The 2016–17 NCAA Division I women's basketball season began on November 11, 2016 and ended with the Final Four title game in Dallas on April 2, 2017, won by South Carolina. Practices officially began on September 30, 2016.

Season headlines

* April 20 – The NCAA announced its Academic Progress Rate (APR) sanctions for the 2016–17 school year. A total of 23 Division I programs in 13 sports were declared ineligible for postseason play due to failure to meet the required APR benchmark, with

Southern Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, M ...

being the only women's basketball team so penalized. * April 28 – The Atlantic Sun Conference announced that effective with the 2016–17 school year, it would rebrand itself as the

ASUN Conference The ASUN Conference, formerly the Atlantic Sun Conference, is a collegiate athletic conference operating mostly in the Southeastern United States. The league participates at the NCAA Division I level, and began sponsoring football at the Divisio ...

. * November 2 – The Associated Press preseason All-American team was released. South Carolina forward A'ja Wilson was the leading vote-getter (32 votes). Joining her on the team were Ohio State guard Kelsey Mitchell (31 votes), Notre Dame forward

Brianna Turner Brianna Turner (born July 5, 1996) is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Mercury of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and for Virtus Bologna of the EuroCup Women. She played college women's basketball f ...

(29), Baylor forward Nina Davis and Washington guard

Kelsey Plum Kelsey Christine Plum (born August 24, 1994) is an American professional basketball player for the Las Vegas Aces of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She won a WNBA championship in 2022, when she earned her first All-WNBA Fir ...

. * November 23 – In what ESPN called "one of the most bizarre scenarios imaginable at a major sporting event", top-ranked Notre Dame and Louisiana–Lafayette used two different venues during Notre Dame's 91–51 win. The game began at

Campbell Center The M.O. Campbell Educational Center is an indoor arena in Houston, Texas. The facility serves as the home basketball and volleyball court for the five high schools in the Aldine Independent School District (AISD). The Campbell Center is also us ...

, a high school venue in Houston, but a power outage during the second quarter prompted the teams to complete the game at another venue. Rice, whose

women's team A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardle ...

had just completed a home game, offered its

Tudor Fieldhouse Tudor Fieldhouse is multi-purpose arena in Houston, Texas. Previously known as Rice Gymnasium, it was renamed in honor of Rice University alum Bobby Tudor, who spearheaded the renovation of the facility with a multimillion-dollar donation. The co ...

, and the two teams bused to that venue and finished the game there. * December 5 – The ASUN Conference announced that North Alabama would move from the Division II Gulf South Conference and join the ASUN in 2018. * January 7 – A bench-clearing brawl broke out during the third quarter of the UNLV–

Utah State Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public land-grant research university in Logan, Utah. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. With nearly 20,000 students living on or near campus, USU is Utah's ...

game after a UNLV player was fouled. Four players from each team were ejected. Three days later, the Mountain West Conference, home to both schools, issued one-game suspensions to three participants in the brawl (two from UNLV and one from Utah State) and reprimanded six other participants. * January 13 – The Western Athletic Conference announced that California Baptist would move from the Division II Pacific West Conference and join the WAC in 2018. * January 26 – The Summit League announced that North Dakota, then a member of the Big Sky Conference, would join the league in 2018. * February 2 – The

Colonial Athletic Association The Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I whose full members are located in East Coast states from Massachusetts to South Carolina. Most of its members are public universi ...

announced that two conference wins by

Charleston Charleston most commonly refers to: * Charleston, South Carolina * Charleston, West Virginia, the state capital * Charleston (dance) Charleston may also refer to: Places Australia * Charleston, South Australia Canada * Charleston, Newfoundlan ...

would be treated as Charleston losses for purposes of seeding in the conference tournament, though it did not (and could not) reverse the results. The conference confirmed that the Cougars had provided "improperly sized" basketballs in the two games, though it would not confirm that men's basketballs were used instead of women's balls.

