Happy Wednesday, Ball-Knowers!

Today, the newsletter discusses the proposed expansion of the NCAA Tournament (76 teams!? Yuck.), the Toronto Tempo’s first game in franchise history and Rachid Meziane’s curious coaching situation.

If you missed it in your podcast feeds last night, The Ringer WNBA Show host Seerat Sohi joined me on a revamped Luxury Tax to discuss her favorite WNBA League Pass watches and whether or not the Las Vegas Aces can be considered a dynasty.

It’s part of a change in our podcast distribution. Instead of just one Ball Up Top episode a week on Wednesdays, you now get Luxury Tax on Tuesday (mostly guest focused) and Ball Up Top on Thursday (with our whole crew). Just another way that we’re trying to grow the game and this community of folks that love women’s hoops.

Those in the Ball-Knower subscription tier will also get access to a new installment of Style Sessions tonight, in which we get the inside look at how some of the WNBA’s top stylists approach the art of a pregame tunnel fit.

Now, onto the newsletter!

Our WNBA team-by-team previews for the Portland Fire…

The Toronto Tempo…

And the Connecticut Sun…

As well as this new edition of Luxury Tax with The Ringer WNBA Show’s Seerat Sohi…

Available wherever you get your podcasts as well (Don’t forget to leave a five star review!)

It hasn’t really sunk in that the Toronto Tempo are about the play the first game in franchise history, and the first Canadian WNBA home game ever. There’s been trips up to the Great White North before but not one in which the home city had a representative on the court.

Tonight, the players will almost seem ancillary to the crowd itself. To have Kia Nurse, whose resonance with Canada women’s basketball reminds me of Landon Donovan’s significance to U.S.A. men’s soccer, donning a Tempo uniform tonight will feel narratively right. Without getting overly saccharine and self-indulgent, this is a big deal for Canadian women’s basketball and the global growth of the game.

Over the last five to ten years, the sport has exploded up north and particularly in the province of Ontario. New players, from Michigan Wolverines guard Syla Swords to Connecticut Sun forward Serah Williams, are powering a potential golden generation. While Canada doesn’t yet have their Caitlin Clark or Dominique Malonga, they may yield one due to the inspiration a franchise like the Tempo can foster. You won’t see it anytime soon, but it will happen.

After all, there is no Caitlin Clark without an A’ja Wilson, who is maybe not A’ja Wilson without Dawn Staley, who had doors opened for her by Marian Washington and on and on. It’s all a cycle of growth, blossoming and re-seeding the ground behind you. That’s why this game, even a preseason matchup with no real stakes, will feel like the most significant tilt Toronto women’s basketball has ever seen.

No, Rachid Meziane isn’t leaving on the eve of the WNBA season. But it does raise an interesting set of questions about what he may be feeling about the future Houston Comets and their desire (or lack thereof) for continuity. To be clear, that’s more of an ‘I feel’ vs. an ‘I think’ or an ‘I know’ in terms of reporting around Meziane’s mindset.

It just seems a bit…odd, doesn’t it?

While the Euroleague season is technically in the WNBA offseason, it’s not a secondary position. Especially not at a place like Galatasaray, who are one of the most successful sporting clubs in Turkey and prepared to pump in a lot of investment to catch hated rival Fenerbahce, who more or less own the league nowadays. It’s just not the type of place you’re going to cash a check. It’s as professional an operation as any team in the W.

So it stands to reason that there may be some tea leaf reading about Houston’s intentions or possibly Meziane doesn’t want to live and coach down in Texas. But the concerning thing is if it kicks off a trend of high level Connecticut officials looking for the exits in the final season of the franchise. This Sun roster is one of the most exciting in the league and, despite looking dead in the water two months into 2025, have a really nice foundation with which to build a contender. If they want to go with the franchise to Houston, team President Jennifer Rizzotti and GM Morgan Tuck should be given the runway to see this project through.

It would be one heck of a disappointment if the Mohegan, and their executive staff with the Sun, put in a ton of intentional work to leave their roster better than they found just for a rich guy from Galveston to come in and either put his stamp on it or dismantle something he doesn’t really understand.

I hate this. I’m on record saying I hate it. I will always hate it.

The field of 68 felt unnecessary, but it was at least somewhat understandable to have some type of First Four matchup that could maybe help us split the difference on good mid-major vs. underachieving high-major.

This? This is something else entirely.

Don’t let the advocates tell you this is being done with competitive parity in mind. It’s not. The single bid leagues will remain single bid leagues. It doesn’t matter if you’re 28-4 in the Sun Belt, for instance. If you lost that conference tournament title game, you’re toast. That was a lot more palatable when the field didn’t have so many carveouts that looked on the surface like they were designed to help that team. Instead, they’re still on the outside looking in while a Big Ten, ACC or SEC team that’s limped into an 18-14 season gets the benefit of the doubt.

It just all feels extraordinarily antithetical to the spirit of the tournament, which is that everyone, regardless of athletic caste, has the opportunity to win. By diluting the field, you continue to take the stakes out of the regular season. We don’t need more games in March. The solve for early season TV rating drops isn’t to try and artificially juice the end of the year. But short term gains are always, unfortunately, the name of the game.

And everyone suffers as a result.

Halifax’s Carly Clarke readies for new coaching role with Toronto Tempo by Ethan Hunt, CBC

From pitch to torchbearer: How Playa Society built space for women's sports by Meghan Hall, USA Today

Rough Notes: The Whirlwind of Preseason by Maya Goldberg-Safir, Rough Notes

Seattle Storm Take on the WWE by Jeff Brown, Storm Chasers on Substack

Marisa Ingemi has been crushing it on the Valkyries beat heading into a pivotal second season for the Bay area WNBA franchise. She also has a bunch of really innovative subscription tiers for those that want to stretch their dollar while getting top-tier basketball coverage…

And, as always, if you haven’t subscribed to the free daily newsletter, do so below. Or even better, send the link to a newly minted WNBA fan in your life. Bring them the ball knowledge that will keep the game going strong!