It is the very best time of the 12 months and goodness, if you happen to thought ladies’s basketball through the common season was enjoyable, simply wait until the NCAA Match suggestions Wednesday. There’s an undefeated staff (South Carolina), a great deal of star energy (Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Paige Buckers, and many others.), longtime contenders lastly climbing again to the highest after a number of many years wandering in darkness (Southern California) and loads of different storylines.
There’s extra parity than ever earlier than in ladies’s basketball, which NCAA choice committee chair Lisa Peterson mentioned is due, a minimum of partially, to the switch portal. The portal, and its on the spot eligibility, have allowed unhealthy groups to enhance shortly, and common powers to reload even quicker. That, coupled with NIL and gamers who’ve been hyper-focused on basketball since they had been younger ladies, has led to an explosion in expertise that is dispersed all through the nation. Â
“I believe now it does not matter if you happen to do not go to the 4 colleges that you simply all the time heard of again within the ’80s and ’90s,” Peterson mentioned. “You possibly can go to any faculty and you may win a nationwide championship.”
And with that in thoughts, do not be shocked if there are quite a lot of upsets over the following three weeks. In truth, that can assist you get within the upset mindset as you fill out your bracket, USA TODAY Sports activities presents 10 daring predictions. