Five Out: The College Season Is Here, A Labor Fight Extension and Kim Caldwell's Tennessee Dilemma
The NCAA women's basketball season tips off this Monday with more than a few marquee matchups and fun storylines to follow.
It’s been a quiet couple weeks here at No Cap Space but that’s mostly been by design. After the conclusion of the last NCAA season, our crew realized we needed to budget in some rest and recuperation days between the pro and college schedules. So this year, we decided to lay low for a bit, recharge the batteries and come back in November.
Well, consider us reloaded and ready. There will be some new changes to No Cap Space this season with regard to our content schedule, newsletter and video offerings on YouTube (you can read about in point number five) but we feel they’re changes you’ll enjoy a ton!
If you need to get caught up on the upcoming college season, check out all our conference previews below…
Now, onto the column!
1. The NCAA Season Has Arrived!
This year’s college season feels like a fun one. UConn has reloaded but will have to navigate life post-Paige Bueckers, South Carolina has a bit of a hill to climb with their preseason frontcourt losses, UCLA looks ready to contend for a title but do they have the mental makeup for it? There’s all sorts of exciting questions that will be answered over the course of the next few months.
So what am I looking forward to this year?
I’ll give you three storylines on day one to follow throughout the year and, by the end of it, you can tell me if they were worth it or not…
What exactly is the Aaliyah Chavez experience in ‘The City of Norman’ going to be? The top high school recruit comes in with some serious expectations and a price tag (allegedly) to match. Given that our own Tyler DeLuca is right in OU’s backyard, the NCS team has gotten an early front row seat to see what she can do. The best way I can describe her is an Arike Ogunbowale or Sabrina Ionescu type: a talented if not streaky shooter who can initiate the offense but still get her own shot. It’s important to note that that play style has its limits at the WNBA level but if Chavez is even close to the aforementioned two as a college player, the Sooners may go on their first serious run since Courtney Paris was on campus.
It feels a lot like put-up-or-shut-up time for Niele Ivey and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Last year’s group had three All-American caliber guards and were once again bounced out of the NCAA Tournament in the Sweet Sixteen. Now, there’s a little less bankable talent (from a prestige perspective) on the roster but maybe that’s what Ivey needs. Either way, the standard is the standard in South Bend. While it’s a tall order to ask for every coach to be as successful as Muffet McGraw, it does seem there’s a concern at Notre Dame about doing less with more. This year we’re about to find out if more can be done with less.
Every few years we get a mid-major Cinderella team but, in a post NIL world, there’s been fewer surprises come March. Is there a team like Creighton or South Dakota or Missouri State that can make a deep run now that we’re living in a revenue sharing universe? If anyone can, it’s Richmond. The Spiders have been the class of a very competitive A-10 the last few years with Maggie Doogan leading the way. After a season in which they received an at-large bid to the Tournament as an eight seed, Richmond has a chance to show the world that mid-majors can still knock off the giants under the right circumstances.
2. Who Will Be The Next Face of The Sport?
I’ll say this upfront: I don’t subscribe to the idea of a single face of a sport. In a lot of ways, I find that concept counterproductive and rooted in a cynically corporatist mindset of “fans are too stupid to walk and chew gum at the same time so let’s give them one rallying point and jam it down their throat.” Ask your run-of-the-mill ESPN viewer how that content strategy is going. While the WNBA and the various stan factions can fight over which of their faves is the face, I find that it’s healthy for a league to have players like Caitlin Clark, A’ja Wilson, Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers and others sharing the spotlight.
With Bueckers gone and JuJu Watkins injured, we have something of an open spot at the top of the publicity pedestal in the college world. That’s not to say there isn’t anyone who could rise to the occasion, it’s just to point out that the ‘face of women’s college basketball’ may not be pre-ordained this year. UConn still has Azzi Fudd while Flau’jae Johnson remains LSU’s most bankable star. I’m convinced that Sienna Betts, when healthy, is going to take over the college world with her personality and humor. Then there’s Hannah Hidalgo, leading Notre Dame alone this year, and Olivia Miles, who will no doubt give us a ton of highlight reel plays in Mark Campbell’s heavy pick-and-roll offense.
