December 28, 2023

By Riley Zayas

Hope everyone had a happy holidays and a Merry Christmas! This is a great time of the year, and we’re now into our final holiday tournaments of the season. The next tournaments on the calendar after this week? Conference tournaments, and of course, the NCAA Tournament soon to follow. That’s hard to believe! We’re halfway through the season, and honestly, this season has gone so fast. I’m excited to see how conference play unfolds across the country, and we will have no shortage of things to talk about as January and February plays out.

I put together a Top 25 ranking this weekend, just to see where I was on several of these teams as we enter a huge week of non-conference matchups. Next week, we’re back to submitting official Top 25 ballots for the D3hoops.com Top 25 Poll, so expect a new Top 25 next Monday. Until then, here’s how I’m seeing the national landscape of D3 women’s basketball! I kept my thoughts to more of minimum this week, but hopefully some of it provides good insight and reasoning behind why some of these teams are where they are within my Top 25.

1. NYU: Nothing has changed here. We’ll see how NYU looks coming out of a long break and playing on the West Coast this week against UC-Santa Cruz and UW-Platteville, but the Violets have continually earned the top spot in my ballot. UAA play will be the real test.
2. Transylvania: A close second, the defending national champions look to be playing the best defense in the entire country. Opponents simply can’t score on the Pioneers. Last week against Bluffton in HCAC play, Transy held the Beavers to four straight single-digit quarters in a 75-29 win. The last time this season that Transy allowed more than 50 points in a game? Nov. 12 against DePauw. And they allowed exactly 50 in that one. Record watch: The D-III record for scoring defense in a season was set by New Rochelle in ‘99…that season, New Rochelle allowed an average of 39.2 points per game. The Pioneers currently sit at 41.3 points per game. I should note that it is much tougher to maintain that average come NCAA tournament time, and yes, postseason games do factor into the final total when it comes to records and such. But it just puts into perspective how strong the Transylvania defense has been so far.
3. UW-Whitewater: This was a tough selection in terms of keeping Rhode Island College behind UW-Whitewater, but when you look at the numbers and watch the film, I think the Warhawks win out narrowly. RIC came up with a huge win over Gustavus Adolphus last week, but UWW had a really solid win of its own, defeating Messiah 62-36 in Puerto Rico. That came a day after beating Manhattanville, 70-35. Messiah was held to just 13 points in the entire second half of that game, a further sign that UWW’s defense is really coming alive. That is especially timely, with WIAC play tipping off in about a week. This UWW team is Final Four-caliber, no doubt.
4. Rhode Island College: Based on what I saw from the win over Gustavus Adolphus, I’d say RIC is very much in the conversation for another big run to the Final Four, but this year, the Anchorwomen won’t surprise many. The level RIC has been playing at is incredible, and just watching the film from the neutral court win over Gustavus, RIC’s defensive pressure against an extremely dangerous and balanced Gustie offense really stuck out. And RIC also beat Baldwin Wallace handily while in Florida, which is a great win that adds a little bit to the resume.
5. Scranton: The Lady Royals have a key test upcoming against Elizabethtown on Jan. 3 and picked up a key road win in overtime against #18 DeSales last week that should prove impactful on Scranton’s resume. Scranton has found different ways to win throughout this season, and that is a valuable attribute. D-I transfer Victoria Toomey continues to be an impact transfer for the Lady Royals and has done a good job of giving Scranton an edge in the post. My Top 6 teams are all undefeated, and the margin between 4-6 is very minimal.
6. Christopher Newport: Again, the margin between Scranton and CNU is extremely narrow. Grove City challenged the Captains a little more than I would’ve anticipated in the first game of last week’s Music City Classic, but then again, it was the first game of the event, and played not long after a lengthy bus trip to Tennessee. The win over Whitman was especially impressive, considering Whitman looked like the better team for the entire first 10 minutes before CNU turned the momentum and took charge. The 70-61 victory is CNU’s best win to date, and the Captains hold steady at #6.
7. Illinois Wesleyan: The Titans continue to climb in my rankings, with a seven-game win streak heading into Friday’s matchup at Hendrix. As I’ve said before, the fact that IWU has won (and won convincingly in multiple cases) against good competition without a completely healthy roster is a major point in the Titans’ favor. Once Lauren Huber is back on the floor, this team will only be more dangerous. The offensive schemes are polished, and this is a program that has long taken pride in tenacious defense. We saw that in the win at Chicago, and with the way IWU has performed as of late, I’d put them up against anyone in the country. In my eyes, and with what we’ve seen recently, this is a Top 10 team…no doubt about it.
