It’s a new season in women’s college basketball as the NCAA tournament looms later this month. While UConn and UCLA dominated the competition, and South Carolina and Texas led a packed SEC, a handful of other notable programs experienced a mixed bag of a year. Duke fared better than Notre Dame and Tennessee, but heading into Selection Sunday, they all have questions to answer.
The way it all plays out will have more impact. For the first time in the women’s tournament, teams will receive performance units for playing in the tournament. A team that reaches the Final Four could earn approximately $1.26 million over the three-year rolling period, paid out to its conference, per the Associated Press. The decision puts the tournament on par with the men’s, and offers financial incentives for athletic programs to continue investing in the growing sport.
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Here’s what you may have missed heading into March.
UConn: No Paige, no problem going undefeated
The Huskies (34-0) are one-upping themselves after a storybook ending to the career of Paige Bueckers a year ago in Tampa. The reigning champions are undefeated entering the NCAA tournament with a 50-game winning streak and a plus-38.4 average scoring margin. They’re on pace to finish as the third-most dominant team in scoring differential in NCAA Division I history, trailing only the 2015 champions that won by an average of 40.6 points and the 2016 winners who won by 39.7.
Does that make them better than a year ago?
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“We’re a much different team than we were last year, correct,” head coach Geno Auriemma told reporters after the season finale. “But to say that we’re a better team than we were last year? I don’t buy that.”
They could do what those Bueckers teams couldn’t and become the 12th roster since the NCAA began governing women’s basketball in 1982 to finish the season as undefeated champs. The Huskies have done it seven times previously, including during Breanna Stewart’s final season in 2016. They’re chasing the 13th national championship in program history, and all since 1995.
Sarah Strong, a top national player of the year contender, paces UConn at 18.6 points, 7.6 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 3.2 steals and 1.6 blocks in 26.6 minutes per game. She neared a 50/40/90 season, averaging 59.5% from the field, 40.7% from the perimeter and 88.1% at the free throw line. NCAA 2025 Final Four Most Outstanding Player Azzi Fudd is averaging career-highs in points (17.9), assists (3.0) and steals (2.5), shooting 45.1% from 3.
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UCLA’s deep, experienced roster seeks redemption
UCLA head coach Cori Close learned lessons on and off the court from the team’s historic run to the Final Four that ended in a record rout by UConn. With a lone loss to Texas on a neutral court in November and an undefeated run through the Big Ten regular season and tournament, the Bruins are set for redemption and potentially the program’s first NCAA championship. UCLA won an AIAW national championship in 1978, before the NCAA began governing women’s sports.
It is the most talented and experienced group in Close’s tenure. It centers around 6-foot-7 senior and reigning Defensive Player of the Year Lauren Betts, one of three returning starters with guard Kiki Rice and wing Gabriela Jaquez. Close added back former transfer Charlisse Leger-Walker from injury and welcomed Utah transfer Gianna Kneepkens to shore up the perimeter shooting. In addition to Big Ten Sixth Player of the Year Angela Dugalic, all six are departing seniors with one last shot at a title.
The Bruins (31-1) are outscoring opponents by an average of 28.3 points, fifth-most in DI, and rank second in NET behind UConn. Their 14 Quad 1 wins are more than any other team thanks to the talent in the Big Ten. And they nearly swept the Big Ten individual awards. The only Big Ten school to win the national championship thus far was the 1999 Purdue squad led by head coach Carolyn Peck and guard Stephanie White.
The Big Ten championship isn’t the only trophy that Cori Close and the UCLA Bruins hope to hoist this postseason. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
(Michael Hickey via Getty Images)
SEC rules the roost, could pack the Final Four
The SEC is stacked with championship contenders. Four SEC teams rank in the top seven in NET, and nine in the top 30. South Carolina and Texas, which defeated the Gamecocks for the second time this season in the conference title game, are leading the charge. LSU, led by senior guard Flau’jae Johnson, and Vanderbilt, with its National Player of the Year contender Mikayla Blakes, could also make it to Phoenix.
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The Big Ten flexed its own muscle again this year, led by UCLA, Michigan (NET 6), Minnesota (8) and Iowa (10) in the top 10. Beyond the Bruins, there aren’t as many clear-cut Final Four contenders as in the SEC.
The Wolverines, with their sophomore guard trio of Syla Swords, Olivia Olson and Mila Holloway, are the most intriguing of the bunch. They fell to UConn, UCLA and Vanderbilt by three points each. Iowa, with its two-big lineup of Hannah Stuelke and Ava Heiden, reached the Big Ten title game by upsetting Michigan for a second time in a week.
The packing of SEC and Big Ten teams into the top 16 seeds will severely impact the bracket. One of the committee’s principles is that the first four teams from the same conference seeded on the top four lines must be placed in different regionals. They should not meet before the regional final if they’ve played three or more times already, and should generally be kept apart until the regional final whenever possible.