While I understand why media companies coalesce around a singular star, especially in basketball, the idea of spreading the wealth in terms of coverage may actually have the higher upshot this season. Few people can compete with the motion of Caitlin, Paige or Angel, and all three benefitted from the NIL world and the increased profile of the women’s game. But now, I’m curious if the sport has reached a point where stars can be built organically without having to be uniquely transcendent on-or-off the floor. Can someone like Hidalgo put together an amazing season and cultivate a star power all her own? Or is women’s basketball still in a place where you need to be able to offer something never-seen-before to be able to make those inroads? As the game continues to grow, we’ll see these types of questions play out and give us an idea of where women’s basketball stands in the cultural lexicon.
3. The WNBPA’s CBA Extension Is Another Shrewd Move By the Players…
Credit to the WNBPA. As someone who thought they were completely unprepared for the 2024 season and acted, on more than one occasion, in a pretty unserious manner, the union has done a 180 and hit every mark in 2025. The latest decision to extend the CBA negotiations with the WNBA is another smart play, punctuating a summer in which the players handled just about every leverage flashpoint correctly.
Ultimately, the players have the power here. As rumors float about a potential new league, Project B (which has its own issues but that’s for another column), the WNBA doesn’t seem to have many cards to play. Adam Silver got up this past week and put his foot in his mouth, effectively stating that revenue sharing was off the table. While the fixed salary increases would be a positive development for the players, anyone that has ever worked on a contract would tell you that the worker becomes underpaid the minute they sign it unless there’s some type of profit or revenue sharing. Does it really matter if your salary is multiplied by four when you are making the league ten times more money? At the end of the day, the players would still be underpaid. At the end of the day, Silver’s rhetoric once again opens the door to ask the fundamental question of this entire labor dispute: what exactly is being hidden here?
For those unaware, the NBA works with their union on revenue sharing in the following way. Each season, representatives from both parties open the books and audit a line item that is called ‘basketball related income’. They’ll fight over what is and isn’t, eventually reach an agreement, and disbursement the shares out accordingly. The WNBA doesn’t have this luxury, instead operating under a framework in which they have to meet certain criteria in order to trigger the revenue sharing provision (which is that 9% number everyone keeps seeing). If the league is fighting this hard to keep audits from happening, what is on these books? The most cynical person could ascribe nefarious intent but even the most forgiving individual has to admit that it’s likely the WNBA/NBA doesn’t want to show just how much they’ve gained in the past few years. By agreeing to the extension, the WNBPA is allowing for more people to dig into that question and figure out the reason for the league’s obstinance in simply opening up the books. One high level source within the Chicago Sky organization indicated to No Cap Space that last season was the first that the franchise turned a profit in their history. The Connecticut Sun, considered to be the least monied franchise in the W, was actually the first of the bunch (back in the early 2000’s) to run cash flow positive.
So now, the ball is back in the WNBA/NBA’s court. If the PA is willing to play ball and extend the deadline, then the onus goes back on the leagues. Strategically, it’s been one good move after another for the union. Now time will tell if the folks sitting across the table are willing to blow it all up.
4. Kim Caldwell Had No Good Answers For Ruby Whitehorn.
Over the weekend, Tennessee star forward Ruby Whitehorn was arrested with a small amount of marijuana on her. It was her second booking in three months, following her two week offseason suspension for her role in a domestic dispute in which she was charged with aggravated burglary and domestic assault. Head coach Kim Caldwell announced on Sunday that Whitehorn was dismissed from the team, explaining the move by saying the decision was rooted in maintaining a long term standard for the program.
Naturally, there was a mix of opinions about the choice.
I live in Colorado. When I was a freshman at CU Boulder, Amendment 64 (legalizing recreational marijuana) passed and there were, I kid you not, celebrations on campus. The idea of being booked for a trace amount of pot is ridiculous to me, especially considering the ways in which weed has been used as a tool by the criminal justice system. Kicking a player off the team for something like this feels punitive in a vacuum.
