Christmas came early in the world of women’s basketball. Team USA hosted training camp at Duke as they prepare for the 2026 FIBA World Cup and 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. It’s safe to say that A’ja Wilson, Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart are, more or less, locks for every major competition roster. Just about everybody else was subject to the evaluations of national team head coach Kara Lawson and managing director Sue Bird.

That meant we got to see some clips of Caitlin Clark, back on the floor since injuring her groin over the summer, as well as Paige Bueckers, Angel Reese, Chelsea Gray, Kelsey Plum and so many more. As the WNBA’s labor fight continues, the camp was an oasis in the desert for women’s basketball fans suffering from hoop withdrawals.

On the college level, we were treated to a few marquee ranked matchups which gave us plenty to think about this week. We’ll be adding a new section to the column, entitled ‘Three Ball’, which will highlight three players/teams/games that I think are flying under the news radar. Let us know if you like it!

No Cap Space WBB also makes a great holiday gift as well! From now until December 31st, 2025, you can upgrade to our Ball-Knower’s tier for 25% off. Our platform will be expanding in 2026 with a few new projects that will make being a Ball-Knower even more worth your while!

Boy, was it nice to see Caitlin Clark playing basketball again. In a way, Team USA’s camp at Duke was a perfect way for the Indiana Fever superstar to be reintroduced to the game after battling a series of injuries that ended her WNBA season early. No crowds, no discourse, no Twitter baiting. Just pure hoops with some of the best in the world.

Paige Bueckers, Clark’s original college foil turned WNBA contemporary, dubbed the new core of American players, “The Young and Turnt”. Watching them — Bueckers, Clark, Angel Reese, Sonia Citron, Cam Brink, Rickea Jackson and others — battle the seasoned veterans of Team USA was a nice respite from the open questions about the future of the game and where it’s headed from a business standpoint.

But that ongoing CBA negotiation, which Ben Pickman of The Athletic had more on just this morning, did come up in post-practice media scrums and Clark, for what felt like the first time since the end of the WNBA season, was asked her thoughts.

"That's what our fans crave -- the product on the floor," Clark told the assembled press. "That's what the fans want to show up for. So, it's business, and it's a negotiation, and there has to be compromise on both sides. And we're starting to get down to the wire of it."

"I think there are different things that we can find ways to say 'No, we certainly deserve that, and we're not going to compromise on that,' and then other things that we can probably compromise on," she continued. "You want to understand both sides and be respectful of both sides, but at the end of the day, come to a compromise."

Like many things Clark does, the comments became a Rorschach test for WNBA fans of every stripe. Is one of the faces of the league being intentional in her words? Is she pressing the league to get a deal done? Is she suggesting she wouldn’t be a part of a work stoppage? Without being in her brain, it’s hard to know for sure.

But, history provides us something of a window about what has worked for superstars in the past.

In 1987, the NBA was facing a similar crisis of conscience. The league had gotten a massive boost from the Larry Bird - Magic Johnson rivalry and Michael Jordan was just beginning his ascent as one of the best players in the history of the game.

Ahead of a landmark labor negotiation and his own potential contract extension, Jordan said “If you are a concerned owner and an owner that looks after the best interests of his players, then it’s something you would do on your own without the player really threatening to (sit out), if you consider that individual to be in the top elite class.”

In essence, Jordan was saying that a work stoppage should be out of the question because the owners should understand what they’re leaving on the table as well.

I believe that Clark is trying to thread the same needle here. Clearly, the Fever superstar feels there are non-negotiables on the table while there are other places the players and leagues can meet in the middle. A’ja Wilson said something similar last summer, hoping that a work stoppage wouldn’t be necessary if the proverbial rubber met the road. It isn’t lost on me that the two biggest women’s basketball players with Nike, who has a non-insignificant amount of money tied up in NBA apparel contracts, are trying to be the bridge between the ownership class and the union.

While I don’t think Clark’s comments are a major betrayal of the labor’s leverage within this negotiation, the subtle shift of tone among players has been one to watch. Even Sue Bird, who is now technically in the ownership class nowadays, is starting to sound skittish on the possibility of a work stoppage. Angel Reese, who has been outspoken about keeping a strike in play from a negotiation perspective, praised the PA’s ability to keep their members on message throughout this process.

But as we inch closer and closer to the 2026 season, I’m curious which players try to bridge the gap to get a season rolling and what the union is willing to give up in the process.

