South Florida is 5-3, but the other two losses came to top-10 teams Tennessee and UConn. The Bulls were coming off back-to-back upset wins, so it’s fair to think they may have been gassed against UT Arlington. A bad loss, yes, but I’m not panicking for the Bulls.

LSU 69, No. 14 Iowa State 60 (Dec. 2)

Iowa State didn’t necessarily play poorly in this game, which makes the win even better for Kim Mulkey and LSU. The Cyclones were in early foul trouble but still got their usual production from Ashley Joens, who had 24 points and 13 rebounds. The big difference came at the 3-point line and with turnovers. LSU went 7-of-10 from 3, five of which came in the first half to give the Tigers a six-point lead going into the break. LSU also forced 16 turnovers and did a good job of taking care of the ball, coughing it up just seven times. LSU deserved its spot in the top 25 after this win.

As for the Cyclones, losing their first game against a tough opponent was a problem. No. 15 Iowa State bounced back Wednesday night with a statement 77-70 win over their state rivals, No. 12 Iowa, giving us a better indication of what this Cyclones team is capable of.

Georgia Tech 55, No. 20 Georgia 54 (Dec. 5)

Here’s another upset that makes a lot of sense to me, but how it happened doesn’t. If you tell me Georgia Tech had a big win, I will assume it was thanks to Lorela Cubaj and Lotta-Maj Lahtinen. But the latter only scored seven points, and Cubaj did most of her work on the glass, hauling in an impressive 15 rebounds while also scoring 11 points. The Yellow Jackets got solid production from Nerea Hermosa and Eylia Love, who had 14 points apiece. Cubaj’s rebounding came in handy, as Georgia Tech had 44 boards to Georgia’s 37. I don’t think we are done seeing Georgia Tech on the winning end of upsets, either. The Yellow Jackets have the talent to play with top teams once all the pieces come together.

If you made it through all of that, congratulations! You’re now just as confused as I am. Now, here are my rankings for the week.

JWS’ Top 25 in Week 5

1. South Carolina
2. UConn
3. NC State
4. Stanford
5. Indiana
6. Arizona
7. Baylor
8. Iowa
9. Louisville
10. Maryland
11. Tennessee
12. Texas
13. Michigan
14. Iowa State
15. South Florida
16. BYU
17. Ohio State
18. Duke
19. Georgia Tech
20. Kentucky
21. Oregon State
22. Notre Dame
23. Florida Gulf Coast
24. LSU
25. Oregon

Eden Laase is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports. She previously ran her own high school sports website in Michigan after covering college hockey and interning at Sports Illustrated. Follow her on Twitter @eden_laase.

After an illustrious career for both club and country, Gotham FC and U.S. Women’s National Team defender Kelley O’Hara announced today via Kelley on the Street that she will be retiring from professional soccer at the end of this year, making the 2024 NWSL season her last.

"I have always said I would play under two conditions: that I still love playing soccer, and if my body would let me do it the way I wanted to," O’Hara told Just Women’s Sports in the lead-up to her retirement announcement. "I realized a while back that I was always going to love it, so it was the physical piece that was going to be the deciding factor."

The 35-year-old will retire as a two-time World Cup champion, an Olympic gold medalist, and at least a two-time NWSL champion, depending on where Gotham finishes this season. Her legacy as a player is hard to fully encapsulate, and will forever run through some of the biggest snapshots in USWNT and NWSL history. 

In 2012, O’Hara played every minute of the USWNT’s Olympic gold medal run, after having recently converted into a defender. Her soaring goal off the bench in the 2015 World Cup semifinal is the stuff of legend. And her return from lingering injury to play in every knockout match of the national team’s 2019 World Cup win cemented a storybook international career. 

It was O’Hara who scored the overtime goal in 2021 to earn the Washington Spirit their first-ever NWSL championship, and O’Hara who returned to help see Gotham earn a title in 2023 after years spent in the trenches with the club’s previous iteration, Sky Blue. Her 15-year career spanned two professional women’s soccer leagues in the U.S. (she earned her first professional title in 2010 with WPS’s FC Gold Pride), as well as sweeping changes to the sport both on and off the pitch.

On the field, O’Hara has always been known for a motor that never quits, making the right flank her domain in attacking possession and defensive transition. In recent years, she’s also been celebrated for a competitive fire that raises the level of her teammates, whether she’s in the starting XI or supporting from the bench.

