Women's College Basketball Top 10, Bubble Team NET Rankings: UCLA Narrows the Gap

The top 25 rankings are important for understanding just who is killing it in college basketball, but we can go deeper — all the way to the bubble and beyond.

The NCAA Evaluation Tool, or NET, is a rankings system used in Division I basketball to help figure out which teams are going to participate in March Madness. As the NCAA puts it, NET "takes into account game results, strength of schedule, game location, net offensive and defensive efficiency, and the quality of wins and losses," the latter of which is determined by placing every Division I matchup into different quadrants, ranked 1 through 4, with 1 being the strongest teams and 4 the weakest — Quads aren’t just determined by record, but also whether a game was played at home, on the road or at a neutral site.

Using NET, we can get a sense of which teams are the best at a given moment, as well as which ones are on the bubble for selection in March. While updated daily by the NCAA, we’ll track changes weekly. 

With that, here are the top 10 women’s college basketball teams through Jan. 12, according to NET.

The Top 10

10. Vanderbilt (previous: 13)

The most significant change to this week’s top 10 comes in right away, as Vanderbilt — off to its greatest-ever start at 17-0 — has made its way in. Facing more difficult competition now that SEC play is upon the Commodores played a significant role in that: in the past week, their average opponent NET ranking shot from the 139th-toughest to the 101st. Things will not get easier for Vandy, but to this point it’s shown itself capable.

9. TCU (previous: 9)

A 69-61 win against Oklahoma State (30th in NET) and a 77-46 drubbing of Arizona State (45th) helped TCU stave off Vanderbilt’s charge, but moving any further up is going to prove difficult until the Horned Frogs start to play more Quad 1 games. They have just two behind them, with a win and loss. Just for comparison: UCLA has played in eight Quad 1 matchups. 

8. Kentucky (previous: 7)

Kentucky beat LSU to help send them on a brief, one-week spiral, and then followed that up with a win against Missouri. The last week, though, saw Kentucky upset by Alabama in a ranked-ranked matchup, and then the Wildcats barely escaped Oklahoma at home in another one.

7. Michigan State (previous: 8)

Michigan State added a pair of Quad 1 wins to its résumé to move up a spot, and this next week is full of additional challenges, as the Spartans host No. 24 Nebraska and then go on the road to face No. 11 Iowa. Wins there — and significant ones — could move them up some more, as the lone thing missing for the Spartans so far has been Quad 1 matchups: they have the second-fewest of any team in the top 10.

More Quad 1 matchups (and wins) is what the Spartans need to climb in the NET rankings. (Photo by Lydia Ely/Getty Images)

6. Michigan (previous: 6)

Michigan’s women’s team followed roughly the same schedule as its men’s team in the past week, except the former blew out Penn State and Wisconsin rather than nearly losing and actually losing. The next week will not be easier: the Wolverines take on No. 25 Illinois and No. 5 Vanderbilt, but it represents a chance to add some Quad 1 dubs.

5. LSU (previous: 5)

LSU didn’t shift off of 5th in NET a week ago despite losses to Vanderbilt and Kentucky, owing to how dominant it was in non-conference play. While that’s a little eyebrow-raising, the Tigers redeemed themselves by knocking off undefeated Texas over the weekend, giving themselves back some much-needed credibility.

4. Texas (previous: 4)

Texas was already 4th in NET owing to having the fourth-weakest schedule of the remaining teams — much, much more difficult than the road LSU has taken, but weaker than everyone in front of it by far. So, losing to LSU had a more seismic effect in the poll than in NET, given the former had the Longhorns in a higher place to begin with.

3. South Carolina (previous: 3)

South Carolina routed both Arkansas and Georgia to keep its place in line, but the tougher challenges are coming once again: Texas comes to town on Thursday, and the Gamecocks have two more games against ranked opponents — Oklahoma and Vandy — before January concludes. 

2. UCLA (previous: 2)

The Bruins have played the most difficult schedule of anyone in these rankings, with just NC State and Duke playing more difficult ones overall. UCLA has also played the most Quad 1 matchups of anyone, and has the most Quad 1 wins — the only thing holding it back at this point is a single defeat in one of those games. A defeat the Bruins suffered before Lauren Betts’ younger sister, freshman forward Sienna Betts — 8.0 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game in 15.2 minutes —  was in the mix off the bench.

1. UConn (previous: 1)

With Texas losing to LSU, UConn is the only team left in the top-5 without a Quad 1 defeat. The Huskies are one of three top-10 teams that can claim as much, but Vanderbilt has a single Quad 1 matchup behind them, while Michigan State has three: UConn has five such games behind them. The Huskies have played the 5th-toughest schedule of anyone in Division I women’s college basketball, owing largely to a tough non-conference schedule, but they have also already played most of the toughest Big East opponents, as well.

