While Five Out can sometimes venture out into the world of sports business, society and culture, it is occasionally fun to have a column that is just WNBA-centric.

After a week of great games, jockeying in the standings and some MVP caliber performances from some of the top players in the league, we get five topics that are as hoop-heavy as you can get.

In case you missed our Sunday wrap show, you can access it here as a podcast or below on YouTube. Be sure to like, share and subscribe or give us a five star rating and review on Apple if you enjoy the show! We always appreciate it and the growth of No Cap Space WBB doesn’t happen without you!

Now that we’re in the swing of Wednesday podcasts, we hope you’ve all been enjoying the double dose of our crew every week. If you missed our Sunday live show (or Monday morning pod, if you read Five Out), you can see it at the link below on YouTube. You can also see Ball Up Top in full over there in video form as well! Just be sure to like, share and subscribe if you do!

Chauny, back by popular demand, is in the host seat once again. One might say that in a group where everyone eats but there’s a clear star, she’s the Paige Bueckers of this ship. After a bit of internal crisis at such realizations, the show opens with a simple question: is there anyone in the same tier as the Minnesota Lynx right now? Andrew argues that Atlanta and New York could still get the best of them in a multi-game series and the debate ensues. After touching on Alanna Smith’s Defensive Player of the Year candidacy, the crew discusses the mess happening in Chicago and where the fault lies for an organization that feels caught in a death spiral. The show wraps with a look at another team in turmoil, the Seattle Storm.

Scroll ahead to hear…

0:00 - Show Introductions

4:59 - Is Minnesota in a tier of their own?

22:17 - Alanna Smith’s Defensive Player of the Year candidacy…

24:04 - The Sky is…falling…

43:31 - Storms in Seattle…

Ball Up Top: A WBB Podcast is brought to you in part by Homefield. Just this past week they revealed the full Can’t Miss Kickoff release schedule with hundreds of new football themed products to get you ready for the fall! Want some women’s hoops merch instead? Check out our No Cap Space WBB collection, a curated page of all of Homefield’s best WBB shirts, jackets, jerseys and more!

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Without being too hyperbolic, this has been one of the better WNBA late season playoff races I can remember. While there’s been plenty of jockeying in the standings at this point in prior years, there’s something about there being three (maybe even four) true Finals contenders in the mix. But before we dive into that, let’s welcome you back to Five Out now that we’re reformatted and back to our normal style.

As we mentioned last week, the column will now include a Monday podcast that comes from our Sunday live wrap shows on YouTube. It’ll cover the biggest games of the day and some of the biggest news items between Thursday and the end of the week. Ball Up Top: A WBB Podcast will now be dropping every Wednesday morning instead of Tuesday to give you two evenly spaced out podcasts that talk women’s basketball!

Keep an eye out for more Overtime Select coverage this week as well. Chauny was down in Atlanta for the weekend getting you caught up on the next generation of women’s hoops stars and the WNBA legends they’re working with this summer (and that’s before we start to get into NCAA previews). In short, it’s a great time to be a women’s basketball fan!

A quick programming note for you loyal podcast listeners. Ball Up Top is moving to Wednesdays full-time! We will now have a second show for you that will be a live weekend wrap up that will air on Sundays on YouTube and edited into pod form for Monday morning. That will push Ball Up Top to Wednesdays so you now get two chances to listen to some women’s basketball a talk a week with us!

Chauny is in the host chair with Tyler and Andrew as the trio discusses the recent action near the WNBA trade deadline. Brittney Sykes is now in Seattle and the pod breaks down how the move benefits both teams. The discussion then covers the hottest teams in the league right now including the Los Angeles Sparks who continue to surge towards a playoff spot before wrapping up with a discussion around DeWanna Bonner, Sophie Cunningham and how rivalries grow organically in the WNBA.

Scroll ahead to hear…

0:00 - Show Introduction

6:11 - Trade Breakdowns…

25:30 - What is L.A.’s ceiling?

46:05 - Connecticut Sun/WNBA sale drama.

53:10 - One last look at DeWanna Bonner’s Indiana exit.

Ball Up Top: A WBB Podcast is brought to you in part by Homefield. Just this past week they revealed the full Can’t Miss Kickoff release schedule with hundreds of new football themed products to get you ready for the fall! Want some women’s hoops merch instead? Check out our No Cap Space WBB collection, a curated page of all of Homefield’s best WBB shirts, jackets, jerseys and more!

Some news on the home front. Ball Up Top: A WBB Podcast is moving to Wednesdays so we can get you two pods per week. On Sundays, our No Cap Space WBB team will be live on YouTube breaking down the biggest WNBA games of the weekend and biggest news items headed into Monday.

Ball Up Top will be each Wednesday previewing the week ahead. It's all a part of our desire to get you a little more content and women's hoop talk!

Be sure to subscribe, like and rate us five stars on Apple, Spotify or wherever you're listening!

While the injury bug continued to hit the New York Liberty, the L.A. Sparks finally got one of their young superstars back after a 13 month recovery. Tyler, Greer and Andrew take a look at Cam Brink’s ceiling and what it could mean for a late season playoff push from Los Angeles.

The trio open the show with news of Kennedy Burke’s injury and how the short turnaround times are hurting the WNBA as a league and may become a source of contention at the CBA Bargaining table. The show wraps up with a discussion on the upcoming trade deadline and some of the best moves top teams can make.

