UConn women’s basketball to play LSU in Nashville, hot seat watch, more

Rebecca Lobo broke some news last week when she appeared on “A Touch More,” the podcast co-hosted by Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe: Next season, UConn and LSU are going to meet in a neutral-site non-conference game in Nashville, Tennessee.

Multiple sources confirmed to USA Today Sports this game is happening. The Huskies and the Tigers will meet in Bridgestone Arena — the home of the NHL’s Nashville Predators — and it will air on ESPN. The game is being organized by ESPN Events, but it’s unclear if the matchup is a one-off or part of a double-header.

UConn coach Geno Auriemma seemingly confirmed the matchup on Sunday, reacting to the news that Lobo spilled the beans on Bird’s podcast in the only way he can: “People join the media and they can’t keep a secret.”

Auriemma added no date has been finalized, but he’s hoping it’s “one of those January or February” games. Over the past few years, UConn has tried to schedule one or two non-conference games during the final two months of the regular season, playing teams like Notre Dame, Tennessee and South Carolina. Those matchups often give UConn the opportunity to test themselves against NCAA Tournament-level competition and get resume-boosting victories.

LSU coach Kim Mulkey didn’t speak to reporters after the Tigers’ win over Oklahoma on Sunday. According to a team spokesperson, she had to attend to “a personal family matter.”

UConn and LSU haven’t played since Mulkey took over as Tigers coach in 2021. They last played in 2016, with the Huskies winning a true road game in Baton Rouge. Dating back to her days at Baylor, Auriemma is 5-4 all-time against teams coached by Mulkey.

Knowing this matchup is happening, it wouldn’t be a shock to see the NCAA Tournament selection committee set up a scenario where LSU and UConn could meet in a Sweet 16 or Elite Eight matchup this season, pitting recognizable stars like Flau’Jae Johnson and Azzi Fudd against each other. After all, part of the committee’s job is to make a great product for television.

What about the rest of the Big East?

Seton Hall coach Tony Bozzella understands the makeup of the Big East and doesn’t have any delusions about the best team in the conference.

Since No. 1-ranked UConn returned to the league in 2021, it has won five consecutive regular season and conference tournament championships. Dating back to the Huskies’ days in the old Big East, they won seven of the nine conference tournaments played between 2005 and 2013 before spending nearly a decade in the American Conference.

UConn is at the top, and then everyone else is battling for position in the Big East standings. And that’s the way it’s been for a long time.

“The hard part about our league is, we know we’re not getting the automatic bid, right? We know who’s going to win. So, you got to have a good enough record to get an at-large (bid to the NCAA Tournament),” Bozzella told USA Today Sports. “I’m hoping that those people on the committee are smart enough to know that finishing second in the Big East is like finishing first in the Ivy and the A-10, because there’s no UConn. Sometimes our numbers analytically get skewed because you’re playing UConn and you’re losing by 30 or 40. They’re like, ‘Well, you should be closer.’

“Did you tell South Carolina that in the championship game last year? No.”

As of Monday, the Big East has two teams not named UConn ranked in the top 50 of NET: Villanova and Bozzella’s Seton Hall. Currently, Villanova has the better resume as it’s 37th in NET, 37th in WAB (wins above bubble), and 4-4 in Quad 1 and 2 games. Bozzella’s Pirates, meanwhile, are 0-4 in those games. Three mid-major programs — Princeton, North Dakota State and Richmond — are ahead of Seton Hall in the NET.

Bozzella knows his Pirates have work to do, but he also likes their chances of cracking the field of 68 for the first time since 2016.

“I do like my team. I think we’re right on the NCAA bubble,” Bozzella said. “We got to win our games. And now, they want you to win by a certain amount, which is another issue… But I do like my team. We have two dynamic First Team All-Big East guards.”

The Pirates have four players averaging double-digits in scoring and one of the team’s strengths is its discipline when it comes to fouling. Seton Hall is 31st nationally in foul rate (17.4%) and 14th in percentage of points allowed from the free throw line (13.1%).

Seton Hall is 13-5 this season and 7-2 in Big East play. Their non-conference slate was highlighted by a win over Auburn, which just beat a nationally ranked Alabama team. What the Pirates don’t want to be doing is asking what-could-have-been if they get left on the wrong side of the bubble this year. Single-digit losses to Princeton, N.C. State and Columbia could come back to haunt them.

Hot Seat Watch: Penn State, Yale

Two jobs that several sources around women’s college basketball expect to open at the end of this season are Penn State and Yale.

Carolyn Kieger has been the head coach of the Nittany Lions since 2019. In that stretch, she’s never made the NCAA Tournament and Penn State has twice recorded its worst record in Big Ten play in program history, finishing last season and the 2019-20 campaign 1-17 in the conference. Kieger took Marquette to three NCAA Tournaments, but has won 40.6% of her games in State College, Pennsylvania.

Penn State has given Kieger time to build and improve the program. The Nittany Lions handed her a contract extension in 2022 after an 11-18 season and she has also remained the head coach despite allegations of bullying and misconduct by former players. But the results haven’t been there for Kieger. After a loss on Sunday to Rutgers, Penn State fell to 7-12 and 0-8 in conference play.

At Yale, wins have been hard to come by for Dalila Eshe. Over the past decade — beginning with Courtney Banghart’s dominance at Princeton to the conference getting three bids to the NCAA Tournament last year — the Ivy League has established itself as one of the best mid-major conferences in women’s basketball. But one of the Ivy’s most recognizable brands in Yale hasn’t been part of that surge in success lately.

Eshe was hired in 2022 after Allison Guth parlayed five consecutive winning seasons — and a WBI championship — into the Loyola Chicago job. And Yale just hasn’t been good under Eshe’s watch. They’re 4-12 this season, on pace for their third consecutive year with single-digit wins.

Since 2024, three players have quit the team and one was removed from the squad. Neither of them resurfaced elsewhere in women’s college basketball. One of them, Nyla McGill, was the Ivy League’s Co-Defensive Player of the Year in 2023. With the players that have stuck around, Eshe’s teams are 29-68 across four seasons.

Yale athletic director Vicky Chun serves on the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee. Lately, she hasn’t had much to brag about regarding her school’s women’s basketball team in those meetings.

Tip-ins

• Navy picked up a free win on Saturday when Lehigh forfeited “due to an insufficient number of healthy players available to safely compete.” The preseason favorites in the Patriot League, the Midshipmen are 5-1 in conference play. Zanai Barnett-Gay is the one of two players in the country averaging at least 17 points, eight rebounds, four assists and two steals per game. The other is UConn’s Sarah Strong.
• Leah Macy announced on Instagram last week that she will not play for Notre Dame this season. A five-star prospect ranked 19th in the 2025 class, Macy suffered a lower leg injury near the end of her high school career, had surgery and has been rehabbing for about a year. Macy wrote: “While I have made significant progress in healing from my injury, I know there is still work to do.”