Amy Kontras-USA TODAY Sports
“Around the NCAAW Weekly” highlights the notable events of the week. Check out the milestones, surprises, best games and outstanding performances for games played through Sunday, March 14:
Conference championships
No. 6 Baylor Lady Bears
NaLyssa Smith was named Big 12 Tournament Most Outstanding Player as the Lady Bears took home the title with a 76-50 win over the No. 17 West Virginia Mountaineers on Sunday.
Baylor won the Big 12 outright for the 10th time and has 23 total Big 12 titles now between the regular season and tournament. It has won 17 games in a row.
On Saturday, the Lady Bears defeated the Texas Longhorns in the semifinals and held superstar Charli Collier to just three points and one rebound. Collier amassed just 17 points against Baylor this season after three meetings.
Scouting Utah Valley
Fun fact: Utah Valley’s head coach is Mark Madsen, two-time NBA champion Laker and former Stanford player, noted for his dancing. He was also a very solid player in college, a former head coach in the NBA G-League, and an NBA assistant.
As far as the team itself, the Utah Valley Wolverines have five wins, but two are over non Division I teams; the other three wins are against conference teams, Seattle and Cal Baptist. Their loss against Utah saw them come from 15 points behind to within one, though they lost.
The Wolverines have high-end rebounding skills, play fast, draw fouls, and assist on many of their shots. Behind center Fardaws Aimaq (#11), who leads the country in rebounding totals, the Wolverines have been a top-30 defensive rebounding team. The 6’11” Aimaq, a transfer from Mercer, is joined by forward Evan Cole, a 6’10” big who leads the team in dunks. Both can shoot outside the paint as well. Cole is a transfer from Georgia Tech who saw m