The Guru’s NCAAW Tourney Weekend Report: UConn, USC, Texas and TCU Join UCLA, Duke, South Carolina and LSU to Complete Elite Eight

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

And now the Sweet 16 in Birmingham, Ala., and Spokane, Wash., over Friday and Saturday have been reduced to the Elite Eight.

Though the field is cut in half, expect expect the excitement to double with the matchups Sunday afternoon on ABC and Monday night on ESPN leading to next weekend’s Final Four in Tampa, Fla.

But let us first look back in reverse order.

The last of the eight games Saturday night that occurred in the Northwest perhaps had the most suspense heading into the opening tip given that Southern Cal, the No. 1 seed in Spokane Region 4 and fourth ranked team in the Associated Press women’s poll, was to take the floor for the first time without national player of the year JuJu Watkins, lost for rest of the season with an ACL right knee injury early in last Monday’s lop-sided home victory over Mississippi State at the Galen Center in Los Angeles.

On the other side was fifth-seed Kansas State (28-8), which had recently gotten back the Wildcats’ star player Aoki Lee from a month lost with an injury and upset No. 4 Kentucky last weekend on the other Wildcats’ court.

Watkins couldn’t make the trip, but Trojans coach Lindsay Gottlieb revealed her superstar sent FaceTime greetings across the country before and following the 67-61 win by USC (31-3).

“She hit me up and just said how proud she was, before this game even, of the coaching staff, of the players, of everything that we are,” Gottlieb said. “And right after, it was hard to hear in the locker room, but there were a lot of smiles, and my daughter was blowing kisses to her and said, `JuJu’s not hurt?’

“`No, she's still hurt, but she's happy today and with us.’ So, just trying to keep her spirit with us. She’s just an incredible young person, and I think the way the team has responded says a lot about her and the true amount of chemistry that they have for each other.”

They also have the No. 1 freshmen class in the country, consisting of seven players, and on Saturday night the recruiting paid off as they made up for Stanford transfer Kiki Iriafen not equaling anything as productive as the 36 points she scored in the home team continuing on after Watkins got hurt.

Kennedy Smith, who started all season, had a team-leading 19 points.

“I’m ready for the moment,” she said. “Even in high school, just the balance with that, I think I was prepared to be in the position I am right now.

“We still have the common goal of obviously winning a national championship and with JuJu going down there was a bit of adversity to face,” Smith continued.

“We talked to her before the game, she was rooting us on. So just keeping her in our heart and minds and playing for her as well as for each other.”

Avery Howell, making her second start and being Watkins’ replacement, matched a personal best with 18 points, seven in the fourth quarter.

“Credit their freshmen, because this is a big stage and they’re the No. 1 recruiting class in the country for a reason, and I thought they stepped up,” said Kansas State coach Jeff Mittie.

“Smith got them off to a great start, Howell was fantastic, so it says a lot about the depth of their roster.”

Serena Sundell scored 22 for Kansas State and Lee contributed 12.

Of her recruits, Gottlieb said, “They are incredibly tough, and they are winners. And that’s what I told them before the game, and they earned every bit of it, and I’m just proud to be playing in the Elite Eight and proud of our group they got to experience it.”

Bueckers Pours 40 to Lead UConn over Oklahoma

On Monday night its going to be deja vue, part deux, for USC, playing two seed and No. 3 ranked Connecticut, the team that ousted them in the same round a year ago before the Trojans finally beat the Huskies on a big night from Watkins back in Hartford.

Saturday night belonged to Bueckers, however, in the game prior to Southern Cal, and the projected No. 1 WNBA draft pick next month to the Dallas Wings poured a career-high 40 points, 29 in the second half to single-handily outscore three-seed and 11th ranked Oklahoma as the Huskies (34-3) rallied from a 36-32 halftime deficit to down the Sooners 82-59.

Bueckers had gained her previous high at 34 in her final home game Monday when Connecticut rolled over South Dakota State at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs.

Against Oklahoma (27-8), besides creating distance with a personal 10-0 run in the fourth quarter the Minneapolis-area native matched her personal best with six makes from deep.

“Obviously, Paige was spectacular,” said Hall of Fame UConn coach Geno Auriemma, whose NCAA career win record for either men or women extended to 2247 triumphs, including a record NCAA 11 women’s titles.

“That was as good a game as I’ve seen her play the whole time she’s been here, at the most important time. When you’re a senior and you’ve been around as long as she has, this is what you’re here to do. This is why you came here.”

Ashlynn Shade added 12 points and freshman Sarah Strong had a double-double with 11 points and 11 boards.

It’s the 18th Elite Eight in the past 19 seasons for UConn, whose last title came in 2016. The next two saw the squad suffer buzzing beating losses in successive national semifinals, the next year Covid caused the cancellation of the tourney.

