When the women’s basketball committee releases its mid-season top-16 ranking, it always comes with a caveat: This is only a snapshot in time; there’s still a lot of basketball to be played.
That was certainly true this weekend. Less than 24 hours after the committee’s first top 16 reveal — in which Vanderbilt earned the No. 4 overall ranking, projecting the Commodores as the fourth No. 1 seed for March Madness — Vanderbilt lost on the road to unranked Georgia, 76-74.
Given the lessons that could be gleaned from the committee’s first ranking — namely, that recency matters and rough losses can harm positioning quickly — it’s fair to assume that Vanderbilt’s standing as a No. 1 seed is squarely in question now, if not out of reach without some help from other teams in the conversation (Texas) losing a few more.
The Commodores’ leapfrogging of Texas was largely due to their recent head-to-head win and how uncompetitive the Longhorns looked in that loss, even though Texas has the advantages in strength of schedule, NET ranking and Quad 1 wins.
To call the loss to Georgia “bad” would be unfair. The Bulldogs’ NET ranking of 35 means Sunday’s setback was still a Quad 1 loss, but the only other team in the top 10 with a loss to an unranked team since the start of 2026 is Michigan, which lost to Washington on Jan. 1 (and since, the Huskies have entered the AP Top 25).
Even though the Commodores owned key statistical categories — 17 second-chance points to Georgia’s five; 18 points off Georgia’s 19 turnovers to the Bulldogs’ seven points off Vandy’s 10 turnovers; an impressive 20-of-22 shooting from the free-throw line — Vanderbilt just couldn’t quite get over the hump.
The Bulldogs shot 56 percent from the floor, including 62 percent on 2-point attempts. They were led by Dani Carnegie, whose 18 first-half points — including a perfect 4-of-4 from beyond the arc — helped give Georgia the momentum and a three-point lead going into halftime. That edge proved to be all the Bulldogs needed to hang onto for the upset.
Halftime didn’t provide the jolt Vanderbilt needed. In the second half, the team shot just 37 percent from the floor, and national player of the year candidate Mikayla Blakes, who finished with 27 points, was largely held in check from the floor, only getting off two field goal attempts. She did most of her damage from the charity stripe, knocking down 19 of 20 attempts, including 15 in the second half.
Carnegie finished with 29 points, eight rebounds and three assists. Forward Mia Woolfolk added 19 points, including 11 in the fourth quarter.
The win was massive for Georgia, which had made a brief appearance in the AP Top 25 after wins over ranked Ole Miss and Kentucky, but subsequently fell out of the ranking after losing to ranked Alabama and Tennessee, as well as unranked Mississippi State. This kind of a win late in the season will be a necessary boost to the Bulldogs’ tournament resume as the team attempts to make its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2023.
