3 games to watch in women’s college basketball for Week 10

This week’s women’s college basketball schedule is loaded with must-watch games, including key battles for control of the Pac-12.

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 10th week of the women’s college basketball season!

All stats from Her Hoop Stats unless otherwise noted.

Here are the women’s college basketball games you won’t want to miss this week:

3. No. 2 Stanford @ No. 12 UCLA

Friday, Jan. 13, 11:00 p.m.— Pac-12 Network

There are some really good Pac-12 games this week … which happens when a conference has as many good teams as the Pac-12. Let’s start this week off by focusing on Friday’s game between Stanford and UCLA.

The Cardinal enter the week 16-1, with the lone loss coming in overtime against South Carolina. But this Stanford program might not be as unbeatable as you think — they only managed to beat Cal by four on Sunday, and UCLA’s a better team than Cal is.

Stanford ranks eighth in the country in scoring offense and 30th in scoring defense, but it was the offense that disappointed against the Golden Bears, scoring 60 points on 32.3 percent shooting. It was their lowest-scoring effort and lowest field goal percentage of the season. In fact, the team has shot under 40 percent just twice — and it’s in the last two games.

Can UCLA take advantage of that? The Bruins are 14-2, but they haven’t necessarily looked like a team with that record, as they sit outside the top 50 in scoring offense and scoring defense. Like Stanford, UCLA has a loss to South Carolina, while the other lost came on New Year’s Day against Oregon State. The team is coming off a one-point win on Sunday against USC.

The Bruins do have one of the country’s best players though in Charisma Osborne. She’s averaging 17.4 points per game, along with 6.2 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.4 steals. Can she fuel an upset win on Friday?

2. No. 21 Kansas @ No. 17 Oklahoma

Saturday, Jan. 14, 3:00 PM — ESPN+

The Big 12 is weird this year. There’s not really an elite team in it that can win a national title, but there are a lot of really talented ones, with two of those facing off on Saturday when Oklahoma plays host to Kansas.

Oklahoma might be the most fascinating team in the country just because of the huge disparity in their play on both ends. The Sooners can outscore anyone, with their 86.6 points per game ranking fifth in the country. They can also be outscored by anyone: the 74.5 points per game they allow ranks 337th.

Some of that’s because of pace. Oklahoma’s a fun team to watch because they’re always running up and down the floor. The Sooners — who beat preseason Big 12 favorites Iowa State on Sunday — also end up giving up a lot of points because of that play style. They look a little better defensively if we go by defensive rating, but they’re still only 198th out of 361 teams in it. If Oklahoma’s going to win the Big 12, it’s going to be from just the sheer exhaustion of their opponents.

As for Kansas, the Jayhawks are a pleasant surprise this year as they sit 12-2 right now. They’re 2-1 in conference play, but it’s probably a bad sign that they lost by 13 to the only other Big 12 contender they faced.

Kansas ranks 22nd in the country in defensive rating, setting this up to be one of those games where we watch an unstoppable force and an immovable object. If Kansas is going to be more than just a good story this season, they have to show that they can force turnovers and block shots against an offense this good. The team is 17th in blocks per game and 13th in block rate, and they managed to block seven shots against Baylor, despite losing.

1. No. 10 NC State @ No. 22 North Carolina

Sunday, Jan. 15, 3:30 PM — ESPN

It’s a battle of North Carolina on Sunday afternoon as North Carolina plays host to NC State.

The Tar Heels looked like one of the country’s best teams for the first six weeks or so of the season, but then they went on a four-game losing streak, falling to Michigan, Florida State, Virginia Tech, and Miami. But the largest of those defeats was just eight points, and the team might have gotten back on track on Sunday, taking down Notre Dame 60-50.

Overall, UNC has some things they need to fix, like ranking 249th in free throw percentage, which really hurts when you’re losing close games. But there are some things the Tar Heels do really well — they’re ninth in block rate and 14th in turnover rate.

And if UNC’s going to win a tough ACC, it has to turn things around quickly, making this essentially a must-win for the team even though it’s only the first half of January.

But taking down the Wolfpack will be tough. The team ranks 23rd in average margin per game, as well as 23rd in net rating. The team is 20th in field goal percentage and 24th in three-point percentage.

Plus, they also really need this one, as they’ve already lost twice in ACC play, falling to Duke and Boston College. But they got back on track Sunday, taking down Virginia by 25. Diamond Johnson leads the Wolfpack attack, but there are a lot of good pieces around her, like Jakia Brown-Turner, Jada Boyd and Saniya Rivers.

Other games to watch

• No. 21 Kansas @ Texas — Tuesday, Jan. 10, 8:00 p.m. — Longhorn Network
• Rice @ Middle Tennessee — Wednesday, Jan. 11, 7:00 p.m. — ESPN+
• No. 5 UConn @ No. 24 St. John’s — Wednesday, Jan. 11, 8:00 p.m. — TBD
• No. 13 Maryland @ No. 6 Indiana — Thursday, Jan. 12, 6:30 p.m. — Big Ten Network
• Louisville @ No. 9 Virginia Tech — Thursday, Jan. 12, 7:00 p.m. — ACC Extra
• No. 15 Arizona @ No. 8 Utah — Sunday, Jan. 15, 2:00 p.m. — Pac-12 Networks
• No. 11 Iowa State @ Texas — Sunday, Jan. 15, 5:00 p.m. — ESPN2