Eras tend to get labeled as such after the fact, from a safe distance. But occasionally the evidence of something new piles up so quickly and conspicuously that it can’t be missed, even in the moment. If you were looking for the start of the next chapter in the quickening plot of women’s basketball, you might reasonably pick out the first month of 2021, which a rare generation of collegians spent doing rare things.
Against Mississippi State on Jan. 3, 6' 2" guard Rhyne Howard of Kentucky—a top Player of the Year contender and a would-be first pick in the upcoming WNBA draft, if juniors were eligible—scored 25 of her 33 points in the fourth quarter and overtime, erasing a late deficit seemingly by sheer force of will in a 92–86 victory.