GREENVILLE, NC — Winning streaks can be a fickle thing in sports. Be a little slow or a little late just once and that’s it.
A few teams have managed to avoid such pitfalls this season and have strung together consecutive victories. Of course, there’s UConn with a perfect 29-0 record. North Dakota State has 23 wins in a row, UCLA has 21, and the Rice Owls have 19 after a gritty 60-58 victory on Saturday on the road over the East Carolina Pirates.
Sitting in first place in the American Conference, Rice looks like a team no Power 4 squad will want to face in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. That’s largely because the Owls are elite defensively.
No team stifles opponents at the perimeter like Rice, which ranks first nationally in opponent 3-point rate (18.3%) and percentage of points allowed from behind the arc (16.6%). Rice’s opponents have made a total of 88 3-pointers this season on 330 attempts — both of which are the lowest in the nation.
The Owls also rank in the top 20 in the country in opponent 3-point shooting percentage (26.7%), opponent effective field goal percentage (40.4%) and points allowed per scoring attempt (0.88).
“I feel like we made a huge jump in (defense) from last year to this year. We focused a lot on it,” Rice head coach Lindsay Edmonds told USA Today Sports. “I don’t think we think about like, we’re trying to take 3s away — we’re just trying to take away option A.
‘Whatever it takes to win, they’re going to do it.”
Edmonds and her staff are responsible for fostering the defensive intensity. She’s in her fifth season with the Owls and has them eyeing their second March Madness appearance during her tenure. Before landing her first gig as a head coach, the North Carolina native and Appalachian State graduate worked under Wes Moore at NC State and played a big role in assembling and coaching the core of players that won three consecutive ACC Tournament titles between 2020 and 2022. Edmonds also previously coached on Kenny Brooks’ staff at James Madison.
The anchor of Edmonds’ defense is junior forward Hailey Adams, who’s an exceptional rebounder, but does a little bit of everything for the Owls. Adams is the only player in the country this season who averages at least eight points, 11 rebounds and three assists per game. Her speed makes her a versatile defender, too.
“I used to be a soccer player, so I used to run a lot,” Adams said. “So when I came in, that was kind of my bread and butter — just running around. And the best function of me running around is rebounding. I kind of just end up in the right place at the right time. My team trusts me to get the rebounds so they can get out and go score.”
Adams grabbed a career-best 19 rebounds against the Pirates. She’s so important to Rice’s success that she played all but 62 seconds on Saturday.
“She’s our Swiss Army knife,” Edmonds said. “You feel so much security when she’s on the floor, because you know she can get stops, you know she can get blocks, you know she can get rebounds. She’s an intricate part to what we do offensively and defensively.”
Edmonds says the constant through this streak has been the team leaning on its motto, TNT, which is an acronym for “today, not tomorrow.”
“What team is going to show up today, whether that’s in the weight room, on the court, at home, or on the road? And they really bought into that,” Edmonds said. “This team also has a ton of mental toughness and a ton of just togetherness and not afraid of those adversity moments. We don’t back down from those challenges. We step up.”
Duke’s Toby Fournier’s case for ACC player of the year
Before losing at Clemson on Sunday thanks to Hannah Kohn’s 3-pointer with three seconds left, Duke had one of the nation’s longest winning streaks at 17 games. The Blue Devils are still in first place in the ACC and will clinch at least a share of the conference’s regular season title on Thursday if they beat Florida State at home.
A good portion of the credit for Duke’s success this season should go to Toby Fournier, a sophomore forward who leads the Blue Devils in scoring and rebounding with 17.8 points and 8.1 rebounds a game.
The 6-foot-2 Canadian had one of her best games last Thursday with 26 points and 12 rebounds — and shot an impressive 9-of-10 from the free throw line — in Duke’s home victory over rival NC State. Afterwards, Blue Devils coach Kara Lawson campaigned for Fournier to win ACC Player of the Year in a not-so-subtle way.
