Women’s Final Four brings powerhouses UConn, UCLA, Texas and South Carolina to Tampa

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Three of four teams in the women’s Final Four are No. 1 seeds. None of the four have lost more than three games this season. All but one have been the top-ranked team in the country at some point.

That’s how strong the national semifinals are this year, with powerhouses UCLA, Texas, South Carolina and UConn competing in Tampa, Florida, for a national championship.

“Whoever gets through this semifinal and final will have done it against the best of the best,” said Texas coach Vic Schaefer, who has led his second school to the Final Four after getting Mississippi State there in 2017 and 2018. “So I think for all of us, we all understand it. It’s hard to do.”

UCLA, South Carolina and Texas are No. 1 seeds. UConn is a No. 2 seed but has certainly looked the part of a top-seeded team behind Paige Bueckers — perhaps the biggest star in the tournament who’s the primary reason the Huskies are the betting favorite to win it all.

Texas (35-3) and South Carolina (34-3) are scheduled to face each other for the fourth time this season in the first of two semifinals on Friday. UConn (35-3) will play UCLA (34-2) in the other.

The championship game is on Sunday.

Here are a few things to know as the Final Four begins.
Bueckers’ last shot at a national championship

Bueckers is widely expected to be the No. 1 overall pick in next month’s WNBA draft. First, she gets one more shot at the national championship that has eluded her during her career.

Bueckers earned AP All-America honors this season and was the Big East player of the year for the third time. She has UConn back in the Final Four for the second straight year after the Huskies were beaten by Caitlin Clark and Iowa in the semis last year.

She has averaged 35 points in her last three March Madness games, including career highs of 40 points and six 3-pointers in the Huskies’ 82-59 rout of Oklahoma in the Sweet 16.

“I think last year I got so caught up in the pressures and the stakes of it all,” Bueckers said, “and trying to be perfect and worrying about the wrong things … It’s the last year regardless of what happens. So I’m just enjoying this last weekend.”
Gamecocks trying to be first repeat champs since UConn

Dawn Staley has her team in its fifth straight Final Four, and defending champion South Carolina is trying to become the first repeat national champion since the Huskies won four straight from 2013 to 2016. That Huskies four-peat was coach Geno Auriemma’s last title, though he has the Huskies in the Final Four for a record 24th time.

The Gamecocks, who went undefeated last season en route to the program’s third title, beat Texas twice this season but have been on the ropes a bit during the tournament.

The Gamecocks went back and forth with Maryland in the Sweet 16 before finally doing enough in the final few minutes to put it away. They beat Duke by four points in the Elite Eight despite their offense being mostly stymied.

“I think we experienced a lot of things we didn’t experience last year,” said senior guard Te-Hina Paopao. “Every time we lost or did something, we learned from that opportunity and have grown from that opportunity.”
Star center Lauren Betts has UCLA in its first Final Four

UCLA won a national title in 1978 in the pre-NCAA era of women’s basketball but made its first Final Four in three tries.

Lauren Betts has been one of the most impactful players of the tournament, leading the Bruins to the semis with 21.2 points and 8.7 rebounds per game while shooting 75% from the field.

The 6-foot- 7 center had 17 points, seven rebounds and six blocks against LSU in the Elite Eight despite sitting the entire second quarter in foul trouble.

The junior’s teammates have praised her growth this season.

“I think it’s just me finally realizing the player I am,” Betts said. “I think a lot of it has to do with not just the basketball side but the mental work that I’ve done this past season. … Also I have to give a lot of credit to this program and the amount of confidence that they’ve given me.”

___

AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here.