One of the most impressive runs in recent memory came to an end Sunday, as Texas halted South Carolina’s 57-game winning streak in SEC play. The Gamecocks had gone more than three seasons without a loss in their conference, winning two national titles during that stretch. But that was before the Longhorns entered a revamped SEC. Now, the last two national champs sit tied atop the conference standings with Texas — any one of them capable of winning the league.

With South Carolina’s streak in the rearview, UCLA extended a remarkable run of its own Sunday. The Bruins won their 23rd consecutive game to start the season and their 22nd in a row by double digits, holding on to defeat Oregon by 10 points. UCLA ended the Gamecocks’ regular-season winning streak back in November and has remained the No. 1 team in the country since, but its dominance is perhaps understated. Even South Carolina had four single-digit wins in 2023-24 during its run to the national title, adding three more during the postseason.

This is unfamiliar territory for the Bruins, who haven’t won a regular-season conference title in this millennium. During the NCAA Tournament era, the best UCLA team had five losses, and the program has never been to a Final Four. There are a lot of scars in the Bruins’ history.

Nevertheless, this UCLA squad has been the best and most consistent team in the country, finding different ways to win in the process. Lauren Betts is the singular focal point, but six players have led the Bruins in scoring, thriving off the attention Betts gets in the paint. They are big and menacing defensively, the best rebounding team in the country, and physically wear down opponents. Their toughest test of the season comes Thursday against USC — a team that defeated UCLA twice last season, including one double-overtime thriller in the Pac-12 tournament.

The knock on the Bruins last season was their inability to execute in close games, which hasn’t been a problem as they’ve built up big enough margins in all of their 2024-25 victories. Doing so against its crosstown rival would be the latest marker that this season’s UCLA team is different than the ones that preceded it.

Three teams rising

Notre Dame can’t miss

After delivering Stanford its most lopsided defeat (49 points) in program history, the Irish didn’t take their foot off the gas against ranked Cal, opening up a 23-point lead in the first half and turning the game into another rout.

Notre Dame continues to shoot the leather off the ball. Having two All-American point guards makes it easy to create quality looks at all times, and the Irish are cashing in from everywhere. A team that was struggling to get seven bodies on the floor at points last season now has eight rotation players who are all shooting at least 45 percent from the field.

The Irish are the nation’s top 3-point shooting team, making 40.3 percent of their catch-and-shoot jumpers and an absurd 43.1 percent of their off-the-dribble 3s. They’ve made less than half of their 2-pointers only once during their undefeated stretch of conference play and made up for that against North Carolina by sinking 13 of 21 3s.

Against the Golden Bears on Sunday, Notre Dame didn’t have to resort to 3-pointers. The Irish simply got to the most efficient area on the court instead: the restricted area. They fed their bigs on some post-ups, but mostly, the guards drove to the rim repeatedly. Hannah Hidalgo, Olivia Miles and Sonia Citron combined to make 13 of 19 layups; Cal attempted 15 as a team.

Notre Dame has had a top-10 defense each of the last three seasons, per Her Hoop Stats, but its offense wasn’t quite as elite. The last time the Irish had a top-five offense, they advanced to the national title game. Anything less than that would be a disappointment for this squad.

Texas’ youth is stepping up

Aaliyah Moore has been out for the last five games, and I’ve been interested to see how the Longhorns would fill in the gap of their fifth starter, even though Moore hasn’t been nearly as productive as she was as a junior. Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda has taken her spot in the starting lineup, a logical replacement since this is her third year in Vic Schaefer’s system, and she’s a good defender and offensive rebounder. The normal Texas starting five had a plus-41.6 net rating before Sunday, per CBB Analytics, and the Mwenentanda unit was plus-26.1, a reasonable drop-off since most of those minutes have come in conference play.

The wild card making a case to take Mwenentanda’s minutes is Jordan Lee, a freshman who played the entire fourth quarter in the Longhorns’ upset of South Carolina. Lee brings much of the same defensive acumen as Mwenentanda — check out the way she covered Tessa Johnson in the final minute of Texas’ win — but adds an important element for Texas: She shoots 3s.