But injuries take a toll, a reality not always seen by the fans watching from home. "I've never taken anything for granted, and I feel like I've never coasted either," O’Hara said of her late-career success in the NWSL despite battling injuries. "I've always been like, 'I gotta put my best foot forward every single day I step on this field' — which is honestly probably half the reason why I'm having to retire now as opposed to getting a couple more years out of it. I've just grinded hard."

Recently, O’Hara has been sidelined at Gotham with ankle and knee injuries, and the situation motivated her to really prioritize listening to her body. "To get injured and come back, and get injured and come back, and just keep doing it, it really takes a toll on you.

"People don't see the doubt that's associated with injury,” she continued. "As athletes we feel a certain way, we perform a certain way, our body feels a certain way, we're very in tune with our bodies. And there's always so much doubt surrounding injury. It’s like, 'Can I feel the way I felt before?' The reality is sometimes you don't."

O’Hara didn’t arrive at the decision to move on from her playing career lightly. But once she began seriously considering making 2024 her final year during the last NWSL offseason, it felt right. "Once I was like, 'Alright, you know what, this will be my last year,' I have had a lot of peace with it," she said. "Truly the only thing I felt was gratitude for everything that my career has been, all the things I've been able to do and the people I've been able to do it with."

She said she’ll miss daily interactions with her teammates and all the amazing memories they’ve created, though she feels lucky to have formed relationships that go beyond sharing a locker room. "You're basically getting to hang out and just shoot the shit with your best friends every day," she reflected. "Which is so unheard of, and I just feel very lucky to do it for so long."

The Stanford graduate also mentioned that the NWSL’s suspension of regular season play in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic made her realize how much playing allowed her the space to simply be creative every day. The tactical elements of soccer provided O’Hara an outlet for problem solving and made use of her naturally competitive edge.

She’s now gearing up to channel her on-field intensity into her post-playing career full time, which is a new chapter she’s excited to begin. "I don't know if the world's ready for it, like the fact that I'm not going to be putting all of my energy into football all the time," she said with a laugh. 

O’Hara said she would like to stay connected to the game in some fashion, whether it be as an owner, coach, or member of a front office. She’s also interested in the growing media space surrounding women’s sports, having provided on-camera analysis for broadcasters like CBS Sports in addition to starting a production company with her fiancée.

"I just feel like I have a lot of passions, and things that excite me," she says. "And I do want to stay as close as I can to the game, because I feel a responsibility — and I'm not sure in what capacity — to continue to grow it."

A sense of responsibility to grow the game has been a consistent refrain for the USWNT and NWSL players of O’Hara’s era, who ushered in a new age of equal pay for the national team and collectively bargained protections for those in the league. The landscape for new players looks different than it did 14 years ago, in large part due to this pivotal generation.

"I feel an immense sense of pride around that, because I don't know if any of us knew that was gonna happen," she said. "We kind of, as things unfolded, took the next step towards changing what women's football looks like in this country and around the world.

"I'm really grateful to have been part of this era with the players that I was [with], not backing down and pushing and knowing that was the right thing to do."

Whatever the future holds, O’Hara is going ahead full throttle. It’s a piece of advice she’d also give to the next generation of professionals looking to make their own impact.

"Whatever you do in life, do it because you love it, and the chips will fall in place," she said. "If you love something, you're willing to do what it takes. You're willing to make the sacrifices, you're willing to handle the roller coaster.

"To me, it's simple. Don't do it for any other reason but that, and I think you'll be alright."

The Phoenix Mercury center spoke with Robin Roberts about her 10-month incarceration, reflecting on her poor living conditions and shaky mental state ahead of her May 7th memoir.

"The mattress had a huge blood stain on it. I had no soap, no toilet paper," Griner told the ABC News anchor in last night’s 20/20 special. "That was the moment where I just felt less than a human." 

She also detailed some of her lowest moments during that time, saying with tears in her eyes that she went so far as to consider taking her own life on more than one occasion. However, the thought of Russian officials not releasing her body back to her family made her reconsider.

"I just didn't think I could get through what I needed to get through," said Griner.

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In February 2022, Griner was arrested and charged with drug possession and smuggling by a Russian court after Sheremetyevo International Airport police found vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage. The cartridges were prescribed by Griner’s doctor for chronic pain back in Arizona, where medical marijuana is legal. In the interview, the two-time Olympic gold medalist said she had a "mental lapse" while packing, and never intended to bring the cannabis products with her when she returned to play for UMMC Ekaterinburg.

"It's just so easy to have a mental lapse," Griner said. "Granted, my mental lapse was on a more grand scale. But it doesn't take away from how that can happen." 

