The Final Four table is set and there were no surprises.
For the second consecutive year, the last weekend of women’s college basketball belongs to UConn, South Carolina, UCLA, and Texas—all of whom were the top seeds this year. The only other time the women’s Final Four featured the same four teams in consecutive years was 1995 and 1996, when UConn, Tennessee, Georgia, and Stanford all made back-to-back appearances.
Connecticut defeated Tennessee in 1995 and a year later Pat Summit led her team to a title over Georgia.
Geno Auriemma’s group was the first to punch their ticket to Phoenix with a lopsided 70–52 win over Notre Dame. After a competitive first half between Duke and UCLA, the Bruins kept up their pursuit of the program’s first-ever NCAA title with a 70–58 win on Sunday night. Texas’s offense was just as stifling as its defense in the Longhorns’ 77-41 win over Michigan, rounding out a tournament run that saw them outscore opponents by 142 points entering championship weekend. UCLA did win an AIAW title in 1978 before the NCAA started putting on a Division I basketball women’s tournament four years later.
TCU kept Monday night’s game interesting through three quarters before South Carolina proved experience trumps all, going on a 12-0 run to start the fourth quarter and seal their sixth consecutive Final Four appearance.
Despite the overwhelming dominance of all four No. 1 seeds throughout tournament play, there is one that appears to be a level above the rest.
The Huskies are riding a 54-game win streak—extending back to last year’s championship season—despite losing top WNBA draft pick Paige Bueckers.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever been prouder to take a team to the FInal Four than this one,” Auriemma told the crowd at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth after securing the program’s 25th trip to the Final Four. It will be the sixth time both UConn’s basketball programs are in the Final Four in the same year.
South Carolina and UConn will play each other on Friday night in a rematch of last year’s NCAA title game. Texas and UCLA will play in the nightcap, guaranteeing that despite the same Final Four, the title game will not mirror last year’s.
“I think you just gotta try to go pound for pound and be unafraid of playing against an undefeated team,” Dawn Staley said on SportsCenter after her team’s 78-52 win. “I think the pressures of playing undefeated, if you keep it close, you might—I doubt it—but you might get them on a bad night. We’re hoping Friday is a bad night for them.”