While lacking the transformational star power of past years, I believe that the National Player of the Year race in women’s college basketball is going to be a lot of fun to track.

Florida’s Liv McGill has been a stat stuffing machine (25.8 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 5.9 APG, 4.0 SPG), Mikayla Blakes of Vanderbilt (25.7 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 3.9 APG, 3.7 SPG) has picked up right where she left off last season while usual suspects from Hannah Hidalgo to Sarah Strong and Joyce Edwards are all firmly in the mix.

But these types of awards are more than about simple counting stats. Whether folks like it or not, there are narratives and lore-building that go into creating a Player of the Year. After a dominant 30 point performance against Iowa in the Cy-Hawk rivalry, the legend of 2025-26 Audi Crooks is already beginning to grow.

Nevermind that the 6’3 junior is the leading scorer in the nation right now (27.8 PPG) with two 40+ point performances already under her belt. The Cyclones victory over their in-state rival showed that Crooks is improving from a scouting perspective as well. One way to combat her size, footwork and finishing in the past was to immediately collapse with two or three defenders the minute an ISU teammate would feed Crooks on the low block. She’d either have trouble passing out of the double team, would be slow to turn and get a shot off or would try to throw something up to draw a foul.

This season, in her first test against a frontcourt that had no issue putting two big bodies on her, Crooks limited her turnovers, stayed active on the boards and ended the night shooting 13/20 from the field. With Addy Brown coming into her own as a bonafide number-two option and Jada Williams becoming the dynamic, shifty pass-first point guard her believers have always known she could be, the Cyclones have a real core that could content for a Big 12 title.

There’s a lot of season left but data points build stories. In her first major national TV game of the year, Audi Crooks struck first as a real-deal Player of the Year pick. Now, the fun begins as the rest of the field works to keep pace.

Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 cinematic epic Seven Samurai was first released in the United States as The Magnificent Seven. It told the story of a village of desperate farmers that hired an experienced ronin samurai to help their village defend itself from Bandits.

Each character would go on to become something of an archetype in cinema, from the grizzled leader to the mercurial rogue and young, untested warrior with a lot to prove.

In Austin, Texas, I see the Magnificent Seven.

You can call them The Seven Samurai of Austin, Texas, but after another top 15 win over the weekend (this time over in-state powerhouse Baylor), I’m ready to call this group The Magnificent Seven.

So far, Texas has responded to every test placed in front of them. They blew out arguably the best mid-major team in America (Richmond), swept a back-to-back of UCLA and South Carolina while cruising by top 15 opponents North Carolina and Baylor.

Whether it’s been at the hands of Baylor, Texas A&M or South Carolina, the Longhorns have had their backyard raided by bandits for years. Now, with the right combination of players and a coach in Vic Schaefer who is chasing his own ultimate victory, there is something about this Texas team that feels destined.

This time 40 years ago, the Longhorns were in the midst of a revenge tour. Arguably a favorite to win the 1985 NCAA Championship, Texas fell to Western Kentucky in the Sweet Sixteen via one of the original iconic buzzer beaters in women’s March Madness. What followed was the first undefeated season in NCAA women’s basketball history and the first ever title for Texas WBB. I’m not fully ready to say that it feels like ‘86, but there is something special about this particular team in Austin.

And their core of seven have, indeed, been magnificent. So if you want a storyline to follow, a catchy nickname to put on one of the top teams in the nation, or just happen to like classic cinema, the Texas Longhorns are indeed the team for you.

Back when I was on Twitter, I used to joke that Louisville head coach Jeff Walz was women’s basketball’s Heisenberg. From 2021 to 2024, he simply couldn’t keep getting away with it. And yet, he repeatedly did.

It didn’t matter how his teams did in the regular season or who was in front of them in the March Madness bracket. From 2017-2023, Louisville would always get right in time for the Tournament and advance to no less than the Elite Eight. Even that 2023 team, which finished 26-12 and tied for fourth in the ACC standings, upset Texas and met Caitlin Clark’s Iowa for a chance at the Final Four.

But lately, it felt like the walls were starting to close in on our buddy Jeff ‘Walter White’ Walz. The Cardinals lost high level players to the transfer portal, started to miss on high level recruits they would usually get, and limped into the Tournament in 2024 and 2025. It was reasonable to ask, has the mad scientist lost his touch? Much like Heisenberg himself, it’s when you write him off that he becomes dangerous again.

