THE STAKES ARE GETTING HIGHER IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT

One weekend in, and this year’s NCAA Tournament is as wild as ever!

In Iowa, the 10th-seed Virginia Cavaliers pulled off a stunning double-overtime upset over the Hawkeyes on Monday afternoon. Despite how the journey ends for UVA, they’ve accomplished some magical firsts:

Going from the First Four to the Sweet Sixteen is an incredibly challenging task, which makes this Virginia run all the more special.

“From the time we played Arizona State, we've been talking about one more, just fighting for one more,” Virginia head coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton said.

“One more moment, one more memory, one more practice, one more game, one more team activity, whatever it is. That's what they were playing with. They were just fighting for one more.”

There’s been a lot of great hoops on display so far, and on the latest edition of We Need to Talk, Erica L. Ayala and Alicia Jay broke it down

Minnesota 65, Ole Miss 63

The UVA win wasn’t the only one that came down to the wire!

In Minneapolis, the Minnesota Golden Gophers trailed in the fourth quarter and rallied to take a late lead before Ole Miss tied the game at 63 on a Latasha Lattimore baseline drive. With three seconds to go, Amaya Battle became a Golden Gopher icon…

Minnesota advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2005 and will face the number one seed, UCLA.

We also saw some WNBA Draft lottery picks say their final goodbyes to their home crowds.

In Connecticut, Azzi Fudd outscored the entire Syracuse team by herself in the first half (26-12) as UCONN dominated the Orange on the way to a 53-point victory.

In Baton Rouge, Flau’jae Johnson said goodbye to the LSU faithful as the Tigers dominated Texas Tech on the way to a 54-point victory.

More on LSU in a bit.

The stakes are getting higher. With the Final Four a week away, teams will put their best foot forward as they try to make history and stay one step ahead of the competition.

Who will survive the pressure? Time to find out.

What’s trending in women’s basketball right now:

🔏 Sweet Sixteen Showdown: Must-Watch Sweet 16 Matchup

Brian’s Pick of the Round is LSU vs. Duke. Can the Tigers repeat their performance from earlier this season? Or will higher seed Duke show what they’re all about?

🤔 Wait… the WNBA Is Playing Where? Phoenix vs. Chicago in South Dakota:
The league heads to a new market—here’s what it signals for expansion, fan growth, and visibility.

💰 The WNBA’s Schedule Shift Could Change Everything
A deeper look at how calendar shifts could reshape the global women’s basketball economy.

We’re officially in the Sweet Sixteen, and one of the biggest matchups will be a rematch of a season-defining matchup from earlier this season.

On December 4, LSU went into Cameron Indoor Stadium and beat Duke 93-77.

The game was an early peak for LSU as they picked up a dominant road win before the calendar turned to conference play. For Duke, it was the low point of their season and capped off a dispiriting four-game losing streak.

Shortly after that loss, Duke ran off a 17-game winning streak, saved their season, and captured the ACC Conference Championship.

This is the seventh meeting all-time between the two schools, with the series tied 3-3, and their first NCAA Tournament meeting since 2010. For Duke, this is a chance to measure how far they’ve come and see if they can avenge their most disappointing loss of the season.

“I know how much we’ve improved throughout the year, all the things we’ve worked on, all the hard practices and all the hard times, especially after games at the beginning of the year,” Toby Fournier said.

“It was really difficult, but we were able to figure it out and figure out what we do well and how we’re able to work as a team. This game really helped prove the progress that we’ve had and all the things that we went through; it was worth it in the end.”

The game tips off in Sacramento, California, on March 27 at 10 PM EST on ESPN.

THE WNBA HEADS TO SOUTH DAKOTA

During CBA negotiations, the WNBA released the 2026 season schedules.

Now that the CBA is complete, we’re on the road to Opening Day. Before the big night on May 8, the preseason will take place in late April. And for the Phoenix Mercury, they’ll be taking their show on the road.

On April 25, the Mercury will host the Chicago Sky in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. To celebrate the occasion, Mercury players and coaches will host an all-girls youth basketball clinic on April 24.

This will be the first WNBA game ever to take place in the state and doubles as a homecoming for Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts. Tibbetts was born in Sioux Falls, played for the University of South Dakota, and served as an assistant coach at the University of Sioux Falls.

South Dakota isn’t known for their athletics, but their history might surprise you.

“We’re a very small state, so one thing I think people sleep on is the basketball in South Dakota,” Las Vegas Aces head coach and South Dakota native Becky Hammon said.

“Mike Miller is another South Dakota guy. Eric Piatkowski. ... Mark Ellis played Major League Baseball. We were in the same graduating class. That’s crazy to have two professional athletes in a school that size in a state that size. So that’s what we do. We do outdoors and sports.”

Games like this will help the WNBA grow. Taking the games and presenting them to fans who previously didn’t have access will go a long way in creating long-term fans.

It’s a perfect, low-risk opportunity that could lead to the highest possible rewards if everything goes right.

EXPANDING THE CALENDAR

The WNBA CBA has been ratified by the Board of Governors, and we are officially on the road to Opening Day this May. As we look ahead to the future, we’re starting to get an early idea of how things will form.

ESPN’s Kendra Andrews and Alexa Philippou reported that under the new CBA, the latest season end date will be November 21. Along with that, the number of games per person will gradually increase over the next few seasons and

Faithful readers of the Women’s Basketball Roundup will recall last summer in issue 044 when we discussed the reporting from our own Erica L. Ayala and Terrika Foster-Brasby over at CBS Sports about the WNBA expanding the schedule.

"There's this thought that we shouldn't be playing on NFL Sundays,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said last summer. “We actually do better ... because people are sitting home watching sports," Engelbert said. "We're not scared of going further in (to the fall)."

The schedule poses some questions. Project B is debuting in November and features a lot of star power.

Players will also continue playing in various leagues during the WNBA offseason.

How will the new schedule impact players and leagues around the world?

We're about to find out.

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