Duke enters March as the great unknown
Duke entered the season as a legitimate Final Four contender, only to wilt during a brutally difficult non-conference schedule. The Blue Devils took bad losses to Baylor, West Virginia and South Florida, as well as Final Four contenders South Carolina, UCLA and LSU to start 3-6.
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The Blue Devils (24-8) bounced back to go on a 17-game winning streak largely consisting of ACC talent, which doesn’t stand up to that in the SEC or Big Ten. And on top of it, they ended the regular season losing two of three, including a loss to then-bubble team Clemson, and nearly missed out on the outright ACC regular season title.
Defense is head coach Kara Lawson’s calling card, and could carry Duke far into March. The Blue Devils outlasted Louisville in overtime of the ACC championship game a day after avoiding an upset to Notre Dame when the Fighting Irish mishandled the final possession. The Duke offense is not as regularly dependable, and they remain the great unknown after their topsy-turvy split of a season playing in a less deeply contested ACC.
How Duke will perform in the NCAA tournament is anyone’s guess. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
(Kevin C. Cox via Getty Images)
Rocky times for the ACC
The nightly action was often entertaining and uncertain, but none of its top teams are highly touted contenders to reach a Final Four.
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Louisville (27-7) holds the next-best outlook to Duke, but its season-opening contention with UConn feels like an eternity ago, and a 24-point win over Tennessee in December is viewed under a different light now. The Cardinals are a proficient by-committee team with four of their five starters averaging between 10.1 and 11.5 points per game, and six players averaging at least 23 minutes.
Notre Dame (22-10) tumbled down the ACC after a transfer portal exodus that included three-time All-American point guard Olivia Miles (TCU) and center Kate Koval (LSU). The Fighting Irish didn’t bring in the same level of talent around guard Hannah Hidalgo, who carried a heavy load on both ends this season. The junior averaged 25.2 points, 6.3 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 5.6 steals in 36.1 minutes per game.
Their 38-point loss to UConn in January was the largest in the history of the series, but was still one point short of their season-opening loss to AP top-10-ranked Michigan. The ACC losses included Virginia, Clemson, Cal and Georgia Tech.
Tennessee wrapped up in drama to end season
Tennessee’s unraveling delivered a more dramatic flair.
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The Lady Vols (16-13) lost nine of their final 11 games of the regular season facing the SEC’s best. They enter Selection Sunday on a seven-game losing streak, including a one-and-done showing at the SEC tournament during which players looked disjointed and largely uninterested.
Head coach Kim Caldwell’s second season began by dismissing Ruby Whitehorn after an arrest in August and a misdemeanor charge for possession of marijuana in November. They started 14-3 and tied atop the SEC at 6-0 when disintegration hit. After a program-record 43-point loss to South Carolina on Feb. 8, Caldwell criticized her team for having “a lot of quit.”
Janiah Barker, who transferred for a third time, did not travel with the team to Oklahoma because she failed to meet program standards, Caldwell said. And at the regular season’s conclusion, senior Kaiya Wynn announced she was leaving the program after reaching her “breaking point” when she did not start on senior day. Following the uninspiring 76-64 loss to Alabama last week in the SEC tournament, Talaysia Cooper exited the locker room with a staffer and did not participate in the open media portion. Caldwell reasoned it was to give the junior, who sat on the bench for the fourth quarter, a chance to get some air and breathe.
The Lady Vols have never missed the NCAA tournament.
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TCU revamps in transfer portal, led by Olivia Miles
The transfer portal darlings remained atop the Big 12 after an overhaul in the offseason. But there’s a good chance these Horned Frogs lost their position to host first-and-second round games in a Big 12 title game loss to West Virginia. If they do host, and they are placed in the Fort Worth super regional, they could stay in their own beds until the Final Four.
It begins with Olivia Miles, the All-American point guard transfer from Notre Dame, who forewent the WNBA Draft to stay in the college ranks one more season. She stepped into the void left by WNBA rookie Hailey Van Lith, the star of last year’s run to the regional final.
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In the pick-and-roll heavy system head coach Mark Campbell prefers, she’s averaging a career-high 20.1 points per game along with her more typically gaudy all-around stats of 6.9 rpg, 6.5 apg and 1.9 spg. She became the fourth one-and-done transfer point guard to earn Big 12 Player of the Year honors in head coach Mark Campbell’s five years in town. Her five triple-doubles are tied with Caitlin Clark for the third-most in a season in NCAA history.
The Horned Frogs won the Big 12 regular season title, becoming the first to win back-to-back titles within the three seasons of finishing in last place. TCU is only two years removed from holding open try-outs to continue its season after an undefeated start.
