Senior night looks a little different in the transfer portal era.
There are the normal affairs, such as Azzi Fudd’s celebration in Connecticut after five years with the Huskies. Fudd knows she has two more games in her home arena as UConn is destined to be a host team for the NCAA Tournament, so it doesn’t have to be overly emotional. Still, there is a lot of love for a player who won a national championship and spent so much time in Storrs, Conn.
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In Minnesota, the Golden Gophers’ fans honored homegrown Amaya Battle for taking a chance on a program that was entering a new phase. There is a possibility Battle will suit up at The Barn again. If Minnesota doesn’t get to host, though — that’s why the senior game exists.
Sometimes it gets weird, as in Los Angeles, where UCLA recognized six seniors. Four of them (Kiki Rice, Gabriela Jaquez, Angela Dugalić and Lauren Betts) spent at least three seasons with the program and had their defining moments in Bruins jerseys; Dugalić’s and Betts’ time at Oregon and Stanford, respectively, is almost a footnote. But then the public address announcer congratulates Charlisse Leger-Walker for her four All-Pac-12 honors and her conference title with Washington State (which came at UCLA’s expense), and the whole ceremony starts to make less sense.
Free and clear player movement has a lot of benefits and generates some fun offseasons. It also has some strange byproducts that fans have to reckon with.
The one thing every program should do is at least allow seniors to touch the court in the final home game. Kudos to Shea Ralph and Vanderbilt for giving senior Jada Brown her first starting nod of the season at star guard Aubrey Galvan’s expense, even against No. 16 Kentucky. It may have led to an early 12-point deficit, but perhaps the good vibes — and Mikayla Blakes’ indomitable spirit — helped power the Commodores to their comeback victory.
On the other hand, shame on Washington for completely benching senior Shayla Gillmer. Karma came swiftly to the Huskies in the form of Britt Prince.
|
Rank |
Team |
Previous rank |
|---|---|---|
|
1 |
UConn |
1 |
|
2 |
UCLA |
2 |
|
3 |
South Carolina |
3 |
|
4 |
Vanderbilt |
4 |
|
5 |
Texas |
5 |
|
6 |
LSU |
7 |
|
7 |
Louisville |
6 |
|
8 |
Duke |
9 |
|
9 |
Michigan |
8 |
|
10 |
Oklahoma |
11 |
|
11 |
Maryland |
12 |
|
12 |
Ohio State |
10 |
|
13 |
TCU |
13 |
|
14 |
Iowa |
17 |
|
15 |
Michigan State |
15 |
|
16 |
Kentucky |
14 |
|
17 |
Ole Miss |
16 |
|
18 |
Minnesota |
23 |
|
19 |
West Virginia |
21 |
|
20 |
Baylor |
18 |
|
21 |
UNC |
24 |
|
22 |
Columbia |
25 |
|
23 |
Alabama |
20 |
|
24 |
Tennessee |
19 |
|
25 |
Notre Dame |
NR |
Dropped out: Washington (25)
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Also considered: Texas Tech, Georgia, Princeton
Ava Heiden’s size advantage for Iowa
Make that three straight 20-point double-doubles for the Iowa center, who has gotten the Hawkeyes out of their post-Taylor McCabe skid. Iowa fed Heiden for a back-to-the-basket post-up on its first possession; Heiden’s shot went astray (the 62-44 Hawkeyes win over No. 6 Michigan wasn’t the easiest on the eyes), and she missed five of her first six field goal attempts, but the emphasis had been established. Heiden had a height (she’s 6-foot-4) and strength advantage over the duo of Ashley Sofilkanich and Kendall Dudley and went to work on them as often as possible. She finished 11 of 17 from the field, recording 24 points, 10 rebounds and two turnovers. Once she got going, Michigan had no answers.
Even as the younger frontcourt partner, Heiden has become the focal point of the offense over senior Hannah Stuelke. Stuelke’s best contributions against the Wolverines were as a high-low passer for Heiden. If the deep post entry wasn’t available, Stuelke would flash to the free-throw line to receive the pass and then lob the ball into Heiden from a more manageable distance. The senior finished with a game-high seven assists, one short of the career high she set last month.
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The bubble fights back in the ACC
Louisville and Duke had mostly been cruising through the ACC schedule, suffering only one combined loss — when the Blue Devils beat the Cardinals — until Sunday. But both conference leaders took a stumble in the penultimate week of the season to opponents on the NCAA Tournament bubble to unranked teams: Duke fell to Clemson and Louisville lost to Virginia, both by a margin of two points. Now that women’s teams earn units for postseason participation, it arguably behooves both Louisville and Duke to let Virginia and Clemson add marquee wins to their resumes, but that was assuredly not how the Cavaliers or Tigers pulled off their upsets.
The Cardinals’ defeat was confirmation that it cannot realistically handle a poor shooting night. Five times this season, Louisville has shot below 40 percent from the field; four of those games have resulted in defeat. More specifically, if the Cardinals shoot 40 percent or less from 2-point range, they’ll lose. Playing Virginia, which ranks 11th in opposing 2-point percentage, was the perfect formula for an upset — something to keep an eye on in March when Louisville’s draw is revealed.
For the Blue Devils, it was hard not to hearken back to some of Duke’s uglier offensive performances in the Kara Lawson era, including three sub-50-point performances last season (one of them in overtime!). The Blue Devils have made strides on offense in 2025-26, but Clemson didn’t have much difficulty getting them right back in the mud. One of the culprits for Duke this season is rebounding; the Blue Devils are terrible at ending defensive possessions with a rebound (214th in Division I in defensive rebounds per game). The Tigers attempted eight more shots than Duke, which was enough of a margin in a two-point win.
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A get-right game for Ohio State
After losing two straight games for the first time this season, Ohio State had a perfectly timed date on Sunday with USC, a team without a reliable point guard that cannot hold on to the ball. The Buckeyes hadn’t been able to force their usual volume of turnovers against Maryland and Minnesota; the Golden Gophers committed only nine giveaways against the Ohio State press, by far the lowest total its forced this season.
When the Buckeyes force at least 17 turnovers, they’re 23-1. Fewer than 17? 0-4.
The Trojans gave away the ball a season-worst 25 times, leading to 31 points off turnovers in an 88-83 Buckeyes win. The math is pretty simple: Ohio State averages about 12 layup attempts per game, but when it got going in transition against USC off takeaways, 29 shots came within the restricted area. Easy offense to end a losing streak.
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Hannah Hidalgo fills up the stat sheet
Nobody takes advantage of an overmatched opponent quite like Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo. On her birthday on Sunday, against one of the country’s worst power-conference teams in SMU, Hidalgo was going to eat. For Hidalgo, that means racking up a lot of steals.
It was a very long day at the office for Ayanna Thompson and Zahra King, each of whom committed seven turnovers thanks to the rabid ball pressure from Hidalgo. Without having to worry about SMU’s ball movement (10.8 assists per game) or paint presence making her pay for her aggression, Hidalgo was free to get right in the grill of the Mustangs en route to a comfortable 25-point win.
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The only drawback for Hidalgo was that she came up one rebound shy of a triple-double. Regardless, she is only the ninth power-conference player since 2009-10 to record 11 steals in a game. Everyone else has done so only once; this is Hidalgo’s fourth such performance. She’s like a hound; she sniffs blood, and she pounces.
Games to watch
First check out these games we wrote about here.
(All times ET)
Michigan at Ohio State, 8 p.m. Wednesday, Peacock
North Carolina at Virginia, 7 p.m. Thursday, ACC Extra
South Carolina at Kentucky, 2 p.m. Sunday, SECN+
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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