The Guru NCAA Report: Kicking Off College Previews With an Overview of the Power Four Big Ten, SEC, Big 12, and ACC Conferences

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Unlike the men’s world of pro and collegiate hoops, which run somewhat parallel in their seasons, the women have a year-long wrap-around affect.

A week after the NCAA Women’s Final Four concludes, the WNBA holds its draft and kicks off play in May.

When the WNBA comes down the stretch, a distance lengthened every four years by a month-long break due to the Summer Olympics, colleges are undergoing preseason practice and appearing at their respective conference media day previews in both live and zoom formats.

While different individuals usually cover the NBA and NCAA on the men’s side, there is a lot of doubling up on the women’s side.

 For example, quite a few in the media workroom at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn late Sunday night chronicling the New York Liberty’s capturing the decisive Game 5 in overtime for their first WNBA title will return Wednesday nearby across the East River in midtown Manhattan attending the afternoon women’s portion of Big East media day on the arena floor of Madison Square Garden.

On October 1, at the same time the WNBA playoffs were reaching their stride in the semifinals, yours truly also began constructing the giant local/national schedule spreadsheet detailing what collegiate games need to be addressed daily, both live and remote, for the morning roundups posted here.

The process is much smoother now due to more efficient websites for searching league and team schedules.

For as much groundbreaking attendance and TV ratings driven by Iowa’s Caitlin Clark arose in 2023-24 and then like a tsunami roared into the WNBA summer pulled by Clark and other newcomers as LSU’S Angel Reese and Stanford’s Cameron Brink, besides the existing pros as New York’s Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, Minnesota’s Napheesa Collier, and Las Vegas’ A’ja Wilson chasing a record eighth straight Olympic gold medal, collegiate storylines will shift along to an even greater 2024-25 focusing on more than one or two players getting enhanced national coverage, along with the effect of football-driven realignment that ended the PAC-12 as it has been known, and the next chapter at places like Stanford and Iowa where Tara VanDerveer and Lisa Bluford, respectfully, retired, and at Tennessee where Kellie Harper was dismissed and Marshall’s Kim Caldwell was hired, the first not tied to the alum and coaching tree of the late and legendary Pat Summitt.

So, with all but a few conference events, which are happening Tuesday and Wednesday, concluded, other sites have already done more extensive previews, but here is a thumbnail view of the landscape, part one.

The 13 Guru locals will get a deeper outlook next week leading to national season opening day on Nov. 4 but are also in the series here among their various conferences the next few days.

The High-Power Conferences

The Big Ten

Already big with more members than the brand number, the Big Ten is now a coast-to-coast 18-member operation stretching from Maryland, Rutgers and Penn State, the last two of which are locals, in the East to the four new additions, all previous PAC-12 teams, from the West in Southern Cal, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington.

In separate Big Ten preseason polls from the coaches and media, only the top five teams are revealed, and each group is a perfect mirror of the other listing Southern Cal, UCLA, Ohio State, Maryland, and Indiana.

Southern Cal and UCLA battled in the top ten of the AP Poll all season from their cross-town campuses in Los Angeles, and both are high-powered again, Southern Cal picked third in the AP Preseason media voting released last week, while UCLA was fifth.

A year ago, the glory days of decades earlier, the eras with Lisa Leslie and before her Cheryl Miller, were revived with the arrival of national freshman of the year JuJu Watkins, easily the Big Ten preseason top player pick with Iowa’s Caitlin Clark foregoing a Covid fifth season of eligibility to turn pro.

Courtesy of the transfer portal, USC picked up Kiki Iriafen, a graduate guard out of Stanford who is on both preseason conference teams. The Trojans also have the top recruiting class in the nation and the transfer portal has also brought the arrival of Talia von Oelhoffen from Oregon State.

Following the single game Aflac Oui-Play that saw South Carolina in Paris rout Notre Dame and go on unbeaten to a third NCAA title, the event is now a doubleheader in the City of Lights and USC will open against AP 20TH-ranked Ole Miss of the SEC at noon on ESPN.

Other non-conference Trojan dates include hosting Notre Dame on Nov. 23 on NBC and visiting UConn on Dec. 21 on FOX in Hartford. They’ll visit Rutgers in the Big Ten on Jan. 5 ahead of going to Maryland on Jan. 8 on FS1 and hosting Penn State Jan. 12.

