January really has felt like the month in which women’s college basketball has reasserted itself as a legitimate cultural influence. JuJu Watkins being out for the year and UConn appearing to be a Death Star-type of team appeared to create a bit of a lull at the start of the year. Almost like we needed to figure out a lay of the land before we truly jumped in. It didn’t help that a lot of college coaches ran from the non-conference grind, but I digress…

We’re here now and that’s what matters. There’s a lot of stuff, on and off the floor, to get to. So let’s roll the column!

When it comes to South Carolina fans, particularly online, I joke with our crew that ‘Either you die a Gamecock, or live long enough to see yourself become a Husky’.

Let me explain…

A lot of the discussion surrounding coverage equity in women’s basketball media — particularly on the college side — really heated up around 2019-2020. South Carolina was one of the top teams in the nation with ‘The Freshies’, a group of recruits headlined by Aliyah Boston that were supposed to take over the game. But as they continued to win there appeared to be a resistance by national media to truly embrace them as the standard bearer program they are. What followed was a sustained campaign by Dawn Staley, her program, her players and her fans for the respect that they felt they had earned. And they had, to be clear, but the sport was still very rooted in covering UConn as the sports’ north star after a reign of unprecedented success under Breanna Stewart.

It took a few years of sustained pressure but I think it’s fair to argue now that the Gamecocks are in that same rarified air as Geno Auriemma’s program. They’re assumed to be a title favorite every year until someone knocks them off and, even then, it happens so infrequently that each loss feels like a referendum on either the winner or the loser.

So while I understand SC fans who bristle or get annoyed at the notion that regular season losses — be they to UCLA in 2024 or Oklahoma in 2026 — mean something, the reality is that media members like us putting so much attention on them means that you’ve indeed made it as ‘THE’ program of note. Are there other reasons, from the less savory to outright bigoted, that are responsible for the vitriol we sometimes see lobbed at the program? No doubt about it. But from a pure sports standpoints, you’re now the Patriots, the Lakers and the Dodgers. You’re UConn. Make your peace with the fact that you won’t be celebrated until the run is over and we see videos on social media titled ‘You weren’t outside for 2022 South Carolina’.

It’s why when Aaliyah Chavez goes thermonuclear in Lloyd Noble Center in overtime on Thursday night, we see it as an indicator that the Oklahoma freshman has arrived on the national stage. It’s why we nitpick every SC possession, pay attention to Dawn Staley’s body language and wonder if there are more losses hiding around the corner. If UConn played in a conference with any type of a pulse, we’d do the same to them.

The tricky thing is that fanbases who covet being standard bearers sometimes don’t realize the misery that comes with success. The reward for winning the hardware is you become the villain, you have the target on your back and every time someone beats you it becomes a major talking point. Aaliyah Chavez wrote the start of her legend last week in that victory and the Gamecocks responded by completely vaporizing an AP Top 5 team in Vanderbilt on Sunday. It might suck for SC fans, I’d imagine. But the trade-off for everyone rooting on your downfall is the smug grin you get to respond with when your team is right back in the NCAA title game. Just like UConn fans of old. Welcome to the dark side.

This is not a Caitlin Clark Iowa team, and maybe that’s a good thing. While the Hawkeyes remain tied atop the Big Ten standings, it struck me on Sunday just how well-coached they are. Facing Ohio State — their third straight AP Top 15 opponent in a little over a week — Iowa managed to take a lead with about four minutes left in the first quarter and didn’t let go. A perfect 9-0 now in Big Ten play, they simply have to beat USC this week to set up a presumably undefeated-in-conference matchup with UCLA.

Let’s be clear about one thing: Iowa has always been very good at basketball since C. Vivian Stringer arrived from Cheyney State in the 1980’s. Lisa Bluder took over the team in 2000 and was a near-regular NCAA Tournament entrant. But while they managed to have some big pre-Caitlin runs including a 2019 Elite Eight trip with Megan Gustafson leading the way, there really wasn’t a ‘Giant-Killer’ aspect to Iowa at that time.

Now, the Hawkeyes can beat anyone and it won’t take a Herculean effort by one of the greatest college players we’ve ever seen. That’s a testament to Jan Jensen and the fact that she has, fully and fundamentally, beaten the ‘Caitlin Merchant’ allegations. Think about it this way: The Hawkeyes are 9-0 in Big Ten play right now. That’s a feat not even Caitlin Clark’s teams achieved.

Instead of trying to outscore teams and beating opponents on the perimeter, Iowa is leaning on Ava Heiden and Hannah Stuelke and winning from the inside-out. Their guards are excellent passers too; Chit-Chat Wright has been a revelation while freshman Addie Deal is starting to find her confidence at this level.

Does that mean Jensen is immediately in the same tier as Geno or Dawn? Not at all. But this season should inspire Iowa fans in that they aren’t just a regular Tournament team without Caitlin Clark anymore. They are still conference contenders and their coach has the juice to keep them there.

The Homie Charlie Creme continues to cook with his ESPN Bracketology predictions and lately I’ve been focusing intently on some of his mid-major outlooks. As it stands right now, the perceived disrespect to the A-10 may send me into psychosis but I know that’s more a Committee perception problem than anything else. But beyond the absurd concept of Richmond or Rhode Island being snubbed out of the field, I’ve been eyeing Princeton every week.