Milestones and records

* December 8 – In Ohio State's 108–73 win over

, the Buckeyes' Kelsey Mitchell became the fastest Division I women's player to reach 2,000 career points, reaching the mark in her 79th game. The previous record of 82 was held by Missouri State's Jackie Stiles. * December 11 – Kelsey Plum became the all-time leading scorer in

Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

history (for either women or men), passing the former record of Stanford's Chiney Ogwumike during Washington's 92–66 win over

Boise State Boise State University (BSU) is a public research university in Boise, Idaho. Founded in 1932 by the Episcopal Church, it became an independent junior college in 1934 and has been awarding baccalaureate and master's degrees It became a publ ...

. * December 16 – Baylor defeated Winthrop 140–32, setting a new Division I women's basketball record for victory margin. * January 10 – UConn crushed

South Florida South Florida is the southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the other two are Central Florida and North Florida. South Florida is the southernmost part of th ...

102–37 to give the Huskies their 90th straight win, equaling the program's own record for the longest winning streak by a Division I team of either sex. * January 13 – Plum became the 12th player in Division I women's history with 3,000 career points during Washington's 90–73 win over Arizona. * January 14 – UConn defeated SMU 88–48 for its 91st straight win, establishing a new Division I record streak. * February 3 –

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

defeated

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

58–42, giving Cardinal head coach

Tara VanDerveer Tara Ann VanDerveer (born June 26, 1953) is an American basketball coach who has been the head women's basketball coach at Stanford University since 1985. Designated the Setsuko Ishiyama Director of Women's Basketball, VanDerveer led the Stanfor ...

her 1,000th career win. She joined late Tennessee head coach

Pat Summitt Patricia Susan Summitt (; June 14, 1952 – June 28, 2016) was an American women's college basketball head coach who accrued 1,098 career wins, the most in college basketball history at the time of her retirement. She served as the head coac ...

and current Duke men's head coach Mike Krzyzewski as the only Division I coaches at that time to reach the milestone. * February 13 – UConn extended its record winning streak to 100 games with a 66–55 win over South Carolina. * February 25 – Plum scored 57 points, a school record for either sex, in Washington's 84–77 win over Utah, surpassing Stiles for the top spot on the all-time NCAA Division I women's career scoring list. * March 6 – In the American Athletic Conference tournament final, UConn's Katie Lou Samuelson made all 10 of her three-point attempts, setting a new women's Division I record for most consecutive three-pointers in a game. The Huskies blasted

100–44 to enter the NCAA Tournament unbeaten. * March 18 – In the first round of the NCAA tournament, Texas A&M came back from a 21-point deficit early in the fourth quarter, ending on a 25–1 run to defeat Penn 63–61. This set a new record for largest comeback in the Division I women's tournament, surpassing the previous record of 16 points by Notre Dame in 2001 and

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It i ...

in 2005. * March 19 – In the same round, Baylor set two all-time tournament records in its 119–30 pasting of

Texas Southern Texas Southern University (Texas Southern or TSU) is a public historically black university in Houston, Texas. The university is one of the largest and most comprehensive historically black college or universities in the USA with nearly 10,000 ...

: ** The 89-point margin was the largest ever, surpassing the previous record of 74 set by Tennessee against

North Carolina A&T North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (also known as North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina A&T, N.C. A&T, or simply A&T) is a public, historically black land-grant research university in Greensboro, North Caro ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

. ** Baylor's 119 points were the most ever scored in regulation, surpassing the previous record of 116 set by Ohio State in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

and equaled twice by UConn, including earlier that same day. * March 21 – In the second round of the NCAA tournament, Plum surpassed Stiles' D-I record for points in a season, scoring 38 in the Huskies' 108–82 win over

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

and finishing the game with 1,080 points on the season. Plum eventually finished with 1,109 points on the season and 3,527 for her career. * March 31 – UConn's record winning streak ended at 111 games with a 66–64 overtime loss to Mississippi State on a buzzer-beater by the Bulldogs'

Morgan William Morgan William (born July 14, 1996) is an American women's college basketball player who previously played for the Mississippi State Bulldogs. She helped lead the Bulldogs to four appearances in the NCAA tournament, including three Sweet Sixteens ...