UCLA, second in the Big Ten vote, fifth in AP, has Lauren Betts and Kiki Rice on both preseason conference selections.

The Bruins recently hired on Cori Close’s staff former Drexel assistant James Clark, a La Salle grad who also was a coach with the AAU Philadelphia Belles.

UCLA schedule highlights include the other game at 2:30 p.m. on the Aflac Ou-Play bill on Nov. 4 playing Louisville at 2:30 p.m. on ESPN2, hosting South Carolina Nov. 24, playing No. 12 Baylor part of the Coretta Scott King Classic Jan. 20th at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., after hosting Penn State Jan. 15 in the Big Ten and visiting Rutgers Jan. 23 and AP No. 18 Maryland Jan. 26.

Ohio State, third in the Big Ten, 14th in AP, placed Cotie McMahon on the conference teams.

Buckeyes schedule highlights feature Stanford in San Francisco, Dec. 20; visiting Rutgers, Dec. 29, and dropping in on Penn State, Jan. 19.

Maryland, 4th in the conference, 18th in the AP poll, did a roster re-build but also placed Shyanne Sellers on both Big 10 squads.

Among seven incoming transfers are Villanova’s Christina Dalce, Connecticut’s Amari DeBerry, Virginia’s Mir McLean, Rutgers’ Kaylene Smikle, VCU’s Sarah Te-Biasu, and by way of UConn and Arkansas, Saylor Poffenbarger.

The Terrapins host No. 11 Duke, Nov. 10, visit Syracuse Nov. 13; and in the other game Jan. 20 in the Coretta Scott King Classic at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., play No. 4 Texas.

In the Big Ten, Maryland hosts Rutgers Jan. 2 and visit’s Penn State Jan. 29

Though Indiana was fifth in the conference, the Hoosiers between seasons fell from 12th to No. 25 and did not place anyone on the Big Ten preseason groups.

The Hoosiers return Sydney Parrish and Yarden Garzon and picked up Penn State three-point ace Shay Ciezki by way of the portal.

Schedule highlights include opening week the Ivy duo of Brown visits Nov. 4 and Brown on Nov.  7 before Stanford visits Nov. 17.

On Nov. 23 coach Teri Moran’s squad opens the Battle 4 Atlantis against Ivy regular season co-champ Columbia.

Indiana opens Big Ten play Dec. 7 at Penn State and hosts Rutgers Feb. 6.

Former Villanova star Lucy Olsen made the Big Ten preseason list with Hannah Stuelke at Iowa but the Hawkeyes dropped from second after Caitlin Clark’s departure and Lisa Bluder’s retirement out of an AP preseason ranking.

Associate head coach Jan Jensen moved up to fill the coaching vacancy.

Nebraska got ranked 23rd and Alex Markowski made both lists as did Wisconsin’s Sarah Williams while Illinois’ Makira Cook made the coaches’ list, the beneficiary of a tie.

Southeastern Conference (SEC)

The rule of South Carolina going unbeaten and jumping to No. 1 the rest of the way from Preseason 6 after the win over Notre Dame with a squad that had graduated all five starters easily made Dawn Staley’s Gamecock’s the top conference pick in a media vote.

The team is also the AP No. 1 moving to third place all-time with its 84th placing at the top.

Connecticut with 250 and Tennessee at 112 are the schools in front.

But the first of two heavyweights moving from the Big 12 are right behind in Texas at second followed by 2023 NCAA champion LSU, no longer with Angel Reese, and then the other newbie making the move with Longhorns being Oklahoma at No. 4.

In the AP voting, Texas is 4th, LSU at 7th, and Oklahoma 10th.

Texas coach Vic Schaefer is back in the SEC where he made Mississippi State a conference and national power and earlier served under the now retired Gary Blair at Arkansas and Texas A&M.

Ole Miss is 5th with Alabama making a big jump to 6th  in the SEC, while the Rebels in AP voting are 20th and the Tide are 24th, their first AP appearance since the end of the 1998-99 season.

Tennessee with its lowest SEC vote ever is 7th, the previous being 6 in a 14-team league and for the fourth time in the 49-year AP history unranked in the preseason vote.

Rounding out the first ten in the SEC, Kentucky, with Kenny Brooks moving from Virginia Tech and the ACC, is eighth and as the other SEC member in the AP voting listed at 22nd, followed by Florida and Vanderbilt, the Commodores making a big jump under former Connecticut star and assistant Shea Ralph.