Carla Berube’s Tigers managed to hold off Harvard, one of the two reliable challengers for the Ivy League title, late last week for their 14th straight victory. Outside of a 16 point loss to (a fully healthy) Maryland team, the Tigers have basically rolled their schedule. They’ve beaten Villanova and Seton Hall, who are likely duking out for 2nd in the Big East this year. They topped George Mason and Rhode Island, A-10 title favorites along with Richmond. Oh, and that’s before you factor in Belmont and Rice, two more teams that are legit conference champion threats in the MVC and AAC, respectively.

While not extremely gaudy — although they hold wins over Georgia Tec hand Rutgers too — the Tigers resume is about as solid as it can be. As of right now, they’re projected to land as a six seed in the NCAA Tournament. But is it too much to wonder if they have the juice to be a host for the first two rounds?

This team can win in March, after all. In the 2022 and 2023 NCAA Tournaments, Princeton advanced by upsetting 6 seed Kentucky and 7 seed NC State, respectively. Madison St. Rose is back this year after an injury wiped out her 2025 March Madness experience and now the Tigers are about as deep as you can hope to be in mid-major basketball. Unless Columbia or another Ivy rival trips them up, there’s a legitimate chance that Princeton ends the regular season 26-1. If they’re still a one-loss team going into the Tournament, I think they’ve done everything humanly possible to warrant a Top 16 seed. And if we’re trying to recapture some interest and whimsy around the first two rounds of March, then let’s get weird and reward a mid-major that has done everything we’ve asked of them for the better part of four years now.

How long can this go on? Beyond the maddening impasse between the WNBA and WNBPA that has persisted into the New Year, I’m curious how long the premier women’s basketball league in this country can act like nothing is wrong. While the two sides still sit far away from each other at the collective bargaining table — a schism fueled by a disagreement over how to split league revenues — the WNBA has decided that allowing teams to not sit in limbo is the best course of action. The 2026 regular season schedule was released late last week and the league appears content to operate like it’s business as usual.

Except, it isn’t.

Not only is it a major risk for owners and venue operators to lock in dates for something that may not happen, I still am at a loss with figuring out how front office executives are supposed to look at roster construction when the long term mechanisms for figuring out your payroll haven’t been agreed to yet. It’s especially egregious when the gap between the figures (the WNBPA is asking for 30 percent of all gross revenues while the WNBA want to give them 70 percent of all net revenues) is believed to be a chasm. I don’t understand how, as someone who owns a sports arena, which can make a lot of money as a concert venue in the summer, is fine with operating as normal when there is no promise you aren’t gonna be left out to dry.

Once again, it feels like a massive overestimation by the ownership class of the WNBA. With Unrivaled TV ratings down year-over-year, the perception appears to be that the league feels emboldened that they are the product instead of the players. While there are several interesting ways to interpret the number drops for the 3×3 league, it would be a major mistake to assume that those ratings are a result of fans adherence to the shield of the WNBA rather than people potentially just not being interested in the format.

I wrote last week that the labor fight is only going to get harder for players the closer towards the season we get. There’s going to be many more voices saying ‘Enough is enough, just take what the league offers you’ and a few players that show signs of breaking under that very reasonable weight. But if the league continues to operate in such an out-of-touch way, then all it stands to do is steel the resolve of the union and continue a battle that has gone on far longer than needed.

This was a hard weekend. The strange confluence of most of the country confined to their homes due to a winter storm, a lack of Saturday football to distract the masses and a federally-sanctioned murder in Minneapolis forced all of our eyes to see another thread of the social fabric come undone.

It’s during these moments that writing about sports becomes simultaneously essential and superfluous. I’d like to think that, on some level, all of us understand the ‘Bread & Circuses’ nature of what we do. There are real problems in the world and here we are (or rather, I am) writing about basketball. But as I watched retirement aged women take their walkers and turn them straight into the direction of clouds of tear gas, or ‘normie’ neighbors pulling couches out of alleyways to make makeshift barricades, it reminded me why sports do matter.

At the end of the day, all of it comes back to community. What differentiates humanity is our capacity for compassion and ability to make choices that help those around us. It’s why ICE won’t force the people of Minneapolis into submission. It’s why those that would sooner see women’s basketball confined to an elementary school gymnasium will have to suffer as the sport grows and grows. It’s why we, the people, are going to win.

And why, in spite of our choice at NCS to lead with sports and wrap with how it ties into the broader world around us, I decided to open the column to a bit of a broader, non-basketball commentary today. We are a community here as well and we stand in solidarity with our subscribers, readers, watchers and listeners that are in Minneapolis, checking on their neighbors, working in mutual aid groups and defying ICE at every turn. Since our inception, the group of us that comprise No Cap Space have sought to make this a place where the basketball binds, respectful disagreement, debate and banter can occur, but within the confines of human dignity and respect for all.

If you want to be a part of our community, you can subscribe or upgrade, join the Discord and hang. Not just for the escapism from a world that seems to be on the edge of a knife every day, but to remember that community and care is how and why we’ll win. And that it can be built everywhere from standing up against a secret police force to talking women’s basketball with your friends.