8. Gustavus Adolphus: A loss to RIC does not do much to hurt the Gusties’ resume in my opinion. It was a competitive game, and RIC has proven to a Top-5 team consistently so far. Gustavus is still very much in the national title conversation in my opinion, and it won’t surprise me in the slightest if they run the table in the MIAC and go undefeated in league play once again this season.
9. Hope: The Flying Dutch have proven to be a top-tier team for the better part of this season. Starting with the IWU and UW-Platteville wins in mid-November, and leading up through the big victory over Millikin last Wednesday, Hope continues to impress. The Flying Dutch are 10-1, and I honestly didn’t think I’d have Hope in the Top 10 before New Year’s Day. But here we are.
10. Wartburg: Whitman took down the Knights by a fairly significant margin at the Music City Classic, and that forced me to move Wartburg down a little bit. But not out of the Top 10. We saw them defeat a fairly strong DePauw team the next day, 89-40, and if anything, that result proved the loss to Whitman was more of a combination of Whitman being better than expected and Wartburg having a tough afternoon. Wartburg is very much a top-caliber team and I’ll be interested to see if we get a Wartburg/WashU matchup in the championship game of the Wartburg Holiday Tournament on Saturday. That’ll be one more great non-conference test for the Knights before ARC play resumes.
11. Emory: I really like the Eagles’ chances to have a big year in the UAA. Claire Brock and Daniella Aronsky are two of the best players in the league and we shall see how Emory fares against a strong Hardin-Simmons squad in Atlanta later this week. That’ll be a great test, and unlike the CNU game earlier this year, Emory should have Brock available, which will make a difference. UAA play is right around the corner!
12. Millikin: Losing to Hope in Holland is not going to damage Millikin’s resume all that much. From a Top 25 perspective, Millikin battled through all four quarters, and it was competitive all the way through. Elyce Knudsen is undoubtedly one of the most electrifying players in the country, and what she can do with the ball in her hands is amazing. Bailey Coffman continues to be a force there in the post, and Millikin has plenty of contributors stepping up around those two. The Big Blue is 9-2, and amongst Millikin’s nine victories are wins over DePauw and UW-Platteville, both of which really boost the resume.
13. UW-Stout: Another team that makes a big jump forwards. At this point, Stout has shown it has all the pieces to compete on a national level, and the guard play we’ve seen from the Blue Devils has been nothing short of incredible. This team is very dangerous from 3-point range, and is efficient on the offensive end, which will yield good results in WIAC play. The Blue Devils battle Augsburg on Saturday before getting into WIAC play. Whether this high ranking holds up or not remains to be seen, but I am very confident in putting Stout at #13, based on the film I’ve watched, and comparing what I’ve seen to the other handful of teams that are realistically of Top 25 caliber.
14. Smith: 7-1 with a handful of quality victories, Smith hasn’t played since Dec. 9. The Pioneers are back in action on Saturday, and NEWMAC play tips off in early January. That will be the big test for Smith. So far, I think this continues to be a team that has exceeded expectations, and I think a lot of that goes back to how balanced the Pioneers are offensively. They’ve scored 60+ points in all eight games, which is not something always seen amongst top teams in the northeast region of the country.
15. Hardin-Simmons: As previously mentioned, HSU is prepping for a big test at Emory on Saturday. Overall, the Cowgirls have largely played at the high level we anticipated they would, and in a lot of ways, a tremendous amount of credit should go towards HSU’s strong senior class. Their leadership seems to have been instrumental in the early part of the season, especially coming off the disappointing loss at ETBU. HSU is 10-1, and has won its last five, including a quality win over UT-Dallas at the very beginning of last week. The ASC is going to be an exciting conference race to follow as the rest of the season plays out.
16. Chicago: The Maroons are 7-2 and they don’t have a bad loss, having come up short in games against UW-Whitewater and Illinois Wesleyan heading into the holiday break. The 74-68 overtime win over Carroll remains Chicago’s “best” result (in my opinion), but the Maroons have a great opportunity at two RRO victories on Friday and Saturday. Their resume could easily skyrocket if they manage to go 2-0 against Johns Hopkins and Bowdoin at another edition of the Music City Classic in Nashville.
17. Amherst: Amherst is one of the tougher teams to judge and rank, considering the Mammoths haven’t yet played a Top 100 team. But they are 7-0 and playing at the level I expected they would, having brought everyone back from last year’s squad. Kori Barach leads the team in both scoring and rebounding, and is following up well on her stellar sophomore season in 2022-23. Definitely a player to watch once NESCAC play tips off.