The remaining six in the SEC are Mississippi State, Auburn, Texas A&M, Georgia, Missouri and Arkansas.

A larger conference changed the dynamic of the player voting, causing a three-way tie for top honors among LSU’S Flau’jae Johnson and Aneesah Morrow with Texas’ Madison Booker.

They are joined on the SEC first team by South Carolina’s Te-Hina Paopao Alabama’s Sarah Ashlee Barker, Kentucky’s Georgia Amoore, who followed Brooks from Virginia Tech; and Oklahoma’s Raegan Beers, a transfer from Oregon State.

The second team consists of South Carolina’s Raven Johnson and MiLaysia Fulwiley, LSU’s Mikaylah Williams, Oklahoma’s Skylar Vann, Texas’ Rori Harmon, injured most of last season, and Ole Miss’ Madison Scott.

As for schedule highlights, excluding the internal SEC dustups, South Carolina plays Michigan opening day Nov. 4 in the Hall of Fame series in Las Vegas; NC State in the Ally Tipoff Nov. 10 in Charlotte, N.C.; at UCLA, Nov. 24; Iowa State, Nov. 28, in an opener of the Fort Meyers Tipoff in Fla.; hosting Duke, Dec. 5, part of the ACC-SEC challenge; at TCU in Fort Worth, Dec. 8, hosting South Florida, Dec. 15th; and hosting UConn, Dec. 16th.

Texas is at Notre Dame, Dec. 5th, part of the challenge; visits Sun Belt favorite James Madison, Dec. 8; visits A-10 pick Richmond Dec. 15 and returns to host La Salle, Dec. 17, and plays Maryland at the Coretta Scott King Classic doubleheader in Newark, N.J., Jan. 20.

LSU hosts Stanford in the challenge, Dec, 5th; and plays Seton Hall in the Women’s Showcase at the Mohegan Sun on Dec. 17th.

Oklahoma is at Mountain West pick UNLV on Nov. 22; meets DePaul three days later in the Ball Dawgs Classic in Henderson, Nevada on Nov. 25 and then either Big 12 pick Kansas State or Duke on Dec. 27th; visits Louisville for the SEC-ACC challenge, Dec. 4; plays Michigan in Charlotte, Dec. 17.

Ole Miss as mentioned opens in Paris Nov. 4 against Southern Cal; and visits NC State as part of the challenge, Dec. 5.

Tennessee hosts Middle Tennessee, the C-USA pick, Nov. 12; Florida State Dec. 4 as part of the challenge, Iowa in the Barclays Center, Dec. 7; and Kentucky Feb. 6.

BIG 12

It’s a revolving door over here as it was a year ago when BYU came from the West Coast Conference, and Cincinnati, UCF, and Houston from the American.

Now Texas and Oklahoma shipped to the SEC while PAC-12 refugees Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, and returning former member Colorado come aboard.

The coaches voted the picks and four of the first five are also in the AP preseason vote.

Kansas State, which has Ayoka Lee, the preseason player pick for one more season, just nipped Iowa State by two points at the top followed by Baylor at third, a now healthy TCU, and West Virginia close behind.

In the AP vote, Kansas State is 13th, Iowa State, 25th in the final 2023-24 poll is No. 8, Baylor ranks 12th, TCU is not ranked, and West Virginia is 16th.

Rounding out the top ten of the now-16-member league, Utah is 6th, Arizona 7th, Kansas 8, Colorado 9th, and some wider separation for Texas Tech at 10th.

The remaining teams slot Oklahoma State, BYU, Cincinnati, UCF, Arizona State, and Houston.

Lee, likely to go high in the next WNBA draft, is one of four players with individual honors, the Big 12 seeking some clarity in its awards.

Thus, newcomers of the year go to Hailey Van Lift, continuing a gypsy life starting at Louisville in the ACC, moving to LSU in the SEC, and now TCU, while Aaronette Vonleh and Colorado both arrive separately, the former Buff now at Baylor.

However JR Payne’s team in Boulder sees Tabitha Betson receive freshman of the year.

Joining all but Betson from the above group on the 10-member team are Baylor’s Sarah Andrews, UCF’S Kaitlin Petersen, Iowa State’s Audi Crooks, Kansas’ S’Mya Nichols, Kansas State’s Serena Sundell, Utah’s Gianna Kneepkins, injured most of last season, and West Virginia’s JJ Quinerly.

