SB Nation's top 50 teams of all time

[azfan]

The top 50 women’s college basketball teams of all-time

From UConn to Tennessee, we ranked the best teams of all-time.

www.sbnation.com

Interesting placements on the all time list.

 

[JonathanXIV]

Really odd list. South Carolina 2017 with 4 losses at #15, ahead of a number of UConn undefeated teams? Also don’t understand how how UConn 2016 is #1 and UConn 2015 is #26. Let’s face it, UConn #2015 would have crushed South Carolina 2017. Heck, UConn beat them that year.

 

[LETTERL]

I was interested to see three Immaculata teams make the list. The stories of that little college and its fervent followers who included nuns beating metal buckets with spoons are legendary. And unbeknownst to me at the time, in 1987, I met Cathy Rush, their legendary head coach.

In 1987, the East Regional of the NCAAT was held in Fayetteville, NC. NC State had a strong team that year, and advanced to the Sweet 16, where it would face Sue Wicks and Rutgers, coached at the time by Theresa Grentz (from the Immaculata dynasty days). James Madison and defending NCAAT champion Texas would meet in the other game.)

Being an hour from Raleigh, I made the trip to Fayetteville to root on the Wolfpack Women. Texas easily dispatched James Madison in the first game. Before the NC State/Rutgers game, an older woman sat down next to me, and during the halftime, the woman stated that she was interested that I was so loud and vocal in cheering on my team...and we started talking about women's basketball. The woman, who did not give her name, stated that she coached the Rutgers coach when Grentz played in college.

Rutgers beat NC State that day, ending our season. I went back to Raleigh, deflated but did make the trip back to Fayetteville two days later to watch the Final between Rutgers and Texas. Again, I was sitting next to the older woman, and we both rooted on Rutgers, which gave a good challenge but ultimately fell short and Texas advanced to the Final Four.

Fast forward 8 years. In 1995, I was eating breakfast in a restaurant and reading USA Today, which did an article on the 20th anniversary of the magical run of the Immaculata College teams. I actually dropped a fork when I saw a picture that accompanied the article, with the coach talking to her team. It was the woman who had sat next to me at the East Regional back in 1987 -- Cathy Rush. I had no idea back in 1987 that the woman I so casually talked with on two separate days was, at one time, part of WCBB royalty.

One final note on this story: the last movie I actually saw in a theatre was "The Mighty Macs", which detailed the story of the Immaculata dynasty. Both Theresa Grentz and Cathy Rush had cameos in the movie.

 

[DefenseBB]

Wow, that's 90 seconds of my life I won't get back. As soon as I saw ND and 2019 Baylor in the top 10...

 

[willtalk]

Really odd list. South Carolina 2017 with 4 losses at #15, ahead of a number of UConn undefeated teams? Also don’t understand how how UConn 2016 is #1 and UConn 2015 is #26. Let’s face it, UConn #2015 would have crushed South Carolina 2017. Heck, UConn beat them that year.

It was the statue that put them over the top. How could you not rate them high when a player with a statue was on the team.

Humor aside, I also do not believe they belonged that high. Was at the Western Regional and they were fortunate ( with much help from very questionable calls by the officials in the closing minutes) to sneek by in the finals against Florada St.

 

[UConnCat]

Wow, that's 90 seconds of my life I won't get back. As soon as I saw ND and 2019 Baylor in the top 10...

And UConn 2009 and 2010 - undefeated teams with Maya Moore and Tina Charles - as #’s 30 and 34. It’s not a serious effort nor a serious product.

 

[MSSportsGuy]

Wow, what an od list and ultimate waste of a few minutes but I admit to being curious. I do like they took some older teams into consideration and know that programs like Immaculata and Delta State were excellent for their time.

Uconn of 2016 is my number 1. I truly give the 1998 LVs and 02 Huskies a tie for number 2. I don't rank at this point but 2000 Uconn and 2012 Baylor both deserve to be considered as high on a list.

