The Guru’s NCAAW Tourney Report: UConn and Texas Join South Carolina and UCLA for This Weekend’s Final Four: Villanova Felled by Belmont in WBIT

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

And now there are four and what a four they are.

 

A day after two No. 1 seeds hit the first two spots for this weekend’s NCAA Women’s Final Four at Amelia Arena in Tampa, Fla., with top-ranked UCLA (34-2) and defending champion South Carolina hitting their marks, the Bruins making their first-ever appearance in the 43-year history of the tournament, No.1 seed and fifth-ranked Texas (35-3)  in the Birmingham (Ala.) Region 3 sector Monday night beat No. 2 TCU 58-47.

 

Then came the extra thriller of the weekend in the Spokane (Wash.) Region 4, with national player of the year JuJu Watkins lost for the rest of the tournament a week ago with an ACL right knee injury to No. 1 and fourth-ranked Southern Cal (31-4), the rematch of last season in the same round saw Paige Bueckers with an encore performance in the sunset of her collegiate career score 31 points with six assists to once again lead No. 2 seeded and third-ranked UConn (35-3) to a 78-64 victory and 18th appearance in the last 19 years in the national semifinals. Overall, the squad has advanced to a record 24 Final Fours.

 

It’s the third straight performance of 30 plus points for Bueckers, likely to be the No.  1 pick in next month’s WNBA draft going to the Dallas Wings after scoring 34 in Round 2 at home in Gampel Pavilion, her farewell appearance from her campus home.

 

She followed up on Saturday night, her career record lasted just five days before she exploded for 40 in the win over Oklahoma and on Monday, Bueckers came back with 31 shooting 9-18 from the field and 4-8 from deep to topple the Trojans as Hall of Fame Huskies coach Geno Auriemma’s collegiate record win total for men or women extended to 2,148.

 

But the final score not an indicator of the true nature of the game because though two Texas teams faced each other in the early game across the country, trailing by 19 USC rallied in the third period to slice the differential down to five early in the fourth quarter until the Huskies applied the breaks and took control and pulled away.

 

Watkins may have been gone but coach Lindsay Gottlieb got 23 points and 15 boards from senior Rayah Marshall, while two transfers from former Pac-12 rivals prior to the move to the Big Ten, senior Kiki Iriafen from Stanford, and Talia von Oelhoffen each scored 10.

 

“I think there was never a point where this team gave up, so making that run was huge,” von Oelhoffen said.  “And coming out of halftime, we knew we weren’t out of it, and we just needed to have a good third quarter, but it just felt like we couldn’t get stops when we needed to at critical moments during runs.

 

“So, credit to UConn and the adjustments they made and hitting big shots but just proud of how we fought regardless of the halftime score.”

Added Marshall, “… We all went down fighting as a Trojan and that’s the culture, continue to fight on.”

 

The loss prevented USC from ending a long drought having last made it to the semifinals and on to the championship game in Cheryl Miller’s senior season in 1986 losing to Texas, which claimed the first NCAA unbeaten record at 34-0.

 

Miller led the Trojans to back-to-back titles in 1983-84.

 

However, on Monday night the UConn story wasn’t just Bueckers showing the future is bright as freshman Sarah Strong scored 22 with 17 points while down the stretch Princeton transfer Kaitlyn Chen bolstered the recovery and finished with 15 points, having shot 6-9 and Azzi Fudd, who is foregoing the WNBA draft to return next season, had eight, though her shooting was a mediocre 9-14, but shaking off an 0-9 start to score eight points in the final period.

 

For all the great players in UConn history with a record 11 NCAA titles, Strong is the first freshman to produce a 20-point,10-rebound game at the Elite Eight level or further in the tournament.

 

Bueckers, according to ESPN Research, is the first player since 2001 to reach 30 points on 50 percent shooting in three straight games, the last being Jackie Stiles at then-named Southwest Missouri State.

 

“There’s a way that you win these games,” Auriemma said, and, generally speaking, they are on the backs of one or two particular players to pugt the team on their backs and get us to the next level to get us to the next level, to get us to the Final Four, and obviously Sarah and Paige both did that tonight in their own way, and you couldn’t ask any more of them. They both played 40 minutes and they both played their hearts out.

 

“But, like anything else, somebody else has to step up, and I thought Kaitlyn was fantastic tonight. Probably more than anything, I’m really proud of her because she left (Princeton). Took a chance, I want to goto a Final Four, I want to try to play for a National Championship, and I’m glad that we were able to provide that opportunity for her.”

