Women’s Final Four: South Carolina, Stanford, Louisville and UConn


The Women’s Final Four is full of top-notch seeds and familiar faces. There are reigning champions, seed #1 Stanford; season favorites and best seed overall, South Carolina; The #1 seed is a rising program in Louisville with a deep scrutiny on its resume but no title (yet); and a Final Four fixture, No. Number 2 Connecticut.

Still, this NCAA tournament was hardly predictable. Teams that reached the national semifinals needed some close wins to get there, and many others went home much sooner or much later than their starters had suggested. In other words, there has The NCAA has allowed women’s teams to officially claim it, using their signature “March Madness” branding for the first time this year – even if it’s not obvious when looking at the last four teams standing.

“I would love to see that game,” UConn star guard Paige Bueckers told reporters shortly after the Huskies claimed their 14th straight trip to the Final Four in a double overtime win over the #1 seeded. State of North Carolina on Monday. “This is one of the best games I’ve ever been a part of,” said Geno Auriemma, UConn Technical Director.

Empathic endorsements come with some baggage. The pressure to produce close matches and unlikely winners—the hallmarks of what makes college basketball’s postseason so enjoyable—can be particularly intense in the women’s game, which has long haunted the misconception that there aren’t enough talented players for teams. beyond the top championship contenders.

As a result, there is an understandable tendency among those working in and around women’s college basketball to cling to every sad and heatedly contested game as evidence of the game’s continued growth and equity. Yet the women’s tournament has always been upset; for example, in 2016, second, fourth, and seventh-placed teams joined top-seeded Connecticut in the Final Four (UConn won to complete an undefeated season). This year, he’s matched the record for wins by double-digit seeds in a tournament.

But the tournament doesn’t need to rewrite the history books to be action-packed. UConn’s win over NC State, the first round of 8 competition leading to double overtime, has been the game of this year’s competition so far, but many have rewarded viewers with challenge and surprise.

On opening night, at Arlington, 14th-seeded Texas played 3rd-seeded Iowa State closely in their third game in the bracket.

Despite their star power, second-seeded Iowa and Baylor were eliminated in the second round by 10th-seeded Creighton and South Dakota, making it to the last 16.

12th seed Belmont entered the underdog streak against powerhouse Tennessee with 3 points to continue, demonstrating in the process that his junior roster will be an end-of-season threat for years to come.

The top two teams were also tested in the second weekend of the tournament. Aliyah beat Boston’s best game of the season, beating South Carolina at number 5 North Carolina.

“We found ourselves in a two-ball game in the fourth quarter and we persevered and won the game,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said on Friday. “Of course we don’t want it to be that close, but if it gets that close, find a way to dig deep and win.”

Compared to Connecticut’s tough game against North Carolina State, Louisville – the lowest seeded – took possibly the easiest win of the weekend, leading Tennessee and Michigan nearly all the way in their respective games.

The Cardinals, which will face South Carolina on Friday, are the closest Final Four team to come close to a dark horse as they are the only team to ever win a championship. Louisville entered the tournament with only four losses, but the last one gave Miami an ugly upset in the first game of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.

But since then, sophomore guard Hailey Van Lith has scored at least 20 points in every game of the tournament for tough layups and coming from behind the 3-point line. His incumbent peer, Syracuse transfer Emily Engstler, controlled the boards despite being only 6 feet-1 from most of the players she fought for the ball. The team’s defense has played excellent, but Louisville will need to gather more energy to match the best overall seed.

South Carolina advanced into the semifinals, beating Creighton by the largest margin of victory in the round of 8, 80-50. It was a much-needed confidence boost for the Gamecocks, who haven’t been able to turn their raid defenses into much offense since they brutally defeated 16-seeded Howard in the first round.

Destanni Henderson, Brea Beal and Victaria Saxton all scored alongside Boston, allowing the Gamecocks to show their depth rather than relying too heavily on Boston, the finalist of the year. With renewed offense, South Carolina is seeking its second title and a chance to avenge its 1-point loss to Stanford in last year’s Final Four.

UConn’s main highlight reel, the Bueckers, is back in form following December’s leg injury in the second half of the Huskies’ tough 8-match round. He missed only one shot after the first half and scored 23 of his 27 points in the second half and overtime. Huskies may need him to perform at that level to compete with Stanford – a tall order given his injury. UConn will also need the consistency of its supporting roster, especially Christyn Williams, who often closes the points gap with the Bueckers, and 6ft-5 forward Olivia Nelson-Ododa.

What Stanford has shown through this tournament is that the Cardinal is not only one of the brightest and most experienced teams in the country, but bigger than almost any of its rivals. Stanford has only one starting player at 6 feet, and that is Anna Wilson, one of the best defenders in Division One. Should Coach Tara VanDerveer choose to knock Wilson out, Stanford has a deep bench of tall players who can shoot shots that allow them to scare even the best teams. As the Cardinal fight to become the first team to repeat as champions since Connecticut, who won four times in a row from 2013 to 2016, they must first get through the Huskies – a game that will see two of the most legendary. In the women’s match, the coaches go head-to-head for the first time since 2017.

The window for grief and the downtrodden may have narrowed, but the competition in this final stage of the tournament will be more fierce for that.



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