Scroll ahead to hear…

0:00 - Show Introduction

2:15 - The WNBA’s Injury Issue & The Effect on CBA Negotiations

15:00 - Cam Brink’s Return and What It Means For L.A.

36:50 - One Move We Want To See At The Trade Deadline

Ball Up Top: A WBB Podcast is brought to you in part by Homefield. Just this past week they revealed the full Can’t Miss Kickoff release schedule with hundreds of new football themed products to get you ready for the fall! Want some women’s hoops merch instead? Check out our No Cap Space WBB collection, a curated page of all of Homefield’s best WBB shirts, jackets, jerseys and more!

Welcome to Ball Up Top, a weekly podcast from No Cap Space WBB. Every Tuesday morning, you can find a show in your emails or social feeds that touches on all the trending topics in women’s basketball. The crew will rotate based on availability, whether it’s Tyler, Andrew, Chauny, Greer or Rashard.

In longtime WNBA fan circles, there is a term called ‘Messy Monday’. Effectively it means that at the start of the week, we’re due for some fun things to talk about. Instead of a Messy Monday, we got a Meesy Monday this week with Belgian superstar Emma Meesseman joining the defending WNBA champion New York Liberty.

Tyler, Chauny and Greer are on the pod this week opening with the implications of the move and what it means for the rest of the league. The conversation then moves to the WNBA players and their ‘Pay Us What You Owe Us’ shirts at the All-Star game as well as the CBA negotiations continuing with the league. After a quick piece on the impact of the Studbudz 72 hour stream in Indianapolis, the crew takes a look at the season ahead and some predictions for the second half of the year.

Scroll ahead to hear…

0:00 - Show Introduction

1:39 - Emma Meesseman joins New York Liberty

6:55 - Are the Liberty the best starting five in WNBA history?

22:06 - The future of the WNBA/WNBPA CBA negotiations…

39:30 - Buy/Sell for the second half of the WNBA season…

Summer is here so get fitted for all your functions with Homefield! Use promo code NOCAP15 for 15% off your first purchase here! Check out their new ‘Summer School’ hat series and rock your favorite school in style as well as our No Cap Space WBB collection. In partnership with Homefield, we’ve curated all their women’s basketball merch into one place here.'

It wasn’t as messy of a Monday as last week was but we still got plenty of interesting storylines and topics to discuss on Ball Up Top. Andrew and Tyler hold down the fort, opening the show with a quick hitter on DeWanna Bonner’s move to Phoenix (the full reaction vid is available on YouTube here) before running through the finalized All-Star game lists. After that, the two discuss their biggest surprise storylines of the WNBA season so far before wrapping the show with a quick chat about Team USA’s championship win in the FIBA Americup.

Scroll ahead to hear…

0:00 - Show Introduction

1:27 - DeWanna Bonner to Phoenix reactions…

6:30 - All-Star roster reactions…

25:30 - Biggest surprises halfway through the WNBA season.

45:00 - Team USA/FIBA Americup takeaways

Summer is here so get fitted for all your functions with Homefield! Use promo code NOCAP15 for 15% off your first purchase here! Check out their new ‘Summer School’ hat series and rock your favorite school in style as well as our No Cap Space WBB collection. In partnership with Homefield, we’ve curated all their women’s basketball merch into one place here.

Welcome to Ball Up Top, a weekly podcast from No Cap Space WBB. Every Tuesday morning, you can find a show in your emails or social feeds that touches on all the trending topics in women’s basketball. The crew will rotate based on availability, whether it’s Tyler, Andrew, Chauny, Greer or Rashard.

To say this was a Messy Monday in the WNBA might be an understatement. Expansion franchises, a big trade as well as All-Star starter announcements? That’s basically asking for a packed Ball Up Top on a Tuesday. Tyler and Chauny have the wheel and dive into everything that happened this past week and in the past 36 hours to get you ready for another slate of games in WNBA world.

Scroll ahead to hear…

0:00 - Show Introduction

2:47 - Expansion Thoughts and Reactions.

21:37 - NaLyssa Smith Trade Reactions.

38:16 - All-Star Starters Reactions.

Summer is here so get fitted for all your functions with Homefield! Use promo code NOCAP15 for 15% off your first purchase here! Check out their new ‘Summer School’ hat series and rock your favorite school in style.

Well, glad the schedules didn’t align and we recorded this after our usual Monday night time slot. With so much happening in the last 18-24 hours in the WNBA world, this week’s Ball Up Top is up to date and ready to roll. Andrew, Chauny and Tyler are on hand to dissect the DeWanna Bonner situation and Aari McDonald’s signing to the Indiana Fever as well as wondering aloud what’s happening with Caitlin Clark, who is in a 3 point shooting slump over three games.

The pod continues with a discussion about the Los Angeles Sparks and whether or not the team can do a bit better than one of the worst in the western conference. While looking at the free agent possibilities, it opened up a discussion surrounding the Washington Mystics and their potential frontcourt duo of the future.

Scroll Ahead to Hear…

0:00 - Show Introduction

2:31 - DeWanna Bonner and the Fever break up.

21:46 - What to make of Caitlin Clark’s shooting slump…

39:27 - Is this a lost season for the L.A. Sparks?

49:34 - Is Kiki Iriafen/Shakira Austin the frontcourt of the future for the Mystics?

Summer is here so get fitted for all your functions with Homefield! Use promo code NOCAP15 for 15% off your first purchase here! Check out their new ‘Summer School’ hat series and rock your favorite school in style.