Comebacks highlight opening weekend in Women's March Madness

The GIST: Parity in the women’s game is increasing every day, but it’s not quite at the men’s level yet. For the most part, the top dogs have been kicking ass and taking names in the gals' bracket…although it’s not been so easy for all of them.

The comeback kids: For the ladies, this weekend was all about rebounding — literally and figuratively. No. 3 Ohio State, No. 9 Miami and the aforementioned No. 7 Baylor all bounced back from 16-plus-point deficits to steal wins on Saturday, the first time in women’s Madness history that three drastic comebacks occurred on the same day. It’s not how you start…

• Similarly, No. 2 Iowa, No. 2 Utah and No. 3 Notre Dame were all surprisingly shaky as they punched their Sweet 16 tickets yesterday — even No. 1 South Carolina wasn’t as dominant as usual, although they cruised past No. 8 South Florida in the end.

• The big exception to this rule? No. 1 Stanford’s shocking 54–49 upset at the hands of No. 8 Ole Miss last night. The Cardinal is the only women’s No. 1 seed to fall so far, injecting some chaos into a mostly as-expected bracket.

Up next: Today’s eight games will decide the rest of the Sweet 16 field. Put No. 4 Villanova and No. 12 FGCU’s 7 p.m. ET tilt at the top of your watchlist: FGCU is one of the lowest remaining seeds (aka the one last chance at a true Cinderella), but Nova forward Maddy Siegrist is not one to overlook.

• With her 35 points on Saturday, Siegrist became one of just five players in Division I women’s history to score 1K points in one season. Plus, she’s a vocal advocate for the gals’ game — you know we love to see it.