Women’s college basketball power rankings: Who’s the new No. 1 after Notre Dame falls?

Given how much I respect my colleague Sabreena Merchant’s knowledge of women’s basketball, even I had to take a step back this weekend and wonder if it were truly happenstance that she handed off the power rankings to me (a person who has acknowledged that my respect for the ACC was potentially not strong enough early on this season, mea culpa, mea culpa). The ACC sent a pretty resonant reminder this week to the nation: Hello, we’re still here and some of our teams are peaking in time for a dominant March.

NC State’s impressive win on Sunday over top-ranked Notre Dame (which followed a great Wolfpack road win over George Tech), wasn’t the only eye-opening victory. Louisville capped one heck of a week with road wins over ranked Florida State and Duke before returning home to take (an Alyssa Ustby-less) UNC down to the wire. The Tar Heels won their seventh straight game, including two over ranked opponents (add a third if Louisville is ranked come Monday — which it should be). A Ta’Niya Latson-less Florida State had won two straight games against lesser opponents, but behind a huge third-quarter outpouring and a massive showing from Sydney Bowles (32 points, six assists), the Seminoles upset No. 20 Georgia Tech on the road.

With that, there’s some good movement for certain ACC teams in this week’s power rankings as we enter this final stretch.

Since we’re entering the final week of the regular season, it seems like a good time to check in on conference races and player of the year honors.

ACC

Team race: With NC State’s win over Notre Dame this weekend, the Wolfpack are officially a game back and now hold the tiebreaker over the Irish. That puts the pressure on Notre Dame, especially considering its final week — at home against Florida State and surging Louisville — is no walk in the park. Meanwhile, NC State gets the two worst ACC teams (SMU and Wake Forest) to close out its season. Notre Dame’s margin for error is nada if it wants to claim its second regular-season conference title in three seasons.

Player race: Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo didn’t come out on top Sunday, but you can’t ignore the 5-foot-6 star who is the engine of the Irish’s offense and defense. She’s averaging 25 points, four assists and four steals a game, and she’s shooting 40 percent from beyond the arc. … From that same game on Sunday, NC State’s Aziaha James showed why she has been the definition of steady for the Wolfpack as they’ve climbed into the top 10. She’s putting up career bests in nearly every statistical category and the senior guard has created some can’t-miss highlights.

Though the Seminoles haven’t been consistently ranked, Latson has kept FSU relevant and on the fringe of being ranked (if not inside the Top 25) all season. Latson leads the nation with 26 points per game in a highly efficient nature, averaging 1.13 points per scoring attempt. Those numbers put her among the nation’s top 15 percent of players while also averaging the second-most shots per game among Division I players).

Big 12

Team race: With a significant win over West Virginia on Sunday, TCU remained equal with Baylor at 14-2 in the conference race. This sets up a potential conference title game preview in the regular-season finale between the Horned Frogs and Bears when they meet Sunday in Waco.

A few scenarios are possible, but for the sake of space (and the hope of consequential hoops on the last day of the regular season), let’s say that TCU and Baylor enter Sunday’s game at 15-2 (meaning the Bears take care of business at Kansas State on Monday), then the winner of next Sunday’s TCU-Baylor game would be crowned regular-season champ.

Player race: Kansas State has two players who should be mentioned in this conversation: Ayoka Lee and Serena Sundell. Lee has missed 10 games for the Wildcats this season and played fewer minutes in games than most others in POY conversations. That could hurt her chances, but you must discuss the 6-6 center’s efficiency as she averages nearly a point a minute and a rebound every three minutes she’s on the floor.

Sundell leads all power conference players with 7.3 assists per game and set Kansas State’s record for assists in a single game (15) on Sunday. In Lee’s absence, she has been Kansas State’s steadying force, a hallmark of her career. She has started each of the 132 games she has played for the Wildcats.

In West Virginia’s system, JJ Quinerly is a perfect fit. The senior averages 19 points, three assists, three rebounds and three steals a game (and that’s not counting the number of plays she blows up for opponents with her defensive activity). Her defensive rating puts her among the top one percent nationally, and she does it without fouling (averaging just 2.5 per game).

At her third school, Hailey Van Lith also found a perfect fit in TCU’s offense, returning to being a pick-and-roll guard and enjoying the most efficient shooting of her career (averaging 44 percent from the floor). Her six assists a game rank among the nation’s top 25 players.

Big Ten

Team race: With the Bruins eking out a win Sunday in Iowa City (not an easy task for L.A. teams — just ask USC — we’re also looking at a potential Big Ten regular-season title game preview being UCLA and USC if things shake out just right.

If the Bruins close out their Midwest trip by beating Wisconsin and the Trojans take care of business at home against Illinois, then UCLA and USC would enter the last day of the season at 15-1 with the winner of the cross-city challenge named the Big Ten champions in its first year in the league.

Player race: This race is also dominated by two L.A. players: UCLA’s Lauren Betts and USC’s JuJu Watkins.

Betts has been what the Bruins have needed this season — an efficient scorer, an excellent passing big, an elite rim protector and a glass cleaner. Just by being on the court, she makes every UCLA player better and more dangerous because of her unique skills. Need an example? She’s the only player in the country averaging three blocks and three assists a game.

The beauty of Watkins’ game is that USC hasn’t needed her to do as much this season, but the Trojans can flex their JuJu muscle when needed (like in the recent UCLA matchup) and the sophomore can go off for a 38-point night. She’s a smooth three-level scorer with energy who makes her one of the country’s most productive defenders (2.2 steals and 1.9 blocks per game).

SEC

Team race: If Texas (at Georgia, at Mississippi State, against Florida) and South Carolina (at Ole Miss, against Kentucky) win out, they’ll share the SEC title. … My two cents: I don’t care if you must have 12 different subsections for clarifying, get rid of shared titles. Incentivize scoring margins and performances against other top-conference teams or whatever else you need to do for champs to be champs.

Things could get a bit messier if Texas and South Carolina stumble (the Gamecocks certainly have the tougher final stretch), and in that case, LSU certainly has an outside chance. If the Longhorns and Gamecocks both lost two apiece while the Tigers won out, LSU would be crowned SEC champs, but even if the Longhorns and Gamecocks lose one apiece, LSU still lags because of the head-to-head results.

Player race: This conference will be the toughest to decide as it boasts several quality options with valid arguments to win.

LSU can put forth Aneesah Morrow and Flau’jae Johnson. Morrow has been a double-double machine, averaging 18 points and 14 rebounds a game. Only twice this season has she been held to single-digit rebounds, and because of how hard she attacks the glass, Morrow gets to the free-throw line (and opponents into foul trouble) better than almost anyone else in the country. Johnson is a Swiss Army knife for the Tigers — she’s a scorer, distributor, defender and playmaker. She’s also one of just nine power conference players averaging 15-plus points, five-plus rebounds and two-plus assists per game this season.

But this isn’t a Tigers-only race. Texas sophomore Madison Booker has thrived in her move back into her natural position for the Longhorns (after taking over the point guard role as a freshman), and her 3-point shooting percentage has improved to 44 percent this season, making her that much more impossible to stop. Kentucky’s Georgia Amoore’s move to the SEC from the ACC (at Virginia Tech) alongside coach Kenny Brooks has proved beneficial. Amoore averages seven assists a game and has helped the Wildcats make one of the biggest jumps among power conference teams year-over-year.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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