There’s no question that the Women’s College Basketball world has exponentially grown in popularity over the last few years. It’s called March Madness for a reason, and the 2024-2025 Women’s College Basketball season has proved to be no short of that. The University of South Carolina came into the season off of an undefeated national championship season in 23-24, and were hoping to continue that ride this year. But, they ended up losing three games in the regular season, to Texas, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), and University of Connecticut (UConn); the game against UConn snapping their 71 home game winning streak.
Going into Selection Sunday, UCLA, UConn, and University of South Carolina were coming off of conference titles, earning them an automatic bid to the tournament. The biggest surprise in the tournament selection was UConn earning a two-seed, behind University of Southern California (USC). Both teams had three season losses, and USC did beat UConn during the season, but UConn played more together during the second half of the season, and were a more well-rounded team than USC.
As the first two rounds have already been played, there were no large upsets as seen in the men’s tournament, but lots of statements were made by many teams who were arguably not playing their best basketball going into the tournament. Reporters thought South Carolina wasn’t going to be able to live up to their undefeated National Championship season from the year before, but in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) tournament and the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament, they have proved that they’re ready to fight for the title. With junior Chloe Kitts winning MVP of the SEC tournament and freshman Joyce Edwards and sophomore MaLaysia Fulwiley playing outstanding basketball, the Gamecocks are ready to defend their title. Coming off a rough round of 32 wins against Indiana, where the Gamecocks found themselves losing at halftime, they scored 26 points in the third quarter to power them to a win.
The other ‘one seeds’, UCLA, USC, and Texas have had fairly easy rides to the Sweet sixteen, with the most notable game being USC’s win over Mississippi State in the round of 32, because even though they won the game, they lost their best player, and arguably the best player in Women’s College Basketball currently. Star guard JuJu Watkins went down in the first half of the Trojans’ game and did not return, where it was later revealed that she tore her right ACL, putting Watkins out for the rest of the tournament and for the foreseeable future. Thankfully, Kiki Iriafen stepped up in Watkins’ absence and scored a season high 36 points. This is devastating to not only the Trojans’ team, but the basketball world, having another star player go down, just as Paige Bueckers did in 2022, Azzi Fudd in 2023, and Cameron Brink in 2024.
With March Madness comes the heartbreak of college careers ending. UConn star Paige Buckers, in her fifth and final year of eligibility, is leading a Huskies team that hasn’t won a national championship since the end of their four-peat in 2016. Along with star freshman Sarah Strong and sophomore KK Arnold, the Huskies want revenge, and it very well may happen this year, because if someone deserves a national title, it’s Paige Bueckers.
The popularity of Women’s College Basketball is going to keep on growing, and so many more little girls are going to be able to grow up and see that Women’s Basketball is just as popular as Men’s Basketball, something that younger me wished she could see.