The Guru’s March Madness Daily Report: UConn Faces South Carolina and Texas Meets UCLA in Final Four

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

PHOENIX, Ariz. — It may be the same Women’s Final Four as last season in terms of who has advanced to the annual ultimate women’s collegiate showcase Friday night  here at the Mortgage Matchup Center, but the dynamics are different due to the bracket set by the tournament committee that saw all their No. 1 seeds survive and advance.

The leadoff at 7 p.m. on ESPN has unbeaten UConn (38-0), the overall No. 1 seed needing to pass South Carolina (35-3), the fourth No. 1, the sidelines meeting of Philly-bred Hall of Fame coaches Geno Auriemma of the Huskies facing Dawn Staley of the Gamecocks, the match that saw UConn dominate South Carolina giving Paige Bueckers a champion sendoff to the WNBA, the first overall No. 1 draft pick from which she became rookie of the year.

Staley doesn’t call this game or an earlier tournament win over Oklahoma as revenge games rather labelling them rematches.

The Huskies’ triumph over the Gamecocks restored and extended UConn’s NCAA record rule to 12 titles, ending a drought since 2016 when Breanna Stewart made good her freshman promise with four straight crowns.

UConn and South Carolina, unlike past parts of the regular season, did not meet in the regular season and this is the first time they are meeting in a national semifinal.

Since the UConn run of the Stewart era ended in 2016, Staley was able to do as a coach what she was unable to do as a storied player with the University of Virginia on three straight attempts, winning three national titles in 2017, 2022 and 2024.

She has gone on to surpass Auriemma as the highest paid women’s coach and dominating the Southeastern Conference that once lived under the iron fist of the legendary late Tennessee coach Pat Summitt, who won eight titles, but these days the Lady Vols have been reduced to an unforeseen collapse under second-year coach Kim Caldwell with a season-ending eight straight losses and reports who will lose at least 11 and counting players that could land in the portal when the transfer doors open officially this Monday.

On Friday, UConn’s Sarah Strong, whose mom Allison Feaster was a national star at Harvard, added the Associated Press trophy to her consensus collection of national player of the year honors, while Vanderbilt’s Shea Ralph, a former Huskies star, picked another in her equal sweep of coach of the year honors.

Strong’s play has been bolstered by teammate senior Azzi Fudd and a roster fortified by depth that carried the Huskies past North Carolina and Notre Dame in the regionals and carried UConn to a win streak of 54 games since a late season loss a year ago at Tennessee  and now the Huskies enter Friday’s contest unbeaten for the ninth straight time, six previously resulting  in NCAA crowns with perfect records.

Auriemma has now won 1,288 games, more than any other NCAA men’s or women’s coach, and if UConn becomes perfect again it will do so with a second 40-0 mark under Auriemma in his 41st seasons.

South Carolina lost twice to Texas, early in a non-conference game, and in the SEC championship along with an SEC regular season loss at Oklahoma, but the Gamecocks blitzed through the Sacramento Region Four portion of the bracket, getting revenge on Oklahoma and then advancing over TCU.

After losing to UConn, Staley through the transfer portal by way of Florida State added Ta’Niya Latson, the nation’s leading scorer in 2025, and have seen Joyce Edwards become a force and have gotten stellar play from freshman Agot Maker.

UCLA, meanwhile, following a lopsided loss in the national semifinals to UConn, having undergone a program record performance in a season that saw the Bruins be part of a realignment from the PAC-12 to the Big Ten, lost early in November to Texas and hasn’t lost since heading into the rematch with the Longhorns in the 9:30 p.m. contest on ESPN.

Coach Cori Close’s Bruins are paced by senior center Lauren Betts, expected to be taken high next Monday (April 13) at the WNBA player draft in New York City.

Texas also lost in the national semifinals by a wide margin to SEC rival South Carolina and after Longhorn's coach Vic Schaefer called his team soft in a late 2026 season loss to the Gamecocks, has been rolling, led by Rori Harmon and Madison Booker.

