The Guru’s March Madness Daily Report: UCLA Hits South Carolina With a Dominate Rout To Win First NCAA D-1 Crown

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

PHOENIX, Ariz. – Back in 1978 when the AIAW, then the governing body of women’s sports, went to a Final Four format from a 16-team site, UCLA, led by Ann Meyers Drysdale, claimed the national title and showing the effect of Title IX investment became the first of the big name football and men’s basketball schools to claim a women’s championship.

Five years later the NCAA came along but while the Bruins at times over the years were Top 10 and Top 5 programs, Sunday afternoon here before a sellout crowd of 15,856 in the Mortgage Matchup Center, UCLA ended a long drought between titles at  the expense of Dawn Staley’s South Carolina squad in dealing the third-ever worst defeat in the championship 79-51.

The record differential is 33 in 2013 issued by UConn over Louisville, which would have been topped had not coach Cori Close, now in her 15th season after being an assistant at Florida State, began clearing the bench leading by 35 with 4 minutes, 35 seconds in regulation.

The Gamecocks also avoided the record title game low of 44 points, defensed by Louisiana Tech against Tennessee in 1987, the Techsters that weekend coming off an upset of then No. 1 Texas played in the Longhorns’ town of Austin in the Lonestar State.

Meyers Drysdale was introduced during the game with members of the 1976 USA Olympic squad, the first when the sport became part of the games, and several times lifted her USA attire to flash a blue UCLA top worn underneath while the Bruin faithful roared.

“Cori Close and her staff have done such a terrific job,” Meyers Drysdale told the Associated Press. “You love the joy that they play with, and they sacrifice for each other. They don’t care who scores. They don’t care who gets what recognition. They’re just all about winning.”

Senior center Lauren Betts, a native of Centennial, Colo., whose freshman year was at Stanford and is likely to go high next Monday in the WNBA draft in New York City, was a force in a balanced attack with 14 points and 11 boards to earn Most Outstanding Player accolades.

The high Bruins scorer, though, was Gabriela Jaquez, in an experienced lineup of seniors and graduates, scoring 21 points with 10 rebounds and five assists, while Utah transfer Gianna Kneepkens scored 15, and Kiki Rice and Washington State transfer Charlisse Leger-Walker each scored 10 points.

“I knew we were going to do it,” Jaquez said. “Coming to UCLA we all set out for a goal and I imagined this moment, I imagined it so many times, and I am just so proud … I am so happy.”

The win also ended a drought dating to 1999 from Purdue for a member of the Big Ten, which already has claimed the football crown and has the Michigan men playing UConn Monday night.

Current member Maryland won a women’s title in 2006, but the Terrapins were still a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

UCLA reached the NCAA  Final Four last year for the first time after coming into the Big Ten off the breakup of the Pac-12, which next season will return with a collection primarily of West Coast mid-major schools from the West Coast and Mountain West conferences and Washington State and Oregon State, which were not taken by the Big Ten, Big 12 or Atlantic Coast during the breakup.

But the Bruins were routed by UConn in the semifinals as the Huskies broke their own title drought to pick up No. 12 two days later with what is now two back-to-back wide losses in the championship by Staley’s Gamecocks (36-4).

South Carolina, in the championship for the third straight year and four of the last five, was seeking its fourth title after ending UConn’s unbeaten season Friday night at 38-1.

The Bruins were a defensive force, winning the rebound battle 49-37, and 21-17 on the offensive glass to dominate second chance points 19-10 while holding South Carolina to 29% from the field.

UCLA also won in transition, 19-10, mining those points off 14 turnovers.

“I think it starts with perimeter pressure,” Betts said. “Our guards did a really good job of just making it difficult for them. I think once we get stops, they’re just not able to do what they want to do.”

Tessa Johnson scored 14 for South Carolina, which will be a strong favorite to return to the Final Four next year, while freshman Agot Makeer scored 11, but Ta’Niya Latson was held to four points, and Joyce Edwards scored eight.

Staley was magnanimous in defeat, saying, “UCLA is a quality team with very experienced players who got a taste of being in the Final Four last year, and you make adjustments.

“From last year to this year — they played determined last year, but they played more determined this year because they were so close.