 

Ironically, Chen, whose Ivy eligibility was expired, played for Carla Berube, who in UConn’s first championship game in 1995 against Tennessee provided a similar performance for the Huskies to win their first title.

 

“It’s been an incredible so far,” Chen said. “Honestly, I never thought I would make it to a Final Four, but here I am. But that’s all — all the credit goes to my coaches and my teammates because we wouldn’t be here without them.”    

 

The Huskies got off to a dominating start going ahead by 14 points at the half, the deepest deficit for USC since the start of last season. But the Trojans refused to concede.

 

“I give a lot of credit to USC for what they were able to do, given what they had to endure, you know, with JuJu,” Auriemma said. “It’s not easy, I’ve been there, and I thought some of their kids stepped up and were terrific.

 

“Unfortunately, some of that stuff catches up to you, because at this point in the year somebody like JuJu would have been needed to carry them over the hump. Like, we got Paige. So, I have a lot of respect for their coaching staff and their team, and they could have easily just rolled over when we got up 19, and instead they fought back, and I think they cout it to six. That says a lot about them. And then we had to show some grit.”

From the other side, Gottlieb said, “I want to start out first by congratulating a UConn team that is really good, obviously could win a national championship. But to me is the way they do it. You know, nothing but respect.

 

“And then what I said to our team in there was from the second we lost at this round last year, I said the bar’s been raised, the standard’s been raised, and even though we’ve lost at the same point and stage, I think our team a hundred percent delivered on raising that bar and raising that standard, and  I  thought it took a lot for us internally to get to that point where we were legitimately a national championship contender, a real Top 5 team all year long.

 

“We lost a tough game to Notre Dame and we looked inwardly, and I just couldn’t be more proud of this group. We lost a National Player of the Year one week ago today and we’ve won two NCAA tournament games, second and 16 rounds, because they really became a team. And I was really proud of the way we competed tonight,” she continued.

 

“I think you saw the heart and character of our team on display, and I’m disappointed for them that we don’t get to go to Tampa and get two more games, but I’m not I’m not sad with the way this group represented themselves and I think our senior class is really, really special.”

 

Of Watkins moving forward, Gottlieb told ESPN, “We don’t know what JuJu will do. Will she take the whole year and redshirt? Will she try to come back at some point.

 

“Those aren’t conversations for right now, but I do think we will dive into how do we stay an elite team regardless of those circumstances.

 

“We will have time to figure out how to be great, even if JuJu isn’t out there.”

 

In the wake of Connecticut’s lopsided surprising win at South Carolina in early February, and Bueckers off her performances in the last week returning to her celebrated time becoming national player of the year, ESPN is making the Huskies the odds-on favorite to end their nine-year title drought.

 

Following Monday night’s win ESPN BET odds is calling Auriemma’s team the -150 favorite, followed by South Carolina at +210, Texas at +650 and UCLA at +750.

 

Meanwhile, Texas ended a magical season of TCU (34-4), which under Mark Campbell turned around the last two seasons to win the Big 12 and earn a No.  2 seed, along with a sixth-place ranking in the AP women’s poll, and first-ever appearance in the Elite Eight.

 

The winning Longhorns, who tied defending champion South Carolina for the regular season SEC crown, have returned to their former glory days under Vic Schaefer, who took Mississippi State to two Final Fours in 2017 and 2018 and then two seasons later returned to his home state to revive the Texans women’s fortunes.

 

One of those Schaefer trips was in one of several previous times the event has been in Tampa.

 

It’s Texas’ first Final Four appearance since 2003, a painful memory for veteran Longhorns fans recalling in the semifinals the squad had UConn on the ropes before the Huskies rallied in the last few minutes to win 71-69 and move on to beat Tennessee 73-68 for the national title.

 

On Monday, Rori Harmon, sidelined with a knee injury most of last season in which Texas was ejected in an Elite Eight game, scored 13, while Madison Booker, who changed positions to fill her backcourt role after that injury and rose to prominence, scored 18.

 

“Just to see us get to the Final Four after recovering and coming back from my ACL injury in 10 months,” Harmon said. “I thought it was and amazing thing, and I was just really proud of myself in that moment.”

 

Hailey Van Lith, who set a record being the first men’s or women’s player appearing in five straight Elite Eight games with three different teams, scored 17 points.

 

The Horned Frogs, who committed 21 turnovers, yielding nine steals, and were blocked six times, were still in contention early in the fourth period.

 

TCU made one more thrust after falling behind by double digits, but Booker and Harmon ran off two jumpers to get the Longhorns into safe territory and there they stayed the rest of the way.