Best team to not win a title? 2013 Baylor, but I've regularly posted I will always believe 2001 Uconn and 2005 LVs win if their players were all healthy and both could have been up there.

 

[dtbtbtb]

This list must be a joke..the UConn undefeated teams are in he 20's and all kind of other teams above them that have no claim whatsoever to be over them...and the UConn 2002 is only 4th??? at worst it was the 2nd best team of all time and many feel it was the best of all time.

 

[baggerbob]

Wow, what an od list and ultimate waste of a few minutes but I admit to being curious. I do like they took some older teams into consideration and know that programs like Immaculata and Delta State were excellent for their time.

Uconn of 2016 is my number 1. I truly give the 1998 LVs and 02 Huskies a tie for number 2. I don't rank at this point but 2000 Uconn and 2012 Baylor both deserve to be considered as high on a list.

Best team to not win a title? 2013 Baylor, but I've regularly posted I will always believe 2001 Uconn and 2005 LVs win if their players were all healthy and both could have been up there.

The 2014 team was 40-0 and was never really challenged except for one half against Dayton.

 

[JonathanXIV]

It appears the makers of the list did not want to have UConn with 6 of the top ten teams.

 

[MSUrealist]

Glad to see the Delta State teams of the mid-70's make the list 3 times. During that era the Delta State men's team played the first game of the evening followed by the women's game. That was because the women were going to bring in a sellout crowd of several thousand and most of those people wouldn't stick around if the men played the late game. BTW, the Wade Trophy is name for Margaret Wade who was the coach of those teams.

 

[LETTERL]

Glad to see the Delta State teams of the mid-70's make the list 3 times. During that era the Delta State men's team played the first game of the evening followed by the women's game. That was because the women were going to bring in a sellout crowd of several thousand and most of those people wouldn't stick around if the men played the late game. BTW, the Wade Trophy is name for Margaret Wade who was the coach of those teams.

Delta State still has a strong program today, though they have stepped down to the Division II level. It is kind of sad, in a way, that some of the teams from yesteryear that once dominated the sport have faded into obscurity and the media limelight. Delta State was a dominant program in the mid 1970s through the early 1980s.

Delta State, Wayland Baptist, Immaculata and Cheyney State had very solid upper level programs, once upon a time...before an emphasis was placed on WCBB by most colleges and universities, which then got a shot in the arm when the NCAA decided to sponsor a national tournament.

 

[CocoHusky]

The 2014 team was 40-0 and was never really challenged except for one half against Dayton.

The 2013-14 team was 40-0 and that team did not play Dayton they struggled with BYU in the tournament and had close games @MD and @Baylor. The 2014-15 team was 38-1 Stanford, 1st half Dayton and Championship games against ND were all closely contested.

 

[bbfanLA]

The 2014 team was 40-0 and was never really challenged except for one half against Dayton.

I’ve always thought that the 2014 team was underrated, as underrated as an undefeated national champion can be. All five starters (Dolson, Hartley, KML, Jefferson and Stewart) would all leave college as at least a two-time All-American. They were all named at least HM AA that year. The only other team in NCAA history that did that was the 2002 UConn team. The team also set NCAA records for the most blocks and assists in a season. (UConn’s 2017 team would then go on to break the NCAA assist record.)

 

[Fairfield Fan]

Really odd list. South Carolina 2017 with 4 losses at #15, ahead of a number of UConn undefeated teams? Also don’t understand how how UConn 2016 is #1 and UConn 2015 is #26. Let’s face it, UConn #2015 would have crushed South Carolina 2017. Heck, UConn beat them that year.

Yeah, just 3 UConn teams among the top 25 of all time? Seriously? How does UConn win 11 national championships in just over 20 years, but only three of them are listed among the top 25 teams of all time? So Coach Geno won all of those NC's with, what?, cobbled together rosters? Maya Moore's national championships don't make the top 25? The second best player in NCAAW history?

