Michael VoepelMar 16, 2025, 11:42 PM ET
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- Michael Voepel is a senior creator who covers the WNBA, ladies’s school basketball and different school sports activities. Voepel started masking ladies’s basketball in 1984, and has been with ESPN since 1996.
The UCLA ladies’s basketball staff has had a season of milestones, and on Sunday the Bruins added every other: For the primary time, they are the No. 1 general seed within the ladies’s NCAA match. The Bruins have reached the 30-win mark for the primary time in program historical past and are hoping to make their first Ultimate 4 within the NCAA technology, which started for girls’s sports activities in 1981-82.
The Bruins are a number of the large winners as we take a look at the ladies’s March Insanity bracket. However what do the committee’s choices imply for standout avid gamers corresponding to USC sophomore JuJu Watkins and UConn senior Paige Bueckers, who met in an epic Elite 8 sport final 12 months? And the way do issues search for protecting nationwide champion South Carolina?
The No. 1 seeds have been as anticipated: UCLA is atop the Spokane 1 Regional, South Carolina is No. 1 within the Birmingham 2 Regional, Texas is No. 1 in Birmingham 3 and USC is No. 1 in Spokane 4. The highest seeds are break up between the Giant Ten and the SEC, and each meetings have been winners Sunday. The Giant Ten has 12 groups within the box — 4 within the best 16 — and the SEC has 10, with 5 within the best 16.
Bruins middle Lauren Betts, who started her profession at Stanford, has excelled in her two seasons at UCLA and is usually a key consider whether or not the Bruins reside as much as their best seed and make it to the season’s ultimate weekend. UCLA gained the AIAW nationwide championship in 1978, but it surely hasn’t ever stepped forward past the NCAA Elite 8.
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In the meantime, USC is attempting to make this system’s first Ultimate 4 since 1986. If it met UCLA there, it will be the fourth “Fight of Los Angeles” this season: The Trojans gained each regular-season matchups sooner than UCLA gained the Giant Ten championship sport. UConn, the No. 2 seed within the Trojans’ area, is looking for its twelfth NCAA name and has made the Ultimate 4 annually however one since 2008.
The make-up of the Spokane 4 Regional manner there is usually a rematch of final season’s Elite 8 sport in Portland, the place the Huskies beat the Trojans 80-73 to advance to their twenty third Ultimate 4. Bueckers had 28 issues and 10 rebounds in that sport, and Watkins 29 and 10.
3-time nationwide champion South Carolina seems to have a profitable trail to this system’s 5th Ultimate 4 in a row. Two groups within the Gamecocks’ regional also are previous nationwide champions — No. 4 seed Maryland (2006) and No. 3 North Carolina (1994) — however that good fortune for each was once rather some time in the past.
As for Texas, which is attempting to make its first Ultimate 4 since 2004, the Longhorns have been a No. 1 seed final 12 months, too, however have been defeated within the Elite 8 by means of NC State. Co-champions within the SEC with South Carolina, the Longhorns may meet the Gamecocks for a fourth time this season if each make the Ultimate 4.
Here is a deeper take a look at the winners and losers within the bracket, and their paths forward.
WINNERS
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Break of day Staley ‘stunned’ South Carolina wasn’t No. 1 general seed
South Carolina head trainer Break of day Staley makes the case for why her staff must were the highest general seed within the ladies’s NCAA match.
UCLA
The Bruins have a large number of measurement, nice enjoy at guard and intensity. If seeds hang, they’re going to face No. 4 Baylor within the Candy 16 and No. 2 NC State within the Elite 8 in Spokane. The Wolfpack made the Ultimate 4 final season, and Baylor (beneath former trainer Kim Mulkey) has gained 3 NCAA titles. However general, the matchups appear to be they must be favorable for the Bruins, who fell to LSU within the Candy 16 final 12 months, to make it to Tampa.
South Carolina
Whilst you’ve misplaced a complete of 4 video games prior to now 3 seasons, it is laborious to really feel underestimated. However with the Gamecocks no longer getting the full best seed, trainer Break of day Staley has every other motivational chip to make use of. No longer that the Gamecocks truly want that: Their losses to UConn and Texas in February really feel a long way away, whilst their robust run to a 9th SEC match name appears like the actual model of the Gamecocks. South Carolina is a No. 1 seed for the 9th time in Staley’s profession.
North Carolina triangle groups
All 3 will probably be web hosting the early rounds: Spokane 1 No. 2 seed NC State, Birmingham 2 No. 2 seed Duke and Birmingham 2 No. 3 seed North Carolina. The ones are the best possible seeds for Duke since 2017 and for UNC since 2013. If seeds hang, some of the nice rivalries in sports activities — Blue Devils vs. Tar Heels — will happen within the Candy 16. It will be the first time the ones methods have met within the NCAA match; they have got by no means been in the similar area sooner than.
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Lone Megastar State hoops
With Texas No. 1 and TCU No. 2 within the Birmingham 3 Regional, that is the primary time since 2013 that the highest two groups in a regional are from the similar state. That 12 months, Stanford was once No. 1 and Cal No. 2 in a regional in Spokane.
Texas is a No. 1 seed this 12 months for the 7th time. No. 2 is the all-time seed for TCU, whose earlier top was once No. 6 in 2004.
Ivy League
How nice have been the celebrations by means of Spokane 1 No. 10 seed Harvard and First 4 No. 11 seeds Columbia and Princeton? It is all the time a laugh to look groups really excited on Variety Sunday, which this 12 months was once historical for the Ivy League. For the primary time, the convention may have 3 groups taking part within the NCAA match. The Red beat Princeton within the Ivy semifinals and Columbia within the championship sport, led by means of megastar Harmoni Turner, who had a blended 68 issues in the ones video games.
Final Cinderellas
Talking of satisfied groups, congrats to the six colleges which might be within the ladies’s NCAA match for the primary time: Arkansas State, FDU, George Mason, Grand Canyon, UC San Diego and William & Mary. Spokane 1 No. 13 seed Grand Canyon enters the match having gained 30 in a row, the longest energetic Department I profitable streak.
LOSERS
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Largest takeaways from the ladies’s NCAA match bracket
Rebecca Lobo, Charlie Creme, Carolyn Peck and Andraya Carter give their storylines to observe within the ladies’s NCAA match.
USC
There are not any simple Elite 8 matchups, however odds are that the Trojans did not wish to need to doubtlessly face UConn once more for the danger to visit the Ultimate 4. That would possibly sound extraordinary, making an allowance for USC beat UConn 72-70 in Hartford, Connecticut, on Dec. 21. However that loss may give you the Huskies a large number of motivation.
There may be additionally the truth that Giant Ten regular-season champion USC beat UCLA, the full No. 1 seed, two times, but ended up with the fourth No. 1 seed after dropping within the league match ultimate to the Bruins. The Trojans most certainly see that as an indication of disrespect. At the vivid aspect for USC, the Trojans may have final 12 months’s Elite 8 loss to the Huskies to avenge.
May USC and UConn face every different within the Elite 8? David Butler II/Imagn Photographs
Notre Dame
In contemporary weeks, the Irish went from a projected No. 1 seed to an anticipated No. 2 seed to a No. 3 seed Sunday. Realistically, there is not that a lot distinction between a 2 and three, since if seeds hang, they’ve to play every different within the regional semifinals. Then again, the prospective regional matchups within the Birmingham 3 bracket might be tough for the Irish.
They may face two groups which might be very robust within the submit: No. 2 seed TCU with 6-foot-7 middle Sedona Prince, and No. 1 seed Texas, with 6-6 Kyla Oldacre and 6-4 Taylor Jones. Notre Dame’s energy all season has been extra with its guards: Hannah Hidalgo, Olivia Miles and Sonia Citron.
Ole Pass over
To be truthful, the Rebels are winners on this recognize: Their No. 5 seed in Spokane 1 is their best possible seed in additional than 3 a long time, once they have been additionally No. 5 in 1994. However you’ll want to see the expression on trainer Yolette McPhee-McCuin’s face all the way through the choice display: She appeared upset Ole Pass over isn’t a number of the best 16 seeds and may not host the early rounds.
It will were nice for Ole Pass over to play at house and/or be in some of the Birmingham regionals, as that town is set a 2½-hour pressure from Oxford, Mississippi. Alas, the bracket did not figure out that manner.
Giant 12
There were not any excellent surprises for the convention on Variety Sunday: It were given the seven groups it anticipated into the sphere however not more. That put the Giant 12 in the back of the opposite Energy 4 leagues, because the Giant Ten has 12 groups, the SEC has 10 and the ACC 8.
The groups that have been hoping they could sneak in have been Arizona and Colorado, who got here to the Giant 12 this season after the dissolution of the Pac-12. The Wildcats have been on the lookout for their 5th consecutive NCAA match look, and the Buffaloes for his or her fourth.
