With the start of the women's college basketball season approaching on Nov. 3, there are several ranked matchups you should put on your calendar in the month of November.

It’s a new era in college basketball. UConn champion Paige Bueckers graduated and USC guard JuJu Watkins will sit out the entire season to recover from a torn ACL, leaving a vacuum of star power at the top of the sport for the first time since 2020.

The Gophers still return their top five scorers from a season ago. Heyer was sixth on the team with 8.6 points per game and first with 8.1 rebounds. Minnesota has plenty of options to replace her production, as Taylor Woodson returns from injury, while Niamaya Holloway and UAB transfer Tracey Bershers provide plenty of experience.

UCLA will play in four of our top 15 non-conference matchups. The other Final Four teams -- Texas, South Carolina and reigning national champion UConn -- also have some fun challenges ahead.

Hannah Hidalgo of Notre Dame, Lauren Betts of UCLA, and Madison Booker of Texas headline The Associated Press All-America women's college basketball team.

The 2026 women's NCAA tournament begins with Selection Sunday on March 15 and ends with the national championship in Phoenix on April 5.

Texas women's basketball coach Vic Schaefer is used to encountering sharks during his summer outings chasing speckled trout and redfish at Port O'Connor. He goes wade fishing, which means he stands in the water among the sandbar sharks, blacktip sharks and bull sharks that linger in the area.

It's a moment frozen in time: Paige Bueckers hugging her coach Geno Auriemma with 1:32 left and the UConn women's basketball team about to celebrate its 12th national championship with a rout of South Carolina in the NCAA final at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla.