Nation’s Top Teams Continue To Match Talent

The calendar is about to turn to January and the northern snow cover is crunching underfoot in the bitter cold. In basketball, that means it’s time to gear up for conference play.

Yet even as league races start to dominate the schedule, there still are a number of marquee intersectional matchups left that could affect the national rankings - all the way up to No. 1.

Top-ranked Connecticut has one such game next Sunday, playing host to No. 6 Tennessee at the Hartford Civic Center. On that same day, No. 15 Penn State visits No. 4 Georgia and two days later, Tennessee plays at No. 2 Old Dominion.

Those games could shake things up at the top of the poll, and Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma says that wouldn’t bother him a bit.

“The more places around the country that have schools that get to be No. 1, the more women’s basketball is going to grow,” Auriemma said. “It might be the case this season where we’re going to have a bunch of teams that present themselves as ‘OK, we’re pretty good.”’

As usual, Tennessee will be playing more showcase non-conference games than anyone. After the swing through UConn and Old Dominion, the Vols will entertain No. 24 DePaul on Jan. 28, play host to No. 16 Wisconsin on Feb. 4 and finish the regular season at No. 5 Louisiana Tech on Feb. 24.

Other enticing matchups include No. 12 Texas at No. 14 Vanderbilt next Sunday and UConn at Georgia Jan. 20, No. 22 Arkansas at No. 23 Stephen F. Austin on Jan. 28, a Feb. 1 first doubleheader at Colorado featuring Texas against No. 21 Clemson and No. 8 North Carolina State against Colorado, and DePaul at Vanderbilt on Jan. 28.

Louisiana Tech, ODU off to hot starts

Louisiana Tech and Old Dominion have been two of the bigger surprises this season.

True, both were in the preseason Top 25, but they’ve turned out to be better than expected.

The Techsters lost all five starters from last season’s team, which was ranked No. 1 for most of the year. But they won their first nine games, including a victory over Tennessee, before losing at DePaul. They’ve reached as high as No. 3 in the poll after starting out 14th.

Old Dominion, led by its Portuguese-speaking trio Clarisse Machanguana, Ticha Penicheiro and Mery Andrade, beat Stanford by 17 and also has defeated Vanderbilt, Duke and Purdue in a 9-1 start.

Once the Monarchs face Tennessee, they probably won’t be seriously tested again until the NCAA Tournament.

The biggest disappointment so far? It has to be Iowa, which returned the top six scorers from a 27-4 team but stumbled out of the gate at 4-4. The Hawkeyes, sixth in the preseason poll, are no longer in the Top 25.

Injured Dogs

The injury list at Georgia keeps growing, and the latest was the most severe.

Starting point guard Kiesha Brown tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee during an 85-52 victory over Toledo in Alaska and will be lost for the rest of the season. Spokane area basketball fans had the chance to watch the talented guard last summer in the AAU Tournament.

Big draw

The Connecticut mystique is still going strong.

The Huskies continue to pack ‘em in at newly expanded Gampel Pavilion and lead the nation in attendance with an average of 9,059 a game. Gampel now seats more than 10,000, up from 8,241.

Hornets nest

Sacramento State is only 1-7, but the Hornets have been a pesky bunch nevertheless.

They’re averaging 15.3 steals a game, a decent number considering the NCAA record is 19 per game by Grambling in the 1994-95 season. Senior Kris Karley twice has made seven steals in a game and junior Kellie Kuelper has reached that figure once.

Eastern Washington travels to Sacramento State Jan. 9