The Texans are chasing their second national title following becoming the first unbeaten NCAA team in 1986 in a title game that ended the collegiate career of Cheryl Miller, who won earlier titles with the Trojans in 1983 and 1984.

This is also Texas’ first back-to-back Final Four appearance since defense of their championship that failed in 1987, the year Tennessee finally went on take the first of eight crowns after falling short in several earlier attempts dating to the era pre-NCAA under the AIAW.

That’s also when UCLA claimed its only national title in 1978, the first year the AIAW event changed from a finals format of 16 teams at one site to the Final Four.

“They’re certainly the best team I’ve had at Texas, no question,” said Schaefer, who led Mississippi State to Final Fours in 2017 and 2018, the first in which a last second shot in overtime felled UConn ending what is still the longest D-1win streak at 111.

“They’re playing for each other. They’re really having fun.  We have really good leadership right now. This is what happens when you have all that come together.”

He did acknowledge, though, “We know we’ve got a big challenge in front of us on Friday, a great team.”

Auriemma said his team is different than the ones which had future Hall of Famers in Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart.

“I just keep my fingers crossed because its not the kind of team I’ve had in the past that has gone this far undefeated,” he said. “It’s not. They’re just a bunch of really nice kids that play for hard each other.”

WBCA All-Americans

In winning the Wade Trophy from the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association, the eighth by a UConn player, Strong headlined the coaches’ association’s annual Division I all-American team, joined by Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo from South Jersey in Merchantville in suburban Philadelphia who was also named Defensive Player of the Year, UCLA’s Betts, Vanderbilt’s  Mikayla Blakes from Somerville, N.J., Texas’ Booker, Ohio State’s Jaloni Cambridge, South Carolina’s Edwards, Connecticut’s Fudd, South Carolina’s  Raven Johnson, and Texas Christian’s Olivia Miles,  who last season bypassed the WNBA draft and transferred from Notre Dame.

WNBA Expansion

Several hours before the Final Four tips off ESPN will broadcast the WNBA expansion draft by the two incoming teams this season – the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire.

Next season the Connecticut Sun moves to Houston, rebranding under the Comets, the name of the original franchise that won the first four WNBA titles, followed consecutively in 2028, 2029, and 2030, by Cleveland and Detroit, former franchise cities, and a brand new one in Philadelphia, which next season will be one of the two regional eight-team hosts of the NCAA tournament.

  

 

The Guru’s Daily March Madness Report: Saint Joseph’s Alum Kuester at Army Wins WBCA Maggie Dixon National Rookie Coach Award; Columbia Wins WBIT 3rd Annual Tourney

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHOENIX, Ariz. – A week ago, prior to Army hosting La Salle in the third round of the WNIT, looking at Black Knights’ first-year coach Katie Kuester’s record, when asked, submitting a nomination for the annual Maggie Dixon Rookie Coach of the Year, a national award presented by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) wasn’t even on the radar of the former Saint Joseph’s star and assistant, a  native of Media, Pa.

“I visit her burial place a lot,” Kuester added.

Dixon, a former assistant at DePaul and sister of men’s basketball coach Jamie Dixon two decades ago in 2006 was one of the feel-good stories at the end of the season when he led Pitt to the men’s NCAA tournament and Maggie gave Army its first women’s Patriot League title, the cadets pouring from the stands and carrying her off the court when the buzzer sounded.

A week later, though, tragedy struck through an undetected heart condition that took her life while she was taking a morning run on the grounds of the Military Academy.

Honors in her name in the form of in-season tournaments were created and the WBCA came up with the rookie coach award.

Kuester guided Army to 26 wins and enabled them to be the first Patriot team to reach the Elite Eight of the WNIT after the Knights ended La Salle’s season.