The Huskies were upset in the semis by Arizona in 2021, then got hit with a rash of in juries the past three seasons, one lost by Bueckers, though advanced to the title game against South Carolina in 2022, ended their final four streak in 2023 in a Sweet 16 loss to Ohio State, and then made it back to the semis last season falling short at the finish to Iowa and Caitlin Clark.

“Honestly, we just wanted to keep our season going as long as possible,” Bueckers said. “We all love playing together. We love playing here. We just love this program.”

“Everybody at this point of the season is trying to keep winning, to win a national title and keep the season going as long as possible. Everybody has the same goal, Bueckers said.

“Whether your season is ending or your career is ending, you want to stay in one game at a time, one practice at a time, one possession at a time, and just focus on that and maximizing that, and not getting too caught up in the future.”

Oklahoma’s Payton Verhulst scored 16 points in the first Sweet 16 appearance for the program since 2013, though the Sooners are winless lifetime against the Huskies, including the 2002 championship.

“I just said to our seniors, obviously this loss sucks, it should hurt, there’s going to be tears and heartbreak, but I think the biggest message that I wanted them to hear was that they started this culture at Oklahoma,” Verhulst said.

Birmingham 3: Texas Edges Tennessee and TCU Downs Notre Dame

Earlier Saturday, the second-seeded and sixth-ranked Horned Frogs, who claimed the Big 12 title, showed that last November’s then-upset of now third-seeded and eighth-ranked Notre Dame in the tropics was no fluke, beating the Fighting Irish 71-62.

The outcome provided a collegiate first for Hailey Van Lith who will be in her fifth Elite Eight with her third different team previously journeying with Louisville and last season with LSU.

TCU (34-3) is coached by Mark Campbell, who turned the Horned Frogs program around when arriving last season after a two-year stint at Sacramento State.

Prior to that, he was a longtime Oregon assistant, responsible for recruiting later WNBA All-Star Sabrina Ionescue, which resulted in a Final Four appearance in 2019 and likely another one in 2020 had not the NCAA tournament been cancelled.

The roster also has Oregon transfer Sedona Prince, who at the bubble-format NCAA tourney in 2021 in Dallas put a picture on social media showing the inverse comparison of weight room provisions compared to the men’s tourney, setting off a major independent investigation of the women’s tourney treatment compared to the men, resulting in wholesale changes.

The Associated Press dubbed Van Lith for her fete “Miss March,” a nickname Campbell called “deserved and earned.”

“In this era of the portal and the modern-day college athlete, and there are a lot of bad stories in the portal, but Hailey Van Lith leading three schools five times to the Elite Eight, Miss March, yes, she gets that title, and she can own it.”

“I thought offensively Hailey really carried us in the second half,” Campbell said. “Survived to play another game and compete on Monday night for a chance to go for a Final Four.”

The game was tied early in the fourth quarter 52-52 when Van Lith put TCU ahead with five of the next six points and 12 of her 26 points in the final period. She also had nine rebounds.

It’s the Horned Frogs first advancement to the next round.

“I was going to go out there and play as hard as I could to practice with these girls tomorrow,” Van Lith said.

“Going into this game, I was really just going to go and have no regrets. I was going to go out there and have fun and play with the joy that God gave me.”

Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey, who coached against Van Lith when she was with Louisville, said she sensed her grabbing the momentum.

“I feel like she saw the ball going in and she kind of rose,” I said. “You could tell her energy, her confidence was getting stronger, play by play.

“I thought she made some really good defensive plays as well. This is that stage where great players emerge. I thought she had a really complete game.”

Prince had 21 with six boards and six blocks for TCU.

“No offense to them, but it was really nothing they did to alter us,“ said Notre Dame guard, Olivia, Miles, who has 48 hours now to decide if she will return to the Irish or put herself in the WNBA draft where she is a projected lottery pick if she decides.

After the game She told reporters she was still undecided what her decision will be.

Continuing to talk about the game, Miles said, “obviously Sedona is in there. She was blocking shots, that’s one factor, but we literally were just missing shots that we normally make and that’s going to happen at times.“

The Irish in the fourth quarter were held to 10 points, their lowest total on the season.

Pitt transfer Liatu King scored 17, Merchantsville’s Hannah Hidalgo, the ACC player of the year who had been in the national player honors conversation, scored 15, and Miles scored 10.

Madison Conner added 13 to TCU’s total.

TCU on Monday night will face No. 1 seed and fifth-ranked Texas, who advanced against the Longhorns new SEC rival Tennessee 67-59.

The Longhorns (34-3) played the Lady Vols for years, but this season Texas moved from the Big 12, which gained TCU several years ago, with Oklahoma to the SEC.

