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Kim Mulkey and the Baylor Lady Bears Are Ready to Reload (Again)

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The still-defending champions are facing a season as difficult as any in the college landscape.

Thankfully, Baylor has experience re-loading. For three straight years, the Lady Bears dominated the Wade Trophy for the national player of the year. Brittney Griner won in 2012, when Baylor won a national title, and again in 2013; Odyssey Sims followed in 2014.

The next season may have been Kim Mulkey’s most significant challenge in terms of replacing talent. And while Baylor continued to dominate the Big 12, they couldn’t find their way past the Elite Eight until 2019, when they finally reached the mountain top again, and claimed another NCAA title.

This year, Baylor not only needs to find a new rotation, but they’re also dealing with all the schedule irregularities that have begun to hound college basketball due to the pandemic.

Forward Lauren Cox and guards Te’a Cooper and Juicy Landrum were all drafted to the WNBA after combining for 45.1% of the team’s points per game and 49.4% of the team’s assists. Entering the season, senior guard DiDi Richards and junior forward NaLyssa Smith were expected to be the only full-time starters returning from last year’s squad that went 28-2 overall and 17-1 in the Big 12.

 Now, the AP poll’s 3rd-ranked team in the preseason is figuring out how to move forward from the indefinite loss of Richards. In a preseason practice, Richards and Moon Ursin were injured in an accidental collision. According to Baylor, Richards suffered a spinal-cord injury without radiographic abnormality, which causes temporary impairment. She has been treated, released, and is making progress from her injury. Ursin has been in concussion protocol.

“I said at my first press conference, the teams that survive and win this year will be those who have the most depth and most experience,” Mulkey said. “We, as of today, have nine players who will play. When DiDi gets back, she will be the 10th player. While we do have five or six players who had significant minutes (last season), their roles will now change. And that does matter. While we have the talent and experience back, we don’t have them in the role they played last year.”

Last season, Richards earned the Naismith and WBCA awards for national defensive player of the year. In her junior year, her second as a starter, she averaged 8.2 points, 4.9 rebounds, 5.7 assists, and 1.7 steals. This season, the coaching staff was hoping to turn Richards into a point guard after seeing something in a season in which she had a team-high 170 assists last season and had just 58 turnovers in 896 minutes.

“I watched a lot of games. I definitely watched the Iowa State game, the one we lost. I watched it at least 20 to 30 times, I’m not kidding. But I watched a lot of games. I didn’t want that to happen again,” Richards said in the offseason. “I worked hard this summer trying to get my game to another level and my confidence built.”

So far, it seems that sophomore Jordyn Oliver and freshman Sarah Andrews will assume the duties of point guard. Ursin will also be a candidate to replace backcourt minutes.

After a brilliant sophomore season, NaLyssa Smith will step into a much bigger role as a junior. In just 24.1 minutes per game, she led Baylor in scoring with 14.3 points per game and was second in rebounding at 8.0 per game. Her next step will be increasing her shooting range — she took and missed just four 3-pointers last year.

Queen Egbo, the Big 12 Sixth Person of the Year, will likely be the second post player in a two-big lineup. Last year, she averaged 10.8 points and 6.8 rebounds per game. Behind Smith and Egbo, Hannah Gusters arrives as a freshman from MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas. The No. 16 ranked recruit will benefit from the experience ahead of her without having the pressure to perform immediately.

Despite coming from the same high school, Andrews is in a different spot with the immediate need for production at the point guard position. In practice, UCLA transfer Jaden Owens and Penn State transfer Kamaria McDaniels will add competition, but neither can play this season.

The transfer who can make an impact is DiJonai Carrington, a grad transfer from Stanford. Carrington was picked as the Newcomer of the Year in the Big 12 by ESPN.

In a breakout junior year alongside Alanna Smith and Kiana Williams, Carrington started 36 games and averaged 14 points and 7.5 rebounds. After the season, she had knee surgery, and five games into her senior season, she shut it down after re-injuring the knee. After graduating with degrees in Psychology and African & African American Studies, Carrington transferred in hopes of playing in a new offense.

