2023–24 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Season

The 2023–24 NCAA Division I women's basketball season began on November 6, 2023. The regular season ended on March 17, 2024, with the 2024 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament beginning on March 20 and ending with the championship game at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio, on April 7.

This season is the first for the Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament, a secondary national tournament operated by the NCAA as a direct parallel to the men's National Invitation Tournament.

Rule changes

On May 5, 2023, the NCAA Basketball Rules Committee proposed a suite of rule changes for the 2023–24 season. These changes were approved by the Playing Rules Oversight Panel during its June 8 conference call:
* Players judged to have flopped will be warned on the first offense, with a technical foul to be issued for subsequent offenses. All flop calls after the first will be added to the team foul count, but not to the individual players' foul counts.
* Flopping and delay of game were established as a new class of technical fouls assessed to the team and not to individuals.
* The restricted-area arc within the free-throw lane was reduced from an arc 4 feet (1.22 m) from the center of the basket to the area directly under the basket. Defenders can now draw charges at any location other than directly under the basket.
* Prerecorded or live video can be transmitted to the bench area during the game, on an optional basis. This had been an experimental rule since 2021–22, but is now permanent.
* The shot clock will reset to 20 seconds for all offensive rebounds when the original shot has touched the rim.
* Red and amber lights can now be placed on the backboard.
* Schools will no longer have to apply for a waiver to allow players to use religious headwear that is safe for competition.
* All numbers from 0–99 will be allowed. Previously, player numbers could only include digits from 0 to 5.

Season headlines

* July 17, 2023
** The NCAA announced the creation of the Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT), a secondary 32-team national tournament that directly parallels the men's National Invitation Tournament.
** Triple Crown Sports, which owns and operates the Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT), responded to the WBIT announcement by reducing the WNIT field from 64 to 48 teams, effective immediately.
* October 4 – The Division I Council announced changes to the transfer window for all sports. In men's and women's basketball, the transfer portal now opens on the day after Selection Sunday and remains open for 45 days, down from the previous 60.
* October 15 – Iowa held Crossover at Kinnick, an exhibition game at the school's football home of Kinnick Stadium. The Hawkeyes defeated DePaul 94–72 in front of a crowd of 55,646, the largest documented attendance in history for a women's basketball game.
* October 23 – The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference announced that Merrimack and Sacred Heart would join from the Northeast Conference (NEC) in July 2024.
* October 24 – The AP released its preseason All-America team. Reigning national player of the year Caitlin Clark of Iowa was the only unanimous choice, joined by forwards Angel Reese of LSU, Cameron Brink of Stanford, and Mackenzie Holmes of Indiana; center Elizabeth Kitley of Virginia Tech; and guard Paige Bueckers of UConn. The team had six players instead of the normal five because Holmes and Kitley tied in voting for the fifth spot.
* October 27 – The NCAA announced that effective immediately, the top overall seed in the Division I tournament would be placed in a regional pod playing on Friday and Sunday. This assures that team of the most possible rest time between the regional final and the Final Four, assuming that it advances to that point.
* November 28 – Conference USA announced that Delaware would join from the Coastal Athletic Association in 2025.
* December 5 – The NEC announced that Chicago State, the only Division I independent, would join the conference in July 2024.
* December 20 – The two schools left behind in the mass exodus from the Pac-12, Oregon State and Washington State, were reported to be nearing a deal with the West Coast Conference (WCC) for affiliate membership in multiple sports, including men's and women's basketball. The arrangement, expected to be voted on by WCC member presidents in the coming days, would run for two years (through 2025–26), during which time the so-called "Pac-2" would be eligible for WCC championships and could represent the conference in NCAA championship events.
* December 22 – The reported deal between the "Pac-2" and the WCC became official, with Oregon State and Washington State joining as affiliate members in all non-football sports apart from baseball through 2025–26.
* February 16, 2024 – During UConn's senior night ceremony, Bueckers announced that she would return for the 2024–25 season. She was eligible for the WNBA draft, in which she was projected as a lottery pick, as a redshirt junior.
* February 29
** Clark announced she would declare for the WNBA draft. She was also eligible to return to college in 2024–25.
** The Mid-American Conference (MAC) announced that UMass would leave the Atlantic 10 Conference for the MAC in 2025–26.
* March 25 – The Southland Conference announced that UTRGV would join from the Western Athletic Conference on July 1, 2024.

