The 2013–14 NCAA Division I women's basketball season began in November and ended with the Final Four in Nashville, Tennessee April 6–8.
Milestones and records
December 16 – Stanford senior Chiney Ogwumike surpassed 2000 points and 1000 rebounds for her career. She eclipsed the scoring mark in a 32-point game against New Mexico. She became the fifth Cardinal women's player to reach the 2000/1000 milestone.[1]
December 29 – Wake Forest senior Chelsea Douglas broke the school's single-game scoring record. Douglas scored 48 points in a win over Florida International. The previous record of 40 points was held by Brittany Waters and Liz Strunk.[2]
The 2013–14 season saw the largest wave of membership changes resulting from a major realignment of NCAA Division I conferences. The cycle began in 2010 with the Big Ten and the then-Pac-10 publicly announcing their intentions to expand. The fallout from these conferences' moves later affected a majority of D-I conferences. The most significant developments this season were:
With The American adding four members in 2013 and three more in 2014, all from Conference USA (C-USA), the latter league responded by adding eight members in 2013, plus one more in 2014. Four of the 2013 C-USA arrivals came from the Sun Belt Conference, which itself added five schools (three in 2013 and two in 2014).
In addition, four schools began the transition up from Division II starting this season. These schools were ineligible for NCAA-sponsored postseason play until completing their D-I transitions in 2017.
The Towson Tigers also left behind a venue that they had occupied since 1976, the Towson Center. Unlike Nebraska, Towson stayed on campus in the new Tiger Arena.
The four Division I newcomers all chose to use existing on-campus venues:
The 10-second rule in the backcourt, under which the offensive team must cross the midcourt line within 10 seconds of gaining possession in the backcourt, was introduced to the women's game for the first time. Previously, women's college basketball had been the only level of basketball in the world without a timed backcourt rule.[16]
If a team calls a timeout within the 30 seconds preceding a scheduled media timeout (the first dead ball after the 16-, 12-, 8-, and 4-minute marks), the called timeout will replace the scheduled media timeout. The only exception to this new rule is the first timeout called by either team in the second half. This change was made only in the women's game;[16] it did not become part of the men's game until the 2015–16 season.[17]
Expanded the use of video review as follows:
Shot-clock violations and who caused the ball to go out-of-bounds in the final 2:00 of regulation or overtime.
Determine if a field goal is worth two points or three in the final 4:00 of regulation or in the entire overtime period. Any other such review must wait until the next media timeout (at that time, 16:00, 12:00 and 8:00 as well as the final 4:00 of the first half; since 2015–16, media timeouts take place at the 5:00 mark of each quarter).
Change the block/charge rule to not permit a defender from sliding in front of an offensive player at the last second to draw a charge. The defender must be in position when the offensive player begins his upward flight with the ball.
Increasing emphasis on hand-checking or extended arms on defense.
Permit the use of video review to determine if an elbow delivered above the shoulders of an opponent warrants a flagrant-1 or -2 foul (as was previously the case), a player control foul, or no call.[18]
† 2014 Southland tournament winner As of March 22, 2014 *ineligible for postseason play due to Div. I transition **ineligible for postseason play due to APR penalties Rankings from AP poll[25][26]
† 2014 WAC tournament winner As of March 22, 2014 * Grand Canyon ineligible for WAC Basketball Tournament as part of reclassification from Division II Rankings from AP poll[39][40]