Carrington said that Mulkey has stopped practice to instill a more aggressive mindset, but she will not be hearing it from just her coach. Richards, who is not expected to play in Game 1, will be a force on the sideline.

“If my role is yelling and being the voice on the sideline,” she said, “I’m prepared to do that.”

Report: Cleveland Wins WNBA Expansion Team Bid

The Cleveland Rockers walk across the court during a 2001 WNBA game.
Cleveland has reportedly won the bid for the 16th WNBA team. (Lisa Blumenfeld/ALLSPORT)

The WNBA appears poised to accept a bid from Cleveland to become the league's 16th franchise, with Sports Business Journal (SBJ) putting the Midwestern city’s chances of earning an expansion team "as high as 90%."

Led by Dan Gilbert, the majority owner of the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers, the investor group will reportedly revive the name and branding of the Cleveland Rockers ahead of the team’s 2028 debut. The Rockers were one of the WNBA's inaugural teams, competing from the league's 1997 debut season until the team's 2003 folding.

SBJ also cited an estimated expansion fee of $250 million, setting a new league record by fully doubling the $125 million fee shelled out by Portland, the WNBA's incoming 15th franchise.

That massive check combined with access to top-notch facilities likely elevated Cleveland’s bid, which includes plans for the incoming Rockers to operate out of the Cavs' current training facility after the NBA team moves to a new center in 2027.

Big expansion team bids spark additional WNBA growth

SBJ's report also indicated that the WNBA has begun considering growth beyond their previously stated three-year, 16-team strategy, with an eye toward stretching to 18 squads in the short-term and 20 franchises by 2030.

Like Cleveland's bid, immediate access to NBA infrastructure has reportedly placed two markets at the front of the line for an expansion nod: a revival of the four-time WNBA champion Houston Comets and a net-new Philadelphia team. That said, three other former WNBA franchises — the Detroit Shock, the Miami Sol, and the Charlotte Sting — are rumored to be in the mix as well.

However, those ex-WNBA cities face stiff competition with bids from new markets like Austin, Nashville, Kansas City, Jacksonville, St. Louis, Milwaukee, and Denver entering the race in recent months.

Seizing the moment after a banner 2024 season, the WNBA is appearing to fast-track expansion rather than put prospective owners with deep pockets on hold — and turning some heads in the process as fears about growing too big, too quickly start to crop up.

UConn Rattles AP Poll Rankings with Top 5 Upset Over South Carolina

UConn basketball guard Azzi Fudd dribbles up the court against South Carolina.
Azzi Fudd posted 28 points to help UConn defeat South Carolina on Sunday. (Jeff Blake/Imagn Images)

No. 4 UConn bagged their first signature win of the season on Sunday, taking down then-No. 4 South Carolina 87-58 to snap the Gamecocks’ 71-game home winning streak. Dating back to 2020, South Carolina's string of home victories was the fourth longest in Division I women's basketball history.

"They had their way with us," South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley said after the game. "There's no trying to find a silver lining to it. We got beat. We got beat bad."

Leading the beatdown was Husky guard Azzi Fudd, who notched a game-high 28 points while teammates Paige Bueckers and Sarah Strong each snagged double-doubles en route to UConn's massive victory.

Despite dominating the Big East this season, UConn has struggled against non-conference foes, picking up losses against Notre Dame, USC, and, for the first time since 2007, Tennessee.

"We needed to prove that to ourselves, that we could never let up for 40 minutes," Fudd said on Sunday.

"More than anything else, it was evident today that we played to win," echoed UConn head coach Geno Auriemma.

Texas forward Madison Booker drives past LSU's Flau'Jae Johnson in Sunday's NCAA basketball tilt.
With Sunday's win over LSU, Texas is on track to contend for the SEC regular-season title. (Adam Davis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Top 10 upsets set the stage for March Madness

UConn wasn’t the only team showing out against Top 10 teams on Sunday, as then-No. 3 Texas took down former No. 5 LSU 65-58 in just the second SEC loss of the Tigers' season.

