CLEVELAND — This women’s Final Four has it all: an undefeated team (South Carolina), the national player of the year (Iowa‘s Caitlin Clark), the player with the greatest comeback story this season (UConn‘s Paige Bueckers) and the gritty underdogs who assume no one picked them to get here (NC State).
During the regionals, the No. 1 overall seed Gamecocks were challenged in both the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight. A rematch of last season’s national championship between Iowa and LSU drew a record television audience of more than 12 million viewers. UConn held off rising star JuJu Watkins and USC. And NC State advanced to the Final Four for the first time since 1998.
Will coach Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks become the 10th Division I women’s basketball team to finish a season unbeaten since the NCAA era began in 1981-82?
Will UConn, which won four NCAA titles in a row from 2013 to 2016 but hasn’t won since, get its 12th national championship?
Or will Iowa or NC State win it all for the first time?
ESPN’s Andrea Adelson, Charlie Creme, Kevin Pelton, Alexa Philippou and Michael Voepel break down everything we’ve seen and what might unfold in Cleveland, and join ESPN’s Katie Barnes and Jake Trotter, as well as Andscape’s Sean Hurd, in predicting the next three games.
