# 2021–22 Southwestern Athletic Conference women's basketball season

The 2021–22 Southwestern Athletic Conference women's basketball season is scheduled to begin with practices in October 2021 followed by the 2021–22 NCAA Division I women's basketball season in November 2021. The conference is scheduled to begin in December 2021. This was the 41st season under the Southwestern Athletic Conference name.
The SWAC tournament is scheduled for March 9–12, 2022 at the Bartow Arena in Birmingham, Alabama.

## Pre-season
### Preseason polls
#### SWAC Coaches' Poll

Women's Basketball Preseason Poll (Coaches) :
| Place | Team | Points | First place votes |
| 1. | Jackson State | 255 | 19 |
| 2. | Alabama State | 238 | 1 |
| 3. | Southern | 194 | 1 |
| 4. | Alabama A&M | 190 | 1 |
| 5. | Grambling State | 147 | — |
| 6. | Texas Southern | 142 | ― |
| 7. | Alcorn State | 118 | ― |
| 8. | Bethune–Cookman | 101 | ― |
| 9. | Arkansas–Pine Bluff | 98 | ― |
| 10. | Prairie View A&M | 93 | ― |
| 11. | Florida A&M | 91 | ― |
| 12. | Mississippi Valley State | 49 | ― |
Source:

### SWAC Preseason All-Conference
#### Preseason All-SWAC First Team

| Name | School | Pos. | Yr. | Ht. | Hometown (Last School) |
| Dayzsha Rogan | Jackson State | Sr. | G | 5'4 | Ripley, MS (Northeast) |
| Ayana Emmanuel | Alabama State | Sr. | G | 5'9 | Fort Lauderdale, FL (Dillard HS) |
| Shmya Ward | Alabama State | R-Jr. | F | 6'0 | Memphis, TN (Whitehaven HS) |
| Dariauna Lewis | Alabama A&M | Sr. | F | 6'1 | Omaha, NE (Missouri State) |
| Ameshya Williams | Jackson State | Sr. | C | 6'4 | Gulfport, MS, (West Harrison HS) |
Source:

#### Preseason All-SWAC Second Team

| Name | School | Pos. | Yr. | Ht. | Hometown (Last School) |
| Ataiya Bridges | Texas Southern | GS | G | 5'4 | Lanett, AL (Shelton State) |
| Genovea Johnson | Southern | Jr. | G | 5'8 | Fort Lauderdale, FL (Dillard HS) |
| Deshawna Harper | Alabama A&M | GS | G | 5'4 | Indianapolis, IN (Heritage HS) |
| Jayla Crawford | Alabama State | Sr. | G | 5'7 | Birmingham, AL (Huffman HS) |
| Khadijah Brown | Arkansas-Pine Bluff | R-Sr. | C | 6'3 | Miami, FL (Jacksonville) |
Source:

### Midseason watchlists

Below is a table of notable midseason watch lists.
| Wooden | Naismith | Liberman | Drysdale | Miller | McClain | Leslie | Wade |

### Final watchlists

Below is a table of notable year end watch lists.
| Wooden | Naismith | Liberman | Drysdale | Miller | McClain | Leslie | Wade |

## Regular season

On 30 December 2021 Southwestern Athletic Conference update their COVID-19 protocol. If a team is unable to play due to COVID-19 related issues the match will be counted as a forfeit for the purpose of the conference standings resulting in a loss for the team that caused the cancellation and a win for the opposing team. As per NCAA policy, a COVID-19 related forfeit not change a team's official won-lost record, nor will it impact statistics or coaching records. It will only count for the purpose of the conference standings.