18. Johns Hopkins: The Blue Jays play in a very competitive Centennial Conference and already faced #1 NYU, so JHU knows what playing tough opponents is all about. This matchup against Chicago on Friday is especially timely considering it is a mid-season game, rather than a season-opening weekend contest like NYU was. And in a region that has Scranton, Elizabethtown, Catholic, Gettysburg, and Messiah, JHU needs every potential RRO win that it can get. The Blue Jays are 8-1, having won their last seven, and are coming off a 20-day holiday break. With their body of work so far, including wins over WashU, Marymount, and Gettysburg (along with what I’ve see from an eye test perspective), JHU definitely belongs in the Top 20 for the time being.
19. Whitman: I was skeptical of Whitman early, but watching the Blues defeat Wartburg how they did, and battle CNU all the way through, my skepticism was clearly a bit presumptuous. The loss to Willamette back on Dec. 2 still doesn’t look great on the resume, but neither does HSU’s loss to ETBU, or Smith’s loss to Mass.-Dartmouth. Whitman holds quality wins over Pacific, Colorado College, and Wartburg at this point, which should yield at least two RRO wins for the Blues. Schematically, Whitman has been very effective when it comes to passing on offense, with good reads and well-timed passes to the post. The Blues have also been pretty consistent with their offensive rebounding, and those second-chance opportunities are huge, especially in tight games.
20. Bowdoin: A four-point loss to what is a very good Whittier team remains Bowdoin’s only blemish, as the Polar Bears are 8-1 with wins over Springfield, Bates, and Colby. Facing Chicago on Saturday will be Bowdoin’s toughest opponent yet, and I’m excited for that one. This team is led by Sydney Jones, a junior guard who seems to make plays left and right for Bowdoin on both ends of the floor, as she averages 14.2 points and 6.2 rebounds per game. Bowdoin has used the same starting five for all nine games this season, and there is a sense of chemistry and cohesiveness seen when watching the Polar Bears play. I would guess that consistency in the starting lineup has something to do with it.
21. Trinity (TX): Depth is the concerning aspect of things with Trinity, and it was evident in the Tigers’ two losses in Oregon against Willamette and Puget Sound last week. Injuries certainly factored into that, with Natalie Anderson being unavailable for both games, and Maggie Robbins playing sparingly against Willamette and not at all against Puget Sound. Ava Limoncello played sparingly in both games as she came off an injury suffered against Southwestern on Dec. 2. So the impact of those injuries cannot be overstated. At the end of the day, Trinity is 8-3 with losses to really strong teams, but the performance we saw on the West Coast certainly hurt the Tigers’ Top 25 standing. We’ll see what the D3hoops.com Classic brings, as Trinity faces Ohio Northern and Framingham State on consecutive days.
22. Trine: The Thunder are 8-2 and much like in past years, it seems the MIAA title will come down to Hope or Trine. Having watched Trine battle UW-Stout so closely, and beat Ohio Northern on the road, the Thunder are clearly playing at a Top 25 level. Early on, that was a little tougher to see, but as the season progresses, Trine is definitely solidifying itself within these rankings. Two challenging non-conference duels are on tap for the Thunder against Carnegie Mellon and Gettysburg later this week.
23. Mary Hardin-Baylor: The Cru is 11-1 under Katie Novak-Lenoir, in her first year as head coach of the program, and currently holds an 11-game win streak after beating Berry and Millsaps in New York City. Playing with pace and rebounding incredibly well, UMHB is playing at a very high level right now. The Crusaders’ only loss came against Trinity (TX) in the season opener, and was a game that saw UMHB hold a 10-point second-half lead, only for Trinity to mount an incredible comeback and steal the win. Again, keep an eye on the ASC title race. Between UMHB, HSU, and McMurry, it will be an exciting league to watch in Region 10.
24. DeSales: The Bulldogs continue to win with great defense, as per usual, and taking Scranton into OT was a point in their favor. They slowed down the Scranton scoring attack, and previous to that, beat Messiah by 20 in an impressive victory. DeSales is 7-2 and has a very tough start to MACF play, so keep an eye on these next few weeks for DeSales. The Bulldogs face Arcadia, Lebanon Valley, and Stevens by mid-January. All three have a legitimate shot to be regionally-ranked.
25. Loras: The Duhawks slid into the #25 spot, and it wasn’t easy. Tufts, Elizabethtown, Webster, Catholic, and Trinity (CT) were all very much in the mix for #25, but Loras ultimately won out. 8-2 overall with a recent win over Elizabethtown in Puerto Rico looks pretty good, and the 51-36 victory over Coe back on Nov. 21 is even stronger now that Coe is off to a 10-2 start. The win over Elizabethtown showcased Loras’ offensive strengths, as the Duhawks shot 50.9 percent from the field, had 36 points in the paint, and Silvana Scarsella scored 30. If Loras can keep that kind of offensive rhythm going into ARC play, the Duhawks will be tough to beat.