Now riding on three straight Top 8 wins, including humbling the reigning champion Gamecocks on February 9th, Texas currently sits atop the SEC standings. With less than two weeks of 2024/25 play left, the Longhorns have a real shot at the conference's regular-season trophy, as well as the key postseason seeding that title bestows.

Overall, the weekend’s slate tossed any presumptions about March Madness out the window, with top-ranked contenders stepping up to bust brackets before they’ve even been created. The only thing to expect? The unexpected.

Notre Dame's Hannah Hidalgo raises her arm in celebration during Monday's win over Duke.
Notre Dame is ranked No. 1 in the AP basketball poll for the first time since 2019. (Michael Miller/ISI Photos/Getty Images)

Elite action paves Notre Dame's rise to No. 1

Last week’s NCAA onslaught brought bedlam to Monday's AP Top 25, with Notre Dame enjoying the view from the top after earning their first No. 1 ranking since 2019.

Sunday's top matchups sent South Carolina and LSU down two spots each to Nos. 6 and 7, respectively, while UConn earned an equitable rise to No. 5 with their defeat of the Gamecocks. Meanwhile, by taming the Tigers, Texas scaled up one spot to sit just behind Notre Dame at No. 2.

As for then-undefeated No. 1 UCLA, the Bruins fell two spots to No. 3 after their Thursday loss to crosstown rival USC, who leapt from No. 6 to No. 4 with the win.

Notre Dame is flying high for now, but with an unranked loss amid their ranked wins, their grip on the top slot is far from ironclad.

The Irish did manage to cement their No. 1 status with a 64-49 dismantling of No. 11 Duke just hours after Monday’s poll update, flexing their national prowess with a big ACC win.

However, UCLA and Texas each received multiple first-place votes this week, proving the AP's No. 1 ranking is far from unanimous as teams stare down their last few regular-season games.

With March fast approaching, conference tournament seeding could boil down to Top 10 wins — and teams will need every bit of leverage they can manage as the NCAA tournament looms.

UCLA guard Kiki Rice shoots over Michigan State's Grace Van Slooten on Sunday.
UCLA bounced back from their first season loss with a narrow win over Michigan State on Sunday. (Kirby Lee/Imagn Images)

AP College Basketball Top 25: Week 16

1. Notre Dame (23-2, ACC)
2. Texas (26-2, SEC)
3. UCLA (24-1, Big Ten)
4. USC (23-2, Big Ten)
5. UConn (24-3, Big East)
6. South Carolina (23-3, SEC)
7. LSU (25-2, SEC)
8. Ohio State (22-3, Big Ten)
9. North Carolina (23-4, ACC)
10. TCU (24-3, Big 12)
11. Duke (20-6, ACC)
12. Kansas State (24-4, Big 12)
13. NC State (20-5, ACC)
14. Kentucky (20-4, SEC)
15. Tennessee (19-6, SEC)
16. Oklahoma (19-6, SEC)
17. West Virginia (21-5, Big 12)
18. Alabama (21-5, SEC)
19. Baylor (22-5, Big 12)
20. Georgia Tech (21-5, ACC)
21. Maryland (20-6, Big Ten)
22. Michigan State (19-6, Big Ten)
23. Creighton (21-4, Big East)
24. Oklahoma State (20-5, Big 12)
25. Illinois (21-5, Big Ten)

Gotham FC Signs Record-Breaking Sponsorship Deal with Dove

Emily Sonnett shows off the new Dove sponsorship above her last name on her Gotham jersey.
Dove's partnership with Gotham is the brand's first major investment in a women's sports team. (Gotham FC)

Gotham and Dove are teaming up, with the 2023 NWSL champs signing a record-setting multi-year kit partnership with the beauty brand on Thursday.

As Dove's first major investment in a women's sports team, the move also ranks as the highest-ever back-of-jersey sponsorship deal in NWSL history.

