Six Friday NCAA women's tournament takeaways: Defending champs underwhelm

The first round of the NCAA Women's Tournament tipped off on Friday. Here are five takeaways from an exhilarating day.

1. Defending national champion LSU struggled in its first game

In a 70-60 victory, the third-seeded Tigers (29-5) committed a season-high 24 turnovers against the 14th-seeded Rice Owls (19-15). They also had 11 assists, tied for their third-fewest this season. 

LSU head coach Kim Mulkey admitted her team looked sloppy. 

"That was a bad performance today. It was a lot of selfish play today, and it starts with me on getting them ready," Mulkey said, via ESPN.com. "The goal is to survive and advance. And we did do that with an ugly performance."

While Rice won four straight games before this matchup, LSU must find its groove quickly. The Tigers are in the stacked Albany Regional 2, which includes 2022-23 runner-up Iowa. A colleague recently told The Athletic's Nicole Auerbach, "She's never seen a region this difficult."

2. Louisville laid an egg

The sixth-seeded Cardinals (24-10) had made five straight Elite Eight appearances entering the tournament, which made their collapse against 11th-seeded Middle Tennessee State (30-4) even more shocking. 

In the 71-69 defeat, Blue Raiders guard Savannah Wheeler — Conference USA Player of the Year — scored 20 of her 22 points in the second half. The late surge helped MTSU erase an 18-point deficit, completing the third-largest comeback in NCAA Tournament history.  

Expect Cardinals HC Jeff Walz to make some significant changes following the upset. 

"I've got to get back to doing things the way I did in the past," he said, per Alexis Cubit of the Louisville Courier-Journal.

3. Virginia Tech proved it can win without Elizabeth Kitley

On Thursday, Virginia Tech HC Kenny Brooks confirmed Kitley — the ACC Player of the Year — suffered a torn ACL in early March and would miss the NCAA Tournament. The senior center led the team in scoring (22.8 PPG) this season.

However, a dominant performance against 13th-seeded Marshall signals that the fourth-seeded Hokies can make a run without their best player. In the 92-49 victory, they set a school record for points scored in an NCAA Tournament game, including 28 from their bench.

On Sunday, the Hokies have a difficult matchup against fifth-seeded Baylor. But they made the Final Four last season and still have enough firepower to make it again. 

4. Iowa State's Audi Crooks is a rising star

The freshman center scored a career-high 40 points in 34 minutes. This helped the seventh-seeded Cyclones (21-11) erase a 20-point lead and complete the second-largest comeback in NCAA Tournament history in a 93-86 victory against Maryland (19-14). 

Crooks is becoming one of the most dominant forces in college basketball. Over the past five games, she's averaged 27 points per game. 

Iowa State will face Stanford or Norfolk State on Sunday. Regardless, the Cyclones should keep riding Crooks' hot hand to make a deep run.  

5. Madison Booker can drive Texas to the Final Four 

The freshman forward has become the Longhorns' driving force since junior guard Rori Harmon suffered a season-ending ACL tear in December.

In an 82-42 victory against No. 16 seed Drexel (19-15), Booker tallied 14 assists, a program record in an NCAA Tournament game. Her precise passing helped Texas shoot 50 percent from the field.

Booker is one reason the Longhorns (31-4) could make their first Final Four trip since 2003 and help HC Vic Schaefer win his first national championship.  

6. South Carolina still looks like the best team

It's not a foregone conclusion, but it's easy to see why FanDuel gives South Carolina the best national championship odds (-145). 

The Gamecocks (33-0) boat raced No. 16 Presbyterian (21-15) 91-39 without leading scorer center Kamilla Cardoso (14 PPG), who was serving a one-game suspension due to an ejection in the SEC Championship game against LSU.

Don't be surprised if South Carolina cruises to the Final Four in Cleveland. On Sunday, the Gamecocks face North Carolina, who they beat 65-58 in Chapel Hill on Nov. 30.