Milestones and records

Caitlin Clark

* November 12 – Clark joined Sabrina Ionescu as the only Division I players to collect a triple-double in four different seasons, recording 24 points, 10 rebounds, and 11 assists in Iowa's 94–53 blowout of Northern Iowa. Clark also surpassed Megan Gustafson as Iowa's all-time scoring leader.
* December 6 – Clark became the 15th Division I women's player with 3,000 career points after a 35-point performance in Iowa's 67–58 win at Iowa State. She also became the first D-I player, male or female, with 3,000 points, 750 rebounds, and 750 assists.
* December 30 – Clark passed Ohio State's Samantha Prahalis as the career assists leader in the Big Ten Conference during Iowa's 94–71 win against Minnesota.
* January 31, 2024 – Clark became the all-time scoring leader in Big Ten history, passing Ohio State's Kelsey Mitchell, during Iowa's 110–74 win at Northwestern. This also put Clark in second place on the Division I women's career scoring list, behind Kelsey Plum of Washington.
* February 11 – Clark became the sixth Division I player with 1,000 career assists, reaching the milestone during Iowa's 82–79 loss at Nebraska.
* February 15 – Clark surpassed Plum as the D-I career scoring leader with a long three-pointer less than 3 minutes into Iowa's home game against Michigan. She finished with a program-record 49 points, with Iowa winning 106–89.
* February 28 – In Iowa's 108–60 blowout of Minnesota, Clark reached three major milestones:
** She passed Lynette Woodard, whose career at Kansas from 1977–81 predated NCAA sponsorship of women's sports, as the career scoring leader in major-college women's basketball.
** Clark became the all-time Division I women's leader for three-pointers in a season. Her 156 threes at this point in the season put her past Taylor Pierce, who had 154 for Idaho in the 2018–19 season.
** She became the second Division I women's player with 500 career three-pointers, after Taylor Robertson of Oklahoma from 2018–2023, and also passed Mitchell as the Big Ten career leader.
* March 3 – In Iowa's last regular-season game, and also the last regular-season game of Clark's college career, she surpassed the career total of D-I men's scoring leader Pete Maravich shortly before halftime of the Hawkeyes' 93–83 win over Ohio State.
* March 8 – In the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament, Clark, who in her previous game had drawn level with Stephen Curry and Darius McGhee for the most three-pointers by any Division I player in a single season, surpassed both in Iowa's 95–62 win over Penn State, finishing the game with 164 this season.
* March 9 – In Iowa's 95–68 win over Michigan in the Big Ten semifinals, Clark became the first player in D-I women's history to score at least 1,000 points in two different seasons, having done so in 2022–23. She also passed Mitchell as the all-time leading scorer in Big Ten tournament history.
* March 25 – Clark's 32 points in Iowa's 64–54 win over West Virginia in the second round of the NCAA tournament put her past Plum for the most points in a single season in D-I women's history.

Other milestones and records

* January 14, 2024 – Syracuse's Dyaisha Fair became the 16th D-I women's player with 3,000 career points, reaching the milestone in the Orange's 83–82 win over Clemson. Fair played three seasons at Buffalo before transferring to Syracuse in 2022.
* January 21 – Tara VanDerveer became the winningest head coach in Division I history, recording her 1,203rd career win in Stanford's 65–56 win over Oregon State. The win put her ahead of retired Duke men's coach Mike Krzyzewski on the D-I career wins list.

Conference membership changes

Nineteen schools joined new conferences, became independents, or dropped athletics.

The 2023−24 season is the last for at least 19 Division I schools in their current conferences and at least one Division II school in its current conference before reclassification to Division I. It is also the last season for Chicago State as the only Division I independent.

