Questions for 2025-26 women’s college basketball season: Is Sarah Strong the top player?

The 2024-25 season is officially in the rearview, and the WNBA season is fast approaching. At , we’ll continue to cover women’s college hoops through the offseason as so many storylines continue to emerge and change the landscape of the sport. How will the portal impact teams and conferences? How will financial changes develop in the sport? What hiring trends might we see?

Here are seven big questions we’ll be tracking over the next few months while we eagerly await the 2025-26 tip-off:

1. What does Year 1 of revenue sharing and units look like?

As revenue sharing and the 2025 NCAA Tournament units (financial payouts awarded to conferences based on their teams’ performances in the tournament) hit women’s college basketball, there will be an influx of money to programs and players, which we haven’t seen before. In theory, this could go one of two ways: It will either produce a more equal playing field as programs that haven’t historically had success invest $1 million-plus into their women’s basketball players (attracting talent), or it will widen the gap between the sport’s haves and have-nots.

Many coaches I’ve spoken to fear it’s the latter, but we won’t truly know how this plays out for a few years. But Year 1 should lay the groundwork for what’s to come, so it’s important to keep a close eye on what early shifts we see.

2. Will this season’s Final Four repeat in Phoenix next season?

It certainly feels like a possibility! Let’s take a quick look at those four teams:

• UConn: Replacing Paige Bueckers is no simple task, but Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong make a strong core around which Geno Auriemma can build. Ashlynn Shade and KK Arnold bring starting and playing experience. I expect the interior to be even stronger with growth from Ice Brady and Jana El Alfy, after having a full offseason post-Achilles injury to dive in. Add to the list Ecuadorian native Blanca Quiñonez, who has been playing professionally in Italy for a few years, and, yikes, UConn is going to be good.

• South Carolina: Raven Johnson is returning for her final season to play in the backcourt alongside good friend and Florida State transfer Ta’Niya Latson. If the Gamecocks lacked a go-to scoring option last season, they certainly solved it with that transfer portal pickup. Chloe Kitts and Joyce Edwards’ growth this season was incredible, and having MiLaysia Fulwiley and Tessa Johnson in the starting group or rotation means Dawn Staley — again — will have a ton of depth. On each of her three national title teams, Staley has employed a star who was consistently the team’s trump card … could that be Latson?

• UCLA: The Bruins lost no key contributors from this year’s Final Four group, and instead, picked up a few potential roster spots with Kendall Dudley and Elina Aarnisalo entering the portal. Could they pick up even more reinforcements in the portal? Plus, dynamic guard Charlisse Leger-Walker will be ready to go, adding to a backcourt that’s already deep and talented. Lauren Betts’ sister, Sienna — a 6-foot-4 forward who’s No. 2 in the 2025 class — will be a freshman.

• Texas: Replacing Taylor Jones is no easy task, but with Rori Harmon coming back, we get one more year of the Harmon-Madison Booker connection. With another year of development from players like Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda, Kyla Oldacre, Bryanna Preston, Jordan Lee and Justice Carlton, the Longhorns will have options. Adding a healthy Aaliyah Moore and Laila Phelia to the mix gives coach Vic Schaefer a deeper base than he had this season.

3. Which other teams are in (way too early) Final Four contention?

This season, Oklahoma advanced to its first Sweet 16 since 2013. With Raegan Beers, Payton Verhulst, Zya Vann and Shara Williams returning as well as Aaliyah Chavez, the nation’s top player, I’ve got my eyes on the Sooners.

LSU reloaded its interior with a commitment from Notre Dame transfer Kate Koval, and she’ll be a fantastic new member of the Tigers’ big three with Flau’jae Johnson and Mikaylah Williams. The Tigers also have the No. 1 recruiting class in the country — headlined by three top-15 recruits — and you’ve got to figure they’re not quite done portalling yet. I wouldn’t be shocked to see another player head to Baton Rouge out of the portal.

4. Is Sarah Strong primed to become the nation’s top player?

In my opinion, Strong was the best player on the floor at the Final Four this season. There’s an ease and fearlessness to her game that’s beyond her years. Her calm in the storm is really what makes me consistently scratch my head and say, “HOW IS SHE A FRESHMAN?!?” Usually, we see a pretty significant step between freshman and sophomore seasons, and given how much further ahead Strong seems, I’m wondering how she fine-tunes her game in important ways while also taking on a larger role — in every way.

