10 nonconference women's games that will impact the bracket in March

Résumés, résumés, résumés. They are the centerpiece of each NCAA tourney enactment treatment successful February and March. Yet truthful overmuch of immoderate team's résumé -- those difference-making games -- is built during the nonconference portion of the docket successful the archetypal 2 months of the season.

Women's NCAA tourney seeding tin often hinge connected what happens successful November. That's wherefore fractional of the matchups connected this database of the champion nonconference games of the 2022-23 women's assemblage hoops play volition beryllium played implicit the adjacent fewer weeks. And -- nary astonishment -- we don't person to hold agelong for the champion nonconference matchup: Just 13 days aft the play tips off, the No. 2-ranked Stanford Cardinal big the No. 1 South Carolina Gamecocks connected Nov. 20 successful a conflict betwixt the past 2 nationalist champions.

The champion teams thin to docket the best, truthful it's not astonishing to spot truthful galore top-10 teams playing successful these games. These matchups should supply immoderate of the champion basketball, but they are besides the astir impactful arsenic to the fates of these programs travel Selection Sunday connected March 12.

And portion they didn't marque this list, the Dec. 4 Jimmy V Classic -- the Virginia Tech Hokies astatine Tennessee Lady Volunteers (1 p.m. ET, ESPN2/ESPN App) and UConn Huskies astatine Notre Dame Fighting Irish (3 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN App) -- are besides must-see early-season games. And we'll instrumentality a person look astatine the tournaments astir Thanksgiving a spot aboriginal this month.

Our ranking, successful order, of the 10 champion nonconference games:

South Carolina Gamecocks astatine Stanford Cardinal

Nov. 20, 3 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN App

It's hard to apical No. 1 vs. No. 2 2 weeks into the season. And Gamecocks vs. Cardinal has rapidly turned into the astir compelling bi-coastal rivalry successful the country. Stanford won the 2021 nationalist title acknowledgment to a riveting one-point triumph implicit South Carolina successful the nationalist semifinals. The rematch came past twelvemonth close earlier Christmas, and down Aliyah Boston's 18 points, 11 rebounds and 5 blocks the Gamecocks registered the biggest comeback successful programme history, rallying from 18 down to triumph 65-61. In Boston and Stanford's Haley Jones and Cameron Brink, this crippled features 3 of the apical six players successful our caller ranking of the apical 25 players successful the country.

Texas Longhorns astatine UConn Huskies

Nov. 14, 6:30 p.m. ET, FS1

As galore arsenic 7 UConn games could beryllium connected this database -- the Huskies person 1 of the toughest nonconference schedules successful the nation -- but this 1 astatine Gampel Pavilion ranks highest due to the fact that it's the archetypal and, fixed UConn's caller look, perchance the astir important. So galore questions hover implicit the Huskies with their unit losses and injuries. The Longhorns connection the archetypal litmus trial arsenic to however UConn has adapted to the nonaccomplishment of Christyn Williams, Olivia Nelson-Ododa and Evina Westbrook to graduation and Paige Bueckers to a torn ACL. The Longhorns person Final Four aspirations of their ain and are besides incorporating a fistful of caller players. Both Geno Auriemma and Vic Schaefer volition cognize however their teams stacks up to the remainder of the state aft this one.

Iowa State Cyclones astatine Iowa Hawkeyes

Dec. 7, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN2/ESPN App

Always a large intra-state rivalry, the Cy-Hawk showdown has ne'er been bigger. Each squad boasts the second-highest preseason ranking successful programme past (Iowa No. 4 successful the AP preseason canvass and Iowa State No. 8) and are among the champion offenses successful the country. Last December, the Cyclones got their archetypal triumph successful the bid since 2015 down Ashley Joens's 26 points. This year, Joens joined Iowa's Caitlin Clark arsenic first-team preseason All-Americans.