On Wednesday, as stakeholders began arriving here for this weekend’s NCAA Women’s Final Four, the WBCA announced Kuester as the 2026 Maggie Dixon recipient, quite appropriate that an Army coach would win the honor on the 20th anniversary of Dixon’s passing.

“Success in your first year as an NCAA Division I head coach is generally a difficult feat,” said WBCA Executive Director Daneille Donehew in a statement with the announcement release.”

“When a new Division I head coach demonstrates a mastery of managing all aspects of a program, as well as producing success in competition, our coaching family pays respectful attention,” she said.

“Katie led Army West Point to a remarkable season. We celebrate her effort and effectiveness on the basketball court as a teacher and equally applaud the extensive role she plays impacting the lives of her student-athletes.”

Several other WBCA awards were announced Wednesday, Southern Cal’s Jazzy Davidson adding to her collection of freshman of the year honors that previously included the Tamika Catchings Award given by the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA), and also the Big Ten freshman of the year from the conference.

Meanwhile, the Naismith organization in Atlanta, not to be confused with the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., joined several others already announcing UConn’s Sarah Strong as national player of the year, South Jersey’s Hannah Hidalgo of Notre Dame as the top defensive player in the nation, and Vanderbilt’s Shea Ralph, a former UConn standout, as coach of the year.

The Associated Press will announce its player and coach Thursday afternoon here in what will be a marathon day for the media beginning early in the morning with the annual ESPN meet the broadcast talent who will be bringing the national semifinals on Friday night between UConn and South Carolina at 7 p.m., the two that met in last season’s title game won by UConn followed by Texas and UCLA at 9:30 p.m.

The championship will air Sunday at 3:20 p.m. on ABC.

There will also be press conferences with the four competing teams.

USA Basketball is in town for a training session with Olympic hopefuls, the WNBA on Friday several hours before the national semifinals, will announce the results of the expansion draft for this summer’s new additions of Toronto and Portland, following the arrival last summer of Golden State.

On Saturday there is a collegiate all-star game at Grand Canyon University.

Early this week, the league announced the Connecticut Sun has been sold to a group in Houston, moving the franchise owned by the Mohegans next summer to Houston, where it will rebrand as the Comets, the name of the team that won the first four WNBA crowns from 1997 to 2000.

The college draft is a week from Monday.

The AP is also holding an event at nearby Arizona State to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the women’s weekly rankings launched in November, 1976, in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Columbia Wins WBIT While Marshall and Illinois State Reach WNIT Final

Finishing the job almost completed three seasons ago when Columbia became the first Ivy team to reach the WNIT final, the Lions in year three of the WBIT run by the NCAA went wire-to-wire in a dominating style Wednesday night, leading by as many as 27 points, to beat BYU of the Big 12 81-64 at the Charles Koch Arena in Wichita, Kansas.

Mia Broom led the Lions (25-8) with 23 points while Ivy player of the year Riley Weiss scored 20 points, 14 in the second quarter, and was named Most Outstanding Player.

“I’m just really tremendously proud of our players, especially these three to my left in Perri Page and Susie (Rafiu, her two seniors, and Weiss),” said Columbia coach Megan Griffith, a native of King of Prussia, Pa., in suburban Philadelphia. 

Columbia appeared headed as the No. 1 seed in the four-team Ivy Madness, but Princeton, whom the Lions swept, came back to finish first on the last day of the regular season and then the Lions lost to Harvard in the semifinals.

“Our two seniors just completely made up their minds when we lost in the Ivy League semifinal tournament game, and I think the two of their leadership we could not be here without them and to turn the page and embark on a new mission, I couldn’t say enough about who the two of them have become.”

Columbia was a four seed when the 32-team field began, and BYU (26-12) was the only No. 1 seed to advance the longest of the four who were all the first cuts from the NCAA field.

“Obviously, all the teams in the WBIT are very talented,” Weiss said. “We know that. They are all team and think that they should have made the NCAA tournament or were all really close.

