Winners and losers from the first week of women's hoops: JuJu Watkins returns, two players get turned around

College basketball is back, and we're recapping the good, the bad and the weird of the first week

Nov 9, 2026 at 3:58 pm ET • 7 min read

The 2026-27 women's college basketball season is already off to a rousing start, and spoiler alert: South Carolina is still very good! The Gamecocks got off to a 2-0 start, with both wins coming over ranked teams, and Dawn Staley's squad firmly looks like the team to beat this season.

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But below them in the rankings, there were storylines galore. It was a week filled with records, including the debut of the tallest player in women's college basketball history, Texas Tech's 7-foot-1 Stephanie Okechukwu, and the most lopsided game in women's Division I history, LSU's 109-point blowout of Texas Southern. It also included a vanishing event, a historic upset, an iconic return, a couple of headline-generating gaffes and even a dazzling debut from a WNBA draftee.

Without further ado, here are winners and losers from the opening week of action:

Winner: The Michigan Wolverines

There's no reason to get cute off the top. On Thursday night at the Crisler Center, the Wolverines got one of the biggest wins in program history, defeating then-No. 2 UConn, 77-66. Coming into the game, the Huskies had won 39 regular-season games in a row, dating back to Feb. 6, 2025.

The win took Michigan from No. 5 to No. 2 in the AP poll, and sent a message that the Wolverines are a true Final Four contender. It was a marquee moment for head coach Kim Barnes Arico and her star-studded junior class, most of whom came into the program together as freshmen to do something special.

"That's why we came here. We had belief in coach. We had belief in the program, and we wanted to help build it, to take it places it hasn't been," guard Olivia Olson said. "I'm just proud to be part of it."

Te'Yala Delfosse, one of the more unheralded members of that class, led the way with 22 points, nine rebounds and four 3-pointers. Olson added 10 points and eight rebounds, while Syla Swords had 10 points and five boards.

Loser: Sense of direction

There are always some kinks to work out early in the season, but last week that notion was taken to new heights not once, but twice. Two players in two separate games in Division I women's basketball on Friday shot the ball into the wrong basket. Yes, we had two basketball own goals. 

The first came from Karma Wynn of Northwestern State, who got mixed up during a full-court press after her team inbounded the ball in the first quarter and scored two points for Arkansas. Arkansas ended up winning the game 89-59, so Wynn's basket didn't decide the game by any means.

However, later that day, an own goal almost did impact the final result when Emma Christiano of New Mexico State also got turned around after intercepting an inbound play. That came at a crucial time in the game, though, with Southern Utah up 61-60 with 20.9 seconds remaining. Christiano thought she had put her team ahead, but instead she extended Southern Utah's lead to 63-60.

Christiano's teammates had her back, though; New Mexico State scored four points in the final 20 seconds to win the game 64-63. We all do inexplicable things sometimes, and hopefully both Wynn and Christiano can laugh at their mistakes. And hey, at the very least, since they shared the gaffe, they can take the heat off of one another.

Winner: JuJu Watkins' return

After 588 days on the sidelines, JuJu Watkins officially returned to the women's college basketball world last week and immediately showed the world what it has been missing.

In her first game, which No. 3 USC won 100-68 over UNLV, Watkins had 21 points, five rebounds, two steals and a block in 25 minutes. The only blip on that day was her shooting, as she was 0 of 5 from outside. However, she immediately got back on track in the second game, with a staggering 32 points, 16 rebounds, six assists, five steals and one block in a 118-40 victory over Utah State. In that game, Watkins was 10 of 19 from the field for 52.6% and 4 of 7 from 3-point land for 57.1%.

It will be interesting to see how Watkins holds up against tougher competition, and we won't have to wait long; on Sunday, Nov. 15 USC travels to Greenville to face No. 1 South Carolina. Go ahead and clear your schedules.

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Loser: The Foundry Classic

Because of Michigan's big win over UConn, Duke fell from No. 4 to No. 5 in the rankings this week despite getting off to a 2-0 start with fairly comfortable wins over Green Bay and Florida Atlantic. However, the box scores don't accurately describe how bizarre the first week of the regular season was for Kara Lawson and her team.

Originally -- and up until last Thursday -- Duke was scheduled to play their second game of the season against North Texas at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas. The game was to be a homecoming for Duke junior Arianna Robinson and freshman Bella Flemings, who grew up in the area. The game was part of The Foundry Classic, which was billed as a two-day event that would see players from each team "participate through dedicated residency spaces for each program, providing opportunities for students to engage with college athletes beyond the basketball court."

Among other things, Lawson and North Texas head coach Jason Burton were supposed to be part of a panel on Saturday evening, the night before the game.

But on Thursday evening, USA Today reported that Duke was reaching out to teams in other conferences in "urgent need of a replacement game" for the weekend. And on Friday, both Duke and North Texas announced that the game had been canceled "due to circumstances beyond the control of participating institutions." It is currently unknown what exactly transpired, but it seems The Foundry Classic never materialized.

Duke was able to schedule a last-minute road game at Florida Atlantic on Sunday, which it won, 78-56. 

Winner: Addi Mack's second half against South Carolina

As exciting as the first week of the season was, there aren't many individual performances that I'm still going to be thinking about come March. The exception to that rule might be Addi Mack's second half against South Carolina in the season opener in Paris.

Maryland was down 28 points at the half and 31 points in the third quarter, but with 46 seconds left in the game, the Gamecocks were holding onto a six-point lead by their claws. South Carolina ended up holding onto a 101-93 victory, but the Terrapins were so impressive in a loss that they went up one place in the rankings to No. 19.

And it was Mack who powered the valiant comeback attempt, with 31 points in the second half, even bettering Gabby Williams' second-half performance in Game 7 of the WNBA Finals -- by points, at least. For the game, Mack was 14 of 20 from the field and 6 of 10 from outside for 35 points, six assists, three rebounds and two steals. Even though the performance came in a loss, it deserves to be a winner.

Loser: The 2026 Chicago Sky

Yes, I know that this is a women's college basketball piece, and that the Chicago Sky got dunked on plenty during the WNBA season after the team traded Angel Reese and saw her immediately take the Atlanta Dream to the Finals. But they're in the spotlight again because of the performance of Ajša Sivka, a Slovenian player whom the Sky actually drafted No. 10 overall in the 2025 WNBA draft.

Sivka didn't join the team in 2025, and this spring she opted to sign with the Kentucky Wildcats in lieu of joining the Sky for the 2026 season. And she is acclimating just fine to the college game -- on Sunday against N.C. State, Sivka had 32 points, five rebounds and three assists in Kentucky's 93-78 win. Her efficiency was more impressive than her stat line -- she was 11 of 17 from the field and a staggering 8 of 12 from outside.

In press, she said that she chose to come to Kentucky because of the development she could get under head coach Kenny Brooks, noting that the individual work this summer has already helped her improve. 

"I just wanted to be ready and feel confident once I go there," she said, referring to the WNBA. Brooks said she is "definitely one of the best players in the country."

The Sky do retain her WNBA rights, so they might be winners in the long run. But they certainly could have used a shooter like her in the 2026 season.