There weren't a whole lot of major games last night, but links still exist:

• Matt Sussman of SB Nation's Hustle Belt looks at the implications of Toledo's star guard Naama Shafir suffering an ACL injury in a win against Indiana on Friday that will keep her out for the season. Without Shafir, who dropped 40 on UCLA in the WNIT championship last season, things look bleak for Toledo. Read more >>>
• Zach Silka of the Toledo Blade reports that Shafir does have the option to take a medical redshirt and return to the team next season. However, head coach Tricia Cullop didn't give a definitive answer about that matter, only saying that "I’ll leave that decision to her." Read more >>>
• Hoopsworld reports that Florida Gulf Coast tied an NCAA Division I record with 21 3-pointers during a win over Weber International last night. In case you're wondering, that made for a 60.1% effective field goal percentage...and when you launch 51 three point attempts, it's also easy to understand how you would only commit five turnovers. Read more >>>

Continue reading this post »

If you were away for the weekend and unable to keep up with all that happened around the nation in women's basketball, we provide you a brief overview of the weekend in the form of links starting with Sunday results...and as a post-Thanksgiving treat, I will even provide an appropriate soundtrack (with my sincerest apologies to any Ohio State fans). 

• California Golden Blogs held a game thread for Cal's 59-50 win over the Virginia Cavaliers, which norcalnick suggests was an important game not only in terms of building a potential tournament resume, but also because it was the Bears going up against their old coach. You can follow the blow-by-blow in their game thread, but the key stat was rebounding, rather surprisingly led by Layshia Clarendon's 11. Read more >>>

• Dan Fleiser of GoVolsXtra takes a look at Tennessee's loss to Baylor yesterday and specifically why sophomore guard Meighan Simmons only played one minute in the second half. Ultimately, it came down to Simmons just not making plays. Read more >>>

• Herman of SBN's Sippin on Purple was hoping for a second straight upset for his Northwestern Wildcats, but DePaul used 12-for-25 three point shooting to avoid being Northwestern's latest victim. The Wildcats struggled with DePaul's pressure defense in addition to guarding the three point line. Read more >>>

Continue reading this post »

Links today focus on upcoming holiday tournaments, which I tried to find links to the live streams if possible.

• Buster Laing of the Freeport News - "Grand Bahamas' First Newspaper" - previews the Junkanoo Jam, which features Duke, Gardner Webb, Iowa, Notre Dame, St. John's, Temple, and USC. I highlight Laing's article because it's a perspective of someone who isn't used to witnessing women's basketball played at such a high level, which is interesting even if you think he shouldn't be so surprised. Read more >>>
• Jayda Evans of the Seattle Times gives a preview of the Seattle U Thanksgiving Tournament, which will feature Akron, Loyola - Chicago, San Francisco, and the host Seattle U. Evans focuses on the fact that one Washington Huskies players still needs to Google Jennifer Azzi just to figure out who she was before coaching at USF. That tournament will be streamed online via GoSeattleU.com. Read more >>>
• SB Nation's Anonymous Eagle posted a preview of Marquette's games at the Paradise Jam, which actually kicked off yesterday with a loss to Washington State. Next up for them is Prairie View A&M, who Michigan beat yesterday. Marquette will close out with Michigan. Click here for the full tournament schedule.  Read more >>>

Continue reading this post »

A few mid-day links for you to stay caught up with the latest in women's basketball as the nation gets ready for Thanksgiving weekend (if you aren't already off to your chosen destination):

• Herman of SB Nation's Sippin' On Purple has a humorous summary of last night's upset special: Northwestern beating #23 LSU 44-43 last night in Baton Rouge. The numbers say this game was u-g-l-y without providing any sort of alibi. If it seems like people were just talking about LSU being upset, it's because they were: last week, to Tulane. Read more >>>
• John Moss of KTUL has breaking news about Oral Roberts' Kevi Luper: she "is pretty good." In addition to the nation's second-leading scorer dropping 24 points on Houston last night, she had six steals, which is just as noteworthy: she is 6th in the nation in steal percentage. Read more >>>
• David Hooper of SBN's Rocky Top Talk shook off the disappointment of Tennessee losing to Virginia to offer his analysis of the implications. The major takeaway: "you just can't expect a team to magically play halfcourt when they've spent the last three years avoiding it." Read more >>>

Continue reading this post »

We already have some insight from UConn's 68-58 win over Stanford from an East Coast and West Coast perspective, so a few more links on that and then onto other things.