Arenas

New arenas

* Austin Peay left the on-campus Winfield Dunn Center for the new F&M Bank Arena in downtown Clarksville, Tennessee after 49 seasons. The new arena opened on July 15, 2023. The first basketball event was a joint practice by the men's and women's teams on October 26. The first official games consisted of a men's and women's doubleheader on November 6, with the women losing 75–59 to Division II Trevecca Nazarene in the first game.
* Baylor left the Ferrell Center for the new Foster Pavilion. The Bears' first game in the new arena was a 71–50 win over TCU on January 3, 2024, a day after the arena opened with the Baylor men defeating Cornell 98–79.
* Georgia Southern will leave the Hanner Fieldhouse for the new Jack and Ruth Ann Hill Convocation Center. The venue was scheduled to open in the early fall of 2023, but was delayed until 2024–25 season.
* Longwood left Willett Hall for the new Joan Perry Brock Center; the venue opened on August 25, 2023. The team played its first game there on November 11, 2023, against St. Mary's of Maryland.
* Vermont was originally slated to open the new Tarrant Event Center, the replacement for Patrick Gym, in 2021. However, the new arena has since been placed on indefinite hold. Construction was initially halted by COVID-19. With the Tarrant Center being part of a much larger upgrade of UVM's athletic and recreation facilities, UVM chose to prioritize a new student recreation center. Construction of the Tarrant Center is now being hampered by increased borrowing costs.

Seasonal outlook

The Top 25 from the AP and USA Today Coaching Polls.

Pre-season polls

Top 10 matchups

Rankings reflect the AP poll Top 25.

Regular season

*November 6, 2023
**No. 6 South Carolina defeated No. 10 Notre Dame, 100–71 (Aflac Oui-Play – Halle Georges Carpentier, Paris, France)
*November 9
**No. 3 Iowa defeated No. 8 Virginia Tech, 80–76 (Ally Tipoff – Spectrum Center, Charlotte, North Carolina)
*November 24
**No. 2 UCLA defeated No. 6 UConn, 78–67 ( Cayman Islands Classic – John Gray Gymnasium, George Town, Cayman Islands)
*November 25
**No. 10 NC State defeated No. 3 Colorado, 78–60 (Paradise Jam – UVI Sports & Fitness Center, Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands)
*November 30
**No. 7 LSU defeated No. 9 Virginia Tech, 82–64 ( ACC–SEC Challenge – Pete Maravich Assembly Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana)
*December 30
**No. 10 Baylor defeated No. 5 Texas, 85–79 (Moody Center, Austin, Texas)
**No. 2 UCLA defeated No. 6 USC, 71–64 (Pauley Pavilion, Los Angeles, California)
*January 14, 2024
**No. 5 Colorado defeated No. 8 Stanford, 71–59 (CU Events Center, Boulder, Colorado)
**No. 9 USC defeated No. 2 UCLA, 73–65 (Galen Center, Los Angeles, California)
*January 19
**No. 5 UCLA defeated No. 3 Colorado, 76–68 (CU Events Center, Boulder, Colorado)
*January 21
**No. 3 Colorado defeated No. 6 USC, 63–59 (CU Events Center, Boulder, Colorado)
*January 25
**No. 1 South Carolina defeated No. 9 LSU, 76–70 (Pete Maravich Assembly Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana)
*February 4
**No. 8 Ohio State defeated No. 10 Indiana, 74–69 (Value City Arena, Columbus, Ohio)
**No. 4 Stanford defeated No. 7 UCLA, 80–60 (Maples Pavilion, Stanford, California)
*March 3
**No. 6 Iowa defeated No. 2 Ohio State, 93–83 ( Carver-Hawkeye Arena, Iowa City, Iowa)
*March 8
**No. 5 USC defeated No. 7 UCLA, 80–70^2OT ( Pac-12 Tournament, MGM Grand Garden Arena, Paradise, Nevada)
*March 10
**No. 1 South Carolina defeated No. 8 LSU, 79–72 (SEC Tournament, Bon Secours Wellness Arena, Greenville, South Carolina)
**No. 5 USC defeated No. 2 Stanford, 74–61 (Pac-12 Tournament, MGM Grand Garden Arena, Paradise, Nevada)