“We obviously knew not to take anyone lightly and we were able to turn the page really quickly when we obviously did not make the NCAA tournament,” Weiss said and then addressed her New York City member of the Ancient Eight able in the semifinals and finals beat two Power 4 teams from the Big Ten and Big 12.

“The Ivy League has a lot of great talent and a lot of high-level basketball, high level IQ. I think that is something special about our league,” Weiss said. “So yeah, it’s nice that we get to show that in the postseason and still playing April 1 and bringing home a championship.”

Meanwhile, in the WNIT, Marshall (27-9), out of the Sun Belt Conference, and Illinois State (24-13), advanced to the title game, Marshall beat host Arkansas State 69-62 on the road while Illinois State won 67-60 at South Dakota (26-10).

Marshall, two years removed from the departure of Kim Caldwell to succeed Kellie Harper at Tennessee, will be back home hosting the Red Birds Saturday at noon on ESPN+.

Roster in Abandon Ship Mode at Tennessee?

A report Wednesday said as many as 11 players at Tennessee are planning to abandon the past flagship of the sport on April 6 when the transfer portal opens.

When Tennessee in what what in what became a season-ending eight-game losing streak got destroyed by South Carolina, she referred to her players as quitters.

The Vols also lost an assistant coach to Southeastern Conference rival LSU.

Meanwhile, joining alum Tanisha Wright at Penn State is all-time program scorer Kelly Mazzante.

 

 

 

 

 

       

The Guru’s March Madness Daily Report: Second Half Thrusts Send 1-Seeds UConn and UCLA to Final Four; Texas Meets Michigan and South Carolina Meets TCU Monday Night for Other Two Spots in Phoenix

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

UConn and UCLA, the nation’s top two women’s teams, used strong second half finishes Sunday afternoon to punch their tickets to the Women’s Final Four this weekend in Phoenix while the other two slots will be determined Monday night when Texas meets Michigan and South Carolina plays TCU.

Notre Dame (25-11), which as the sixth seed led by South Jersey’s Hannah Hidalgo of Merchantville in suburban Philadelphia knocked out three-seed Ohio State in Columbus last weekend and two-seed Vanderbilt in Friday’s Sweet 16 opener of Fort Worth (Texas) Region 1 in Dickies Arena to reach the unbeaten Huskies (38-0), stayed on the defending NCAA champions’ heels into midway through the third quarter when UConn began gaining separation from a familiar rival and on to a 70-52 victory.

Part of the thunder from advancing to the Huskies’ 25th appearance at the tournament’s final rounds as Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma picked up his 1,288th victory, was stolen from their male counterparts a few hours later when freshman Braylon Mullins sank a desperation 3-pointer with 0.4 remaining to complete a comeback from a 19-point deficit and edge top-seeded Duke 73-72 to return to the men’s finals for the third time in the last four seasons.

The Duke (27-9) women also suffered a blown lead after Friday’s last second game-winner downed two-seed LSU in Golden 1 Center to send the Blue Devils back to the Elite Eight against the Bruins, only to have a halftime advantage on UCLA (35-1) evaporate in the third period sending coach Cori Close’s squad to a 70-58 victory in Sacramento (Calif.) Region 2 and a return to the Final Four, which they achieved last year for the first time in the NCAA era that began in 1981-82.

Led by Ann Meyers-Drysdale, UCLA won the the national title under the AIAW in 1978, the first year that organization went to a Final Four format.

UCLA’s only loss was way back near the beginning of the season to Texas, the last time the Bruins, who have won 29 straight including a sweep of the Big Ten, trailed at the half.

Senior center Lauren Betts had 23 points, 10 boards, and five blocks for UCLA.

“I was pretty mad, didn’t like how that first half happened,” Betts said. “I could have been a lot more effective. A game like this you got to take care yourself out of your head. This is the Elite Eight and my senior season is on the line, so got to wake up a little bit.”

