Women’s Final Four on repeat as UConn, UCLA, Texas and South Carolina fight for title

The women’s Final Four is on repeat. No 1 seeds UConn, UCLA, Texas and South Carolina are in the Final Four for the second straight season, just the second time the same teams have reached the sport’s final weekend in consecutive years.

Only the matchups and location will be different this time. Reigning national champion UConn will face South Carolina on Friday in Phoenix after playing UCLA last season. The Bruins will take on the Longhorns.

“I don’t think people understand how hard it is to do it,” Texas coach Vic Schaefer said. “I think it bodes well for all of us, but there’s four or five more teams right there nipping at your heels.”

Just not this season – or last. The only other time the same four teams reached consecutive Final Fours was when UConn, Tennessee, Stanford and Georgia did so from 1995-96.

Everyone will be trying to stop the Huskies in this one. UConn have been the standard in women’s college basketball under coach Geno Auriemma. The Huskies have won 12 national championships, played in 25 Final Fours – a record 14 straight from 2008-22 – and have won 1,288 games in 41 seasons under Auriemma.

The Huskies (38-0) have dominated this season in their bid to finish the program’s seventh undefeated season. Deep and talented, UConn have won 54 straight games over two seasons, winning by an average of 37.8 points this year. The Huskies are led by first-team All-Americans Sarah Strong and Azzi Fudd, but have eight players averaging at least 6.8 points per game.

“I feel like no other team has a bench like us,” said Strong, who leads the team at 18. points per game. “We can have kind of anyone off the bench step up and change the whole pace of the game.”

They’ll face a South Carolina team very familiar with Final Four pressure in a rematch of last year’s title game. The Gamecocks have reached the Final Four seven of the past nine seasons – six straight – under coach Dawn Staley, winning three national championships.

South Carolina (35-3) have five players averaging double-figures in scoring, led by second-team All-American Joyce Edwards’ 19.6 points per game, and play the kind of defense that leaves opponents flailing. The Gamecocks hold teams to an average of 57.6 points per game and had 17 steals in a 101-61 win over Southern California in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

South Carolina faced their first deficit of the NCAA Tournament against TCU in the Elite Eight on Monday, but pulled away in the second half for a 78-52 win that completed the Final Four repeat. It also sets up a chance for payback after the Gamecocks lost to UConn in last year’s title game.

“I think you’ve just got to go pound for pound with them, just be unafraid of running against an undefeated team,” Staley said. “The pressures of playing undefeated, if you keep it close, you might – might – get them on a bad night and that’s what we’re hoping for on Friday.”

UCLA have played in the NCAA Tournament nine times in coach Cori Close’s 15 seasons, including the program’s first Final Four a year ago. The Bruins have yet to win a national championship, yet have a huge advantage in Lauren Betts.

The 6ft 7in, two-time All-American has dominated during her senior season, averaging 18.5 points and 7.6 rebounds while shooting 60.1% from the field. Betts led the Bruins back from a rare half-time deficit against Duke in the Elite Eight, finishing with 23 points, 10 rebounds and five blocked shots in the 70-58 win on Sunday.

“Her size and her skill make her difficult to defend one-on-one,” Duke coach Kara Lawson said. “And then the framework of their team with the shooting around her makes it really hard to bring an extra defender, is kind of how they’ve built and matched the skill sets.”

Betts and the Bruins (35-1) head to the desert to face the only team that beat them this season. It came at the Players Era Championship on 26 November, when the Longhorns led by 20 at halftime and held off a late charge by UCLA to win 76-65 in Las Vegas.

Led by fifth-year guard Rori Harmon and All-American forward Madison Booker, Texas (36-3) steamrolled their first four NCAA Tournament opponents by an average of 35.5 points per game.

The Longhorns blew out Michigan 77-41 in the Elite Eight on Monday night, earning consecutive Final Four trips for the second time in program history. The 1996 team finished undefeated on the way to the school’s only national championship, a year after losing in the national semi-finals.

“Well this group is awfully special. They’re tough. We call it Texas tough in Austin, but I told them they’re good enough,” Schaefer said. “I’ve been on this trip before, but I want them to really be focused. Enjoy today. Don’t take this for granted.”