Coaching wins milestones

* 1000 victories -

, February 3 versus USC. * 600 victories -

Gordy Presnell Gordy Presnell (born July 20, 1960) is the women's basketball coach for Boise State University since 2005. Before joining Boise State, Presnell coached boys basketball teams for Lapwai High School and Kendrick High School during the 1980s. After ...

, December 18 versus Portland. * 500 victories - Jeff Mittie, Kansas State, December 4 versus Omaha. * 500 victories -

Sandra Rushing Sandra Rushing is an American women's college basketball coach. She has served as head coach at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), Delta State University, and the University of Central Arkansas (UCA). When she left UTEP, she had the best r ...

, Central Arkansas, February 11 versus Nicholls. * 500 victories - Kim Mulkey, Baylor, February 25 versus Texas Tech.

Conference membership changes

Only one school joined a new conference for 2016–17:

Pre-season polls

The top 25 from the AP and USA Today Coaches Polls.

New arenas

* South Dakota opened the new Sanford Coyote Sports Center. The completion of the 6,000-seat venue saw the South Dakota men's basketball, women's basketball, and women's volleyball teams move out of the considerably larger DakotaDome, which remains home to

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

, track & field, and swimming & diving. The first women's basketball game in the new arena was the opening leg of a November 13 doubleheader with the men's team, with the Coyotes defeating Stephen F. Austin 80–74. *

North Dakota State North Dakota State University (NDSU, formally North Dakota State University of Agriculture and Applied Sciences) is a public land-grant research university in Fargo, North Dakota. It was founded as North Dakota Agricultural College in 1890 as th ...

opened the renovated

Scheels Center Scheels Center is a 5,460 seat multi-purpose arena in Fargo, North Dakota. It was built in 1970 and was home to the North Dakota State University Bison women's basketball and wrestling teams through the 2013–14 season. It was previously named t ...

. This completion brought the previously outdated Bison Sports Arena up to full Division 1 standards. The arena resumed competition of their men's basketball, women's basketball, and wrestling teams inside the Scheels Center. The renovated arena seats 5,700 people on the North side of NDSU's campus in

Fargo, North Dakota Fargo ( /ˈfɑɹɡoʊ/) is a city in and the county seat of Cass County, North Dakota, United States. According to the 2020 census, its population was 125,990, making it the most populous city in the state and the 219th-most populous city in ...

. The first women's game played in the renovated arena was an exhibition on November 3, 2016 against NCAA Division II Bemidji State, the Bison winning that game 79-59. The first official women's game was on November 12, 2016; the Bison beat

Dickinson State University Dickinson State University (DSU) is a public university in Dickinson, North Dakota. It is part of the North Dakota University System. It was founded in 1918 as Dickinson State Normal School and granted full university status in 1987. History Di ...

70-63. In addition, Alabama returned women's home games to Coleman Coliseum, home to Alabama men's basketball since the venue's opening in 1968. The Crimson Tide women began play in 1974 at

Foster Auditorium Foster Auditorium is a multi-purpose facility at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. It was built in 1939 as a Works Progress Administration project and has been used for Alabama basketball, women's sports (in the 1970s and 1980s) ...

, and split home games between the two facilities until moving full-time into the Coliseum in 1981. The women would move back to Foster near the end of the 2010–11 season, and used that as their main venue until returning to the Coliseum. This proved to be the final season for four Division I teams in their then-current venues. * DePaul left its current on-campus home of

McGrath–Phillips Arena The Sullivan Athletic Center is an athletic facility on the campus of DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. The facility houses McGrath-Phillips Arena, a 3,000-seat multi-purpose arena. It is the home arena for the women's volleyball team and ...

for the new off-campus

Wintrust Arena Wintrust Arena at McCormick Square, previously referred to as DePaul Arena or McCormick Place Events Center, is a 10,387-seat sports venue in the Near South Side community area of Chicago that opened in 2017. It is the current home court for ...

