![\"Connecticut](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773664330_863_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\np]:text-cms-story-body-color-text clearfix”> <\/p>\n
Connecticut forward Sarah Strong, right, shoots over Villanova forward Denae Carter during the Big East tournament championship game on March 9.<\/p>\n
(Jessica Hill \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n
No. 1 Connecticut: The top-seeded Huskies (34-0) rank near the top of the nation in most offensive categories (second with 88.8 points per game, first with 52.5% from the field and 39.6% from three-point range) and have arguably the nation\u2019s best player in Sarah Strong. The Huskies haven\u2019t lost since Feb. 6, 2025.<\/p>\n
No. 2 Vanderbilt: The Commodores (27-4) did not lose a game until late January. They fell to Ole Miss in the SEC tournament, but will still host an NCAA tournament game, behind the nation\u2019s leading scorer, Mikayla Blakes.<\/p>\n
No. 3 Ohio State: The Buckeyes (26-7) lost in the Big Ten semifinal to UCLA, but they can field a dominant offensive attack behind Jaloni Cambridge (22.8 points per game).<\/p>\n
No. 4 North Carolina: The 26-7 Tar Heels were narrowly named one of the top 16 seeds after losing to Louisville in the ACC semifinals. Their 26 wins were the program\u2019s most since 2019.<\/p>\n
CINDERELLA SEARCH<\/p>\n
Fairfield was given an 11 seed after winning the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and got a fascinating first-round matchup with No. 6-seed Notre Dame. The Stags (28-4) love to shoot three-pointers and have flirted with a top 25 ranking all season.<\/p>\n
PLAYERS TO WATCH<\/p>\n
Hannah Hidalgo, Notre Dame: The ACC player of the year leads the nation with 5.4 steals per game and is known as one of the dynamic playmakers in the country.<\/p>\n
Mikayla Blakes, Vanderbilt: Leads the nation with 27 points per game as just a sophomore and was named the SEC player of the year.<\/p>\n
Audi Crooks, Iowa State: Is second in the nation with 25.5 points per game and a 64.7% field goal percentage. Crooks has established herself as one of the most dominant offensive players in the game this season.<\/p>\n
RIM SHOTS<\/p>\n
Fairfield\u2019s 51.6% of shots coming from behind the three-point arc leads the nation.
Syracuse (23-8) has a 42.2% offensive rebound rate, the fourth best in the country, which has helped its slower offense find success.
Colorado (22-11) is 14-0 when scoring more than 70 points, but just 8-11 when being held to fewer than that. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"p]:text-cms-story-body-color-text clearfix”> Connecticut forward Sarah Strong, right, shoots over Villanova forward Denae Carter during the Big East tournament…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[101418,9831,423,28469,48,52,51,47,50,49,18158,23139,9442,1417,278,15192,427,564,101417,1543,72],"class_list":["post-222025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-first-ncaa-tournament-appearance","tag-first-time","tag-game","tag-guard","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-no","tag-notre-dame","tag-player","tag-point","tag-season","tag-seed","tag-team","tag-texas","tag-tournament-analysis","tag-win","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}