But I understand Caldwell’s impossible position here. As much as I envision a world in which simple possession of marijuana isn’t a bookable offense, that’s the law in Tennessee. Beyond that, it’s clear that the arrest caused a breakdown of trust between Whitehorn and the coaching staff that couldn’t be bridged. While we often view the empowerment of poor behavior due to athletic prowess something that is more of a men’s sports problem, it should be noted that we’re entering a realm in which that issue may warrant a closer look. Sedona Prince, despite multiple reports about her allegedly abusive behavior with partners, played all the way through the Elite Eight last season. Ashlyn Watkins served a short suspension after her domestic dispute in South Carolina and Whitehorn was all set to play this week before this second arrest occurred. There is a pattern emerging here that, while a perverse indicator of progress, doesn’t necessarily feel like the right path. The men may be able to get away with this stuff if their team is winning but is that really a standard worth emulating?
If there’s anything to criticize Caldwell for, it’s not doling out effective discipline around the first arrest. Now, if you didn’t know the priors before you saw this news, you’d think that the Tennessee women’s basketball coach was kicking off a star player for being in possession of something that players in California could theoretically buy from a store.
At the same time, I’m not sure if there is a right answer. Whitehorn is still a young adult who clearly seems to need some structure and a place to get on the right track. Perhaps suspending her for the season would’ve been the way for her to remain with the program and earn back the trust of her teammates and coaches. But is shelving her for the year the right thing to do or is that more of a paternalistic impulse by the staff? If you cut her loose now, can you argue that you’re actually giving her a chance to start new and maybe get things on track elsewhere? In this situation, her first as a young head coach of a legacy program, Caldwell didn’t have a path that would absolve her of criticism.
At the end of the day, the hope is that Whitehorn gets the resources she needs and the right people in her corner. She’s a dynamic talent and has the ability to play in the WNBA. But in moments like this, I always refer back to victim’s rights advocate Brenda Tracy and her opinions on the matter.
Winning is not that important to put the safety of other students at risk. I think it’s a privilege to play sports, not a right. And if you violate a privilege you shouldn’t be able to play anymore.”
While her belief is said in the context of sexual assault on college campuses, I personally believe the same applies across the board. There are rehabilitative measures, especially for first time offenders, that are important and necessary. The worst thing we can do as a society is to throw people away immediately. But allowing a consequence free world is also how we can inadvertently spawn people who live with a sense of impunity. While there may have been a better way to handle Whitehorn from the very beginning, it’s hard to see another way forward now.
5. A Change To No Cap Space We Hope You’ll Enjoy…
As Chauny likes to say in our No Cap Space group chat, ‘you gotta live your raps’. Effectively, if you talk the talk then walk the walk.
For those that know us and the work that we do, we’re big on community and trying to build essentially a women’s basketball co-op. The people that subscribe to us, be it free or paid, are parts of our NCS world and have a valued opinion in how we do our work. We try our best to be pretty open about our content choices, defend our takes and give you all an inside look at the business of running a media outlet.
So, in the spirit of reciprocal community, an announcement…
We’ll be taking the newsletter and site off of Substack and moving over to Beehiiv. While most of the legwork has already been done, there may be some small changes here and there over the next few days with regard to our website, some old article links and general back-end stuff. Why do this, and now?
For starters, we see the state of the world right now. Things are expensive and the media ecosystem is so fragmented that people (myself included) are paying an arm-and-a-leg for their media when you combine all the individual subscriptions up. While many are looking for ways to try and extract more cash out of the ten percent of Americans that make up roughly 50 percent of consumer spending , we want to go in the opposite direction. We want to make our community more accessible to people and not wall ourselves off to just those with means.
While it may not feel like a massive change to some, the move to Beehiiv will allow us to drop our monthly subscription price for our paid tier from $10/month to $7/month and from $100/year to $80/year. As some of you may have read, the mechanics of Substack usually mean charging a bit of a higher rate to offset the cut the platform takes. Now, without that issue, we are able to bring our prices down while still being able to do all the boots-on-the-ground coverage that you’ve come to love.
If you’re a consistent Substack reader, the only thing that will change is where you’re able to find our work. If you read us through your email or just on our website, there won’t be any material change. In the coming days, there will be some back-end updates for paid subscribers that we’ll make you aware of and, if there’s any issues, feel free to let me or us know. The game is growing and we want to lower the barriers of entry as low as reasonably possible. So we hope the change works for you all and that you stay with us on this fun journey of covering women’s basketball!
I definitely think that stars in the college can form out of having a good season, or a good tournament run. But I don’t know about breaking containment outside of the women’s basketball world - something I’d argue A’ja and Paige haven’t even quite done to the level Angel and Caitlin have.