Louisville held No. 11 North Carolina scoreless in overtime on Sunday as they won their first Top 25 matchup of the season. This comes just ten days after their near upset of No. 3 South Carolina in the ACC-SEC Challenge. While I’m not ready to say that the Cardinals are going to be contending for the conference in the way that they used to, it feels as though there may be some stabilization happening in Louisville. Walz has an interesting international frontcourt tandem of Danish forward Laura Ziegler and Turkish big Elif Istanbulluoglu to pair with his sophomore lynchpin guard Tajianna Roberts.

If they manage to beat No. 17 Tennessee this week, I think we can start to consider UL as a potential ACC dark horse this season in what appears to be a wide open league. Which means that Jeff Walz, once left for dead in a room full of adversaries, may in fact get away with it once again. And while he’s something of a heel to longtime women’s college basketball fans, I prefer having him in the game. We need characters as coaches again.

Dawn Staley has always been interesting in that her success as a head coach doesn’t come from elite guard play. Despite being something of a proto-Caitlin Clark (in that she too was a collegiate point guard sensation that nearly brought a non-traditional power an NCAA title), the Gamecocks have made their name under Staley as something of a factory for frontcourt superstars.

From A’ja Wilson to Aliyah Boston, Kamilla Cardoso to Joyce Edwards, Staley has stayed relatively traditional in her roster construction as the game pushes towards positionless-ness. Across the country, the other SC is trying to be the harbinger of change in the sport. Women of Troy head coach Lindsay Gottlieb has portaled in elite forwards like Kiki Iriafen but has mostly made a name out of recruiting and centering her teams around elite, long and versatile scoring wings like JuJu Watkins, Jazzy Davidson and soon Saniyah Hall.

Two different approaches to the game, two different sets of results so far this season.

Staley’s South Carolina are 10-1, with the only loss coming to Texas courtesy of a Rori Harmon buzzer beater. USC, who is 7-3 and has fallen to No. 19 in the most recent AP Poll, were more or less run out of the gym by No. 1 UConn on Sunday.

The difference in results comes down to one exceedingly simple thing: the Gamecocks have frontcourt talent and the Trojans, right now at least, simply do not. While it’s not something that can be fixed in Southern California, at least not this season, it puts head coach Lindsay Gottlieb in the same place Dawn Staley found herself in 2023.

After her double-big system was beaten by Caitlin Clark and a cadre of perimeter shooters in the Final Four, Staley went out and adjusted, bringing in sharpshooters like Tessa Johnson and Te-Hina Paopao to balance out their attack. This season, even with a litany of injuries to their frontcourt, South Carolina is starting to see transfer guard Ta’Niya Latson build her confidence while Raven Johnson and Joyce Edwards are becoming a high-low combo that keep the team’s floor high.

It’s why Staley is one of the greats, and why Lindsay Gottlieb may be in for a bit of a learning experience this year.

There’s a clear system, style and program identity the USC head coach wants. But if it’s obvious that there are deficiencies that keep you from getting over the hump, are you willing to change? Versatile wings with heavy usage and read-and-react concepts require a truly generational talent to pull off and, right now, we’re seeing why JuJu Watkins is so unique and special as a player by virtue of her absence. But the game is still the game and there are some traditional concepts that win out nine times out of ten. While South Carolina has learned that, USC may be in the process of being taught a hard lesson.

Sayvia Sellers May Be A Quiet Big Ten Player of the Year Contender

The Washington guard dropped 30 points in the Huskies comeback win over Horizon League powerhouse Green Bay. Lauren Betts has the name brand that voters will follow, but the 5’7 guard from Anchorage, Alaska has become an indispensable part of what’s looking like a very fun UW team.

Western Illinois And Mia Nicastro Are A Fun Mid-Major Watch

South Dakota State’s Brooklyn Meyer will be hard to beat but Nicastro looks like one of those truly special mid-major stars. Averaging 23.0 points and 10.8 rebounds per game on nearly 50-40-90 splits (52-44-87, for those that want an honest accounting), Nicastro has the juice to bring an OVC title to Western Illinois.

The SEC Is Going To Be A Blast in 2026

Texas, South Carolina, LSU and Oklahoma have so far lived up to the billing in non-conference play so far. And that’s before you factor in the second tier of Tennessee, Kentucky, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt. Florida has a potential Player of the Year candidate, Missouri looks rejuvenated under Kellie Harper while Larry Vickers and Sam Purcell have their respective programs humming early. It’s a gauntlet every year but the SEC may be uniquely deep this season. Adjust your TV schedules accordingly.

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