This list looks like the NCAA's weekly list of the best NCAAW players in the country. Really odd....

 

[DEpup]

I feel like this list is another product of our current participarion trophy society.... I'm sure they sat down and said from the start, well we can't put UConn and TN teams all at the top.... We have to spread them out so we get more than just certain fans to view the story.... I think the 2000 UConn team really got the shaft. And how do you have such disparity between the 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 UConn teams who were sharing so many players between them... what a waste of the time it took to read that article.

 

[CocoHusky]

Does this mean that South Carolina should take down that banner for the 2020 team.

 

[GW15MJ4MM23]

The top 50 women’s college basketball teams of all-time

From UConn to Tennessee, we ranked the best teams of all-time.

www.sbnation.com

Interesting placements on the all time list.

Link = Click Bait 101

 

[azfan]

I was interested to see three Immaculata teams make the list. The stories of that little college and its fervent followers who included nuns beating metal buckets with spoons are legendary. And unbeknownst to me at the time, in 1987, I met Cathy Rush, their legendary head coach.

In 1987, the East Regional of the NCAAT was held in Fayetteville, NC. NC State had a strong team that year, and advanced to the Sweet 16, where it would face Sue Wicks and Rutgers, coached at the time by Theresa Grentz (from the Immaculata dynasty days). James Madison and defending NCAAT champion Texas would meet in the other game.)

Being an hour from Raleigh, I made the trip to Fayetteville to root on the Wolfpack Women. Texas easily dispatched James Madison in the first game. Before the NC State/Rutgers game, an older woman sat down next to me, and during the halftime, the woman stated that she was interested that I was so loud and vocal in cheering on my team...and we started talking about women's basketball. The woman, who did not give her name, stated that she coached the Rutgers coach when Grentz played in college.

Rutgers beat NC State that day, ending our season. I went back to Raleigh, deflated but did make the trip back to Fayetteville two days later to watch the Final between Rutgers and Texas. Again, I was sitting next to the older woman, and we both rooted on Rutgers, which gave a good challenge but ultimately fell short and Texas advanced to the Final Four.

Fast forward 8 years. In 1995, I was eating breakfast in a restaurant and reading USA Today, which did an article on the 20th anniversary of the magical run of the Immaculata College teams. I actually dropped a fork when I saw a picture that accompanied the article, with the coach talking to her team. It was the woman who had sat next to me at the East Regional back in 1987 -- Cathy Rush. I had no idea back in 1987 that the woman I so casually talked with on two separate days was, at one time, part of WCBB royalty.

One final note on this story: the last movie I actually saw in a theatre was "The Mighty Macs", which detailed the story of the Immaculata dynasty. Both Theresa Grentz and Cathy Rush had cameos in the movie.

My wife, daughter and I watched The Mighty Macs last night. It was a wonderful movie and inspiring. In light of the controversy over the NCAA men's and women's tournaments it's interesting to see how poorly woman athletes were treated in the 60s and '70s.

 

[UcMiami]

I am not going to comment on any of the early teams - never saw them play, completely different world in which they competed, and I think they deserve recognition for what they started. And I am not going to say anything about 1990s teams either as I really didn't see a lot of the basketball then. In the current century, I would put the Baylor 2012, and Uconn 2002, 2009, 2010, 2014, and 2016 teams above any of the other champions and the next best would probably be Uconn 2015 which lost their second game at Stanford and then crushed the rest of their opponents. I think those 7 teams would make mince meat out of any of the other champions including both of the TN teams with Parker - great player, but not a strong enough supporting cast.

I also find it funny that SC has a banner hanging for their 2020 #1 ranking and this list only includes Oregon's team from 2020. Something aint right!

 

[mbr33ct]

Wow, that's 90 seconds of my life I won't get back. As soon as I saw ND and 2019 Baylor in the top 10...

What you saying they should have started with the #1 team first and you could have stopped when you reached the #8 team.