It is that time of the year when coaches start kicking the promotional campaigns of their best players into high gear.

UConn coach Geno Auriemma, when asked, hasn't been shy in declaring that Katie Lou Samuelson is as good a candidate as anybody else for the national player of the year. He asked recently who has done more, especially in the big games, this season than Samuelson. It was probably a rhetorical question but I took it as a challenge.

I went through the who's who of women's college basketball and came up with a statistical breakdown of how the nation's top players have fared against teams ranked in the top 10. A player needed to appear in at least three games against top 10 teams to be on this list. I listed the players alphabetically and also included field goal attempts per 40 minutes and assist/turnover ratio, a couple of categories often overlooked when crunching stats. A couple of under the radar players whose numbers impressed me were Marie Gulich of Oregon State and Brooke McCarty of Texas who join Samuelson as the only players on the list below to be shooting at least 50 percent from the field with a positive assist/turnover ratio while Maryland's Kaila Charles is the only player to average at least 30 points per game against top 10 teams although her team's struggles down the stretch will hurt her All-American campaign.

Here you go
Player, School                          G MIN PPG REB AST STL BLK FG 3PT  FT   FG/40 A/TO
Monique Billings, UCLA          4 37.5  21.0   8.8    1.5    1.0    1.3   52.5  0.0  66.7 16.3      6/8
Kalani Brown, Baylor                3 33.0 22.3  10.3   1.3     1.0    0.3   61.9  ---- 83.3 17.0     4/8
Lexie Brown, Duke                    4 36.8 14.0   4.3    3.0     2.2   0.0    37.7  37.5 87.5 14.4 12/11
Jordin Canada, UCLA                4 40.0 20.0   2.5    9.0     2.8   0.0    39.7  41.4 82.3 17.0 36/16
Kaila Charles, Maryland            3 32.0 30.7   9.7   1.0      1.7   1.7    61.1  66.7 84.6  22.5  3/7
Sophie Cunningham, Missouri  3 33.3 21.7   5.7    3.0     0.0   0.7    56.8  38.5 71.4  17.6  9/15
Asia Durr, Louisville                 5 35.8 28.0   3.0    2.2     0.4   0.0    48.6  48.1 100  23.5 11/7
Marie Gulich, Oregon State      4 38.8 18.3   9.8    3.0     2.3   0.3     55.4  ---- 84.2  14.5 12/9
Myisha Hines-Allen, Louisville 5 35.4 17.6 13.2  2.0      0.6   0.6     56.9  66.7 57.1  16.2 10/18
Sabrina Ionescu, Oregon            3 39.3 15.3    3.0   6.7     1.7   0.0    34.1  29.4 84.6  14.9 20/7
Brooke McCarty, Texas             5 34.8 20.6   4.4   3.6      0.6   0.2     53.9  51.7 85.7  17.5 18/6
Teaira McCowan, Miss. State    3 36.7 18.7  19.0   0.3     0.3   3.3     60.5  ----  83.3  13.8 1/9
Brittany McPhee, Stanford         4 32.8 20.0    6.3  1.3     1.5   1.0     44.0  16.7 69.2  22.9 5/7
Arike Ogwunbowale, N.Dame   5 35.4 16.8   5.6   2.4    1.4    0.0     40.4  28.6 75.0  20.1 12/9
Katie Lou Samuelson, UConn    5 34.8 20.4   5.0  1.8     1.4   0.6      52.2  41.4 81.8  15.9 9/7
Victoria Vivians, Miss. State      3 35.3 26.0    6.0  1.0    1.7    0.3     45.3  50.0 84.6  24.2 3/3
A'ja Wilson, South Carolina       3 38.7 24.3  13.0  2.0    1.0    3.7     44.8   0.0 75.0  20.0 6/12

I also posted the numbers of UConn's other returning starters with Napheesa Collier probably putting up the best overall numbers in that group and better than some of those listed above
Napheesa Collier, UConn          6 32.8 14.3  6.0    3.3    3.3    1.7          50.8 46.2 85.7 12.4 20/11
Kia Nurse, UConn                     6 36.2 11.3  3.2    2.2    0.3    0.3          44.7 39.1 81.0  8.7 13/10
Gabby Williams, UConn            6 29.5  9.3  10.5  4.5    1.5    0.3          48.0  0.0 72.7  11.3 27/17