“Obviously, we got smacked today,” she continued. “We got to figure out how we can smack back and put ourselves in the position where we’re hoisting the trophy at the end of the day.

“Shots were short. I thought we didn’t really do a good job at making extra passes, like the things we were doing probably worked for other teams, but other teams didn’t have a Betts. You have to navigate differently,” Staley said.

“To get here is hard. To win here is harder, right? We just have to keep getting here and make adjustments when we don’t win.”

UCLA’s only loss was to Texas in early November and were right behind UConn most of the year, many believing the Bruins deserved the overall No. 1 seed off a stronger schedule.

They finish the season with a 31-game winning streak.

“It’s immeasurably more than I could ask or imagine,” Close said. “It’s beyond my wildest dreams.”

Losing the key part of the experienced lineup to expired eligibility, Close quipped, “the (transfer) portal just got easier.”

Jaquez’ brother Jaime, a former Bruin, is a member of the NBA Miami Heat and flew to watch the game.

Former President Obama, who picked UConn over UCLA in his pre-tournament bracket and California governor Gavin Newsom sent the team congratulations, The Hill reported.

Close had confidence before the game of winning and related in the pre-game speech in the locker room saying, “…all year we’ve been saying the talent is our floor, but our character is our ceiling.”

UCLA got revenge Friday night on Texas, winning 51-44, in an ugly defensive performance by both teams of which Close apologized for the performance style.

The Bruins Sunday led every quarter except in a one-point deficit in the fourth, blowing the game open 25-9 in the third after leading 36-23 at the half.

“We just didn’t have it today,” Staley said. “We tried but we just didn’t have it today. They were the better team.”

Asked to provide any further update off the dustup with UConn coach Geno Auriemma Friday night, he sent an apology Saturday but did not name her specifically, Staley said she would address it later.

“This is UCLA’s weekend.”

Last season the Bruins reached No. 1 for the first time in the Associated Press women’s poll, celebrating its 50th anniversary season this time around, and with a post NCAA vote taken for the third time from the national media panel, UCLA will likely be No. 1 in the final vote for a first time.

Betts was joined on the all-tournament team by Jaquez, Rice, Johnson, and Latson.

 

 

 

 

The Guru’s Daily March Madness Report: South Carolina and UCLA Meet for NCAA Glory

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHOENIX, Ariz. — Late Sunday afternoon, in what has become the latter-day replacement in the former UConn-Tennessee rivalry by the rise of Hall of Fame Dawn Staley’s South Carolina squad, the Gamecocks will come back one year later to take back the NCAA women’s championship — their fourth — from the one the Huskies claimed last April in Tampa, Fla., in a lopsided victory, their 12th in the title game — or UCLA will ascend to the top of the mountain in women’s collegiate basketball for the first time since becoming AIAW winners in 1978 before the 1982 arrival of the current national governing body of women’s sports.

The title game tips off at 3:30 p.m. in the East on ABC.

South Carolina got its direct revenge Friday night here in the Mortgage Matchup Center with a suffocating defense to win 62-48 with a controversial ending by Hall of Fame UConn coach Geno Auriemma going off in a tirade during the postgame handshakes and later in his postgame press conference.

Saturday, Auriemma issued an apology in a statement over his behavior.

UCLA, which behind UConn’s unbeaten run that lasted until Friday had been No. 2 late in the season with just one loss, avenging the early season setback to Texas in a defensive battle resulting in a 51-44 win over Texas, which otherwise would have been an all-SEC final.

A Bruins win could set a path with their first NCAA title, last year was their first Final Four since following up in 1979 with a second AIAW national semifinals, that was similar when the Gamecocks reached the promised land in 2017 and have since been the equivalent of the Huskies in the last decade.

A year ago, UCLA was routed by UConn in the semifinals and have been on a mission ever since under Cori Close to finish the job this season.

Staley is focused on making sure that doesn’t happen on the Gamecocks’ expense, while a UCLA victory would also give the Big Ten their first women’s champion since Purdue won over Duke in 1999.

“It’s special, I mean, it’s special,”  Staley said of winning the first title. “You’re  playing on the last day of college women’s basketball. It’s a great honor and a great feat whether  you won or lose.

“You also are measuring where your program can continue to go. For us, 2017, we won it. I’m hoping that’s not the same for UCLA on Sunday.”

