{"id":228574,"date":"2026-03-31T13:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T13:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/228574\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T13:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T13:18:13","slug":"womens-final-four-on-repeat-as-uconn-ucla-texas-and-south-carolina-fight-for-title-ncaa-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/228574\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s Final Four on repeat as UConn, UCLA, Texas and South Carolina fight for title | NCAA Tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"

The women\u2019s 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\u2019s final weekend in consecutive years.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think people understand how hard it is to do it,\u201d Texas coach Vic Schaefer said. \u201cI think it bodes well for all of us, but there\u2019s four or five more teams right there nipping at your heels.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just not this season \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

Everyone will be trying to stop the Huskies in this one. UConn have been the standard in women\u2019s college basketball under coach Geno Auriemma. The Huskies have won 12 national championships, played in 25 Final Fours \u2013 a record 14 straight from 2008-22 \u2013 and have won 1,288 games in 41 seasons under Auriemma.<\/p>\n

The Huskies (38-0) have dominated this season in their bid to finish the program\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like no other team has a bench like us,\u201d said Strong, who leads the team at 18. points per game. \u201cWe can have kind of anyone off the bench step up and change the whole pace of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll face a South Carolina team very familiar with Final Four pressure in a rematch of last year\u2019s title game. The Gamecocks have reached the Final Four seven of the past nine seasons \u2013 six straight \u2013 under coach Dawn Staley, winning three national championships.<\/p>\n

South Carolina (35-3) have five players averaging double-figures in scoring, led by second-team All-American Joyce Edwards\u2019 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s title game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you\u2019ve just got to go pound for pound with them, just be unafraid of running against an undefeated team,\u201d Staley said. \u201cThe pressures of playing undefeated, if you keep it close, you might \u2013 might \u2013 get them on a bad night and that\u2019s what we\u2019re hoping for on Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n

UCLA have played in the NCAA Tournament nine times in coach Cori Close\u2019s 15 seasons, including the program\u2019s first Final Four a year ago. The Bruins have yet to win a national championship, yet have a huge advantage in Lauren Betts.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer size and her skill make her difficult to defend one-on-one,\u201d Duke coach Kara Lawson said. \u201cAnd 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\u2019ve built and matched the skill sets.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s only national championship, a year after losing in the national semi-finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell this group is awfully special. They\u2019re tough. We call it Texas tough in Austin, but I told them they\u2019re good enough,\u201d Schaefer said. \u201cI\u2019ve been on this trip before, but I want them to really be focused. Enjoy today. Don\u2019t take this for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The women\u2019s Final Four is on repeat. No 1 seeds UConn, UCLA, Texas and South Carolina are in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-228574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}