NCAA basketball teams traveled to off-campus mini-tournaments during last week's Thanksgiving break, with results showing that some teams feasted while others fought over leftovers.

Reigning national champions South Carolina went on a redemption tour at the Fort Myers Tip-Off, while Notre Dame struggled at the Cayman Islands Classic.

Notre Dame drops two NCAA basketball games in a row

Following last week's huge win against title contender No. 6 USC, then-No. 3 Notre Dame hit an unexpected skid over the weekend, falling first 76-68 to then-No. 17 TCU on Friday before further stumbling 78-67 against unranked Utah on Saturday.

Star guard Hannah Hidalgo's 27 points weren't enough to topple the Horned Frogs, who saw center Sedona Prince and guards Hailey Van Lith and Madison Connor put up a combined average of almost 20 points in the Friday battle.

Similarly, though Notre Dame junior guard Sonia Citron's 22 points made her the only player on either team to sink more than 16 points on Saturday, the Utes' team effort won the day. Seven Utah athletes drained at least five points, with four notching double-digits.

"I just thought today our depth hurt us with our foul trouble, and consecutive games back-to-back against two really good teams," head coach Niele Ivey said of the Irish's first successive losses since 2021.

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South Carolina bounces back in style

On the other hand, then-No. 4 South Carolina bounced back big time from their first regular-season loss since 2022 on Thursday, defeating then-No. 15 Iowa State 76-36 to right the ship after last weekend's UCLA upset.

The Gamecocks' defense controlled the floor throughout the first half, allowing just nine points from the Cyclones while nine different South Carolina players scored.

Only four Iowa State players put up points in the matchup, with sophomore star Audi Crooks shooting far below her season average at just 13 points.

"Obviously, there were some lapses in the UCLA game that weren't characteristic of us," commented South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley. "That is our nemesis — to be able to lock in on both sides of the ball and not have as many lapses or put them on the free-throw line as much as we did."

South Carolina continued making a statement on Saturday, when 11 Gamecocks — including seven double-digit scorers — combined to handily defeat Purdue 99-51.

Early season losses shake up NCAA basketball rankings

With five teams from last week's AP Top 10 already racking up early non-conference losses, Monday's Top 25 reflected the chaos.

Notre Dame plummeted seven spots to No. 7 thanks to their stalled weekend offense, while South Carolina leveled up to No. 3 with their weekend wins. After suffering the 40-point blowout loss to the Gamecocks, Iowa State took the week's second-biggest tumble, dropping five spots to No. 20.

UCLA maintained their grip on No. 1 after complementing last week's upset over reigning champs South Carolina with three additional wins, with No. 2 UConn holding steady just behind the Bruins.

The week's biggest riser was TCU, whose victory over the Irish launched them eight spots to No. 9 — the program's first-ever Top 10 ranking.

Boosting the Big Ten to a league-leading nine ranked teams this week is poll season debutants and state rivals No. 23 Michigan and No. 24 Michigan State, who make their first AP appearances since 2023 and 2021, respectively.

How to watch NCAA women's basketball this week

Monday's rankings raised the stakes in this week's matchups, with two Top 10 games emerging on Thursday's docket.

First, No. 4 Texas will put their undefeated season on the line against the skidding No. 10 Notre Dame at 7 PM ET. Live coverage will air on ESPN.

Then, No. 3 South Carolina will host new-No. 8 Duke, who'll take aim at the Gamecocks' win-streak recovery at 9 PM ET, also airing on ESPN.

One full month before then end of the 2025 regular season, the WNBA shattered its overall attendance record, with Front Office Sports reporting that the league topped the 2.43 million fan mark last Friday.

The WNBA has sailed past the previous season-high attendance of 2.36 million set in 2002. Even more, it surpassed the record in 41 fewer games than the entire 2002 season, claiming the new mark in a total of 215 games.

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Leading the attendance charge are the No. 7 Golden State Valkyries, the No. 6 Indiana Fever, and the No. 2 New York Liberty. Both the Valks and the Fever passed the 300,000 total this week, with the reigning champion Liberty guaranteed to hit that mark on Thursday night.

Though the clamor to see the Fever is not a surprise, 2025 expansion team Golden State is somewhat unexpectedly topping the WNBA demand this season, continuing to break records by selling out every one of the Valkyries' 17 home games so far — fully packing San Francisco's Chase Center to its 18,064-seat capacity.

