There was no shortage of drama during the major women’s basketball conference tournaments. With some serious NCAA Tournament implications on the line, many teams showed up when it mattered the most — while some completely crumbled.
Upsets, overtime and unexpected heroes are what March is all about. We saw a little bit of everything this week. To catch you up, here are some of the biggest winners and losers from Champ Week:
Winner: The auto bids
This is Champ Week, so the first thing we need to do is acknowledge the champions! In the four major conferences, we saw two No. 1 seeds triumph — Duke in the ACC tournament and UCLA in the Big Ten — and minor upsets, as No. 3 Texas beat No. 1 South Carolina in the SEC final and No. 2 West Virginia took down No. 1 TCU 62-53 to claim its first Big 12 championship since 2017.
But Duke, Texas, UCLA and West Virginia were all safely into the Big Dance no matter what. They’ll take the auto-bid, but they didn’t need it. This week is fun because you get to see the winners of smaller conferences officially punch their tickets.
Many conference tournaments are still ongoing, so we don’t have a full list of champions yet, but here’s who we can celebrate: Samford upset favorites Chattanooga 72-67 to capture the SoCon championship and make it to its first NCAA tournament since 2012; Rhode Island booked its ticket to the Big Dance for the first time since 1996 with a 53-51 win over George Mason in the Atlantic 10 title game; South Dakota State beat North Dakota State 64-51 to capture the Summit League Championship; and the Western Illinois Leathernecks got in thanks to a 71-65 victory over Lindenwood in the Ohio Valley. — Lindsay Gibbs
Loser: One-and-done bubble teams
None of the bubble teams went on big runs in the conference tournaments, but it was disappointing to see so many show up and fail to even win a game in their conference tournaments. Stanford fell flat in overtime of the first round of the ACC tournament against a very beatable Miami team, 83-76, and is now likely to miss its second NCAA tournament in a row.
Virginia had a bye to the second round of the ACC tournament, where it faced another bubble team in Clemson, and it only scored 50 points in the loss. CBS Sports bracketologist Connor Groel says they still have a shot at making the tournament, but there’s no breathing room.
In the SEC tournament, Texas A&M ended a five-game winning streak and one of the most surprising late-season pushes for an at-large bid in history, with an inexcusable 50-49 loss to Auburn in the first round, while Mississippi State was similarly disappointing in an 86-68 loss to Florida. In the Big 12, Utah laid an egg in its first tournament game, falling listlessly to BYU, 70-52. — Lindsay Gibbs
Winner: The battle for the No. 1 overall seed
The chase for the No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament has been pretty boring this season – last year’s Final Four teams of UConn, UCLA, South Carolina and Texas have been in the top four spots in the AP top 25 from start to finish. Vanderbilt did put legitimate pressure on Texas to get that fourth No. 1 spot in February, but when the Commodores lost to Ole Miss in the SEC quarterfinals, all drama was gone. Or was it?
While we know which four teams get a top seed, the jockeying for position among said top seeds got more interesting on Sunday. By capping off its undefeated Big Ten regular season with a dominant run to the Big Ten tournament title, including a historic 51-point win in the final over Iowa, UCLA built a legitimate case to get the No.1 overall seed instead of UConn, even though the Huskies didn’t lose any games this year. And by beating South Carolina in the SEC title game, Texas made a case for getting the third No. 1 seed, which would mean it could play its Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games in Fort Worth instead of Sacramento. — Lindsay Gibbs
Loser: Big Ten hosts
In last Tuesday’s bracketology, CBS Sports had four Big Ten teams on the coveted No. 4 seed line: Michigan State, Maryland, Ohio State and Minnesota. Well, those teams went a combined 2-3 in the Big Ten tournament. Both Maryland and Michigan State were upset in the second round — Maryland fell to Oregon, 73-68, while Michigan State was stunned by Illinois, 71-69.
Ohio State was the only one of those four teams to get a single win in Indianapolis. The Buckeyes beat Indiana in the second round, 83-59, then took care of Minnesota 60-55 before falling to UCLA in the semis. So, Ohio State should feel safe about hosting in the NCAA tournament and Groel believes Minnesota will be safe, too. But Maryland’s hosting spot is hanging by a thread and Michigan State’s spot is likely long gone.
Of course, these losses were good news for teams in other conferences looking to steal a No. 4 seed, especially North Carolina and West Virginia. — Lindsay Gibbs
Winner: Vic Schaefer
The Longhorns joined the SEC in 2024 and has already become one of the top teams in the conference. They earned their first ever SEC Tournament trophy with a 78-61 win over South Carolina and likely also locked in a No. 1 seed for the NCAA Tournament.
Vic Schaefer has now won SEC Tournaments with two different teams, as he also guided Mississippi State to a trophy in 2019. Prior to this win, Schaefer was 0-8 against Dawn Staley in postseason meetings.
The Longhorns came out with a punch and set the tone with a 14-0 run. They made sure Schaefer’s jacket stayed on the whole game by taking care of business on both sides of the court. Madison Booker led the team with 18 points, but the team as a whole shot 54% from the field. They also held South Carolina to one of their lowest scoring games this season.
