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The games have gotten bigger, more competitive and exciting, but chalk remains the writing utensil of choice as the 2025 women’s NCAA tournament shifts to the Elite Eight.
UConn, TCU and UCLA Bruins rode big performances by their stars — Paige Bueckers, Hailey Van Lith and Lauren Betts, respectively. South Carolina, Duke and Texas leaned into defense. USC somehow overcame the loss of star JuJu Watkins. And LSU got production from an unlikely source.
That leaves us with three 1 vs. 2 matchups and one 1 vs. 3 in the regional finals, which feature many of the big-time matchups that were anticipated when the bracket was announced two weeks ago.
That also makes the rankings of the final eight teams that much more difficult, but we took our shot.
1. UConn Huskies
Original seed: No. 2 (Spokane 4)
Tournament results: 103-34 vs. No. 15 Arkansas State (first round); 91-57 vs. No. 10 South Dakota State (round of 32); 82-59 over No. 3 Oklahoma (Sweet 16)
With all that Bueckers has accomplished with the Huskies, it’s hard to believe that she just had the greatest two-game stretch in her career and the greatest back-to-back NCAA tournament games in UConn history. She set a career-high 34 points in the round of 32 against South Dakota State and then blew past that with 40 in the Sweet 16 on Saturday against Oklahoma. Bueckers completely took over in the second half after the Huskies trailed by four at halftime. She had 29 points after the break and during one stretch scored 19 straight fourth-quarter points for the Huskies. No UConn player had ever scored 40 points in a NCAA tournament game. Bueckers also just passed Maya Moore for the highest per game scoring average (19.8) in UConn history. The Huskies have won their three NCAA tournament games by an average of 42 points and easily retain the top spot in the rankings heading to the Elite…
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