The NCAA women’s basketball tournament is at the Duce to its last four teams, because the best players who stay will fight for the chance to be the first champion of the Clark post-caitlin era.
Last year’s female championship match made history by collecting more viewers than the male title match for the first time. Now, without Clark, the class of contenders for this year championship has the great task of trying to keep the spotlight on the female game.
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Uconn will face UCLA, and Texas will face the South Carolina in Tour.
Here is a ventilation of the players looking to fight for this projector in the last two laps:
Uconn and Paige Bueckers
Uconn Guard Paige Bueckers, n ° 5, crosses the student section of Gampel Pavilion after a match against the state of southern Dakota in the second round of the Basketball tournament of the University of NCAA on Monday March 24, 2025 in Storrs, Connecticut. (AP photo / Jessica Hill)
Uconn Paige Bueckers’ superstar has undoubtedly taken the place of Clark as the largest star in women’s university basketball this year.
Bueckers has a chance to do what Clark has never done – winning a national championship. The origin of Minnesota, 23, will surely be based on his faith in God as she seeks to achieve this objective.
Bueckers was one of the most frank players in sport when it comes to crediting its Christian faith, having referenced it countless times while recovering from a torn ACL in August 2022. She thanked God while leading Uconn in the Final Four last year, and this year, she saw this trend distributed to other players in sport.
“Yes, I think people are more external in their faith and more comfortable talking about it,” said Bueckers at PK Press Club Digital at a press conference on February 19 when asked if she sees Christianity becoming more common in basketball and female sport as a whole.
“I have the impression that the more you see it, the more it becomes populated, and the more everyone accompanies it,” she added. “But yes, I really think it grows in terms of strike on this subject.”
If the faith of Bueckers is rewarded in March Madness Run of this year and it leads Uconn to the championship, it will make its mark on the most decorated history of female university basketball.
Uconn already has 11 national championships dating from 1995 and is considered the most important dominant dynasty in sport. The pressure is therefore on Bueckers to maintain this standard, at least once, before she graduated. Uconn won the title for the last time in 2016, and the current drought in the program championship has been its longest since its first victory 30 years ago.
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After that, Bueckers will seek to challenge Clark in the pros, because it should be the overall choice n ° 1 of the next WNBA draft this year.
Texas and Madison Booker

Madison Booker, n ° 35 of Texas Longhorns, reacts during the second half against the horns with TCU horns during the Elite Eight Channel of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament in Legacy Arena in BJCC on March 31, 2025 in Birmingham, Alabama. (Sarah Stier / Getty Images)
Longhorns are led by Star Madison Booker, who already has experience in high challenges competition, in particular while representing his country.
The Mississippi native has already won three gold medals in the youth tournaments of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA). Booker helped the United States win a gold medal in the female Americas championship under 16 from the FIBA 2021 in Mexico, where it raised an average of 6.2 points and 6.7 rebounds per game.
The following year, during the Women’s World Cup under the age of 17 of the FIBA 2022 in Hungary, she collected an average of 5.6 points, four rebounds and 2.3 assists per match en route to a gold medal.
The following year, during the Women’s World Cup under 19 FIBA 2023 in Spain, she collected on average 7.2 points and five rebounds per game for her third gold for the United States
This year, Booker was considered one of the best women’s basketball players, winning the player of the dry year and winning the Al-American honors of the first AP team. She did everything at the age of 19, because she will not even be 20 years before the end of the tournament.
Unlike Uconn and Bueckers, Booker and Texas are looking for a much rarer feat in their history.
Texas only won the national championship once, in 1986. The program was a sustainable competitor of the madness of March throughout its history and even reached the elite eight in the previous four years, but they have lost each time.
Now, Longhorns have been back in the Final Four for the first time since 2003. Booker is looking to channel his success as a gold medal representing his country to the success of the national championship representing the great state of Texas.
Southern Caroline Left Champion

The president of the time, Joe Biden, walks with Dawn Staley, coach of the Women’s Basketball team at the University of South Carolina, for an event in the East House of the White House in Washington, on Tuesday September 10, 2024, to host the NCAA championship season of the South Carolina University. (Photo / Susan walsh)
Southern Caroline’s head coach Dawn Staley is looking to remind all those who are in charge in female university basketball.
Staley is looking for repeated titles after defeating Clark in the national championship match last season, his fourth title in the general classification. The team is in the Final Four for the fifth consecutive year and has also proven that it can overcome the absence of a single superstar player like Bueckers and Booker, but can also overcome distractions.
Last season, Staley led her team to the title despite a controversy when she spoke to support trans athletes in women’s basketball.
During a press conference, Dan Zaksheske of Outkick asked Staley his thoughts On the issue of the fire, and Staley did not hide his thoughts.
“Yes, yes. So, now the people of Barnstormer will flood my chronology and be a distraction for me one of the biggest days of our game, and I agree with that. I am really it,” she said. “I am of the opinion, if you are a woman, you should play. If you consider yourself a woman and want to play sports or vice versa, you should be able to play. This is my opinion.”
However, like Bueckers, Staley also had no problem sharing his faith either, thanking God after winning the title last year.
“We serve an incredible god,” said Staley after the match.
“It is the most unlikely group to do it. And sometimes I mean, God is funny like that. He is funny. He tears your heart, and he makes you believe. He makes you believe the unimaginable.”
This year’s team will be based on a group that does not have a superstar by the cleaning name, but a deep range of budding stars, including Joyce Edwards, Chloe Kitts and Milaysia Fulwiley.
UCLA silent juggernaut

The UCLA Bruins players celebrate their 72-65 victory against LSU Lady Tigers to qualify for the Final Four during the Elite Eight Channel of the NCAA 2025 women’s basketball tournament held in Spokane Arena on March 30, 2025 in Spokane, Washington. (Tyler Schank / NCAA photos via Getty Images)
The UCLA ended the regular season as a team No. 1 throughout the country after a dominant campaign of 34-2.
For a school that has historically been defined by the success of male basketball, the female program did not have better claimed its place in the sun than this year. The UCLA has never won a national female championship, and it will be its first appearance in the Final Four.
Head coach Cori Close has quietly and patiently built a female basketball juggernaut since taking up the program in 2011.
The UCLA had not played in a region since 1999 when they hired it. By its fifth season, UCLA was back in Sweet 16, and the Bruins have only missed two regional since. It is the most successful race that the program lived in the NCAA era.
Now, the fruits of his recruitment class in 2022 are materialized, with stars Kiki Rice, Londynn Jones and Gabriela Jaquez which should take place in history.