The Longhorns have the lowest 3-point attempt rate in Division I, not that it totally matters, as they just beat the Gamecocks while not making a single 3-pointer. However, a little variety couldn’t hurt, especially if they can inject some spacing into their lineups without compromising their elite defense. Lee is shooting 46 percent from long distance and is one of two Texas players (including Shay Holle) who attempts more than 1.5 treys per 40 minutes; Lee is at 5.2.

The starting lineup with Lee in Moore’s place had a plus-50.5 NET rating going into Sunday’s matchup, the best rating of any five-player group competing for at least 50 possessions. Schaefer is putting more faith in his youngest rotation player, and it is paying off.

Tennessee’s close SEC battles

Tennessee hasn’t yet reversed its trend of close losses in SEC games; its latest defeat to LSU was its sixth by single digits in conference play. However, the Lady Vols managed to collect one clutch win this week, beating UConn by four. Tennessee’s style would suggest that the press was the determining factor, and it definitely sped up the Huskies during the pivotal third quarter, but for the game, UConn had fewer turnovers than the Lady Vols.

For most of the season, Tennessee has had two specific weaknesses: defensive rebounding and defending without fouling. Both problems are exacerbated by playing in the SEC, which has the highest offensive-rebounding percentage of any conference and the best free-throw attempt rate of any power conference.

Fortunately for the Lady Vols, the Huskies don’t attack the offensive glass and they don’t get to the line; in fact, UConn is in the first percentile of free-throw attempt rate. As a result, even while losing the turnover battle, Tennessee remained relatively even on possessions by outrebounding the Huskies 46-34 (17-13 on the offensive glass).

Against the Tigers, the Lady Vols were outrebounded and shot fewer free throws than their opponents, so all is not fixed. However, once conference play ends, perhaps there is hope for Tennessee in March when it faces teams outside of the SEC.

Two teams falling

Are opponents figuring out TCU?

The Horned Frogs don’t play with a lot of pace, but they have become especially stuck in the mud lately. In their last five games, which include losses to Oklahoma State and Kansas State, their pace ranks in the third percentile. They can’t force turnovers, which has all but eliminated their transition offense, and opponents have gotten wise on how to defend TCU in the half-court. Opponents are applying a lot of ball pressure to Hailey Van Lith and switching on the perimeter to prevent any Horned Frogs guards from breaking the paint. It’s taking so long for TCU to get into its offense that defenses can double inside on Sedona Prince without worrying about kick-out passes because there isn’t enough time to swing the ball to an open shooter.

Perhaps the Horned Frogs could play another ballhandler alongside Van Lith to help counter the aggressive ball pressure they’re facing because being bigger hasn’t helped. Donovyn Hunter can not only run an offense, but also has TCU’s highest steal rate, which could jump-start TCU’s transition attack.

Florida State’s defense trending downward

Maybe it’s unfair to ding the Seminoles for losing to NC State, which has won 15 of its last 16 games. But Florida State getting blown out on its homecourt, breaking a 14-game home winning streak, demands a closer look, and the Seminoles’ defense has been trending in the wrong direction.

It’s always tricky to look at the per-game stats with Florida State because of its high pace, but the Seminoles are allowing nearly 40 points in the paint over the last five games, and that’s too many no matter the number of possessions. FSU isn’t doing a good job on the defensive glass, which allows for easy putbacks and inflates that number. The Seminoles also are not defending the point of attack well enough. Guards are getting into the lane with ease. Zoe Brooks practically lived at the rim in the Wolfpack’s win, as nine of her 16 shot attempts were layups.

Games to watch

Texas at Kentucky, 7 p.m. Thursday, ESPN2

UCLA at USC, 10 p.m. Thursday, Peacock

UConn at South Carolina, 1 p.m. Sunday, ABC

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Florida State Seminoles, UCLA Bruins, Tennessee Lady Volunteers, South Carolina Gamecocks, TCU Horned Frogs, Texas Longhorns, Women's College Basketball

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