2026 Women's Final Four Preview: 4 Teams, 4 Juggernauts, 1 Championship

It wasn’t all chalk to get to this point, but in the end, the four No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Women’s College Basketball Tournament are the ones now set to play in the Final Four. All four are dominant squads, and it doesn’t take much imagination to see any of them as the 2026 national champion. We’re here to get you ready for both Friday’s Final Four matchups and the title game on Sunday, so you can see just how these teams got here, their historical success — or lack of it — and just how must-win 2026 is for each. 1-seed South Carolina (35-3) vs. 1-seed UConn (38-0) There will be no rematch of last year’s national championship, in which UConn defeated South Carolina to secure a record 12th title — that’s because the Huskies and Gamecocks are insteading facing off in the semifinals of the 2026 Women’s Basketball Tournament. Both rosters have been remade significantly since their previous meeting. South Carolina is faster-paced now, more offensive-minded, but still a punishing defensive team. UConn lost facilitating guard Paige Bueckers to the WNBA, but Sarah Strong emerged as the floor general in her place, and the roster was rebuilt with a pace that’s difficult to keep up with across four quarters, both offensively and defensively, in mind. If any team is to do it, though, and end UConn’s undefeated season, it would be one of the three other teams remaining. South Carolina: Dawn Staley took over as the coach of the Gamecocks in 2008-2009, and South Carolina made the tournament just a few years later, in 2012. It has participated every season since (save 2020, when it was canceled due to COVID-19), with the Gamecocks winning the championship in 2017, 2022 and 2024, losing in the finals in 2018 and 2025 and making it to the Final Four on three other occasions. South Carolina is and has been a powerhouse since Staley took over, and this season has been no different. The Gamecocks have three players who could all conceivably be selected in the first round of the 2026 WNBA Draft: guard Raven Johnson (10.2 points, 4.0 rebounds, 5.3 assists), forward Madina Okot (13.2 points, 10.8 rebounds, 1.5 blocks) and guard Ta’Niya Latson (14.4 points, 2.7 rebounds, 3.7 assists). That means two things: first is that South Carolina has a terrifying starting lineup, and second is that there is no better time than the present to win that fourth national championship. Don’t take that to mean that South Carolina is doomed once Johnson, Okot and Latson move on to the pros, however. It’s easy to make an argument that none of the three is actually the best player on South Carolina, for one — sophomore forward Joyce Edwards has scored 19.7 points per game with 6.7 boards and 2.4 assists, and she’s joined by junior guard Tessa Johnson, who has posted 12.9/3.5/2.6 in the same categories. This roster is loaded, and Staley has the eye for talent and ability to recruit to ensure it stays that way. All five of the starters on the 2022 championship team ended up in the WNBA, with four more players besides getting there eventually, and that was the title team after the one with A’ja Wilson on it. You know, the three-time WNBA MVP and one of the most terrifying defensive presences in the sport. Life will be easier for South Carolina if it wins now, with this collection of talent — the Gamecocks are already here, after all. But they are likely to be back, just like they got back to this point following last year’s defeat that cost them Te-Hina Paopao, Sania Feagan and Bree Hall to the W, and MiLaysia Fulwiley to LSU. UConn: The defending champions, and also undefeated at 38-0 to this point. While UConn had the toughest non-conference schedule in Division I during the regular season, it has not had to face a challenge at the level of South Carolina, UCLA or Texas yet, as the Huskies didn’t get their annual regular-season matchup against the Gamecocks in. There are questions, then, about just how UConn will do against these teams, but that being said this is still the team leading the league in adjusted Net Rating thanks to having the best adjusted Defensive Rating in Division I, as well as the third-best Offensive Rating. All this level of competition means is that the run of blowouts is at an end, but that’s true for all four of these teams, not just the Huskies. UConn is a youthful team for the most part, as fifth-year guard Azzi Fudd and forward Serah Williams are both likely first-round picks in the WNBA Draft, but other than that, this is a roster composed mostly of underclassmen with a couple of junior starters — guards KK Arnold (2026 Big East First Team) and Ashlynn Shade — thrown in. Don’t discount UConn for having "just" two potential first-round picks on the roster, however: Williams is a defense-first forward who could go to the back of the opening round, but Fudd is an excellent shooter (17.5 points, 46% on 3-pointers to lead the Big East for the second year in a row) and Associated Press First Team All-American who could very well be the top pick in the WNBA Draft, thanks to that and her ability to be an aggressive defender. Like with South Carolina, though, the real star is a sophomore: forward Sarah Strong, who was named both the Naismith and Associated Press player of the year after averaging 18.6 points, 7.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists, a Big East-leading 3.4 steals and 1.6 blocks per game. Strong’s Defensive Rating of 55.8 led the nation, and as of now she has the best career Defensive Rating in women’s college basketball history, at 60.8 through 77 career games. She is nowhere near finished with her time in college, but that should give you some insight into why UConn is so heavily oriented around its defense at present. Also like with South Carolina, UConn isn’t going away in the short-term, win or lose: Strong is a sophomore, and Big East freshman of the year Blanca Quinonez (10.9 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.1 assists in 20.2 minutes per game) is only becoming more important as the season goes on, with her role likely elevating further next year after Williams graduates. Shade and Arnold will return as seniors, sharpshooting guard Allie Ziebell and hustle-defender guard Kayleigh Heckel will be juniors, center Jana El Alfy — whose per-40-minute rebounding stats pop — will still only be a junior, and that’s before you throw in that UConn recruited the 2026 Gatorade