She was later sentenced to nine years behind bars after her Russian attorneys advised her to plead guilty the following July. Griner was then sent to a remote penal colony where she was forced to spend her days cutting cloth to make military uniforms. From there, it only got worse.

"Honestly, it just had to happen," she said when asked about her decision to cut off her signature long locks. "We had spiders above my bed making nests.

"My dreads started to freeze," she added. "They would just stay wet and cold and I was getting sick. You've gotta do what you've gotta do to survive."

Shortly after Griner’s initial arrest, the U.S. State Department classified her case as wrongfully detained, escalating its urgency within the government and calling even more attention to the situation. On December 8th, she was freed in a prisoner exchange negotiated by the Biden administration.

While she told Roberts she was "thrilled" when she got the news, she was also very upset about having to leave fellow wrongful detainee Paul Whelan behind. She also continues to carry guilt about her arrest, saying "At the end of the day, it's my fault. And I let everybody down."

Griner’s memoir, Coming Home, hits shelves on May 7th.

"Coming Home begins in a land where my roots developed and is the diary of my heartaches and regrets," Griner told ABC News in an exclusive statement. "But, ultimately, the book is also a story of how my family, my faith, and the support of millions who rallied for my rescue helped me endure a nightmare."

Longtime USWNT fixture Carli Lloyd took to Instagram Wednesday morning to announce that she’s pregnant with her first child. 

"Baby Hollins coming in October 2024!" she wrote. The caption framed a collaged image of baby clothes, an ultrasound photo, and syringes indicating what she described as a "rollercoaster" fertility journey.

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In a Women’s Health story published in tandem with Lloyd’s post, the Fox Sports analyst and correspondent opened up about her struggles with infertility and the lengthy IVF treatments she kept hidden from the public eye.

"Soccer taught me how to work hard, persevere, be resilient, and never give up. I would do whatever it took to prepare, and usually when I prepared, I got results," Lloyd told Women’s Health’s Amanda Lucci. "But I found out that I didn’t know much about this world. I was very naive to think that we wouldn’t have any issues getting pregnant. And so it began."

Lloyd went on to discuss her road to pregnancy in great detail, sharing the highs and lows of the process and expressing gratitude for the care and support her family and medical team provided along the way. She rounded out the piece with a nod toward others navigating the same challenges, encouraging people to share their own pregnancy journeys, painful as they may be.

"My story is currently a happy one, but I know there are other women who are facing challenges in their pregnancy journey. I see you and I understand your pain," she said. "My hope is that more and more women will speak up about this topic, because their stories helped me. I also wish for more resources, funding, and education around fertility treatments. There is much to be done, and I hope I can play a role in helping."

The 41-year-old New Jersey native retired from professional soccer in 2021, closing out her decorated career with 316 international appearances, the second-most in USWNT history, in addition to 134 international goals. A legend on the field, Lloyd walked away from the game with two World Cups, two Olympic gold medals, and two FIFA Player of the Year awards.

On Tuesday, FIFPRO announced the launch of Project ACL, a three-year research initiative designed to address a steep uptick in ACL injuries across women's professional football.

Project ACL is a joint venture between FIFPRO, England’s Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), Nike, and Leeds Beckett University. While the central case study will focus on England’s top-flight Women's Super League, the findings will be distributed around the world.

ACL tears are between two- and six-times more likely to occur in women footballers than men, according to The Guardian. And with both domestic and international programming on the rise for the women’s game, we’ve seen some of the sport's biggest names moved to the season-ending injury list with ACL-related knocks.

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Soccer superstars like Vivianne Miedema, Beth Mead, Catarina Macario, Marta, and England captain Leah Williamson have all struggled with their ACLs in recent years, though all have since returned to the field. In January, Chelsea and Australia forward Sam Kerr was herself sidelined with the injury, kicking off a year of similar cases across women’s professional leagues. And just yesterday, the Spirit announced defender Anna Heilferty would miss the rest of the NWSL season with a torn ACL. The news comes less than two weeks after Bay FC captain Alex Loera went down with the same injury. 

Project ACL will closely study players in the WSL, monitoring travel, training, and recovery practices to look for trends that could be used to prevent the injury in the future. Availability of sports science and medical resources within individual clubs will be taken into account throughout the process.

ACL injuries in women's football have long outpaced the same injury in the men's game, but resources for specialized prevention and treatment still lag behind. Investment in achieving a deeper, more specialized understanding of the problem should hopefully alleviate the issue both on and off the field.