Women's Final Four: UConn takes on South Carolina, and UCLA clashes with Texas

For the sixth time, both the men's and women's teams at Connecticut made their respective Final Fours this season. Nine other schools have combined to do that nine other times in Division I history.

Of the six times that UConn has had both its men's and women's teams in the national semifinals, it has swept both championships twice — in 2004, and 2014.

The way UCLA operates, Lauren Betts is the center of the Bruins’ universe, surrounded by four dynamic guards. Betts stands 6-foot-7 and is a force in the paint, and few college basketball teams can match her height. But Texas might be able to.

The Longhorns start 6-foot-4 forward Breya Cunningham and bring 6-foot-6 center Kyla Oldacre off the bench. When these two teams played earlier this season, Betts had an uncharacteristically bad game — 8 points and 7 rebounds in 37 minutes.

Starting in 2021, the Gamecocks have played in every Final Four, six straight in all (this is coach Dawn Staley's eighth Final Four overall). South Carolina has played in each of the last two championship games, winning in 2024.

Vaughn Dalzell and Trysta Krick unpack some of the best bets for the upcoming Final Four clash between Texas and UCLA, analyzing why you should take the under in total points.

The Huskies are attempting to become one of only a handful of teams in NCAA history to finish undefeated. Remarkably, Connecticut has done it six times previously under coach Geno Auriemma.

2024: South Carolina (38-0)

2016: Connecticut (38-0)

2014: Connecticut (40-0)

2012: Baylor (40-0)

2010: Connecticut (39-0)

2009: Connecticut (39-0)

2002: Connecticut (39-0)

1998: Tennessee (39-0)

1995: Connecticut (35-0)

1986: Texas (34-0)

She wears No. 35 for Texas like Kevin Durant, and is similarly the Longhorns' offensive engine. Booker, the 6-foot-1 All-American, is averaging a team-high 19.3 points, 2.2 steals, 3.8 assists and 6.7 rebounds.

Before the Final Four, UConn coach Geno Auriemma was asked about the recent announcement that the WNBA's Connecticut Sun would be re-locating to Houston.

"So we don’t have a WNBA team," Auriemma said, "we don’t have an NBA team, we don’t have a Major League Baseball team, we don’t have an NFL, we don’t have an NHL team, but we have UConn basketball.

"Maybe that’s why this is the sixth time that our men and women have been in a Final Four at the same time. ‘Cause we are a pro franchise, you know? We’ve always been a pro franchise."

Facing Duke in the Elite Eight, UCLA trailed at halftime for only the second time this season. The eight-point deficit wasn't enough, however, to keep the Bruins out of the Final Four. By the end of the third quarter, they led by four and never trailed again.

At halftime, "I think we were just we were able to call each other up and out on like what we have to fix," UCLA's Angela Dugalic said after the win against Duke. "And I think that's a great quality of our team is no one takes it personally."

"The Dan Le Batard Show" examines how the best women's basketball teams have separated themselves from the rest of the country and how NIL has played a role.

It's not uncommon for women's college basketball to be heavily stratified — a massive gap between the top teams and everyone else chasing them. This season, seven teams have an average scoring margin of more than 20 points — TCU, Michigan, UCLA, Texas, South Carolina, LSU, and UConn.

The Huskies are in a league of their own, however, by outscoring opponents on average by 37.8 points per game.

Here's just one snapshot of their dominance. In 38 games this season, the Huskies have allowed 1,904 total points. That is four points fewer than Boston University allowed — even though UConn has played eight more games.

"We started the season the very first day with that kind of aggressive mindset. It fits how they want to play," coach Geno Auriemma said. "That’s kind of what they want to do. We’ve had teams in the past that could do that as well. Maya Moore’s team especially, thinking back to those days.

But because it hasn’t been apparent, what, 2020, ‘22, ‘23, ‘24 -- I mean, a lot of years where we could just barely contain people half court. This team is able to extend its defense because we have more players that want to play like that, and we can afford to go that hard because we can bring somebody off the bench that can continue that kind of pressure."

Since women's basketball an official NCAA sport in 1982, Texas was one of the early dominant schools, reaching No. 1 in the AP poll every season from 1984-1987, and winning the 1985-86 national championship. It made the Final Four the next season, as well, but then didn't return again until 2003.

It took another 22 years, in 2025, for the Longhorns to make the Final Four again, but now they've returned in consecutive seasons.

How about two key stats, as this game could come down to which team can create extra possessions.

South Carolina is the significantly better offensive rebounding team, posting a 39.8% offensive rebound rate, 13th-best in the country, whereas the Huskies rank 74th. Meanwhile, UConn led the nation in steals per game with 15.7.

These teams are hilariously even-matched on offense, with both ranking in the top four in points per game, field-goal percentage, and 3-point field-goal percentage. Whichever team can give its offense more shots on goal — especially considering the efficiency each offense plays with — will likely have a massive advantage.

This is only the fifth time the national semifinals in the women's tournament have featured all No. 1 seeds.

It also happened in 1989, 2012, 2015, 2018 and 2026.