Going for the out of league highlight games, Kansas State hosts the Horizon League’s Green Bay on opening day Nov. 4 followed by the Missouri Valley’s Belmont on Nov. 7 and the Big East’s Creighton on Nov. 14.

 Duke is the opponent at Ball Dawgs in Henderson, Nevada, near Las Vegas on Nov. 25, and there’s a neutral court game with Middle Tennessee in St. Joseph’s, Mo., on Dec. 14.

Iowa State meets Drake, Nov. 24, in an annual in-state rivalry before meeting South Carolina and Middle Tennessee on Nov. 28 and Nov. 30 in the Fort Meyers tourney in Florida. Following that, there’s the other in-state rivalry encounter Dec. 11 at Iowa and then a trip in the Northeast to face Connecticut at the Mohegan Sun on Dec. 17.

Baylor visits Oregon on Nov. 10, takes part in the Battle 4 Atlantis in the tropics Nov. 23-25, the same field containing Villanova and North Carolina, and hosts Mountain West pick UNLV on Dec. 8.

The Bears play UCLA at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. on Jan. 20.

TCU hosts NC State on Nov. 17 and in the Cayman Islands Tourney in the tropics will face Notre Dame on Nov. 29 and South Florida the following day.

South Carolina visits Fort Worth on Dec. 8.

West Virginia hosts Lafayette Nov. 22 and visits Temple Dec. 15.

Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC)

The addition of California and Stanford from the PAC-12 and SMU from the American has turned this operation like the Big Ten into a sea to shining sea identity.

Healthy again, Notre Dame is the overwhelming pick from the league’s blue ribbon media committee to win the ACC and Haddonfield’s Hannah Hidalgo, last season ‘s national freshman in the conversation with Southern Cal’s JuJu Watkins, is the overwhelming pick for preseason player of the year in the conference.

Olivia Miles, after missing last season rehabbing an injury, is on the ACC preseason team with Hidalgo and junior backcourt partner Sonia Citron.

Kate Koval is one of four freshmen on the five-member newcomer list, which includes grad transfer Liza Karlen from Marquette.

The Irish are also ranked 6th in the AP preseason poll.

Schedule highlights out of the massive league wars begin with a trip to Purdue on Nov. 7, followed by hosting Sun Belt pick James Madison on Nov. 13.

Hidalgo gets a near-homecoming up in Easton on Nov. 17 at Lafayette then it’s off to Southern Cal Nov. 23 on NBC ahead of a Cayman Islands trip in a tourney of predetermined opponents against TCU and Utah Nov. 29-30.

Texas visits South Bend on Dec. 5 part of the ACC-SEC challenge. Connecticut comes calling Dec. 12.

N.C. State is a strong second-place pick and is ranked ninth in the AP poll with the Wolfpack’s Aziaha James and Saniya Rivers named to the preseason team and freshman Zamareya Jones named to the newcomer group.

The schedule has an early test playing South Carolina in the Ally Tipoff in Charlotte, Nov. 10, then going to TCU, Nov. 17. Washington or LSU will be on the Pink Flamingo Card the second day in the tropics on Nov. 27 and then hosting Ole Miss in the ACC-SEC challenge on Dec. 5.

It’s a conference game but also the Jimmy V Classic at Louisville on Dec. 15 and James Madison visits on Dec. 19.

Duke, a strong third and AP vote of 11th, placed Reigan Richardson on the preseason squad and freshman Toby Fournier on the newcomer list.

The Blue Devils get an early test traveling to former ACC rival Maryland on Nov. 10, followed on Nov. 25 by another test playing Kansas State in the first round of the Ball Dawgs Classic just outside Las Vegas.

Once upon a time Dawn Staley and Blue Devils coach Kara Lawson were WNBA floor rivals. On Dec. 5 they’ll match up from the sidelines in the ACC-SEC Challenge in Columbia. Non-conference play ends Dec. 21at American favorite South Florida.

Louisville took fourth in the conference and 17th in AP voting, placing no one on the ACC preseason list, however freshman Imari Berry rounds out the newcomer group.

The Cardinals open in Paris Nov. 4 playing UCLA then return to the states meeting Kentucky on Nov. 16 on the road in Lexington, soon thereafter meeting South Florida at Disney Nov. 24 part of the new WBCA showcase weekend, and a trip to Colorado on Nov. 30.

