Some weeks, the best way to make a statement is to avoid being the one people talk about.
So apologies to Northwestern's Lindsey Pulliam if we spoil what was a masterful demonstration.
Northwestern is in the midst of one of the more impressive seasons in Division I, as a preseason afterthought that might yet have a chance to play at home in the NCAA tournament as a top-four seed. And notably, the Wildcat are still enjoying that season. As a lot of teams that might have said the same fell by the wayside in a wave of upsets, Pulliam put her own shooting slump behind her and kept the Wildcats quietly rolling toward the postseason.
She is the espnW national player of the week in large part because Northwestern -- a No. 3 seed in Charlie Creme's bracket projection Monday -- didn't make headlines.
Whether teams had an eye on conference tournaments or perhaps just hit the February doldrums, the AP Top 25 turned into a demolition derby on Sunday. In the span of a few hours, No. 8 UCLA, No. 9 Mississippi State, No. 11 Arizona. No. 12 DePaul, No. 17 Florida State, No. 21 Arizona State and No. 22 Arkansas all lost to unranked opponents. Five of them lost to foes with losing conference records. Mississippi State even did that at home.
The carnage above doesn't even count a loss for No. 14 Kentucky. We'll cut the Wildcats some slack for losing at home, considering the setback came against No. 1 South Carolina.
But eight losses by ranked teams -- many of them squarely in the hunt for the Nos. 3 and 4 seeds in the NCAA tournament, which guarantee an opportunity to play at home in the first two rounds -- is a surprising degree of volatility for so late in the season.
The Wildcats, on the other hand, beat Rutgers at home last Wednesday and took care of a road trip to Wisconsin on Saturday. They led by double digits for all but two minutes in the pair of fourth quarters. They cruised. So a team that was nowhere to be seen when the Big Ten released the predicted top-five finishers in the preseason remains tied with Maryland atop the standings and assured of a first-round conference tournament bye.
No one had more to do with that than Pulliam. After totaling 27 points, seven rebounds and five assists against Rutgers, she put up 28 points, six rebounds and five assists against Wisconsin. She played 73 minutes and turned over the ball three times. She took 37 shots from the field and made 23 of them, including six of her nine 3-point attempts. It added up to her most prolific back-to-back games this season, no small feat for someone third in the Big Ten in scoring.
Yet what was most impressive is that if there was any team that might have seemed vulnerable to a costly loss at precisely the wrong time, it was the team whose All-American candidate was coming off a nightmare week shooting the ball.
Pulliam hit 62 percent of her shots this past week. She hit her third shot before the first quarter of the first game of the week was even over. That's one more shot than she hit in two games a week ago, suffering through 1-of-10 shooting against Michigan and 1-of-13 shooting against Nebraska. The Wildcats still won those games against the Wolverines and Huskers because any team with Veronica Burton, Abi Scheid and Abbie Wolf is far from a one-woman team.
It's also true that Northwestern isn't going very far in the weeks ahead if its best player isn't some kind of factor. It's not a coincidence that UCLA lost on a day when Michaela Onyenwere struggled to find her shot or that Arizona managed a season-low 38 points without injured star Aari McDonald.
Oregon might have three All-Americans, but most teams don't. A missing star can derail a lot of carefully constructed groundwork this time of year.
Pulliam made sure Northwestern wasn't in a similar spotlight this week. And the Wildcats would like to think there will be plenty of time for us to talk about them in March.
Also nominated: Lavender Briggs, Florida; Amber Melgoza, Washington; Erica Ogwumike, Rice; Charisma Osborne, UCLA; Jasmine Walker, Alabama
Previous winners: DJ Williams, Coastal Carolina (Feb. 17); Kiah Gillespie, Florida State (Feb. 10); Naz Hillmon, Michigan (Feb. 3); Tyasha Harris, South Carolina (Jan. 27); Sabrina Ionescu, Oregon (Jan. 20); Ja'Tavia Tapley, Arizona State (Jan. 13); Rhyne Howard, Kentucky (Jan. 6); Kaila Charles, Maryland (Dec. 30); Charli Collier, Texas (Dec. 23); Ashley Joens, Iowa State (Dec. 16); Megan Walker, UConn (Dec. 9); Dana Evans, Louisville (Dec. 2); Jaelyn Brown, Cal (Nov. 25); Aari McDonald, Arizona (Nov. 18); Sabrina Ionescu, Oregon (Nov. 11)