2016–17 NCAA Division I women's basketball season

Season headlines

• April 20 – The NCAA announced its Academic Progress Rate sanctions for the 2016–17 school year. A total of 23 Division I programs in 13 sports were declared ineligible for postseason play due to failure to meet the required APR benchmark, with Southern being the only women's basketball team so penalized.
• November 2 – The Associated Press preseason All-American team was released. South Carolina forward A'ja Wilson was the leading vote-getter. Joining her on the team were Ohio State guard Kelsey Mitchell, Notre Dame forward Brianna Turner, Baylor forward Nina Davis and Washington guard Kelsey Plum.
• November 23 – In what ESPN called "one of the most bizarre scenarios imaginable at a major sporting event", top-ranked Notre Dame and Louisiana–Lafayette used two different venues during Notre Dame's 91–51 win. The game began at Campbell Center, a high school venue in Houston, but a power outage during the second quarter prompted the teams to complete the game at another venue. Rice, whose women's team had just completed a home game, offered its Tudor Fieldhouse, and the two teams bused to that venue and finished the game there.
• December 5 – The Atlantic Sun Conference announced that North Alabama would move from the Division II Gulf South Conference and join the ASUN in 2018.
• January 7 – A bench-clearing brawl broke out during the third quarter of the UNLV–Utah State game after a UNLV player was fouled. Four players from each team were ejected. Three days later, the Mountain West Conference, home to both schools, issued one-game suspensions to three participants in the brawl and reprimanded six other participants.
• January 13 – The Western Athletic Conference announced that California Baptist will move from the Division II Pacific West Conference and join the WAC in 2018.
• January 26 – The Summit League announced that North Dakota, currently a member of the Big Sky Conference, will join the league in 2018.
• February 2 – The Colonial Athletic Association announced that two conference wins by Charleston would be treated as Charleston losses for purposes of seeding in the conference tournament, though it did not reverse the results. The conference confirmed that the Cougars had provided "improperly sized" basketballs in the two games, though it would not confirm that men's basketballs were used instead of women's balls.

  Milestones and records

• December 8 – In Ohio State's 108–73 win over Southern, the Buckeyes' Kelsey Mitchell became the fastest Division I women's player to reach 2,000 career points, reaching the mark in her 79th game. The previous record of 82 was held by Missouri State's Jackie Stiles.
• December 11 – Kelsey Plum became the all-time leading scorer in Pac-12 Conference history, passing the former record of Stanford's Chiney Ogwumike during Washington's 92–66 win over Boise State.
• December 16 – Baylor defeated Winthrop 140–32, setting a new Division I women's basketball record for victory margin.
• January 10 – Connecticut crushed South Florida 102–37 to give the Huskies their 90th straight win, equaling the program's own record for the longest winning streak by a Division I team of either sex.
• January 13 – Plum became the 12th player in Division I women's history with 3,000 career points during Washington's 90–73 win over Arizona.
• January 14 – UConn defeated SMU 88–48 for its 91st straight win, establishing a new Division I record streak.
• February 3 – Stanford defeated USC 58–42, giving Cardinal head coach Tara VanDerveer her 1,000th career win. She joined late Tennessee head coach Pat Summitt and current Duke men's head coach Mike Krzyzewski as the only Division I coaches at that time to reach the milestone.
• February 13 – UConn extended its record winning streak to 100 games with a 66–55 win over South Carolina.
• February 25 – Plum scored 57 points, a school record for either sex, in Washington's 84–77 win over Utah, surpassing Stiles for the top spot on the all-time NCAA Division I women's career scoring list.
• March 6 – In the American Athletic Conference tournament final, UConn's Katie Lou Samuelson made all 10 of her three-point attempts, setting a new women's Division I record for most consecutive three-pointers in a game. The Huskies blasted South Florida 100–44 to enter the NCAA Tournament unbeaten.
• March 18 – In the first round of the NCAA tournament, Texas A&M came back from a 21-point deficit early in the fourth quarter, ending on a 25–1 run to defeat Penn 63–61. This set a new record for largest comeback in the Division I women's tournament, surpassing the previous record of 16 points by Notre Dame in 2001 and Michigan State in 2005.
• March 19 – In the same round, Baylor set two all-time tournament records in its 119–30 pasting of Texas Southern:
• * The 89-point margin was the largest ever, surpassing the previous record of 74 set by Tennessee against North Carolina A&T in 1994.
• * Baylor's 119 points were the most ever scored in regulation, surpassing the previous record of 116 set by Ohio State in 1998 and equaled twice by Connecticut, including earlier that same day.
• March 21 – In the second round of the NCAA tournament, Plum surpassed Stiles' D-I record for points in a season, scoring 38 in the Huskies' 108–82 win over Oklahoma and finishing the game with 1,080 points on the season. Plum eventually finished with 1,109 points on the season and 3,527 for her career.
• March 31 – Connecticut's record winning streak ended at 111 games with a 66–64 overtime loss to Mississippi State on a buzzer-beater by the Bulldogs' Morgan William.