Current member Maryland was still in the ACC when the Terrapins beat Duke in overtime in Boston in 2006 to claim their only title.

Close, a former Florida State assistant, tipped her hat to the North Philadelphia-born Staley at Saturday’s preview pressers, saying, “Dawn does such a great job and is a standard-bearer in our sport.

“Thankful for what they’ve done, not just for South Carolina, but for the game,” she added.

“We also are an incredibly competitive, confident group. I’m sure they are as well. All you can ask for is to play your best basketball for a national championship.”

On Friday, two newcomers to the Gamecocks were keys to their triumph, freshman Agot Makeer, who has reached  double digits in all five games on the way to the championship, and Florida State transfer Ta’Niya Latson, the nation’s leading scorer in 2025 and the national freshman of the year previously, winning the Tamika Catchings Award from the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) in 2023.

“This is why I came to South Carolina,” Latson said, knowing her scoring might be reduced for the team good this season. “It was a personal sacrifice I had to make. A lot of people don’t understand my why. This is my why. This is why I came to South Carolina.”

Joyce Edwards has been another force for Staley’s group, which suffered a narrow loss in non-conference play to Texas early in the season, and a wider loss to the Longhorns in the SEC championship, and also a loss at Oklahoma on the regular season SEC slate.

UCLA, whose starting lineup is all seniors or graduates, is led by center Lauren Betts, likely to go high in the WNBA collegiate draft next Monday in New York.

That experience drop off next season has caused people to speculate whether Close might take what became the vacant Virginia job Saturday when the university announced the firing of Agugua-Hamilton after the Cavaliers had made the Sweet 16 starting from a narrow First Four win over Arizona State.

The school is Staley’s alma mater, and she said Saturday she had talked to the athletic director but did not learn of a cause.

Later in the day, however, reports surfaced of an internal investigation causing a toxic environment. It is not known if Virginia would pursue Aaron Roussell at nearby Richmond, who built the Spiders into a mid-major force, winning one title three years ago in the Atlantic 10.

Close was a candidate two turns ago when Hall of Famer and WNBA great Tina Thompson took the job in Charlottesville.

Georgia, by mutual agreement, also became open with the departure of Katie Abrahamson-Henderson, while UCF announced the hire of former Tennessee assistant Gabe Lazo for the past two seasons under Kim Caldwell when she succeeded Kellie Harper, being hired from Marshall, which Saturday defeated Illinois State to win the WNIT.

His hire, however, came from LSU, where five days ago he signed on to Kim Mulkey’s staff at LSU.

After a run to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA her first season, Caldwell headed a Tennessee group that had its worst season in decades, finishing with an eight-game losing streak and first round exit from the national tournament, where the legendary Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt won eight titles.

Staley’s name has now been propelled as a coach on a par with Summitt and Auriemma but she blew away being part of any comparisons.

“I don’t really compare myself to anybody when it comes to it,” she said Saturday. “I mean, I do what I do for the coaches that I work with every single day. Those are the people that are in the trenches. Other people outside of us, I’ve never really compared myself to.”

In many ways as a minority Staley has become the new C. Vivian Stringer following the retirement several years ago of the Hall of Fame Rutgers coach.

The Guru’s March Madness Daily Report: UCLA and South Carolina Meet for the NCAA Women’s Championship

 

The Guru’s March Madness Daily Report: South Carolina Stuns Unbeaten Connecticut While UCLA Holds off Texas in NCAA Semifinals

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

PHOENIX, ARIZ. – Some nights in the long-running history of the NCAA Women’s Final Four dating to the inaugural 1981-82 season have displayed works of art in the national semifinals and championship games while others have been comparable to graffiti.

Friday’s doubleheader before a crowd of 15,856 at the Mortgage Matchup Center was much of the latter as the thrill of victory and agony of defeat were in definitive contrast: South Carolina deflated UConn’s perfect season with a shocking 62-48 upset, the fourth overall No. 4 seed taking down the tourney’s overall No. 1 seed, followed by a grind out second revenge outcome going to UCLA, the  No. 2 overall seed, 51-44, cutting short a near-successful rally by Texas, the overall third No. 1.

