3 games to watch in women’s college basketball for Week 2

The second week of the women’s college basketball season includes some monster matchups between championship contenders. Here’s everything you don’t want to miss.

Welcome back to FanSided’s weekly look around the women’s basketball world. Looking for some games to watch this upcoming week? We’ll be highlighting three of them that should be on your radar.

Whether you’re a long-time viewer who’s just looking for a shortcut to see what you should watch or you’re just getting into the sport and want to know about compelling storylines, we have you covered. And at the end, I’ll include a short “other games to watch” section, if you want to take your basketball watching further.

Let’s dig into the second week of the women’s college basketball season!

3. No. 3 Texas at No. 6 UConn

Monday, Nov. 14 — 6:30 PM — FOX Sports 1

This game might lose a little bit of luster if Texas doesn’t have its star point guard, sophomore Rori Harmon. Harmon missed the team’s last game against Louisiana and was described by the program as “day-to-day.” She was seen on the sidelines with a boot on her foot, and the team hasn’t indicated if she’ll play or not on Monday:

And without Harmon, Texas didn’t look great, scoring just 68 points against Louisiana. But despite the Ragin’ Cajuns being a Sun Belt opponent, they’ve been a good defensive team lately, ranking in the 79th percentile in scoring defense last season.

Anyway, both of these teams could be without star guards, as UConn’s Paige Bueckers is out for the season. But there are still plenty of reasons to care about this one. Texas is working some talented transfers, and Taylor Jones had 21 points in the opener. The team needs to do better than 1-for-11 from three.

UConn…well, the Huskies demolished Northeastern 98-39 in the first game. Azzi Fudd led the way with 26 points. With Bueckers out, keep an eye on Fudd this season. She was the top recruit in the 2021 class and made the Big East All-Freshman team last year.

2. No. 1 South Carolina at No. 2 Stanford

Sunday, Nov. 20 — 3:00 PM — ABC

Honestly, I’m not sure why I need to convince you to watch the top two teams in the country play each other. Put the NFL on a second (or third) screen and dial this one up. It has all the storylines.

Are you a WNBA fan? We have the top two projected picks in next year’s draft, Aliyah Boston and Haley Jones, going up against each other. Of course, Boston’s a center and Jones is a guard so they won’t necessarily be “up against each other” directly, but both will be on the floor.

Who will be up against Boston is Cameron Brink, one of the most interesting bigs in the country. Through the first three games this year, Brink’s only playing 17.1 minutes per game because Stanford has blown teams out, winning by an average margin of 52 points. But even in the limited minutes, Brink ranks sixth in the country in blocks per game at 4.0, and has pulled down 7.3 rebounds per contest.

There’s plenty more that could be said about this game, but let’s keep it simple: just watch the two best teams in America play each other.

1. No. 17 Maryland at No. 18 Baylor

Sunday, Nov. 20 — 3:00 PM — ESPN+

The scheduling for this one really stinks, as it goes head-to-head with the South Carolina vs. Stanford game, but this is the year 2022 — you can have multiple games on at the same time. At the very least, throw this one on your computer.

Maryland’s been a tough team to get a read on. They fought really, really hard against South Carolina and it was a game in the first half, but the Gamecocks ended up winning by 25, and then Maryland only beat Fordham by seven. But this is a really aggressive team, led by Abby Meyers, who scored 21 in the loss to South Carolina.

As for Baylor, the Bears are doing what they usually do to open a season, which is beat up on Southland teams. We’ll know a little more about them after they face SMU this week, but so far the addition of former Missouri player Aijha Blackwell is paying dividends, as she’s averaging 20.0 points per game on 72.7% shooting. Baylor is still without Dre’Una Edwards, who will provide a nice anchor at the five. We’ll see if she’s available to play on Sunday.

Other women’s college basketball games to watch

• No. 11 Indiana at No. 5 Tennessee — Monday, Nov. 14, 6:00 PM — ESPN2
• No. 22 Nebraska at No. 21 Creighton — Tuesday, Nov. 15, 7:00 PM — FloSports
• No. 15 Oklahoma at Utah — Wednesday, Nov. 16, 9:00 PM — Pac-12 Networks
• No. 4 Iowa at Kansas State — Thursday, Nov. 17, 9:00 PM — ESPN+
• Gonzaga at No. 7 Louisville — Saturday, Nov. 19, 7:30 PM — FloSports
• No. 10 NC State at No. 6 UConn — Sunday, Nov. 20,  1:00 PM — FOX Sports 1
• UT Arlington at No. 15 Oklahoma — Sunday, Nov. 20, 4:30 PM — ESPN+