Women’s college basketball is back, and Day 1 of the 2023-24 season was full of exciting freshmen, 18 ranked teams on the court, three meetings between Top 25 opponents and one massive upset.
Defending national champion LSU — which returns Final Four Most Outstanding Player Angel Reese — turned heads in the offseason by bringing in top transfers Hailey Van Lith and Aneesah Morrow, while also signing the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class. But the Tigers didn’t look the part of the best team in the country Monday. No. 20 Colorado dominated LSU for three quarters, coming away with a 92-78 upset victory in the Hall of Fame series in Las Vegas.
LSU’s loss marked the first time that the defending champion or No. 1 team in the country dropped its season opener since UConn to start the 1995-96 season, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
Earlier Monday, freshmen dominated the storylines with memorable debuts. Notre Dame‘s Hannah Hidalgo scored 31 points in a loss to South Carolina, a top-10 game in which Magic Johnson said Gamecocks’ MiLaysia Fulwiley made “the best move in all of basketball.”
Then USC‘s JuJu Watkins showed why she was considered a program-changer even before suiting up for the Trojans, scoring 32 points as Lindsay Gottlieb’s No. 21-ranked squad upset No. 7 Ohio State…
