PALO ALTO, Calif. — Wait, hold on a minute. Upsets like this aren’t supposed to happen, especially during the N.C.A.A. basketball tournament on the women’s side.
On Sunday night, on its packed home court, a No. 1-seeded Stanford team fronted by a pair of all-Americans played as if it were struggling to learn the basics — layups and intelligent passing, to name two.
Mississippi, an eighth-seeded team laden with transfers, swarmed the court in waves, hitting virtually every crucial shot and seeming to put a body (or three or four) on every Cardinal attempting a shot near the basket.
Mississippi never trailed. When Stanford, at long last, tied the score in the final two minutes, Mississippi’s response was to clamp down even harder on defense, forcing the Cardinal into turnovers. Final score: Mississippi on top, 54-49.
What a game. What a moment for women’s basketball, where a boom in talented players and teams, along with fundamental changes in college sports, is adding fresh layers of competitive parity.
When it was over, I watched the entire Mississippi team and its effervescent coach dance on the court and take photos while standing on the Cardinal logo long after most of the home team’s fans had left Maples Pavilion.
Stanford’s players were left teary-eyed and…