Player of the Year, Olivia Vukosa, out of high school for next season. Not going away, but what better time than now all the same? UConn is already here; Strong, if she’s to cement a legacy as one of the best to don a Huskies’ uniform, could stand to add another trophy or two considering who has already come through Storrs. UConn might have the most titles of anyone, Geno Auriemma’s shelf is plenty full, but player legacies are still at play here, and just the 11th undefeated championship season in women’s basketball history is on the line as well. 1-seed Texas (35-3) vs. 1-seed UCLA (35-1) The only team to defeat UCLA in the 2025-2026 season? Texas. And while the Bruins have since added freshman forward Sienna Betts — sister of Lauren Betts — to the active roster, improving their depth, Texas got better the old-fashioned way: by losing and getting chewed out in public by its coach. Vic Schaefer’s postgame disappointment with the Longhorns following a loss to Vanderbilt resulted in Texas taking heed and playing harder from that point forward: the Longhorns have not lost since, and have bulldozed their way through March Madness. UCLA, meanwhile, ran through a truly difficult Big Ten as if it were nothing, finishing undefeated in conference play and continuing to excel in March. Texas: The Longhorns lost three games all season. One to high-scoring LSU, 70-65, and a second to South Carolina, 68-65. The third was the aforementioned defeat against Vanderbilt, which was the only one where Texas actively looked beaten — the game was never truly as close as the final score of 86-70 implies, which is why Schaefer went off postgame. This is the only team to topple UCLA all year, and now the two are facing off in the Final Four. The Longhorns have just one national championship, and it’s an all-timer: the 1985-1986 team was the first-ever undefeated champion, at 34-0. Texas has been plenty competitive since almost without interruption, but has fallen short in the Final Four on three occasions since winning it all, never actually making it back to the title game for a second chance. Seven Elite Eight appearances and five Sweet 16 defeats — Texas has gotten within reach of the promised land time and time again in the last 40 years, but rarely as close as they are now. And it’s difficult not to feel as if the Longhorns need to win now — it’s not a matter of now or never, given the program is so often right there in the thick of things or at least in the tournament, but with fifth-year guard Rori Harmon and senior Kyla Oldacre both starters, and both so vital to the program’s success… iron, hot, you know the saying. Harmon isn’t a huge scorer, but still put up 8.4 points per game in 2025-2026, and her 6.3 assists made sure others had opportunities for buckets. Oldacre scored 10.4 points with 6.2 rebounds, so her contributions have been significant, too. Still, there’s plenty of eligibility left in the starting lineup: junior forward Madison Booker is the team’s leading scorer, at 19.3 points per game, and adds plenty of boards (6.7) and dimes (3.8), too. Sophomore guard Jordan Lee has averaged 13.3 points per game; sophomore forward Justice Carlton is at 8.5 with 4.0 rebounds. This is a stellar defensive team, one right behind UConn in Defensive Rating, but it does have a flaw: the Longhorns are not a 3-point team. Which works fine when Texas is comfortably ahead, but not so much when it needs a trey. And against the likes of UCLA, UConn and South Carolina, there will be reasons to need the deep ball. That being said, Texas has not only beaten UCLA without the 3, but South Carolina twice — the Longhorns are terrifying, and in the best position they have been in to win it all in years in more ways than just proximity. UCLA: What will UCLA look like next season? It’s a question that’s impossible to answer, other than knowing that it won’t look like it does right now. The success could still be there, but as for who is responsible for it on the court, well. Lauren Betts, Kiki Rice, Gianna Kneepkens, Gabriela Jacquez and Charlieese Leger-Walker are all expected to be selected in the 2026 WNBA Draft, and also make up five of the six most-played players on the roster this season — the other, Angela Dugalic, is also a senior. Sienna Betts is next up, at 14.7 minutes per game. Very few of the points, rebounds, assists — of anything — in 2026-2027 are going to come from players who were on the 2025-2026 UCLA roster. It’s also the question that makes this current run so important. UCLA could absolutely be back in this spot next year, but without the 6-foot-7 Betts, who was Big Ten player of the year? Without Rice both scoring and facilitating so easily? It’s not going to be easy to pull off, is all. And that matters even more than it usually would, since UCLA has never won a national championship: the men’s team holds the record for the most in that league, with 11, but the women’s team has never so much as made it to a national championship game. Last season was its first-ever Final Four appearance; before that, a couple of Elite Eight appearances had been the apex. There is a real fear that if UCLA can’t win with this collection of absurd talent — the kind you look back on in 10-15 years and go, "wait, the Bruins had Betts and Rice and Kneepkens and…" — then it’s just not going to happen for a whole lot longer. That could be unfounded for a whole lot of reasons — coach Cori Close has built this program into a Big Ten champion with Lauren Betts as its star, and thanks to the transfer portal and recruiting it could become one again with a different Betts at its center. But telling a fan base that has already waited over four decades for a title that things will still be fine if there isn’t a trophy to bring home in 2026, well, that’s a tough sell, especially given it’s difficult to imagine a women’s basketball team that can be more dominant than this one, which lost just one game all year and averaged nearly 30 more points scored per game than it allowed. UCLA can win with this group, though, as the rest of the league knows — Texas might be different this time around, but the Bruins are, too. South Carolina and UCLA didn’t face off this season, but it’s not like the Gamecocks dominated opponents UCLA failed to crush. UConn might have ended the Bruins’ dreams a year ago in the Final Four, but neither of those teams are the same this time around, either. It’s going to be some Final Four this year, is what we are trying to say.