Taina Mair scored 21 for Duke, which is guided by former Tennessee star Kara Lawson, also in charge of the USA women through the current Olympic cycle.

The Bruins, who were down eight at the half, in the third bolted from a 45-41 deficit in the third on a 10-2 run going in front 47-45 on a 3-pointer from Utah transfer Gianna Kneepkens.

“They’re a really good team,” Mair said. They’re super experienced.

“When they came out, we just didn’t have a response to it. So credit to them for going into the locker room and making the correct changes to be able to win the game. But they played a great second half.”

Back in Texas, Auriemma, the winningest combined men’s and women’s coach in the NCAA, who wore a cowboy hat and did a short dance on the court after the win, said this group is the proudest he’s been over taking all those superstar teams to the Final Four.

“This group, they don’t have that kind of swagger, trash-talking kind of mentality,” he said. “It’s not the kind of team that I’ve had in the past that has gone this far undefeated. It’s not. They don’t have that kind of mentality off the court, on the court. They are just a bunch of really nice kids that play hard for each other.”

Sarah Strong had 21 points in the Huskies’ 54th straight victory while freshman Blanca Quinonez scored 20 off the bench, and Azzi Fudd had 13 points, four assists, and three steals.

“He’s usually all serious or like anxious, grumpy,” Strong said. “Just seeing him let loose and be his true self was really good.”

“He doesn’t say anything he doesn’t mean,” Fudd said. “He doesn’t give out compliments too often, depending on who you are. So, to hear him say that, it does mean a lot, and we feel the same way. We love this team so much.”

Hidalgo had 22 points, 11 boards, and her three steals in the ninth NCAA tournament meeting between the Irish and the Huskies extended her season record to 202 and single tourney mark to 29.

“They’re very, very physical,” said Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey, who also played for the Irish against the Huskies under Hall of Famer and Saint Joseph’s grad Muffet McGraw. “They try to take away every option that you have. They are very disciplined. They play well together, and they just play hard.”

The Final Four will be set after Monday’s ESPN doubleheader, Texas (34-3) meets Michigan (28-6) in Fort Worth Region 3 at 7 p.m., the winner meeting UCLA in one of Friday’s national semifinals, while three-seed TCU (32-5) at 9 p.m. meets one seed South Carolina (34-3), the winner meeting UConn.

Should that semifinal be Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks and UConn, it would be the rematch of last season’s lopsided win by the Huskies in the championship in Tampa, Florida.

The Other Two Tourneys

The title game in the three-year old WBIT, also run by the NCAA, will be set Monday afternoon after a doubleheader on ESPNU in Wichita, Kansas, while later the Fantastic Four of the long running WNIT will be set following three games at separate sites.

The Ivy League nearly had two teams still alive in the WBIT field, but Harvard fell 64-61 at Wisconsin in overtime.

Columbia (23-8), however, won 74-68 at California (21-15) as Perri Page scored 24 points, Ivy player of the year Riley Weiss collected 22 points and Mia Broom scored 17 sending the Lions into Monday’s 2:30 p.m. contest against Wisconsin (16-17) at the Charles Koch Arena.

Several years ago in 2023, Columbia, prior to the WBIT, in a larger field advanced to the WNIT title game.

 In the other game at 5 p.m., BYU (25-11), the only No. 1 seed to advanced this far, will face Kansas (22-13), pitting two Big 12 teams against each other.

On Sunday, in one of Great Eight games in the WNIT, South Dakota (26-9) at home in Vermillion won 65-56 over Montana State (27-8) as Molly Joyce scored 31 points.

On Monday, the three other NIT games will air on ESPN+.

AT 6 p.m., Saint Joseph’s former standout and assistant coach Katie Kuester will guide Army (26-7) in Huntingdon, W.Va. against host Marshall (25-9), the furthest a Patriot League team has advanced in the WNIT.