• Carl Adamec of the Journal Inquirer takes a closer look at UConn's defensive effort against Stanford last night that forced all those turnovers. He highlights that while this might not be the best ever UConn team, they won't lose for lack of effort this season. Read more >>>
• Tom Fitzgerald of the San Francisco Chronicle looks at the receiving end of that defensive effort and writes that Stanford's performance last night showed that they are "not ready for primetime". He also says that they won't have to play a team that "athletic and well-drilled" until the post-season. Might Lady Vols fans disagree? Read more >>>
• Nate Billings of Alternate Crop - The Oklahoman's photography blog - shares a moving gallery of images from Oklahoma State's memorial service for coaches Kurt Budke and Miranda Serna. Among those photos is a picture of Texas A&M coach Gary Blair signing a banner at the event. Read more >>>

Continue reading this post »

To make sure that I keep this links thing up, I decided to take off on the weekends...of course then it was an upset-filled weekend with plenty to discuss.

We posted a couple of upsets on the site during the weekend, so let's start with previews of tonight's marquee game and work our way backwards:

• Tom Fitzgerald of the San Francisco Chronicle offers a brief preview of tonight's Stanford Cardinal - UConn Huskies game at 7:30 p.m. EDT on ESPNU tonight from a westside point of view. Interesting footnote from his piece: Stanford has been approached about playing in the Carrier Classic next season. Read more >>>
• John Altavilla of the Hartford Courant focuses on the role of the freshmen in tonight's marquee matchup: Taylor Greenfield and Amber Orrange of the Stanford Cardinal; Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, Brianna Banks and Kiah Stokes of the UConn Huskies. Read more >>>
• Tim Mulholland of SB Nation's Virginia site Streaking the Lawn looks back at the Virginia Cavaliers' somewhat stunning upset of the Tennessee Lady Vols, calling it an "intensely gutsy effort". As he notes, it's a great boost to being the Joanne Boyle era. Read more >>>

Continue reading this post »

Some women's basketball links to enjoy with your lunch or late afternoon coffee, if you're on that other coast.

• Stephen Hawkins of the Associated Press has the recap of Baylor's 83-50 blowout of UCLA. Bruins coach Cori Close said afterwards that rebounding and taking care of the ball were problems, but the rebounding is definitely the bigger one, as the article makes clear: Baylor had an offensive rebound percentage of 50%. Read more >>>
• Mike Carmin of the Journal-Courier describes how Purdue player Courtney Moses used the old throw-the-ball-off-the-opponent inbounds play with 12.5 seconds left to lift the Boilermakers to a hard-fought 54-53 win over the Bowling Green Falcons in the opener at their brand new Stroh Center. Fox Toledo has a highlights package with post game interviews from BGSU's Curt Miller and Jessica Slagle. Read more >>>
• Dave Trimmer of the Spokesman Review reports on Gonzaga coach Kelly Graves' 300th win. Naturally, the humble Graves downplayed the milestone: ""It means I’m old and I’ve been blessed to have had great players. Isn’t that the recipe?" Congrats coach...on being old...? Read more >>>

Continue reading this post »

Bryan Painter's emotional interview with former Oklahoma State player Megan Byford (2007-09) speaks volumes about how deeply coaches Kurt Budke and assistant Miranda Serna touched people's lives in their role as coaches and mentors since arriving in Stillwater in 2005.

There is plenty of basketball to talk about today, but first some reactions to the shocking loss of Byford's former coaches in a plane crash discovered Thursday afternoon.

Continue reading this post »