, a 10,000-seat venue that opened in October 2017 at the McCormick Place convention center on Chicago's Near South Side. The new arena also houses the DePaul men's team. * NJIT left one on-campus venue for another. The aging Fleisher Center (capacity 1,600) was replaced by the

Wellness and Events Center The Wellness and Events Center (WEC) is 220,000 sq ft. sports and recreation facility that includes a 3,500 seat basketball arena in Newark, New Jersey. It was built at a cost of $102 million by the New Jersey Institute of Technology. The Wellness ...

(capacity 3,500) for the 2017–18 season. * Robert Morris closed the

Charles L. Sewall Center Charles L. Sewall Center, commonly referred to as the Sewall Center, and nicknamed "The Chuck" was a 3,056-seat multi-purpose arena in the Pittsburgh suburb of Moon Township, Pennsylvania. It was home to the Robert Morris Colonials men's and wome ...

, home to the Colonials since 1985, in June 2017. The

UPMC Events Center UPMC Events Center is an list of indoor arenas, indoor arena located in the Pittsburgh suburb of Moon Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Moon, Pennsylvania as a part of Robert Morris University, replacing the old Charles L. Sewall Center. ...

is currently being built at the Sewall Center site and is scheduled to open in the middle of the 2018–19 basketball season. Until that time, the Colonials are playing at the Student Recreation and Fitness Center, which was built at the school's North Athletic Complex as part of the UPMC Events Center project and opened in September 2017. *

Wofford Wofford may refer to: People with the surname *Toni Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford, 1931–2019), American writer *Dan Wofford, American politician *Harris Wofford (1926–2019), U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, 1991-1995 *James C. Woffor ...

also moved within its campus, going from

Benjamin Johnson Arena Benjamin Johnson Arena is a 3,500-seat multi-purpose arena in Spartanburg, South Carolina, United States. It was built in 1981 and is currently used as a campus recreation and intramural sports facility for Wofford College. The arena had been home ...

(capacity 3,500) to the slightly smaller

Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium is a college basketball arena located in Spartanburg, South Carolina on the campus of Wofford College. It became home of the Wofford Terriers Wofford Terriers men's basketball, men's and Wofford Terriers women's ba ...

(capacity 3,400).

Regular season

Early preseason tournament

Tournament upsets

For this list, an "upset" is defined as a win by a team seeded 7 or more spots below its defeated opponent.

Conference winners and tournaments

Each of the 32 Division I athletic conferences ends its regular season with a single-elimination tournament. The team with the best regular-season record in each conference is given the number one seed in each tournament, with tiebreakers used as needed in the case of ties for the top seeding. The winners of these tournaments receive automatic invitations to the

2017 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament The 2017 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament was played from Friday, March 17 to Sunday, April 2, 2017, with the Final Four played at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas on March 31 and April 2. This was the first time that ...

. This will be the first season in which the Ivy League holds a conference tournament.

Award winners

All-America teams

The NCAA has never recognized a consensus All-America team in women's basketball. This differs from the practice in men's basketball, in which the NCAA uses a combination of selections by the Associated Press (AP), the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), the ''

Sporting News The ''Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a pr ...

'', and the

United States Basketball Writers Association The United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) was founded in 1956 by National Collegiate Athletic Association director Walter Byers to serve the interests of journalists who cover college basketball. Scholarships The USBWA annually awa ...

(USBWA) to determine a consensus All-America team. The selection of a consensus team is possible because all four organizations select at least a first and second team, with only the USBWA not selecting a third team. However, of the major selectors in women's basketball, only the AP divides its selections into separate teams. The women's counterpart to the NABC, the

Women's Basketball Coaches Association The Women's Basketball Coaches Association is an association of coaches of women's basketball teams at all levels. The organization was formed in 1981, with the goal of addressing the needs of women's basketball coaches. The mission of the WBCA ...

(WBCA), selects a single 10-member (plus ties) team, as does the USBWA. The NCAA does not recognize ''Sporting News'' as an All-America selector in women's basketball.