Postseason

*March 30
**No. 6 UCLA vs. No. 8 LSU (Sweet Sixteen, MVP Arena, Albany, NY)

Regular season

Early-season tournaments

Upsets

An upset is a victory by an underdog team. In the context of NCAA Division I women's basketball, this generally constitutes an unranked team defeating a team currently ranked in the top 25. This list will highlight those upsets of ranked teams by unranked teams as well as upsets of No. 1 teams. Rankings are from the AP poll. Bold type indicates winning teams in "true road games"—i.e., those played on an opponent's home court (including secondary homes). ''Italics'' type indicates winning teams in an early-season tournament (or event). Early season tournaments are tournaments played in the early season. Events are the tournaments with the same teams in it every year (even rivalry games).

In addition to the above listed upsets in which an unranked team defeated a ranked team, there have been six non-Division I teams to defeat a Division I team so far this season. Bold type indicates winning teams in "true road games"—i.e., those played on an opponent's home court (including secondary homes).

Conference winners and tournaments

Each of the 32 Division I athletic conferences will end its regular season with a single-elimination tournament. The team with the best regular-season record in each conference receives the number one seed in each tournament, with tiebreakers used as needed in the case of ties for the top seeding. Unless otherwise noted, the winners of these tournaments will receive automatic invitations to the 2024 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament.

Postseason

Tournament upsets

Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament

The 2023–24 season is the first for the WBIT, created by the NCAA as a direct parallel to the men's National Invitation Tournament. Like the NIT, the WBIT will feature 32 teams. The NCAA will extend WBIT bids to all regular-season conference champions that fail to reach the NCAA tournament (if eligible), a practice that it abandoned for the NIT after that tournament's 2023 edition. All games before the semifinals will be at campus sites, with the semifinals and final at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Semifinals and finals

Conference standings

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'', and the United States Basketball Writers Association (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.

Before the 2017–18 season, it was impossible for a consensus women's All-America team to be determined because the AP had been the only body that divided its women's selections into separate teams. The USBWA first named separate teams in 2017–18. The women's counterpart to the NABC, the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA), continues the USBWA's former practice of selecting a single 10-member (plus ties) team. The NCAA does not recognize ''The Sporting News'' as an All-America selector in women's basketball.

Major player of the year awards

*Wooden Award:
*Naismith Award:
* Associated Press Player of the Year:
*Wade Trophy:
* Ann Meyers Drysdale Women's Player of the Year (USBWA):

Major freshman of the year awards

* Tamika Catchings Award (USBWA): JuJu Watkins, USC
* WBCA Freshman of the Year:

Major coach of the year awards

* Associated Press Coach of the Year:
*Naismith College Coach of the Year:
* USBWA National Coach of the Year: Dawn Staley, South Carolina
*WBCA National Coach of the Year:
* WBCA Assistant Coach of the Year: Kate Paye, Stanford

Other major awards

* Naismith Starting Five:
** Nancy Lieberman Award (top point guard):
** Ann Meyers Drysdale Award (top shooting guard):
** Cheryl Miller Award (top small forward):
** Katrina McClain Award (top power forward):
** Lisa Leslie Award (top center):
* WBCA Defensive Player of the Year:
* Naismith Women's Defensive Player of the Year:
* Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Award:
* Kathy Dalaney-Smith Mid-Major Coach of the Year Award: Inaugural award in 2023–24
*Maggie Dixon Award (top rookie head coach):
* Academic All-American of the Year (top scholar-athlete):
*Elite 90 Award (top GPA among upperclass players at Final Four):
* Pat Summitt Most Courageous Award:

Coaching changes

Many teams will change coaches during the season and after it ends.

See also

*2023–24 NCAA Division I men's basketball season

Notes

References

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