One of the difficulties of evaluating teams during the nonconference portion of the season is that many top programs load their schedules with home games. Sure, multi-team events like the Thanksgiving Feast Week tournaments feature games on neutral sites, but the ratio of home games to true road contests is heavily tilted toward the former. And road games truly reveal the mettle of the best teams in the country.
USC proved itself in a boisterous environment in Hartford, Conn., staving off a late rally from UConn to extend its seven-game winning streak. TCU continues to rebound from its blowout loss to South Carolina, starting Big 12 play with a bang at UCF. LSU had a pseudo road game, traveling to Aneesah Morrow’s hometown of Chicago and winning convincingly at UIC to remain one of Division I’s eight undefeated teams.
💦💦💦💦 pic.twitter.com/yVgZjfffVJ
— USC Women’s Basketball (@USCWBB) December 22, 2024
Other squads fell short in their away tests, even against unranked opponents, and will have to sit with those results for a long time, as every team takes the week off for the holidays before conference play resumes over the weekend. Until then, let’s take stock of which teams are worth celebrating and which have been inflating their success by padding their…