Major player of the year awards

Wooden Award The John R. Wooden Award is an award given annually to the most outstanding men's and women's college basketball players. The program consists of the men's and women's Player of the Year awards, the Legends of Coaching award, and recognizing the ...

, Washington * Naismith Award: Kelsey Plum, Washington * Associated Press Player of the Year: Kelsey Plum, Washington *

Wade Trophy The Wade Trophy is an award presented annually to the best upperclass women's basketball player in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I competition. It is named after three–time national champion Delta State University coac ...

: Kelsey Plum, Washington * Ann Meyers Drysdale Women's Player of the Year ( USBWA): Kelsey Plum, Washington *espnW National Player of the Year: Kelsey Plum, Washington

Major freshman of the year awards

* USBWA National Freshman of the Year: Sabrina Ionescu, Oregon *

WBCA Freshman of the Year The WBCA Freshman of the Year is an annual college basketball award presented by Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized as adidas since 1949) is a German multinational corporation, founded and headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, that designs ...

(inaugural award): Destiny Slocum, Maryland * espnW Freshman of the Year: Sabrina Ionescu, Oregon

Major coach of the year awards

* Associated Press Coach of the Year: Geno Auriemma, Connecticut * Naismith College Coach of the Year: Geno Auriemma, Connecticut *

WBCA National Coach of the Year WBCA may refer to: * Washington's Birthday Celebration * Women's Basketball Coaches Association * West Bengal Chess Association * WBCA-LP, a low-power radio station (102.9 FM) licensed to serve Boston, Massachusetts, United States * WBCA (Schenecta ...

: Geno Auriemma, Connecticut

Other major awards

Nancy Lieberman Award The Nancy Lieberman Award, named for Basketball Hall of Fame legend Nancy Lieberman, was given annually by the Rotary Club of Detroit in the Award's first 14 years to the nation's top collegiate point guard in women's Division I basketball. Sue Bi ...

: Kelsey Plum, Washington * WBCA Defensive Player of the Year:

Gabby Williams Gabrielle Lisa Williams (born September 9, 1996) is an American-French professional basketball player. She was drafted 4th overall by the Chicago Sky in the 2018 WNBA draft. In 2022 she was a EuroLeague champion with Sopron and was named the Fi ...

, Connecticut *

Senior CLASS Award The Senior CLASS Award is awarded to the most outstanding senior student-athlete in 10 NCAA Division I sports. An acronym for "Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School," the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete ...

Sydney Wiese Sydney Rose Wiese (born June 16, 1995) is an American professional basketball player who is currently a free agent. A four-time All-Pac-12 Team point guard and third-team All American during her collegiate career with the Oregon State University ...

, Oregon State *

Maggie Dixon Award The Maggie Dixon Division I Rookie Coach of the Year Award is an award given annually since 2007 to the head coach in women's college basketball in the NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I competition who achieves great success in their first year as ...

(top rookie head coach):

Shauna Green Shauna Green (born October 31, 1979) is an American basketball coach. Career She coaches the Illinois Fighting Illini women's basketball team at the University of Illinois. She was hired in March 2022. In her first season at Dayton, Green won ...

Dayton Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...

* Academic All-American of the Year (top scholar-athlete):

Ally Disterhoft An ally is a member of an alliance. Ally may also refer to: Place names * Ally, Cantal, a commune in the Cantal department in south-central France * Ally, County Tyrone, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Ally, Haute-Loire, a commune ...

, Iowa * Elite 90 Award (top GPA among upperclass players at Final Four): Brittany McPhee,

* Pat Summitt Most Courageous Award: Angel Elderkin, head coach,

Appalachian State Appalachian State University (; Appalachian, App State, App, or ASU) is a public university in Boone, North Carolina. It was founded as a teachers college in 1899 by brothers B. B. and D. D. Dougherty and the latter's wife, Lillie Shull Dough ...

& Holly Rowe, broadcaster, ESPN

Conference standings

Coaching changes

Several teams changed coaches during and after the season.

Footnotes

References

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