### Records against other conferences

2021–22 records against non-conference foes as of (December 30, 2021):
| Power 7 Conferences | Record |
| American | 1–9 |
| ACC | 0–5 |
| Big East | 0–3 |
| Big Ten | 0–4 |
| Big 12 | 0–5 |
| Pac-12 | 0–3 |
| SEC | 0–20 |
| Power 7 Conferences Total | 1–49 |
| Other NCAA Division 1 Conferences | Record |
| America East | 0–0 |
| A-10 | 0–2 |
| ASUN | 0–5 |
| Big Sky | 0–1 |
| Big South | 0–0 |
| Big West | 0–0 |
| CAA | 0–1 |
| C-USA | 2–10 |
| Horizon | 0–0 |
| Ivy League | 0–0 |
| MAAC | 0–0 |
| MAC | 0–1 |
| MEAC | 1–0 |
| MVC | 0–1 |
| Mountain West | 0–3 |
| NEC | 0–0 |
| OVC | 1–4 |
| Patriot League | 0–0 |
| SoCon | 1–0 |
| Southland | 3–4 |
| Summit League | 0–1 |
| Sun Belt | 3–10 |
| WAC | 0–1 |
| WCC | 0–1 |
| Other Division I Total | 11–45 |
| Division II Total | 1–1 |
| NCAA Division I Total | 12–94 |
| NAIA Conferences | Record |
| AMC | 0–0 |
| GCAC | 1–0 |
| GPAC | 0–0 |
| Independent | 1–0 |
| NSAA | 0–0 |
| RRAC | 5–0 |
| SSAC | 1–0 |
| Sun Conference | 1–0 |
| NAIA Total | 9–0 |
| Power 7 Conferences | Record |
| American | 0–0 |
| ACC | 0–0 |
| Big East | 0–0 |
| Big Ten | 0–0 |
| Big 12 | 0–0 |
| Pac-12 | 0–0 |
| SEC | 0–0 |
| Power 7 Conferences Total | 0–0 |
| Other NCAA Division 1 Conferences | Record |
| America East | 0–0 |
| A-10 | 0–0 |
| ASUN | 0–0 |
| Big Sky | 0–0 |
| Big South | 0–0 |
| Big West | 0–0 |
| CAA | 0–0 |
| C-USA | 0–0 |
| Horizon | 0–0 |
| Ivy League | 0–0 |
| MAAC | 0–0 |
| MAC | 0–0 |
| MEAC | 0–0 |
| MVC | 0–0 |
| Mountain West | 0–0 |
| NEC | 0–0 |
| OVC | 0–0 |
| Patriot League | 0–0 |
| SoCon | 0–0 |
| Southland | 0–0 |
| Summit League | 0–0 |
| Sun Belt | 0–0 |
| WAC | 0–0 |
| WCC | 0–0 |
| Other Division I Total | 0–0 |
| NCAA Division I Total | 0–0 |

### Record against ranked non-conference opponents

This is a list of games against ranked opponents only (rankings from the AP Poll):
| Date | Visitor | Home | Site | Significance | Score | Conference record |
| Nov 11 | Alabama State | No. 21 South Florida | Yuengling Center ● Tampa, FL | ― | L 37–72 | 0–1 |
| Nov 11 | Southern | No. 23 Texas A&M | Reed Arena ● College Station, TX | ― | L 32–92 | 0–2 |
| Nov 15 | Texas Southern | No. 11 Arizona | McKale Center ● Tucson, AZ | ― | L 38–93 | 0–3 |
| Nov 17 | Southern | No. 8 Iowa | Carver–Hawkeye Arena ● Iowa City, IA | ― | L 67–87 | 0–4 |
| Nov 21 | Southern | No. 14 Iowa State | Hilton Coliseum ● Ames, IA | ― | L 55–96 | 0–5 |
| Nov 21 | Grambling State | No. 17 Florida State | Donald L. Tucker Center ● Tallahassee, FL | ― | L 53–76 | 0–6 |
| Dec 1 | Jackson State | No. 15 Texas | Frank Erwin Center ● Austin, TX | ― | L 64–78 | 0–7 |
| Dec 8 | Alcorn State | No. 5 Baylor | Ferrell Center ● Waco, TX | ― | L 40–94 | 0–8 |
| Dec 9 | Texas Southern | No. 18 Texas A&M | Reed Arena ● College Station, TX | ― | L 43–88 | 0–9 |
| Dec 12 | Texas Southern | No. 24 LSU | Pete Maravich Assembly Center ● Baton Rouge, LA | ― | L 55–96 | 0–10 |
| Dec 15 | Alcorn State | No. 22 LSU | Pete Maravich Assembly Center ● Baton Rouge, LA | ― | L 36–100 | 0–11 |
| Dec 15 | Alabama State | No. 24 Ohio State | Schottenstein Center ● Columbus, OH | ― | L 51–97 | 0–12 |
| Dec 19 | Prairie View A&M | No. 12 Iowa State | Hilton Coliseum ● Ames, IA | ― | L 39–108 | 0–13 |
| Dec 21 | Alabama State | No. 25 North Carolina | Carmichael Arena ● Chapel Hill, NC | ― | L 47–83 | 0–14 |
| Dec 29 | Alcorn State | No. 12 Texas | Frank Erwin Center ● Austin, TX | Canceled due to COVID-19 | Canceled due to COVID-19 | Canceled due to COVID-19 |
Team rankings are reflective of AP poll when the game was played, not current or final ranking
† denotes game was played on neutral site