The loss by Tennessee (24-10), seeded fifth and ranked 20th, ended the first season under Kim Caldwell, who brought a new swarming attack from Marshall and improvement, but the setback was another in a slew of narrow outcomes falling short against high-ranked opponents.

The Lady Vols were also bounced out of the SEC tourney the first day by Vanderbilt.

Madison Booker, the player of the year in the SEC, scored 17 for Texas, coached by Vic Schaefer, who led Mississippi State to successive Final Fours in in 2017 and 2018.

“We’ve been in these battles close enough,” said Schaefer of the closely fought contest. “We know what it takes. When you’re tired or maybe in that moment or the last four or five minutes, you fall back on your fundamentals.”

Jordan Lee added 13 points while Taylor Jones scored 12.

Tennessee got within one point near the end on a shot from Ruby Whitehorn, who scored 16, but Texas then lengthened its lead the rest of the way.

“I was proud of how hard we played,” Caldwell said. “A big point of emphasis was rebounding, and we did what we needed to there.

“They just did such a great job rushing us into shots and forcing some turnovers down the stretch when we needed to get some shots off.”

Texas also got 12 points from Bryanna Preston, while Zee Spearman added 13 for Tennessee, which is the only school to appear in all 43 NCAA women’s tourneys.

“We didn’t want it to be the last time we did it,” said Texas senior Rori Harmon. “We talked about accountability and leadership.

“We were over here grabbing each other by our jerseys and telling (each other), ‘You can’t let this happen, you can’t let this happen.’ I think it was just collectively, we all just wanted it so bad.”

Tennessee missed their last five shots.

Texas beat the Lady Vols 80-76 during the season and is now 18-2 against SEC squads this season.

“Our league is a monster,” Schaefer said. “There are just so many great teams, they are well-coached, and so many great players. I walk out and I look at Tennessee and it’s like looking at a WNBA team. They’ve got size at guard, size at 5, size everywhere. Athleticism, quickness all over the floor. It’ ain’t much fun.”

The Rebuilders

Seven of the eight coaches playing for a spot in the Final Four in Tampa are relatively recent hires, brought to rebuild programs from previous status, while Auriemma has been at UConn with his longtime assistant and former Rutgers star Chris Dailey where they built the Huskies from ground zero.

Schaefer returned to his native state after making Mississippi State nationally relevant; Campbell at TCU has been mentioned earlier in this post; Cori Close, who has won several national coach of the year awards this month, came to UCLA from an assistant at Florida State; Former Tennessee star Kara Lawson was hired at Duke from the staff of the NBA Boston Celtics, while LSU’s Kim Mulkey returned to her state from national power Baylor; Dawn Staley was hired from Temple to grow South Carolina; Lindsay Gottlieb, who led California to a Final Four, was hired at Southern Cal from the NBA staff of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Looking Ahead Elight Eight Part One – Sunday

All the No. 1 and three No. 2 seeds have advanced while No. 3 LSU topped No. 2 NC State.

Two games being played and airing Sunday on ABC at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. leads with No. 2 seed and overall seventh-ranked Duke (29-7), the ACC champs, facing No. 1 seed, No. 2 ranked and defending champion South Carolina (33-3), followed by No. 2 seed and 10th-ranked LSU (31-5) meeting Overall No. 1 seed (South Carolina is second) and No. 1 ranked UCLA (33-2).

In the national semifinals on Friday the winner of the UCLA-LSU game will meet the winner of Monday’s Connecticut-USC game while the Duke-South Carolina winner faces the Texas-TCU winner.

Duke advanced Friday in an ACC rematch beating three-seed North Carolina 47-38 in a defensive contest as the Blue Devils rallied from an early 11-0 deficit to the Tar Heels (29-8) and now will seek to make it a Final Four double with their men’s team playing in their first Elite Eight game since 2013.

Reserve Oluchi Okananwa had 12 points and 12 boards, and Ashlon Jackson scored 10 points for Duke.

“I’ll be honest, Lawson said afterwards. “I was a little worried down 11-0 and we hadn’t scored at all in the game. But I don’t think there’s ever been a shutout. I felt pretty good we could score at some point.”

Toby Fournier, who had been Duke’s star freshman, was held to three points.

UNC fifth-year senior Alyssa Ustby scored nine points.

The 85 points were the fewest ever in a regional final.

“Sitting up here after a loss is disappointing,” said UNC coach Courtney Banghart, who previously built Princeton into a national force. “Especially when you hold your third straight tournament opponent under 50 points, and you don’t win the game.”

Here’s a link to a photo gallery of the game shot by William Ewart. https://williamewartphoto.photoshelter.com/gallery/2025-NCAA-Birmingham-Regional-North-Carolina-vs-Duke/G0000Sy0ZNm3rvjU/

 

South Carolina had its second straight challenge from a Big Ten opponent, this one by fourth-seeded Maryland (25-8) going deep into the game until the Gamecocks prevailed 71-67.

