South Carolina leads the way as women's college basketball hopes to build off last year's success

Dawn Staley and South Carolina ran through last season undefeated on the way to the school’s third national championship. With a lot of that squad back, there is good reason to think the Gamecocks could repeat.

Standing in their way could be a healthy UConn led by Paige Bueckers or JuJu Watkins and USC, which added some stellar transfers to help out the sensational sophomore. Those two preseason All-Americans hope to pick up the momentum from last season that was spearheaded by Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese and led to record ratings and attendance for the NCAA Tournament.

“I know we lost some great ones in Angel and Caitlin, but we gained so much more,” Staley said. “We gained so much more talent, skill set and marketability. I’m really looking forward to it. I’m glad it’s happened during a time in which I can attest to it, I can share with other people who are just now tuning in.”

There are a host of other teams including Texas, UCLA and Notre Dame that also could challenge for the title. UConn was the last team to win back-to-back championships, winning four straight titles from 2013-16. South Carolina hopes to buck that trend and get to Tampa for the Final Four in April.

Staley's squad, which is No. 1 in the preseason AP poll, is going for its third national title in four years. The Gamecocks completed the sport’s first undefeated season at 38-0 since UConn completed a perfect run to the championship in 2016. South Carolina’s main loss from last season was 6-foot-7 centerpiece Kamilla Cardoso, the team’s top scorer and rebounder.

The Gamecocks are also missing junior Ashlyn Watkins, a 6-3 defender who led the SEC with 91 blocked shots. She was suspended from the program following her arrest on Aug. 31 for assault and kidnapping.

The season gets underway on Nov. 4 with a pair of games in Paris. Last season, the Gamecocks routed Notre Dame in the French capital. This year there's a doubleheader with No. 3 USC playing No. 20 Ole Miss and No. 17 Louisville facing No. 5 UCLA.

Realignment

There have been major power shifts in conference affiliation, with Texas and Oklahoma now in the SEC while USC and UCLA are in the Big Ten. With South Carolina, LSU and now Texas and Oklahoma, the SEC has four of the top 10 teams in the preseason poll.

ACL recovery

UConn, Texas and Notre Dame all have key players who missed at least parts of last season to recover from ACL injuries. Azzi Fudd of the Huskies, Rori Harmon of the Longhorns and Olivia Miles of the Irish all have been cleared to return. They are three of the top players in the country when healthy and provide their teams will leadership at guard.

Fudd still has a little bit to go before she's back to full strength, telling media at Big East media day that she does see the light at the end of the tunnel for her recovery.

Replacing legends

Longtime assistants Kate Paye at Stanford and Jan Jensen at Iowa took over their programs after head coaches Tara VanDerveer and Lisa Bluder, respectively, retired at the end of last season. Neither expects to change much as far as how the teams will play and while both are just outside the Top 25, it wouldn't be a shock to see them ranked soon.

Changing schools

The transfer portal was extremely active again in women's basketball with hundreds of players changing teams. No school was hit worse than Oregon State, which made a run to the Elite Eight last season before losing to South Carolina. With the Pac-12 dwindling to just two schools, the Beavers lost three of their starting five with Raegan Beers going to Oklahoma, Talia Von Oelhoffen to USC and Donovyn Hunter to TCU.

Other impact transfers include Kiki Iriafen (Stanford to USC); Georgia Amoore went with her coach Kenny Brooks from Virginia Tech to Kentucky; and Hailey Van Lith changed schools for a second time since starting at Louisville, leaving LSU for TCU.

___

AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll