UConn hasn’t been too far from the top of the women’s basketball mountaintop over the past decade, but it’s been nine years since it won a national championship.
With an 82-59 win over South Carolina on Sunday, the Huskies are once again champions. They were dominant from the tip, with Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong scoring 24 points each, and Paige Bueckers adding 17. The win showed that the Huskies were a team of players that knew each other and their strengths, and knew they were capable of winning it all.
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Here are the biggest takeaways from a game and a tournament that won’t be soon forgotten:
The Huskies shot 48 percent from the field. That kind of shooting is hard for any team to stop. The heart of it was UConn’s big three of Bueckers, Fudd and Strong, but the rest of the team did the work to make sure those three women could take their shots. UConn’s 18 assists doubled South Carolina’s total of nine. Players like Kaitlyn Chen made sure the ball got into the right hands, and that helped keep UConn’s runaway offensive train running.
Azzi Fudd announced earlier in the tournament that she will stay for one more season in Storrs, Connecticut. As she’s dealt with knee injuries throughout her career, Fudd had two seasons where she didn’t play much, and she wants the chance to keep playing for UConn before heading to the WNBA (where she’s likely to be a lottery pick). Fudd’s decision means we get one more year of her teaming up with Sarah Strong for incredible shots. While the rest of the NCAA teams might not be happy to see another year of Fudd, basketball fans should be, especially after she won Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four.
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UConn’s Sarah Strong scored 24 points and grabbed 15 rebounds on Sunday. At no point in the game — or honestly, for much of the tournament — did Strong look like a freshman. She had plenty of battles with South Carolina’s Joyce Edwards, another freshman. Edwards didn’t have quite as good of a game, but she scored 10 points and grabbed five rebounds to cap off a solid tournament showing. The battles we saw down low showed how these two women could pull the best out of each other.
Look, that loss was bad. South Carolina shot for 31 percent. It actually kept pace with UConn on rebounding and turnovers, but it just wasn’t enough. UConn’s aforementioned offensive weapons were just too much. Head coach Dawn Staley looked frustrated, but she’s still accomplished so much at South Carolina.
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This loss does not take away the fact that South Carolina has been to five Final Fours in a row, and walked away with the trophy twice. It doesn’t change the Gamecocks’ loaded roster, and Staley’s ability to prepare players for the WNBA. South Carolina isn’t going away any time soon.
UConn coach Geno Auriemma is one of the most respected people in women’s basketball, and he’s been to plenty of NCAA tournaments (and won 12 of them, after Sunday). He knows what works, and what doesn’t. He has been vocal about how the scheduling and logistics of the tournament, and especially the super regional format, have hampered the women.
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“So what you’re saying when you have two regions is you don’t care if half the country can’t get to a game,” Auriemma said this weekend. “Basically, that’s what you’re saying. But yeah, you want to grow the game. I mean, come on, it makes no sense. But if you ever had an administrator that ever coached or ever played in a Final Four or regional, and you realize what the limitations are in one gym with eight (teams), right? Yeah, but they don’t think that way. They don’t think that way.
“So, you know, it’s up to us as coaches. Don’t ask our opinion. If you’re going to dismiss it, at least give it some thought. And (NCAA president Charlie Baker) probably thinks it’s not a big deal that you fly 3,000 miles, get here Tuesday night, when the team you’re playing against has been home already for 36 hours. They probably think that’s not a big deal either. So then, what are we trying to say? ‘But we’re in this for the student athletes.’ Really? That’s interesting.”
In the first two weekends of the NCAA tournament, the women’s games started the day after the men’s. But that flipped between the Elite Eight and the Final Four, meaning that UConn had a short window to get ready between games on Monday and Friday, while also flying from Spokane to Tampa. Next year, the regionals are in Sacramento and Fort Worth, with the Final Four in Phoenix. The flights won’t be as long, but the scheduling should be worked out to give players time to recover, get their homework done — yes, they are still students — and take a breath. And while the NCAA has super regional sites scheduled through 2028, it needs to study whether this really makes sense for the growth of women’s basketball.
I’m not even talking about ratings or attendance, though the early numbers on both show that in fact, everybody watches women’s sports. No, I’m talking about the health of the game. Women’s college basketball is full of players who can play smart, good basketball. Coaches who challenge them to become even better. Teams that don’t back down from playing the best teams, regardless of conference. UCLA, a school with a long and proud tradition in men’s hoops, finally made it to the Final Four in women’s basketball. TCU pulled together an Elite Eight basketball team out of nowhere. Conference changes made for some incredible matchups.
This year was incredible, and the sport has shown no signs of slowing down.