Oklahoma visits as part of the ACC-SEC Challenge on Dec. 4, a few days later meeting former Big East and American rival UConn rival on Dec. 7 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Mentioned already, the combo ACC/Jimmy V game hosting NC State is Dec. 15 in Louisville.

Florida State close behind at 5th in the ACC vote and 19th with the AP places Mikayla Timpson and former national freshman of the year Ta’Niya Latson on the conference squad, Latson drawing the most points after Notre Dame’s Hidalgo.

The Seminoles get an early test Nov. 7 visiting Illinois, and Florida drops by Nov. 22.

Texas Tech, Missouri State, and West Coast favorite Gonzaga are on the Paradise Jam menu in the Virgin Islands Nov. 27-29, while Tennessee on the road in Knoxville is the ACC-SEC challenge opponent Dec. 4.

Drexel returns last year’s visit on Dec. 15.

North Carolina may be 6th with the ACC panel but the AP group has the Tar Heels two spots higher than the conference ranking order, at 15th overall and the mention completes 23 of 25 teams coming from the Power 4 leagues.

The remaining two with AP are No. 2 UConn and No. 21 Creighton out of the Big East where they are likely to be 1-2 when the conference poll is released in New York on Wednesday.

North Carolina’s Alyssa Ustby was voted on the all-ACC squad, the remaining spot went to Kymora Johnson, from Virginia, which was voted ninth behind Stanford and Miami.

The Tar Heels early on host UConn in Greensboro on Nov. 15, a night visiting Huskies coach Geno Auriemma will likely be seeking to tie the all-time combined Division 1 men’s/women’s win record held by retired Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer.

If he succeeds, Auriemma and associate head coach Chris Dailey in their 40th season then head back home targeting the record on Nov. 20th when the Huskies host Fairleigh Dickinson, coached by former Villanova star Stephanie Gaitley.

Back in Chapel Hill, UNC continues to the Battle 4 Atlantis in the field that includes Villanova and Baylor, hosts Kentucky Dec. 5th in the ACC-SEC challenge, and meets Florida in the Jumpman Invitational in Charlotte, Dec. 18.

Newcomer Stanford, which was a dominant PAC-12 team for decades, lands at seventh and not AP ranked due to both the Cardinal retirement by VanDerveer and loss of several key players in the transfer portal.

Longtime associate head coach Kate Paye takes over and faces a schedule with a Nov. 10 visit from Gonzaga when the court at Maples Pavilion will be named for VanDerveer.

A trip to Indiana is on Nov. 17, LSU in Baton Rouge is the ACC-SEC Challenge opponent on Dec. 5, while a meeting with Ohio State is set for Dec. 20th at the Chase Center in San Francisco, part of a doubleheader that includes UCLA.

Miami at eighth also saw the retirement of a longtime coach in Katie Meier, who is succeeded by former longtime Toledo coach Tricia Cullop.

Upon her arrival, she was greeted by the news of the return of the twin combination of Haley and Hanna Cavinder for their graduate season after opting out in 2023-24. They began their careers at Fresno State of the Mountain West Conference.

Rounding out the first ten in the now 18-team ACC is Georgia Tech behind Virginia.

The bottom group begins with Syracuse at 11th and way down at 12th Virginia Tech, a plunge caused by transfers and Kenny Brooks’ move to Kentucky.

 Brought in to pick up the pieces is former Notre Dame star Megan Duffy from Marquette.

Completing the rest, it’s Clemson, California joining Bay Area-rival Stanford from the PAC-12, Boston College, SMU coming from the American, Wake Forest and Pitt.

Teams rebuilding and ranked way down below will be in their own mini tournament once ACC play kicks in because the bottom three in the standings will be the left out to keep the field size at 15.

The same holds for the Big Ten which went from 14 to 18 and will increase to a 15-team field, which a Big Ten source said still products the 9th seed with a bye being theoretically in play for an NCAA at-large bid.

The SEC and Big 12 with 16-team fields will send everyone to their respective conference tourneys.

Next preview will be of locally affiliated leagues, but the locals themselves will get larger treatment at the back end these previews with the Big 5 in one post and the remaining  regional the other, though since Princeton is in the Ivy with Penn while Delaware is in the CAA with Drexel, being part of the Guru 13, they’ll be appended.