While this year's additional franchise plus the expanded 44-game schedule would be enough added inventory to significantly boost the league's attendance totals, overall demand is also driving the new record, with the WNBA logging a record-setting 11,000 additional fans per game throughout the 2025 campaign so far.

With 59 games still left on the 2025 regular-season docket, expect a banner year for the still-expanding league, as the WNBA is currently on track to blast through the 3 million attendance mark.

Dallas star Paige Bueckers all but slammed the door on the 2025 WNBA Rookie of the Year race on Wednesday, tying basketball legend Cynthia Cooper's 1997 single-game rookie scoring record by dropping a career-high 44 points in the No. 11 Wings' narrow 81-80 loss to the No. 9 LA Sparks.

Despite the Sparks officially eliminating the Wings from playoff contention, Bueckers's efficiency was on full display, tallying the highest single-game performance by any player in the league this season while shooting over 80% from the field.

"People have [seen] the struggles — the injuries, the ups and downs," Bueckers said afterwards. "For people to continue to follow me and still believe in me, it really means a lot."

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The 2025 No. 1 overall draftee leads a rookie class thriving in the pros, with the No. 10 Washington Mystics' Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen and the No. 13 Connecticut Sun's Saniya Rivers hot on Bueckers's heels.

On the WNBA stat sheet, Bueckers currently sits fifth overall in points per game and ninth in assists per game, while Iriafen is fourth in rebounds per game and Citron — who recently set a new Mystics rookie scoring record with 537 career points — is fifth overall in clutch points.

Despite the Sun's struggles, Rivers has excelled defensively, becoming the fastest-ever WNBA player to record 30 career blocks by doing so in just 31 games.

Ultimately, while Sparks guard Kelsey Plum's game-winning buzzer-beater ended Bueckers's postseason dreams on Wednesday night, the rookie's heroics continue to shine with the WNBA's end-of-season awards fast approaching.

Coming off Tuesday's 85-75 momentum-grabbing win over the No. 1 Minnesota Lynx, the No. 2 New York Liberty will shoot to maintain late-season consistency against the now-eliminated No. 12 Chicago Sky in Thursday's WNBA slate.

Tied with the No. 3 Atlanta Dream at 22-13 on the year, the Liberty could benefit from the lopsided Thursday matchup, potentially adding space above Atlanta in the WNBA standings considering the Dream face an uphill battle against a motivated Lynx side.

"We're focused on the next nine games," New York head coach Sandy Brondello said following Tuesday's victory. "It's all about focusing on us and getting as high a position as we can in the standings."

The reigning champs still have work to do, however, with recent weeks seeing the Liberty post the second-worst 10-game record for any team above the playoff line — complete with three losses to their 2024 WNBA Finals rival Minnesota.

As for Chicago, the Sky are now focused on the future, bolstered by star forward Angel Reese's return from injury as they continue to build under first-year coach Tyler Marsh's system.

"I want to hoop," Reese said earlier this week. "I'm just happy to be out here to play the game I love."

How to watch Chicago Sky vs. New York Liberty in Thursday's WNBA slate

The No. 2 Liberty will host the No. 12 Sky at 7 PM ET on Thursday, tipping off live on Prime.

As the regular season winds down, the WNBA announced this year's postseason schedule on Wednesday, with the 2025 Playoffs officially tipping off on September 14th.

The latest possible finish for the 2025 WNBA Finals is October 17th, with three rounds of play standing between the eight-team postseason field and this year's championship trophy.

Notably, the WNBA is instituting two main changes to its previous Playoffs format in the 2025 schedule.

The postseason's first round — a best-of-three series — will shift from the WNBA's home-home-away format, in which the higher seeds could sweep at home, to a one-one-one structure.

With this change, the league is guaranteeing that every playoff team will host at least one home game.

Additionally, while the best-of-five semifinals will remain the same with its two-two-one hosting structure, the 2025 WNBA Finals will be the first to expand to a best-of-seven series, feeding fans' growing appetite for additional postseason clashes and offering upwards of four title-deciding matchups.

This new Finals format will see the higher seed host Games 1, 2, 5, and 7, giving each team a possible two opportunities to clinch the 2025 championship in front of a home crowd.

All games in the 2025 WNBA Playoffs will air on ESPN platforms, with matchups across ESPN2, ESPN, and ABC.

Currently, the No. 1 Minnesota Lynx are the only team to clinch their 2025 postseason berth.

On the other hand, the No. 11 Dallas Wings, No. 12 Chicago Sky, and No. 13 Connecticut Sun were all recently eliminated from playoff contention.