NCAAW: Four significant lessons from conference tournaments

Championship Sunday was full of excitement. Some upsets, some expected champions and bit of everything in between.

As we wait for Selection Sunday, let’s look at the biggest takeaways from the Power 4 conference tournaments.

Big Ten: No. 7 Iowa might not be a true title contender

The Big Ten tournament wasn’t nearly as exciting as the other Power 4 postseasons.

But that fact may have taught us more about who we can, or can’t, expect to contend in late March in the NCAA Tournament. Namely, Iowa did not look like a national threat on Sunday.

The Hawkeyes will undoubtedly win multiple games in the NCAA Tournament, but a 51-point loss to UCLA makes it more difficult to see them as an Elite Eight team. Iowa has size, but neither Hannah Stuelke or Ava Heiden are dynamic enough to threaten equally dominant teams. The Hawkeyes offense struggles mightily against top opponents. Their regular-season loss to Minnesota was the only time they’ve scored more than 75 points in a regulation game against a top-25 opponent this year. They’ve had an uncomfortable amount of games where they finished in the 60-65 point range, and come late March, that doesn’t always cut it.

Before Sunday, it wouldn’t have been unrealistic to say that Iowa controls their own fate with how they play. After a title game embarrassment, it feels like Iowa’s fate may instead be decided on selection Sunday. If they get unlucky in a Sweet 16 matchup, assuming they don’t get upset in the first two rounds, Iowa’s season may be over sooner than they hope.

ACC: No. 22 Notre Dame still has some gas left in the tank

Public opinion of Notre Dame has oscillated for nearly the whole season. After going 3-6 in the month of January, most wrote off the Fighting Irish. It felt like they had taken far too many double-digit losses to be spoken of in the same breath as previous years.

While they certainly haven’t freed themselves from those poor outings, Notre Dame won seven-straight games before falling to Duke in the ACC Tournament semifinal. Oddly enough, the loss to Duke may have been even more promising than any of their recent wins. Notre Dame fought back from a seven-point halftime deficit to take a fourth-quarter lead, but just lost stride with the Blue Devils in the final minutes. Still, a two-point loss to the ACC champions is a promising sign for Notre Dame as we approach Selection Sunday.

The elephant in Niele Ivey’s locker room is that of Hannah Hidalgo’s supporting cast.

While Hidalgo is certainly emptying the clip (and not always at an efficient rate), it feels like she doesn’t have enough behind her to have a bad, or even average, scoring night. The points that she creates from deflections and steals keep Notre Dame’s offense afloat, and her gravity creates looks for her teammates who struggle to make an offensive impact in the rare moments that Hidalgo is on the bench. Notre Dame is still not close to looking like a Final Four team. However, they might be more capable of contending against better teams than most of us thought.

SEC: No. 3 Texas is definitely top 3

It is no surprise that Texas is one of the country’s best teams—they’ve been so all year. However, after a first-half beatdown of South Carolina, the Longhorns have shed some light as to how far they could go in the NCAA Tournament.

Vic Schaefer’s team had been rooted down to the No. 4 spot on the AP Poll for what felt like an eternity. Upper echelon, yes, but not seen as an impenetrable titan like UConn and UCLA.

On Sunday, Texas went up 14-0 against South Carolina and never looked back. They didn’t allow a single run of equivalence, smothering one of the most talented offenses in the country. If they’re able to defend and rebound at the rate they showed in the SEC final, Texas has a legitimate claim to join the pantheon of UConn and UCLA. The Longhorns are contenders in March Madness nonetheless, but it’s time to separate them from teams that we’ve long seen as their peers. Their abysmal shooting night against Vanderbilt in early February still raised legitimate concerns, but Texas will be riding on an all-time high entering the national postseason. If they can avoid a disaster night, Texas should be as much of a lock for the Final Four as the other top three teams.

Big 12: No. 12 West Virginia could be an Elite Eight—or even Final Four—team

A Big 12 championship for West Virginia is a huge accomplishment for them, especially in a season where they weren’t expected to see themselves amongst the nation’s top teams. A strong ending to the final half of conference play started to put the Mountaineers on the radar, and a nine-point win over TCU in the conference championship game has solidified them as a top-20 team.

Despite being an average to below-average shooting team, West Virginia has found a way to threaten teams with their offense. They create an abundance of extra possessions from forced turnovers and offensive rebounds, helping them even out their occasional shooting slumps. They are rotationally challenged, and rarely find production outside of their first five players. Jordan Harrison has been the star of the show for the Mountaineers, winning Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year while leading the team in points produced on the other side of the court. Harrison finished the season second in the conference in box plus/minus to TCU’s Olivia Miles.

West Virginia is a fun team that knows how to create possession advantages throughout the course of a game. They will naturally struggle against more disciplined teams, but their defense always has the potential to fluster opponents if they come out to a slow start. They don’t have the marquee offensive talent that carries teams to a national championship, but we can safely say that the Big 12 title is not the end of their season.