Women’s Final Four Preview: Bueckers, Betts engage in war of wills

Hey, at least there’s a No. 2 seed on this side. 

Though it’s been a tournament of powerhouses, with three No. 1 seeds and the No. 2 UConn Huskies plotting around the remaining field, it hasn’t been a tournament without its fair share of the dramatics. 

Ultimately, favourites have won, but we now sit on footing as even as it can get, as the top teams in each region have finally converged on Tampa, Fla., for what could be the most electric and hard-fought Final Four put to memory. Anyone can beat anyone, there aren’t any upsets anymore — just great basketball. 

The action tips off as the reigning champ South Carolina Gamecocks take on a Texas Longhorns team finally making good on the promising stretch the program has had since hiring Vic Schaefer five years ago. 

Then, the UConn Huskies look to take the next step in ending the longest national championship drought in program history as they face off against the UCLA Bruins, who are already treading new ground after reaching the Final Four for the first time in program history. 

Though the remaining field is as strong as it gets, it doesn’t come without its fair share of storylines, nor without its March Madness-worthy level of intrigue. So without further ado, here’s what you need to know ahead of an absolutely loaded women’s Final Four. 

Schedule

All times listed in ET

(1) Texas vs. (1) South Carolina — 7 p.m. 

(2) UConn vs. (1) UCLA — 9:30 p.m.

(1) TEXAS VS. (1) SOUTH CAROLINA

The Lowdown

The South Carolina Gamecocks aren’t playing to finally plant their flag as one of the game’s great dynasties — they’re already there. Three championships in nine years and four straight Final Four appearances have already pencilled them in as the great women’s basketball dynasty of the decade. But the only thing better than three titles is four. 

With Dawn Staley leading the charge, the Gamecocks have become a Hydra, routinely losing their top players to the WNBA Draft but replacing them with hungry stars waiting in the wings. 

It’s a full credit to the recruitment, development and cultural system built there that even in the transfer portal era, they’ve managed to retain their top talent, knowing that though it might not be their time, eventually it will come. 

Every player built down in Columbia is the product of a culture devoted to one thing — winning. They have the deepest team still standing and can beat you in more ways than anyone else. It should be no surprise that they’re back again. 

On the other end this time around are the Longhorns, who are back in the Final Four for the first time since 2003. It’s been a while, but they’re not acting as though they’re strangers to the experience. 

They’ve been on the cusp in recent years, suffering gutting losses in the Elite Eight in three of the last five seasons but haven’t been able to clear the hump. 

Enter Madison Booker, who represented the biggest recruiting prize of coach Schaefer’s time at the helm in Austin and certainly played like it too, netting a team-high 16.5 points along with 5.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists in her freshman season last year, showcasing a do-it-all ability to take the Longhorns from plucky upstart to serious contender.

In year two, though her numbers offensively have remained steady, her true growth has come on the defensive side of the ball, in particular with how she fits into the Longhorns’ suffocating system while leading the SEC in defensive win shares with 3.4. 

Texas has been an absurdly strong defensive team at the tournament, holding productive teams like No. 5 Tennessee and No. 2 TCU to well under their season averages, and have excelled at mucking up game plans with calculated risks mitigated by strong positioning. Booker and her two-way efforts stand in the middle of that. 

Storyline to watch: Has South Carolina figured Texas out?

In their first year as part of the SEC, the Longhorns have had the pleasure of taking on the Gamecocks on three separate occasions, with the reigning champs currently holding a 2-1 series lead. 

Their last duel came in the SEC championship game, as Texas got a taste of their own medicine, scoring a season-low 45 points while shooting a brutal 29.6 per cent from the field in a 64-45 loss.

Booker couldn’t get anything done, as the sophomore shot 4-of-13 from the field and didn’t dish out a single assist to her teammates, who all equally struggled to put the ball in the basket. Overall, Texas finished 1-of-8 from long range and practically gave up on the look by the third quarter. 

They endured a similar slog in their first matchup of the season in January, when they shot a season-worst 27.8 per cent from the field and attempted only five three-pointers, sinking one, en route to a 67-50 loss.

The Gamecocks have figured out how to put a lid on the rim when they face off against Booker and the Longhorns. They use their size and length to stamp out mid-range looks and dare Texas to set up their actions on the perimeter where they’re uncomfortable. 

Though Texas did manage to win the matchup in February, they did so with a 7-for-22 shooting performance from Booker — one that won’t get them anywhere in the Tournament. 

It’s hard to say that the Gamecocks are the worst possible matchup for the Longhorns because they’re simply the worst possible matchup for anyone. But the defending champs have had their number all season, and unless Texas can find some semblance of potency from beyond the arc, South Carolina’s return to the title game may already be booked. 

(2) UCONN VS. (1) UCLA

The Lowdown

Despite the No. 2 beside their name, the Huskies look once again like the dynastic program that defined 20 years of college basketball from the ’90s to the 2010s and enter the Final Four as the team to beat.

UConn has dismantled the opponents put in front of them, and the pairing of consensus No. 1 pick Paige Bueckers and No. 1 recruit Sarah Strong harkens back to days of Maya Moore and Tina Charles in Storrs, guiding the Huskies to back-to-back championships in 2009 and 2010. 

But this squad only has one shot at the title, with Bueckers set to hear her name called first overall later this month at the WNBA Draft, giving the Huskies more urgency than ever to cut nets and cut them quickly — a sort of determination that has shone through at March Madness so far. 

Though they beat USC in the Elite Eight, the Trojans were down the best player in the nation in JuJu Watkins, who tore her ACL in the second round. UCLA presents a much steeper challenge as a program taking on a similar determination to succeed. 

The Bruins are playing in uncharted territory, as they’ve never advanced to the Final Four. They’ve also never had a player the calibre of Lauren Betts, who has looked every part the best centre in the nation, dominating smaller opponents by averaging 20.0 points while shooting 64.9 per cent from the field. 

Betts has faced her fair share of competition so far in the tourney — with the matchup against walking double-double Aneesah Morrow and LSU as the standout — and the duel against Strong will be another test for the six-foot-seven big, but the Huskies lack frontcourt depth past the freshman forward, and could really be put to the test by one of the best players in the country. 

Storyline to watch: Can anything get in the way of Bueckers? 

Paige Bueckers has been putting on a one-woman show so far in the tourney, averaging an obscene 29.0 points, 3.3 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 3.3 steals and 1.5 blocks while shooting 58.7 per cent from the field and 58.3 per cent from three-point range. She’s playing like a horse with blinders on, focused on one thing and one thing only — a national championship. 

The matchup against USC without Watkins deprived basketball fans of the best guard duel in the country, but Paige put on a masterclass in her absence, slicing up the Trojans’ defence in the pick-and-roll alongside Strong, routinely drawing fouls to get players in trouble and get her easy buckets, and disrupting actions with hard-nosed defence. 

While UCLA may be built around Betts, the team’s guard play is certainly not lacking. The pairing of Kiki Rice and Gabriela Jaquez gives the Bruins an appropriate amount of size to be able to match up with Bueckers. 

But as one of the most level-headed and efficient players in the country, stopping Bueckers at this point is out of the question, it’s more a matter of if you can slow her down. 

When the will to join fellow UConn greats and know that your time in Storrs wasn’t for naught — that you belong alongside players like Maya Moore, Breanna Stewart and Rebecca Lobo — it becomes a rallying cry for a team desperate to end a program-long title drought. 

There may not be anyone more determined than Bueckers right now, and she’s certainly playing like it in the hopes that she made the right decision to head to the WNBA after this season. 

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