Schaefer called out the team for being soft and having no heart after a loss to Vanderbilt on Feb. 12. Tough words to hear, but the Longhorns have gone on an eight-game winning streak since then. — Isabel Gonzalez
Loser: Tennessee’s postseason pride
The Lady Vols failed to win an SEC Tournament game for the first time since 2017 with a loss to Alabama on Thursday. Star Talaysia Cooper only played 12 minutes, with Kim Caldwell saying it was a coach’s decision.
“Who knows if it was the right call? We’re trying to find combinations that work,” Caldwell said.
That was Tennessee’s seventh consecutive loss, but the issues go beyond the court. Earlier in the week, senior Kaiya Wynn announced she had left the program. Despite the chaos, the Lady Vols did enough earlier in the season to guarantee themselves an at-large bid, per Groel. Tennessee is not the powerhouse it once was, but athletic director Danny White said he has a lot of confidence in Caldwell turning things around. — Isabel Gonzalez
Winner: Ole Miss’s swagger
The Rebels wrapped up the regular season by losing six of their last eight games, but coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin’s teams are always ready to play in March. Ole Miss’ semifinal run included an 89-78 upset over Vanderbilt.
The first half was particularly impressive as the Rebels dominated on both sides of the court and entered the break with a 49-17 lead, which was the largest halftime lead in an SEC Tournament game since 1998. The Commodores were the heavy favorite to win the game despite Ole Miss beating them during the regular season. The quarterfinal win, Coach Yo said, should be a confidence-booster for her team.
“And I told them before the game, ‘Don’t be shocked if we’re up by a lot.
Like, we already did this before, and it’s not a fluke. We’re legit, guys. All right?’” Yo said. “But sometimes my team’s still in shock, and that’s the humility. But right now, I think in this point in the season, we’ve got to forget the humility.
We can be humble, but we gotta be confident.” — Isabel Gonzalez
Loser: Baylor’s toughness
The Bears fell 62-53 to Colorado in the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals, which showed Nicki Collen that her team has some work to do ahead of the NCAA Tournament. She was not happy with the shot selection and said her team missed defensive assignments early.
“We have to be tougher,” the coach said. “We got to be connected. We got to talk and we got to stop talking and start doing.”
Prior to the loss, Baylor had an 11-game winning streak against the Buffaloes. Collen said she hopes the loss wakes up her team against of the Big Dance. The Bears have been up and down since Feb. 1 with a 5-5 record. Overall, they have struggled against top competitors going just 2-6 against AP Top 25 teams. — Isabel Gonzalez
Winner: Arizona State’s resume
The Wildcats played their way into a Last Four In spot in the latest CBS Sports bracketology update with a 77-68 victory over Iowa State in the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals. That win was a great way to redeem themselves after a 26-point loss to the Cyclones on Feb. 18.
This is Molly Miller’s first season at the helm of the program, and the Wildcats have already seen a lot of success. Their 15-0 start was the best in program history and the 22 regular-season wins are the most for a first-year coach. Even more impressive is the fact that the Sun Devils’ starting five is entirely made up of transfers.
“Arizona State has a 6-2 record in Quad 2 games and wins against all the Big 12 teams around the bubble except for BYU,” Groel wrote in his latest bracketology update. “It also has the WAB ranking of a team that should be just inside the field. That’s where I have them, as the last team in.” — Isabel Gonzalez
Loser: NC State
NC State was the No. 4 seed in the ACC tournament, meaning it got a double bye into the quarterfinals. But the Wolfpack left Duluth winless after falling 81-63 to Notre Dame on Friday. Now, losing to the Fighting Hannah Hidalgos isn’t shameful in and of itself, but it was how the Wolfpack lost that put them in this category. They looked disjointed, flat-footed and passionless.
In the preseason, the Wolfpack were picked to finish second in the conference. (And some so-called experts might have picked them to win the ACC outright.) That’s because there is talent on the team — too much talent for them to be as mediocre as they are in the big moments. There are no real consequences for losing this game — the Wolfpack should still be a No. 7 seed in the NCAA tournament, per Groel. But they had a chance to gain some momentum and instead did the opposite.
“Just got our butts kicked,” NC State head coach Wes Moore said after the game, before echoing a line he’s repeated after every loss this season. “Again, I’ve got to look in the mirror. I’ve got to do a better job of getting the team prepared and demanding effort and competitiveness.” — Lindsay Gibbs
Winner: Riley Nelson
Duke and Louisville were at the top of the ACC most of the past couple of months, so it was a surprise when they both lost two of their last three games to end the regular season. But the top two seeds righted the ship in the postseason and made it to the ACC championship game, where they played a hotly contested back-and-forth thriller that went to overtime before Duke ultimately pulled away, 70-65.
There were a lot of standout performances from Duke, including tournament MVP Taina Mair, who had 19 points, 12 rebounds, three assists and three steals, and Delaney Thomas, who added 19 points and nine boards. But it was sophomore Riley Nelson who impressed the most. She didn’t play at all last season, so came in without the same tournament experience as many of her teammates. But she hit two of the biggest shots of the game — a 3-pointer with 27 seconds left in regulation to give the Blue Devils the lead 58-57 and the game-sealing dagger of a 3-pointer with six seconds left in overtime. If she can keep spacing the floor and stepping up in clutch moments, Duke is going to be hard to stop all month long. — Lindsay Gibbs
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