I don't understand what happened in women's college basketball this week, but I'm going to try my best to make sense of it.
The final week of the regular season was by far the most chaotic we've seen so far this year, with four of last week's top 15 teams suffered multiple losses this week. All four — LSU, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kansas State — lost to an unranked team this week as well.
It was a wild week of women's college basketball and it's going to shake up the AP Top 25 more than it's been shaken up all season.
Below is a projection of what Monday's AP Top 25 poll will look like after a wild week.
Projected AP Top 25 women's college basketball rankings
1. Texas
2. USC
3. UConn
4. South Carolina
5. UCLA
6. Notre Dame
7. NC State
8. TCU
9. Oklahoma
10. Duke
11. Ohio State
12. LSU
13. Kentucky
14. North Carolina
15. Maryland
16. Baylor
17. West Virginia
18. Tennessee
19. Kansas State
20. Alabama
21. Oklahoma State
22. Florida State
23. South Dakota State
24. Richmond
25. Creighton
USC knocks off UCLA
The best player in college basketball — men's or women's — added to her legacy on Saturday night, scoring 30 points while adding five assists, two steals and three blocks in an 80-67 win over No. 2 UCLA.
This UCLA team is very good, but the duo of Watkins and Kiki Iriafen is just impossible to match up with. The two combined for 47 of USC's 80 points.
The Trojans have now taken down the Bruins twice this year. USC's only Big Ten loss was to Iowa in a weird game where Lucy Olsen was unstoppable for the Hawkeyes. This team might deserve to be the title favorite.
Duke has an impressive week
Only one team had multiple ranked wins this week. That team was Duke, which knocked off No. 8 North Carolina and No. 24 Florida State.
It's been tough to get a read on the Blue Devils, who have some huge wins on their resume but saw a lot of their recent momentum dashed by back-to-back losses to Notre Dame and Louisville. Two wins over two ranked teams by a combined 29 points, though? That coupled with a number of bad losses to teams ranked above them will rocket the Blue Devils into the top 10.
Tennessee and North Carolina stumble
I saw that Tennessee played Georgia on Sunday and I thought I don't need to watch that game. Sure, Tennessee lost in a blowout earlier in the week to Kentucky, but the Wildcats are a very good team. The Bulldogs aren't. The team's Her Hoop Stats rating of 135 is second-lowest in the SEC, behind only Arkansas.
Then I opened my sports scores app and saw Tennessee down by like...20? To Georgia? Uhh?
It was just an awful shooting night for Tennessee, with the Volunteers going 6-for-28 from deep and dropping their second game in a row. They'll tumble down the rankings.
Likewise, North Carolina lost twice this week too. The loss to Duke was one thing, but falling to Virginia is rough. The Cavaliers are under .500 in ACC play, but outdueled UNC behind a huge night from Latasha Lattimore. Virginia played just six players, but rarely showed signs of being gassed, overcoming an 11-point halftime deficit.
LSU and Kansas State also both lost twice this week, but non-ranked losses to Ole Miss and Iowa State respectively don't look nearly as bad compared to the losses for Tennessee and North Carolina.
TCU and Baylor was must-watch TV on Sunday
Baylor's come on strong lately and a win over Kansas State earlier in the week put the Bears in a spot where a win over TCU would give them the Big 12 regular season crown.
Defensively, Baylor did what it needed to go against TCU, but the offense — a major strength for the Bears this season — completely tanked, scoring just 48 points and shooting 27.7% from the floor.
Despite that, Baylor only lost by three. Baylor moves up a spot this week despite the loss because of the win over Kansas State. The Bears will need to have a strong Big 12 tournament run, but I think it's still possible for the team to be a top 16 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
I have no idea what's happening from 23-25
The pollsters have been hesitant to ranked mid-majors this year, but the bottom four teams in last week's rankings all suffered a loss this week. Florida State won't drop out because of a win over Notre Dame, but what about the rest?
It's possible that with the three unranked power conference teams from last week who received the most votes also losing this week, we get the same 25 teams shuffled around, but South Dakota State and Richmond have both played so well lately. They deserve to sneak into the Top 25. I think Creighton stays in since it lost to No. 5 UConn and was ahead of Michigan State and Louisville, but the latter two should be out. I'm not sure I trust that they actually will be, but we should rank these two deserving mid-majors.