A competitive UConn-Tennessee game, some competition for Baylor in the Big 12 and a race for player of the year would be good for the game in 2021.
Just this weekend in women’s college basketball, Duke ended its season amid coronavirus concerns, No.22 Syracuse went into a pause after a positive test within the program, Oregon State extended its pause and Ole Miss postponed its SEC opener with South Carolina. As Tennessee coach Kellie Harper — whose Lady Vols earlier this month had a game at Texas canceled after they had already flown to Austin — put it, you have to plan knowing changes are all but inevitable. « I think when you see that, you naturally step back and think, ‘Wow, what’s this going to look like in another month?’ » Harper said of her reaction to the Duke news. « We’ll make a plan for the week, and then we’ll take it day-by-day. » No more COVID-19 related cancellations would be No.1 on our New Year’s wish list for the rest of the season, but that’s not realistic. So here’s a look at some things that would be good to see — and good for the game — in 2021. Nothing against the Lady Bears. But for the past decade, Baylor has owned the conference, and things are a little more fun when there’s some suspense. It used to be that way in the Big 12: Nine programs won or shared the regular-season title during the conference’s first 14 years. But Baylor has won the regular-season title the last 10 years in a row — sharing it just once in that time (2014 with West Virginia) — with a 170-8 conference record. Baylor also has won eight of the past nine Big 12 tournaments. Iowa State upset the Lady Bears in their 2020 regular-season finale, but Baylor would have been favored to win the league tournament title again had it not been canceled by the pandemic. Currently, No.6 Baylor is 7-1 and will next face TCU on Jan.2, followed by a nonconference showdown with No.3 UConn on Jan.7 in Waco, Texas. No.20 Texas is the only other ranked Big 12 team, but they don’t play until Feb.14 at Baylor and March 1 at Texas. Baylor also has two games against Iowa State, which beat the Lady Bears last March by controlling the pace and hitting 10 3-pointers. It still took a foul called on Baylor with less than a second left, and Iowa State making a free throw, for the Cyclones to get that 57-56 win and snap Baylor’s 58-game Big 12 regular-season winning streak. No one is expecting the Lady Bears, currently led by junior NaLyssa Smith at 17.3 PPG and 9.3 RPG, to let down. But the rest of the conference has to try to turn up the heat. We know this series isn’t going to be what it used to be, with late Tennessee legend Pat Summitt no longer here. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be something else that also brings value to the sport. Whether these programs will continue the rivalry remains to be seen. UConn coach Geno Auriemma was upset that the NCAA didn’t grant Evina Westbrook a transfer waiver last season. And in the process of complaining about the NCAA, he was also criticizing Tennessee and former coach Holly Warlick by alleging Westbook deserved the waiver because of her experiences with the Lady Vols. Will Harper see that as a roadblock to keeping the series? Does Auriemma want to keep playing Tennessee? Those answers might come closer to the Jan.21 game in Knoxville. Last season in Hartford, UConn won 60-45 in the programs’ first meeting since 2007. Tennessee led 31-28 at halftime, but scored just 14 points in the second half. This season, the Huskies have started 5-0, while Tennessee is 5-1 (its loss was in overtime at West Virginia). By the time they meet — provided there are no postponements — the Lady Vols already will have faced three ranked SEC teams (No.