5. What will USC look like?

There is no team that has done more of a 180 in terms of how I’m thinking about it from three weeks ago to now than USC. Even when I thought about the 2025-26 season throughout this year, I imagined that — while replacing Kiki Iriafen, Rayah Marshall and Clarice Akunwafo would be a challenge — that between JuJu Watkins and the freshman core, this team would still be a preseason top-five team.

Not so fast, my friend.

Watkins’ injury changed everything, and then the decisions from Kayleigh Heckel and Avery Howell to enter the portal have left a ton of question marks for the Trojans. Building from a base of Kennedy Smith, Malia Samuels and incoming freshman Jazzy Davidson is a starting point, but you must wonder where else coach Lindsay Gottlieb can find the production (and players to fill out a starting five for the defending Big Ten regular-season champs).

6. What does Year 2 at Tennessee look like for Kim Caldwell?

With the expanded SEC, teams face only one conference opponent twice during the regular season. I had been fascinated with the idea of Caldwell’s up-tempo, high-subbing system and how teams would adjust once they had seen it already. With the Lady Vols playing two rounds in the SEC tournament and facing Texas in the NCAA Tournament, we have a pretty small sample of four teams. But these are the early returns: Against opponents Tennessee played a second time, the result didn’t change. The Lady Vols beat Texas A&M twice and lost to Texas, Vanderbilt and LSU twice. In all three of the second-time SEC matchups that had beaten the Lady Vols, the margin of loss grew larger. Is that because Texas, Vanderbilt and LSU were more ready to face the Lady Vols’ system in the rematch? That they had better counterattacks in the rematch? Impossible to say.

On the other side of those questions is Tennessee’s perspective. Very few Lady Vols players this season signed with the program knowing they’d be playing in this system. The same is not true this year. Tennessee inked a top-10 signing class with four top-50 players who come to Knoxville with open eyes. With a good portion of the roster returning and a talented crop of freshmen, will Caldwell’s system work even better?

Year 2 should provide some answers.

7. Who is next season’s TCU? (aka: Which team will reach new program heights?)

There aren’t many teams like TCU, which had never made much of a run. Even my hometown Gophers — who I expect to take a step forward in 2025-26 as reigning WBIT champs — made a Final Four run in 2004. That said, could Minnesota have its best season in 20 years? Yes. In 2005, the Gophers made the Sweet 16, and next season’s team, led by a healthy Mara Braun, could match that. Could the Gophers go much further? TBD.

Like Minnesota, Vanderbilt is another team that could have its best season in a long time. The Commodores made the Final Four in 1993 and the Elite Eight in 2002, but none of the players on next season’s roster was even born for either of those runs. Mikayla Blakes and Khamil Pierre are a one-two punch who will make Vanderbilt go. Madison Greene is a solid third option for the Commodores, but I’m curious how — beyond that trio — coach Shea Ralph builds Vanderbilt to have the depth it’ll need to compete again in the SEC.

In terms of the truest spirit of the question, I’ll go out on a limb and say Michigan here. The highest the Wolverines have ever finished in conference play under Kim Barnes Arico is third, and the deepest run Michigan has ever made in the postseason was the Elite Eight (2022 with Naz Hillmon). UCLA seems like an obvious front-runner out of the Big Ten, but the battle for second should be hotly contested. I expect the Wolverines to be in the middle of it. A Final Four run seems like a reach (give this group one more year together), but it’s not out of the question depending on how the portalling goes.

Though Michigan lost its two main interior presences — Jordan Hobbs to graduation and Yulia Grabovskaia to the portal — it’s hard not to be optimistic about the Wolverines considering its core of Olivia Olson, Syla Swords and Mila Holloway return. Michigan also brings in three top-100 recruits, and if the Wolverines can snag a big out of the portal, then they’re in business.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

USC Trojans, Minnesota Golden Gophers, Oklahoma Sooners, UCLA Bruins, Tennessee Lady Volunteers, South Carolina Gamecocks, Connecticut Huskies, LSU Lady Tigers, Michigan Wolverines, Texas Longhorns, Women’s College Basketball

2025 The Athletic Media Company

Source link