  Coaching wins milestones

• 1000 victories - Tara VanDerveer, Stanford, February 3 versus USC.
• 600 victories - Gordy Presnell, Boise State, December 18 versus Portland.
• 500 victories - Jeff Mittie, Kansas State, December 4 versus Omaha.
• 500 victories - Sandra Rushing, Central Arkansas, February 11 versus Nicholls.
• 500 victories - Kim Mulkey, Baylor, February 25 versus Texas Tech.

  Conference membership changes

Pre-season polls

New arenas

• South Dakota opened the new Sanford Coyote Sports Center. The completion of the 6,000-seat venue saw the South Dakota men's basketball, women's basketball, and women's volleyball teams move out of the considerably larger DakotaDome, which remains home to football, track & field, and swimming & diving. The first women's basketball game in the new arena was the opening leg of a November 13 doubleheader with the men's team, with the Coyotes defeating Stephen F. Austin 80–74.

• DePaul left its current on-campus home of McGrath–Phillips Arena for the new off-campus Wintrust Arena, a 10,000-seat venue that opened in October 2017 at the McCormick Place convention center on Chicago's Near South Side. The new arena also houses the DePaul men's team.
• NJIT left one on-campus venue for another. The aging Fleisher Center was replaced by the Wellness and Events Center for the 2017–18 season.
• Robert Morris closed the Charles L. Sewall Center, home to the Colonials since 1985, in June 2017. The UPMC Events Center is currently being built at the Sewall Center site and is scheduled to open in the middle of the 2018–19 basketball season. Until that time, the Colonials are playing at the Student Recreation and Fitness Center, which was built at the school's North Athletic Complex as part of the UPMC Events Center project and opened in September 2017.
• Wofford also moved within its campus, going from Benjamin Johnson Arena to the slightly smaller Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium.

  Regular season

Early preseason tournament

Tournament upsets

Conference winners and tournaments

Award winners

All-America teams

Major player of the year awards

• Wooden Award: Kelsey Plum, Washington
• Naismith Award: Kelsey Plum, Washington
• Associated Press Player of the Year: Kelsey Plum, Washington
• Wade Trophy: Kelsey Plum, Washington
• Ann Meyers Drysdale Women's Player of the Year : Kelsey Plum, Washington
• espnW National Player of the Year: Kelsey Plum, Washington

  Major freshman of the year awards

• USBWA National Freshman of the Year: Sabrina Ionescu, Oregon
• WBCA Freshman of the Year : Destiny Slocum, Maryland
• espnW Freshman of the Year: Sabrina Ionescu, Oregon

  Major coach of the year awards

• Associated Press Coach of the Year: Geno Auriemma, Connecticut
• Naismith College Coach of the Year: Geno Auriemma, Connecticut
• WBCA National Coach of the Year: Geno Auriemma, Connecticut

  Other major awards

• Nancy Lieberman Award: Kelsey Plum, Washington
• WBCA Defensive Player of the Year: Gabby Williams, Connecticut
• Senior CLASS Award: Sydney Wiese, Oregon State
• Maggie Dixon Award : Shauna Green, Dayton
• Academic All-American of the Year : Ally Disterhoft, Iowa
• Elite 90 Award : Brittany McPhee, Stanford
• Pat Summitt Most Courageous Award: Angel Elderkin, head coach, Appalachian State & Holly Rowe, broadcaster, ESPN

  Conference standings

Coaching changes

Footnotes