 

On Friday, Texas gets another SEC encore in its new conference conference after leaving the Big 12 play South Carolina for the fourth time. The Gamecocks won big at home in their first meeting and then the Longhorns evened it up with a narrow win in Austin.

 

Dawn Staley’s crew then won big again in the conference championship.

 

Had Southern Cal won, the Trojans and UCLA, who moved from the PAC-12 to the Big Ten this season, would have also faced each other a fourth time.

 

With Watkins still active in regular season play, USC in Los Angeles hit the cross-town rival Bruins twice for both their season losses, the first time ending a 12-week UCLA run at the top of the AP poll, the first time they ever got that high, and the second snapping a tie  on the last day of the regular season.

 

A week later coach Clori Closes’ team got revenge in the Big Ten tourney title game and returned to No. 1 in the final pre-NCAA tourney poll.

 

There will be one more ranking after Sunday’s championship, the second time the AP has come back for one more begun a year ago for the first time in what is now the 48th year since the rankings were launched in 1976.

Three No. 1 seeds advanced though UConn could be considered a defacto No. 1, considering the effect of Watkins’ departure.

 

Villanova Falls in WBIT Semifinals to Belmont

 

The Wildcats’ run in the second annual tourney launched last season by the NCAA ended Monday afternoon one game short of a year ago when they got past Penn State and fell to Illinois in the championship held at their Big East rivals-Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, where the event returned this year.

 

This time Belmont (25-12) created the season’s final chapter winning 66-57, dominating the Wildcats (21-15) in the second half.

 

Maddie Webber continued her fine play in the postseason for Denise Dillon’s Main Liners scoring 18 points with five boards and four assists while Canadian freshman Jasmine Bascoe scored 10 with five boards and five assists, Denae Carter had six points and eight boards, and Maddie Burke in her final game grabbed seven rebounds.

 

Belmont’s Jailyn Banks scored 25 points and Kendall Holmes scored 14.

 

“It was a heck of a battle, they are a great team, and they showed it today,” Dillon said. “As I just talked to our team, I couldn’t be prouder of our Wildcats and being here and just continue to stretch the season out and being able to play another game with them.

 

“So proud of each and every one of them, and a special one it was for sure.”

 

Webber said of the second half difficulties, “I just think the whole game. They were consistent with their intensity. I think we were up and down at times, which obviously doesn’t help. I would just say that was the biggest thing in the game.”

 

Belmont coach Bart Brooks, who used to deal with the Wildcats as an assistant at DePaul in Big East competition said, “I have so much respect for them, and to beat them on a quick turnaround, I think it speaks volumes to the toughness of our group.”

 

In the second game, Minnesota (24-11) beat Florida 66-52 and will play Belmont Wednesday at 6 p.m. on ESPN2 for the championship.

 

The Golden Gophers of the Big Ten, whose 12 teams above them all went to the NCAA tournament, got 20 points from Grace Grocholski with six boards, Mallory Heyer scored 13 with 15 rebounds, and Amaya Battle scored 10.

 

The Gators (19-18) of the SEC got 18 points from Liv McGill, while Laila Reynolds scored 11.  

 

Portal Stunner: Oliva Miles Foregoes WNBA Draft but Leaves Notre Dame

The remainder of the Elite Eight filling the last spots of the Final Four wasn’t the day’s only major news as the transfer portal continued to fill while coaching departure continued to attract attention.

 

Notre Dame backcourt star Oliva Miles, who with Merchantville’s Hannah Hidalgo helped make the Fighting Irish a top 10 team most of the season, had been forecasted as a No. 2 WNBA pick at the lottery level in next month’s draft behind Connecticut’s Bueckers, expected to go to the Dallas Wings.

 

But ESPN reported Miles had decided to forego the draft, still having another year of collegiate eligibility, but instead of returning to Notre Dame, was entering the portal.

 

At age 22, Miles is eligible to jump into the draft, but she holds a year of eligibility having sat out last season after injuring her knee near the end of 2022-23.

 

This season she was in the starting lineup for all 34 games and averaged 15.4 points.

 

Georgia Tech’s Fortner Retires

 

Yellowjackets coach Nell Fortner, who starred on Texas in the mid-1980s and coached the Olympic team to a Gold Medal in 2000 at the Summer Games in Australia, announced her retirement from Georgia Tech of the ACC, which was ranked during the season.

 

She also coached the WNBA Indiana Fever, long before the squad and had three different teams ranked 55 times in the AP Women’s Poll.

 

And that’s Your Report