MiLaysia Fulwiley scored 23 points while Chloe Kitts had 15 points and 11 boards.

“We’re a resilient group,” Staley said. “People thought we had the easiest region. I don’t think so. It’s not easy at all, it gets harder, because we’ve got to play Duke. I just think our team has been through so much. They’re unshakeable, you know. They’re unflappable.”

The Gamecocks Hall of Fame coach said surviving in the SEC tying Texas for the regular season title and splitting with the Longhorns before beating them in the conference championship game gave her players “confidence to be able to be in a tight knit game and find a way to win because that’s what it’s all about at this stage of the game.”

Kaylene Smikle, the Rutgers transfer, one of a bunch portal retrievals Maryland coach Brenda Frese brought in to replace a bunch who left, scored 17.

“We believed we could win this game,” Frese said. “We showed that we could win this game, and I think we gave a pretty good blueprint on how to beat South Carolina, to be quite honest, for the teams moving on.”

“The blueprint?” Staley said at Saturday’s preview press conference. “People played us like that ever since we had Aliyah Boston (the former national player of the year going as the top pick of the Indiana Fever in the WNBA to become rookie of the year).

“It’s nothing new. We lead the country in points in the paint. Clog the paint.

“They did a good job executing their game plan and we did a poor job at shot selection. So we will be better. We just got to take better shots.”

Of playing against Lawson, who like Staley has gone through the pro and international player and coaching experience, the Gamecocks coach said, “I respect the success Kara is having at Duke. I respect the fact that she has been in our game for a long time at different stops, you know, commenting, NBA assistant.

“She is an Olympian; she is an Olympic assistant coach. So, for someone that has devoted and served our game as long as she has, you gotta tip your hat to her.”

Gamecocks guard Te-Hina Paopao, a transfer from Oregon, said setting the tone needs to be improved.

“I feel like we’ve had some problems with that this season – playing with toughness.

“We’ve got to start some games with toughness. I feel like when the other team punches first and plays with toughness first, we tend to not be able to play with toughness until later in the second half or when it’s too late.

“I feel like we’ve got to come out punching first, playing with toughness first, and asserting our dominance in the first few minutes of the game. Sometimes we can be a little loose and not locked in from the beginning.”

In Sunday’s other game after getting to the top of the rankings for the first time this season, UCLA, which won the old AIAW in 1978, is going for its first-ever NCAA Final Four against an LSU team that knocked the Bruins out of the tournament in the Sweet 16 a year ago.

The Bruins advanced Friday against Ole Miss 76-62 as Lauren Betts, who transferred from Stanford two seasons ago, was 15-of-16 and scored 31 with 10 rebounds, virtually repeating the same double-double with one more point and four less rebounds to beat Richmond in Round two.

Bruins coach Cori Close referred to Betts as “a generational player” afterwards.

“She’s not only dominant for herself, but she makes everybody on the floor better. And so, you just want to put the ball in her hands as many ways and as many times as is possible.”

KiKi Rice had 13 points seven assists for the Bruins, who now turn to erasing bad memories in the Albany (NY) regional last season.

“We obviously have familiarity with LSU and meeting them in the Sweet 16 last year,” Close said, “but reality is LSU knows how to win, and they have proven that year after year, so it’s going to take a great effort from us.

“We thought boxing out Ole Miss was tough. LSU’s an even better offensive rebounding team. They obviously have a lot of weapons, and they play with great confidence and aggression, and (coach) Kim Mulkey is one of the best to ever do it.”

LSU has their own inside force in Aneesah Morrow, who transferred two seasons ago from DePaul in her hometown Chicago.

“The way she exerts her dominance is on the offensive glass and then really being crafty around the rim or attacking from the high post off the dribble. So that’s going to be our challenge, is to try to mitigate that and to play … get them out of their rhythm.”

Knowing where the defense is focusing on, Close called the key to winning, “who else steps up.”

LSU looking at the other way working against Betts, Mulkey said, “She is so talented. Just watching her from high school until today, it’s amazing how good she is.

“Certainly, her height is an advantage and we’re not going to grow that tall overnight. But we have to battle and do the best we can. But she’s not all they have. Certainly, everything they do goes through her, as it should, but they’re talented at a lot of positions.”

And that’s your report other than in the next one besides recapping Sunday’s NCAA games and looking ahead to Monday night’s other two qualifiers, Rutgers at Buffalo playing an Elite Eight equivalent game in the WNIT while Villanova might be part of a preview press conference in the WBIT in Indianapolis ahead of Monday’s semifinal at Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse playing Belmont.