“She’s one of the best players in the country. And, you know, listen, everybody likes their player. I get it. I think winning matters. I think it does for awards. It matters that you impact winning,” Lawson said. “She’s doing that. … She’s doing a lot at a high level right now. She impacts the game even if she doesn’t play great offensively.”
In contention with Fournier for conference award is Notre Dame junior guard Hannah Hidalgo, who is third in the nation in scoring (24.9 points a game) and first in steals (5.6).
While Hidalgo’s statistics are impressive, it’s worth pointing out that the ACC Player of the Year award has been given to a player whose team didn’t finish in the top four of the league standings just twice: fifth-place NC State’s Summer Erb in 1999 and sixth-place Syracuse’s Alexis Peterson in 2017.
Heading into the final games of the regular season, Duke is in first place in the ACC and Notre Dame is ninth.
Fournier is the only player in the country this season averaging at least 17 points, eight rebounds and two blocks per game.
“For me, I’m willing to do whatever the team needs, whether that’s scoring, whether that’s rebounding, whether that’s passing,” Fournier said. “I think that’s just how we play. Nobody’s going to win the whole game by themselves.’
Joni Taylor’s job likely safe at Texas A&M
Things haven’t gone all that well for Texas A&M in Joni Taylor’s four years at the helm. The Aggies are 50-63 overall with one NCAA Tournament appearance.
USA Today Sports reported last month that Texas A&M was putting out feelers out for interest in the job if the Aggies were to move on from Taylor after what was initially shaping up to be another disappointing season.
But multiple sources familiar with the situation now tell USA Today Sports athletic director Trev Alberts met with Taylor recently to discuss upgrading her budget and NIL resources, better equipping her to recruit and retain talented players. In the past month, Taylor’s seat has cooled and sources say she’ll likely get at least another season at Texas A&M.
The Aggies have won four of their last five games, which includes a pair of wins over nationally ranked Alabama and Tennessee. With two games left in the regular season, Texas A&M is 12-11, surpassing last year’s win total and pulling above .500 on Sunday after defeating Arkansas.
On the roster, a bright spot has been the play of Sacred Heart transfer Ny’Ceara Pryor, who ranks fifth nationally in assists (7.1) and sixth in steals (3.6) per game. Additionally, Saint Peter’s transfer Fatmata Janneh is one of two players in the nation who averages a double-double while also shooting north of 80% from the free throw line.
“We have clear and direct communication, that’s honest and laced with grace,” Taylor said Sunday after the Aggies’ win over Arkansas. “We knew what we were up against. … They are unwavering and didn’t flinch. They were bought in because they knew what it could possibly look like.”
Taylor has two years remaining on the contract she signed in 2022 when she was poached from Georgia to succeed Gary Blair in College Station. At the time, Taylor seemed like the right person to continue what Blair built at Texas A&M — a program that won the national championship in 2011. Taylor went to four NCAA Tournaments in seven seasons at Georgia, ranked as high as 10th in national polls and was SEC Coach of the Year in 2021.
According to data collected by USA Today Sports, her buyout in 2024 was listed at just above $6.1 million.
Tip-ins
Clemson’s win over Duke gave it 10 wins in the ACC this year, marking the first time since the 2000-2001 season that the Tigers have captured double-digit victories in conference play.
Madina Okot went a remarkable 3-of-3 from the 3-point line in South Carolina’s win over Ole Miss on Sunday. According to ESPN, that’s the most 3-pointers made in an SEC game this century by a player 6-foot-6 or taller.
Going head-to-head with the Daytona 500 last Sunday, Duke’s win over North Carolina on ABC drew 682,000 viewers, making it the eighth most-watched women’s basketball game on ESPN platforms this season.
Central Michigan announced a contract extension for head coach Kristin Haynie last week that goes through the 2028-29 season. The Chippewas are 10-5 in the MAC this season, the first time in five years they’ve had double-digit wins in conference play. This is the third year on the job for Haynie, who was previously an assistant at her alma mater Michigan State where she was an All-Big Ten selection.