While Gotham did not provide specific numbers, the contract surpasses Bay FC's then-record $500,000 deal with private equity giant Sixth Street.

Dove joins Gotham in fight to keep girls in sports

The partnership is a part of Gotham's "Keep Her in the Game" initiative, a community effort launched last August to help adolescent girls stay in sports. Dove will serve as the program's presenting sponsor.

"Dove is the ultimate leader in female strength and empowerment, and we could not be prouder to partner with the brand in a number of impactful ways," Gotham FC chief business officer Ryan Dillon said in the team's release. "We are excited to team up with Dove to create key pathways for young female athletes to stay in sports, develop confidence, and become strong future leaders."

"The partnership is taking effect at a crucial time when supporting girls in sports has never been more important."

With girls twice as likely as boys to abandon sports by age 14, "Keep Her in the Game" aims to bolster young athletes' resilience and amplify the joy and connection that happens on and off the playing field.

After impacting 30 local New Jersey and New York youth clubs and more than 500 players in 2024, the initiative is aiming to double its reach in 2025. It will also pass the proverbial mic to the young athletes themselves by creating a Youth Leadership Council.

"The data is clear: Sports build confidence, leadership skills and resilience in young women, benefiting them for years to come," stated Laura DiMiceli, the head of personal care sports marketing for Dove's parent company, Unilever North America. "Dove is committed to supporting 'Keep Her in the Game' as part of our overall mission to help young girls pursue sports and keep playing the games they love."

Unrivaled to Crown First-Ever 1v1 Tournament Champion

Lunar Owls forward Napheesa Collier dribbles the ball during an Unrivaled game.
Napheesa Collier is one of four Unrivaled players competing for the 1v1 tournament's $200,000 prize. (Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)

Unrivaled 3×3 Basketball will crown its first-ever 1v1 tournament champion on Friday night, when all four semifinalists take the court with a $200,000 grand prize on the line.

Vinyl guard Arike Ogunbowale will kick off the semis against Mist forward Aaliyah Edwards, before Unrivaled co-founder and Lunar Owls forward Napheesa Collier faces Rose forward Azurá Stevens. The victors will immediately advance to the night's best-of-three final series.

Notably, Friday's set puts alma mater pride on center court. A trio of UConn alums in Collier, Stevens, and Edwards will all clock in, while Ogunbowale reps Notre Dame — one of just three teams to beat the Huskies this NCAA season.

Along with those priceless bragging rights, the semifinalists are battling for a six-figure payday, though none will leave empty-handed. Each are guaranteed at least $25,000, with $50,000 on deck for the tournament's runner-up.

The players' Unrivaled teammates will also be watching with interest, as the winner's entire 3×3 team will snag $10,000 each.

Though 1v1 can feel like a schoolyard version of basketball, with this much money involved, expect the competition to rise miles above playground tussles.

Rose BC's Angel Reese defends Mist forward Aaliyah Edwards during an Unrivaled game.
Aaliyah Edwards is one of three UConn alums in the Unrivaled 1v1 semifinals. (Rich Storry/Getty Images)

Endurance could decide Unrivaled 1v1 tournament champion

Friday's format is in part a test of stamina, as players stare down a grueling schedule where the eventual winner must play either three or four 1v1 games in a single night.

To that end, Collier's elite conditioning could make her the favorite, if she can outlast Stevens in the pair's semifinal.

"Her motor is unmatched," Stevens said of Collier's endurance, a key factor in her success so far. "I try to conserve some energy in between possessions, especially when the games get really tiring."

Motors aside, Friday's title will boil down to fundamentals — and which athlete best leverages their personal skillset.

"I have to use my size and stick to my strengths," said Edwards. "It’s about imposing my will and getting the job done."

How to watch the Unrivaled 1v1 tournament finals

The inaugural Unrivaled 1v1 tournament concludes on Friday. Live coverage begins at 7:30 PM ET on TNT.

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