Tennessee Lady Vols astatine Stanford Cardinal

Dec. 18, 3pm ET, ABC/ESPN App

This crippled mightiness beryllium the champion indicator whether the Lady Vols are acceptable to genuinely situation South Carolina successful the SEC. By this constituent successful the season, Stanford volition person already had its against the Gamecocks, truthful however Tennessee fares against the Cardinal mightiness beryllium a precise measuring instrumentality 11 days earlier SEC play begins. This volition beryllium Stanford's penultimate nonconference game. It volition apt permission a lasting content connected the enactment committee arsenic it relates to picking the 4 No. 1 seeds.

Maryland Terrapins astatine Baylor Bears

Nov. 20, 3 p.m. ET, ESPN+

No matchup connected this database epitomizes the roster shakeup astatine the hands of the transportation portal similar this one. Each squad welcomes 8 caller players to the roster, galore of whom get from different programs. What amended mode to spot however the chemistry is coming unneurotic successful the season's aboriginal stages than to play a squad facing the aforesaid challenges. Both the Terps and the Bears participate this crippled successful the antithetic presumption of not being a favourite to triumph their conference. Perhaps the victor of this crippled leaves with the assurance to bash conscionable that aft all.

Ohio State Buckeyes astatine Louisville Cardinals

Nov. 30, 7:30 p.m. ET, ACCN

The ACC-Big Ten Challenge is loaded with high-quality matchups. This 1 mightiness beryllium the best. The new-look Cardinals, with perchance 3 caller starters, conscionable a Buckeyes squad with 4 of its apical 5 scorers back. In the quest for a apical 3 oregon 4 NCAA tourney seed, the victor of this crippled gains immoderate breathing country heading into rugged league races. The loser volition beryllium near with small borderline for error.

UConn Huskies astatine Tennessee Lady Vols

Jan. 26, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN App

The past clip Tennessee bushed UConn, Candace Parker was a Lady Vol. Of course, 13 years passed without a crippled betwixt the sport's 2 definitive programs. Since the rivalry resumed successful 2020, the Huskies person won each 3 games by an mean of 13 points, including past season's 19-point triumph that served arsenic the breakout crippled for UConn's Azzi Fudd (25 points). This could beryllium the champion Tennessee squad since the Parker era, and thing would acceptable up the Lady Vols for the agelong tally amended than beating the Huskies.

South Dakota State Jackrabbits astatine Creighton Bluejays

Nov. 7, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN3

The precise archetypal nighttime of the play features a crippled that mightiness person implications reaching into March. Should the Jackrabbits request at-large consideration, they could truly usage this win. The Bluejays, coming disconnected an Elite Eight run, volition person much opportunities to physique the résumé successful the Big East, but their seeding could instrumentality a large plaything based connected this effect and aboriginal games against Nebraska and Arkansas.

South Carolina Gamecocks astatine UConn Huskies

Feb. 5, noon ET, FOX

The Huskies' grueling nonconference docket ends present with a crippled astatine XL Center successful Hartford, Connecticut. For amended oregon worse, this mightiness look similar a wholly antithetic squad than the 1 that played Texas successful mid-November, depending connected however the young players make and the wellness of the roster. The Gamecocks volition apt beryllium precisely what they person been the past fewer years: 1 of the best, if not the best, squad successful the country. South Carolina enters this matchup with 4 consecutive wins successful the series, 1 that the Huskies dominated successful its aboriginal days.

North Carolina Tar Heels astatine Indiana Hoosiers

Dec. 1, 6 p.m. ET, BTN

This is the 2nd of 2 ACC/Big Ten Challenge games connected our database -- NC State astatine Iowa and Maryland astatine Notre Dame are 2 different high-quality matchups connected this nighttime -- and this is simply a showcase of games that could person large ramifications for NCAA tourney seeding. Both programs person seen a rebirth implicit the past fewer seasons with the aforesaid formula: bring up a halfway radical of players unneurotic and found unthinkable chemistry. The Hoosiers statesman the play ranked 11th and North Carolina follows instantly astatine No. 12. The combat to big first- and second-round NCAA tourney games begins present for some teams.