The NCAA DI Women's Basketball Committee revealed its second top 16 teams for the NCAA tournament, as of right now, and we've seen a few changes since the first reveal on Feb 15.
Here's one notable thing you should know about each team with Selection Monday right around the corner:
No. 1 seeds — UConn, Stanford, Texas A&M and South Carolina
1. UConn — The Big East regular-season champs cruised past conference foes to a 17-0 record and will face Marquette in its last conference matchup on March 1. The Huskies have also secured quality wins over out-of-conference opponents South Carolina and Tennessee. UConn's only loss this season came to Arkansas on Jan 28.
2. Stanford — The Cardinal went on a 10-game winning streak and defeated Arizona 62-48 to become Pac-12 champions. This is after suffering back-to-back losses against Colorado and UCLA. The Pac-12 title is Stanford's first regular-season title in the past seven years.
3. Texas A&M — The Aggies have been impressive against top 25 opponents with a 9-0 record. On Feb 28, Texas A&M defeated South Carolina to win its first SEC regular-season championship and clinched a No. 1 seed in the SEC tournament. N'dea Jones also made history in this matchup becoming the Aggies' all-time leading rebounder.
Soak it in. 🏆 😎#GigEm pic.twitter.com/TtdxnA9qZV
— Texas A&M Women's Basketball (@AggieWBB) February 28, 2021
4. South Carolina — The Gamecocks' dominance comes from inside the paint and its transition offense. That's credit to South Carolina's Big Three — Aaliyah Boston, Zia Cooke and Destanni Henderson. Notably, teams draw most of their attention to South Carolina's lethal paint presence, ranked No. 2 in blocked shots in the nation and No. 2 in rebounds in the country.
No. 2 seeds - NC State, Maryland, Arizona and Baylor
5. NC State — NC State has had two hiccups — against Virginia Tech and North Carolina — but the Wolfpack were able to avenge the loss against the Tar Heels on Feb. 21. The Wolfpack are the only team in the country that have bragging rights of knocking off two No. 1 teams this season, taking down South Carolina and Louisville.
6. Maryland — The Terps have a dangerous offensive attack as they are No. 1 in the country in scoring offense, averaging 93.2 points per game. Angel Reese returning to the lineup after suffering an early-season injury adds five Terps on the court who average double-digit points. Maryland's offense is led by Ashley Owusu, but any Terp is capable of being the lead scorer on any given night.
7. Arizona — Pac-12 foes face a tough task when they match up against Arizona's defense. The Wildcats are No. 1 in the Pac-12 in steals, swiping 10.3 steals per game. Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Semifinalist Aari McDonald leads the Pac-12 with 2.5 steals per game. Arizona is also top 4 in blocks in the Pac-12, swatting away 4.5 shots per game.
8. Baylor — The Bears clinched their 11th straight regular-season Big 12 title against Kansas State on Feb 27. But it hasn't been an easy road for Baylor. The Bears have been challenged with many adversities this season facing COVID-19 pauses, a winter storm, a canceled resume booster against UConn and Iowa State ending their 61-game home win streak. Despite the road bumps, Baylor came out on top holding a 19-2 overall record and 14-1 in Big 12 play.
FIRST TOP 16: 1 thing to know about every team in the women's basketball top 16 reveal
No. 3 seeds - Louisville, UCLA, Georgia and Indiana
9. Louisville — Since the first top 16 reveal, Florida State gave the Cardinals its second loss of the season on Feb 21. That's credit to the Seminoles limiting Louisville's lead scorer Dana Evans to 13 points. This is the lowest amount of points Evans scored the entire season. Louisville was originally the No. 1 team for three consecutive weeks until ACC foe NC State knocked them off in a top-4 battle on Feb 1.
10. UCLA — The Bruins were able to finish No. 3 in the Pac-12 with wins over Stanford and Oregon. UCLA has been plagued by lack of depth on the bench this season, but the Bruins have two of the top four Pac-12 scorers in Michaela Onyenwere and Charisma Osborne. The duo averages 36.3 points together.
11. Georgia — Georgia has one of the best defenses in the SEC. Senior guard Que Morison creates pressure around the perimeter, holding 10 of her 14 SEC opponents below their season averages, while center Jenna Staiti hosts a block party in the paint. She ranks No. 4 in the nation with 69 blocked shots.
12. Indiana — The Hoosiers have a balanced scoring attack when it comes to its Big Three — Mackenzie Holmes, Grace Berger and Ali Patberg. In fact, Berger leads the country in triple-doubles and is the only player who has recorded three this season. As the No. 2 team in the conference, Indiana is on track to challenge Maryland for the Big Ten regular-season title with two conference games left.
PREDICTIONS: The 2021 NCAA women's basketball bracket, predicted just past the halfway mark
No. 4 seeds - Tennessee, Kentucky, Oregon and Arkansas
13. Tennessee — Rae Burrell is Tennessee's most consistent scorer, while her backcourt duo Rennia Davis can spark an impressive second-half performance to close out matchups. In the past four games, Davis led the Vols with 20-plus point performances with the majority of her points coming out of the last two quarters. This includes the upset over South Carolina when she scored 24 points in the second half to secure the upset.
14. Kentucky — The Wildcats have an all-around elite player in Rhyne Howard. Howard leads the Wildcats in points, assists and even rebounds per game as a guard. She is also second on Kentucky's stat sheet in blocks and steals. We've also seen Howard score in clutch moments and activate "Rhyne Time" to close out games.
R H Y N E ⌚️@howard_rhyne puts up 2️⃣7️⃣ in @KentuckyWBB's 62-58 win over No. 17 Georgia. pic.twitter.com/Fa9StMCN31
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) February 26, 2021
15. Oregon — Freshman guard TeHina PaoPao has done an incredible job as Oregon's floor general, ranking No. 2 in the Pac-12 and No. 2 in the NCAA, behind UConn's Paige Bueckers, with a 2.40 assist-to-turnover ratio. PaoPao is also ranked No. 2 in the conference in assists, dishing out 4.4 per game. The potential of the young squad is limitless with multiple 3-point weapons around the perimeter and Nyara Sabally's and Sedona Prince's dominance in the paint.
16. Arkansas — You have to pick your poison wisely going against Arkansas' trio of stars — Chelsea Dungee, Destiny Slocum and Amber Ramirez. The Razorbacks can shoot the lights out beyond the arc, hitting the fourth-most 3-pointers in the nation so far. If the 3 isn't there, Arkansas is attacking the basket to get to the charity stripe, leading the country in made free throws. Dungee is Arkansas's all-time leading scorer as of Feb. 25 against Auburn. She also leads the SEC in points and is No. 14 in the country in points per game. She led the Razorbacks to an upset over UConn, knocking down 37 points.
A Razorback Legend 🐐@chelsea_dungee is Last Up During #SeniorWeek. #SideBySide 🐗🏀 pic.twitter.com/ZEajC9A9S3
— Razorback WBB (@RazorbackWBB) February 26, 2021