## Post season
### SWAC tournament

Jackson State won the conference tournament from March 9–12, 2022, at the Bartow Arena, Birmingham, AL. The top eight teams from the conference regular season play at the tournament. Teams were seeded by conference record, with ties broken by with a tie–breaker system to seed teams with identical conference records.
| Quarterfinals March 9 & 10 ESPN+ | Quarterfinals March 9 & 10 ESPN+ | Quarterfinals March 9 & 10 ESPN+ | Semifinals March 11 ESPN+ | Semifinals March 11 ESPN+ | Semifinals March 11 ESPN+ | Championship March 12 ESPN+ | Championship March 12 ESPN+ | Championship March 12 ESPN+ |
| 1 | Jackson State | 78 | | | | | | |
| 8 | Arkansas-Pine Bluff | 67 | | | | | | |
| 8 | Arkansas-Pine Bluff | 67 | 1 | Jackson State | 59 | | | |
| | | | 4 | Southern | 46 | | | |
| 4 | Southern | 68 | 4 | Southern | 46 | | | |
| 5 | Texas Southern | 67 | | | | | | |
| 5 | Texas Southern | 67 | | | | 1 | Jackson State | 101 |
| | | | | | | 3 | Alabama State | 80 |
| 3 | Alabama State | 60 | | | | | | | 3 | Alabama State | 80 |
| 6 | Prairie View A&M | 58 | | | | | | |
| 6 | Prairie View A&M | 58 | 3 | Alabama State | 74 | | | |
| | | | 7 | Grambling State | 59 | | | |
| 2 | Alabama A&M | 54 | 7 | Grambling State | 59 | | | |
| 7 | Grambling State | 62 | | | | | | |
Reference:

### NCAA tournament

One team from the conference were selected to participate: Jackson State.
| Seed | Region | School | First Round | Second Round | Sweet Sixteen | Elite Eight | Final Four | Championship |
| No. 14 | Spokane Regional | Jackson State | lost to No. 3 LSU 77–83 | – | – | – | – | – |
| | 1 Bid | W-L (%): | 0–1 (.000) | 0–0 (–) | 0–0 (–) | 0–0 (–) | 0–0 (–) | TOTAL: 0–1 (.000) |
* Index to colors and formatting
* SWAC member won
* SWAC member lost

### National Invitation Tournament

Three conferences (Big Ten, Big 12, SWAC) rejected their bids to participate WNIT, so SWAC team didn't participate this year WNIT.

## Awards and honors
### Players of the Week

Throughout the conference regular season, the SWAC offices named one or two players of the week each week.
| Week | Player of the Week | School | Impact Player of the Week | School |
| Nov. 18 | Morgan Beacham | Bethune–Cookman | Taylor Williams | Bethune–Cookman |
| Nov. 24 | Gerlyn Smith | Prairie View A&M | Deshawna Harper | Alabama A&M |
| Dec. 2 | Mikayla Etienne | Mississippi Valley State | Khadijah Brown | Arkansas–Pine Bluff |
| Dec. 8 | Zaay Green | Arkansas–Pine Bluff | Sade Hudson | Arkansas–Pine Bluff |
| Dec. 15 | Nigeria Jones | Alabama A&M | Dariauna Lewis | Alabama A&M |
| Dec. 22 | Dylan Horton | Florida A&M | Dariauna Lewis (2) | Alabama A&M |
| Dec. 29 | Tynesha Rudolph | Alabama State | Alexus Holt | Grambling State |
| Jan. 5 | Dariauna Lewis | Alabama A&M | Maleaha Bell | Florida A&M |
| Jan. 12 | Dylan Horton (2) | Florida A&M | Ameshya Williams-Holliday | Jackson State |
| Jan. 19 | Dylan Horton (3) | Florida A&M | Andriana Avent | Texas Southern |
| Jan. 25 | Dariauna Lewis (2) | Alabama A&M | Ameshya Williams-Holliday (2) | Jackson State |
| Feb. 1 | Ameshya Williams-Holliday | Jackson State | Andriana Avent (2) | Texas Southern |
| Feb. 8 | Alexus Holt | Grambling State | Zaay Green | Arkansas–Pine Bluff |
| Feb. 15 | Ameshya Williams-Holliday (2) | Jackson State | Ataiya Bridges | Texas Southern |
| Feb. 22 | Ayana Emmanuel | Alabama State | Andriana Avent (3) | Texas Southern |
| TBD | ― | ― | ― | ― |
| TBD | ― | ― | ― | ― |
| TBD | ― | ― | ― | ― |

#### Totals per School

| School | Total |
| Alabama A&M | 6 |
| Arkansas–Pine Bluff | 4 |
| Florida A&M | 4 |
| Jackson State | 4 |
| Texas Southern | 4 |
| Alabama State | 2 |
| Bethune–Cookman | 2 |
| Grambling State | 2 |
| Mississippi Valley State | 1 |
| Prairie View A&M | 1 |

## WNBA draft

The SWAC had one player selected in the WNBA Draft. Ameshya Williams-Holliday from Jackson State selected by Indiana Fever on the 3rd round 25th overall pick. Williams-Holliday was the first player from HBCU, who selected on the WNBA draft since 2002.
| Player | Team | Round | Pick # | Position | School |
| Ameshya Williams-Holliday | Indiana Fever | 3 | 25 | Center | Jackson State |