The outcomes, punctuated by off court angst between South Carolina’s Dawn Staley and UConn’s Geno Auriemma, two Philly-bred Hall of Fame coaches at the top of their sport, made for high drama watched by many more, nationally, on the ESPN telecast.

The outcome sets the stage for Sunday’s national champion showdown between South Carolina (36-3) and UCLA (36-1) at 3:30 p.m. on ABC-TV.

For the Bruins under Cori Close it’s the first national title game for UCLA since becoming champions in the AIAW era in 1978 paced by Hall of Famer Ann Meyers Drysdale, while South Carolina will be seeking its fourth national since 2017, the first since 2022 after an aggressive defense on UConn all night snapping the Huskies 54-game win streak.

Ta’Niya Latson, a Florida State transfer who led the nation in scoring in 2025 with the Seminoles, had 16 points for the Gamecocks against the Huskies while freshman Agot Makeer had 14 points.

“I thought our players just locked in once we built a little lead,” Staley said in taking the Gamecocks to their third straight title game.

This was the ninth time UConn emerged out of the Elite Eight, still unbeaten on the season heading to the Final Four and third straight time failed to complete the mission.

In 2017 Mississippi State, then coached by now Texas coach Vic Schaefer, ended the Huskies’ record 111-win streak on a buzzer beater in overtime and then a year later, Notre Dame in overtime at the buzzer did likewise.

A year ago in Paige Bueckers’ final season, UConn slammed the Gamecocks in the championship game, but this time was held to the fewest points since 48 in a loss to South Carolina in the 2022 championship.

Sophomore consensus national player of the year Sarah Strong scored 12 points with 12 boards but was held to 4-for-16 from the field and Azzi Fudd in her final game had just eight points, held to 3-for-15.

Auriemma had a heated exchange with Staley leaving the floor after the game ended.

UConn had a 26-24 lead at the half.

“Coach was pretty mad going into the half,” Latson said. “She was yelling ‘Meet the moment! Meet the moment!’ We couldn’t be scared to play on this stage, especially against UConn. I mean, they were undefeated.”

That run included last season’s 82-59 triumph in the title game and began after a late-February loss at Tennessee and also included a regular-season lopsided loss at South Carolina.

“I think our defense is pretty elite,” Makeer said. “I think we all wanted this really bad. We were just ready.”

The Huskies’ 19-for-61 for 31.1% from the floor was their worst shooting night of the season.

UCLA was determined to do better after being blown out by UConn in last season’s national semifinal title game and suffered an early season setback to Texas in November for their only loss coming here.

As Texas )35-4) was rallying late and going for a tie, Lauren Betts slammed a shot from Madison Booker with 20 seconds left to emerge with a 51-44 victory.

“When that play happened, I really have so much confidence that every time she is in a matchup, she’s going to find a way to alter, block, scare somebody from doing that,” Close said of Betts’ defensive play. “I just think she’s spectacular.”

Kiki Rice then hit a pair of foul shots to clinch the outcome for the Bruins (36-1).

“We feel like, in our locker room, we let one get away,” Schaefer said. “I feel like this one will haunt me as the coach probably until the day I die. We couldn’t make a shot tonight and that was my fear the last three days.

Betts was 7-for-10 from the floor for 16 points with 11 boards, while Rice scored 11, and Gabriela Jaquez and Utah transfer Gianna Kneepkens each scored 10 points.

This is UCLA’s second season in the Big Ten after leaving the Pac-12, and the Bruins again won the conference in a blowout of Iowa in the title game.

Close opened her remarks apologizing to the fans “for the rugby match and we turnovers.”

She said after the 96-45 win over Iowa to gain the automatic bid, “You cannot fall in love with pretty offense and think that it’s going to be like this every game.

“I told them there’s going to be a game in the NCAA tournament that you’re going to have to just grind it our and do it with your defense. This was the game we needed that. But the reality is it’s really all about toughness at this point and finding a way to make a winning play, even if it’s a winning play you wouldn’t have predicted or chosen.”

Booker made her first shot for the Longhorns and then missed 17 straight.

The game appeared decided when UCLA went up 13 with 4:36 left in regulation but Texas kept chipping away until Booker’s move to the basket was slammed by Betts.

It was just the third game in Final Four history that the teams combined for less than 100 points.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.