Risers and Fallers

In the span of a week, some teams can see their spot in the rankings dramatically shift. Here are the five teams that rose the most in women’s college basketball in the last week…

T5. Sam Houston, 153 to 123: Wins against Liberty and Delaware — more the former than the latter — gave Sam Houston a significant jump in the rankings in the past week. It probably would have been an even larger boost if it didn’t take overtime to defeat the latter, but Sam Houston ended up winning by 8 points, regardless.

T5. Coastal Carolina, 151 to 121: A loss to Old Dominion didn’t help matters much given the two were right near each other in NET, but a dub against App State — which ranked 128 last Tuesday — was huge.

3. Alabama A&M, 265 to 233: The Bulldogs downed Jackson State and then crushed Alcorn, 76-34. And while Alcorn is one of the worst teams in Division I, Alabama A&M made sure that much was obvious when given the chance.

So far, UConn is staying just ahead of the competition for the top spot. (Photo by Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images)

2. Middle Tennessee, 177 to 142: The Blue Raiders faced UTEP and New Mexico State in the last week, and won against both with a combined 90-point margin of victory. Now, neither is much of a challenge for a school that was ranked where Middle Tennessee was when those games began, but 43-point and 47-point victories in back-to-back D-I games is going to stand out.

1. Navy, 188 to 147: Bucknell and Lafayette both went down against Navy, and neither game was close. Just like with the Middle Tennessee matchups, Navy got much of its jump not just from the wins themselves, but how significant the beatdowns were: a combined 65 points, with Navy nearly dropping 100 against Lafayette, too.

…and the five that fell the furthest.

5. Eastern Michigan, 137 to 165: Losses to Ohio and Kent State did not reflect well on the Eagles, and now Kent State is even ranked ahead of Eastern Michigan because of it.

4. Liberty, 125 to 156: Sam Houston defeated Liberty, 59-53, and while the Flames’ offense woke up against LA Tech, the defense gave up 86 points and another loss was tacked on.

3. Siena, 232 to 264: Siena lost to 328th-ranked Rider, 61-59, then followed that up against Merrimack by losing 82-65. Now the Saints find themselves ranked behind the Warriors in NET and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, but hey. Still ahead of Rider on both counts.

2. Rutgers, 123 to 155: Conference play has not been kind to Rutgers, as the Big Ten is quite the challenge. The Scarlet Knights are now 0-6 in conference play after dropping games to Maryland and Northwestern this past week.

1. UTEP, 213 to 256: Middle Tennessee routing UTEP was already covered, but the Miners also lost to 310th-ranked Western Kentucky, 68-59, in their next game. Brutal.

On the Bubble 

Of the 68 March Madness teams in the tournament, 31 of them are conference champions who receive automatic entry into the tournament. The other 37 spots are at-large bids. With that in mind, we will look at the teams ranked between 64-to-73 in NET each week, as those are the ones who are the most on the bubble for the tourney.

73. South Florida (previous: 75): South Florida snuck back into our designated bubble space after back-to-back wins against UAB and Memphis. Those are teams that the Bulls are supposed to beat, but actually doing it is the thing, yeah?

72. Montana State (previous: 81): Montana State moved even further in the rankings than South Florida, courtesy an overtime dub over Eastern Washington and a 99-66 rout of Idaho. A little backwards, given Eastern Washington should have been the simpler opponent, but a big win against a tougher opponent works, too.

71. Auburn (previous: 66): Auburn slips back a bit despite beating Florida, because the loss to Texas was… well, it was 97-36. That’s how much Texas should be defeating bottom-tier teams by, not bubble ones.

Auburn just could not keep up with Texas. (Photo by Scott Wachter/Getty Images)

70. Colorado State (previous: 57): Losses to New Mexico and Boise State in the past week tossed Colorado State toward the back-end of the bubble, and also dropped them to fourth in the Mountain West standings at 4-2.

69. Columbia (previous: 76): Columbia played just one game, but the Lions defeated Harvard, 58-55, in a battle between two teams that was practically on top of each other in NET beforehand. Harvard, for the record, dropped to 80th with the L.

68. Gonzaga (previous: 70): Gonzaga defeated Portland in its one matchup of the week, 69-55, which gave the Bulldogs a little bump. Gonzaga is third in the West Coast Conference at 4-1, by the way, behind Oregon State (5-0) and Santa Clara (5-1).

67. Rice (previous: 78): Just one game, but it was a big one, as Rice crushed Charlotte, 84-59. Charlotte isn’t a fellow bubble squad, but a margin of victory that significant against a team in the top 40% of Division I counts for something.

66. James Madison (previous: 59): James Madison lost back-to-back games to Georgia Southern and Georgia State, and while dropping a game to the first of those isn’t a huge problem given it’s a top-100 team, Georgia State was ranked 237th.

65. Saint Joseph’s (previous: 64): A tough Davidson team held Saint Joseph’s to just 36 points on Jan. 7, but the Hawks bounced back against La Salle, 69-60, to basically run in place.

64. George Mason (previous: 67): George Mason is now 5-0 in Atlantic 10 play after dubs against La Salle and George Washington, tied for first in the conference with Rhode Island. One way to not have to worry too much about your bubble status? Simply win the conference championship.

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