ESPN Women's Basketball Blog

Posted by Graham Hays

No matter which team you root for, which seniors you said farewell to or what kind of réesumé-building wins your team came up with, this wasn't a good weekend overall for college basketball. Reading news that first Baylor's Danielle Wilson and then California's Alexis Gray-Lawson left games before halftime with knee injuries was a double punch to the gut -- first and foremost for those two players, but also for the game as a whole as it begins to shift toward the NCAA tournament.

To be clear, neither player has yet been officially ruled out for the season. And there's perhaps reason for more optimism with Gray-Lawson, who was described during the broadcast of her team's loss at UCLA as having suffered a sprained left knee. The news doesn't seem as good, so to speak, for Wilson. As the Waco Tribune Herald reports, Baylor's medical staff told Kim Mulkey they suspect an ACL injury in Wilson's left knee.

As we all start to postulate about which teams might beat Connecticut, or what it will take to slow the Huskies, ponder how this team might do against the top-ranked team:

PG: JJ Hones, Stanford
SG: Jennifer Mossor, Florida
SF: Jordan Greenleaf, Auburn
PF: Danielle Wilson, Baylor
C: Amber Harris, Xavier
Bench: Devereaux Peters, Notre Dame; Chauntise Wright, Louisville; Brittany Mallory, Notre Dame; Jania Sims, Pittsburgh; Vicki Baugh, Tennessee

All, of course, are key players on contending teams who suffered significant injuries. And that list doesn't even include Oklahoma's Whitney Hand, who in a best-case scenario, will have to shake off some rust in the postseason in returning from a broken finger on her non-shooting hand. (Then again, as Geno Auriemma said on "PTI" last week, if Connecticut freshman Caroline Doty hadn't suffered a season-ending injury of her own, even he might say he expects the Huskies to win it all).

It's tough to say what Gray-Lawson's injury means until we know more about it; suffice to say the Bears aren't a deep team to begin with. Freshman Casey Morris might well be a future star, and has already been a key figure providing the Bears with at least a little depth in the present, but she's a freshman with fewer than 500 minutes on the court.

Wilson's injury seems the more recognizably serious of the two at this moment. Baylor held on to beat Texas without her in the second half Saturday, getting 25 rebounds in the game from Jhasmin Player and Melissa Jones -- or 2.1 rebounds per foot between the two 5-foot-10 guards. Both Jones and USC transfer Morghan Medlock could be key names if Mulkey's team has to carry on without Wilson. Player, Jessica Morrow and Rachel Allison might shoulder the heaviest scoring burden, but getting additional quality minutes on defense and on the glass out of Jones and Medlock could help the smaller Bears maintain their personality, even without a player who has all but 45 of their blocks.

Georgia on the mind

After a five-game losing streak dropped Georgia to 5-7 in the SEC, a slump that included a 13-point home loss to Arkansas, a scenario in which Andy Landers' team made its annual trip to the NCAA tournament seemed as likely as hell freezing over.

No word on the weather report from Hades, but Georgia and much of the southeastern portion of the United States did freeze over in the form of a weekend snowstorm.

And that might be enough for the Lady Dogs' postseason hopes.

A midweek must-win game on the road at Kentucky broke the losing streak, but Georgia saved its biggest statement for Sunday's Senior Day in Athens. An 84-75 victory against No. 17 Florida not only allows the Lady Dogs to finish the regular season with a .500 record in conference play, it bumps them up a seed line in the SEC tournament and gives them wins against Florida, Auburn and Vanderbilt to show the selection committee.

LSU transfer Porsha Phillips scored 20 against the Gators, continuing a successful conference season in which she led the Lady Dogs in scoring (12.7 points per game in SEC play, compared to 8.6 points per game out of conference).

Georgia didn't show up in Charlie Creme's most recent Bracketology, released before this week's two wins, and since I trust Charlie's judgment more than my own on bracketing issues, I'm curious to see if they reappear in Monday's updated version.