At 7:30 p.m., George Washington (18-17) is at Illinois State (22-13) at Normal, while at 8 p.m., Cleveland State (26-9) is at Arkansas State (26-9) in Jonesboro. 

 

 

 

 

The Guru’s Daily March Madness Report: 1-Seed UConn Meets 6-Seed Notre Dame While 1-Seed UCLA Faces 3-seed Duke for Final Four Trips to Phoenix; 1-Seed Texas, 2-Seed Michigan, 1-Seed South Carolina, 3-Seed TCU Advance to Elite Eight

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

The Sweet 16 that has been reduced to the Elite Eight has all four No. 1 seeds still intact as the ticket punching for the Final Four this weekend in Phoenix begins Sunday afternoon with a pair of games on ABC in Fort Worth, Texas, and Sacramento, Calif., and then concludes Monday night in the same cities on ESPN.

Defending national champion UConn (37-0), the overall No. 1 seed which has been perfect 53 straight games beyond prior to claiming its 12th title in Tampa over South Carolina last April, will not have Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma against his former star Shea Ralph of Vanderbilt on the other bench in the 1 p.m. contest at Dickies Arena.

Instead, it will be in an encore performance for the Region 1 title game ticket against sixth seed Notre Dame (25-10), which eliminated the second-seeded Commodores 67-64 on Friday in a dazzling game from South Jersey’s Hanna Hidalgo of Merchantville with a triple-double of 31 points, 11 rebounds, and ten steals and the game-winner.

She also passed Lamar’s Chastadie Barrs’ NCAA record of 192 season steals set in 2018-19 and is one theft short of being the first with 200.

The two teams met during the regular season on UConn’s campus with the Huskies winning 85-47, the most lopsided outcome in the in what will be a 57-game series including meetings in the Big East and Final Four, but this will be the first in nine March Madness meetings at the Elite Eight, the Irish’s furthest advance since 2019.

UConn won its game Friday easily beating fourth-seeded North Carolina 63-42 as Sarah Strong scored 21 points with 10 boards to end the Tar Heels’ season at 28-8.

In Sunday’s other game at 3 p.m. at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, UCLA (34-1), the second overall No.1 seed faces third-seed Duke (27-8), which had Friday’s most dramatic win as the Blue Devils, coached by former Tennessee star Kara Lawson, who will guide the 2028 USA Olympians, gave up a lead on second—seeded LSU (29-5) and then came back to win on Ashton Jackson’s 3-pointer just ahead of regulation time ending.

Tania Mair and Toby Fournier each scored 22 points for Duke, and Jackson collected 21 points.

UCLA had an easy time winning 80-56 over fourth-seeded Minnesota (24-9) as Kiki Rice scored 21 points and Lauren Betts had 16 points and five blocks.

On Saturday out West, South Carolina (34-3) avenged its SEC season loss to Oklahoma (26-8), Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks winning 94-68 as Ta’Niya Latson scored 28 points, while TCU (32-5) ended 10th-seeded Virginia’s Cinderella run 79-69 as Marta Suarez, who previously played for Tennessee and California, scored 33 points with 10 rebounds and Notre Dame transfer Olivia Miles scored 28.

TCU and South Carolina will meet Monday night in Sacramento.

 The Fort Worth Saturday games saw Texas (34-3), the other No. 1 seed, and three overall, win 76-54 over SEC rival Kentucky as Rori Harmon had 11 points, seven assists, seven rebounds, and six steals, while Jordan Lee scored 18, and Madison Booker had 17 points, eight rebounds and five assists.

Second seed Michigan (28-6) advanced to Monday’s game against Texas by cruising 71-52 over Louisville riding a 17-0 eruption in the third quarter. Olivia Olson scored 19 for the Wolverines and Syla Swords scored 16.

Michigan also overcame an early deficit by going on a 16-0 spurt in the second period.

The four No. 1 seeds were in last season’s Final Four, although UConn was a two seed upsetting Southern Cal, which had just lost national player of the year JuJu Watkins.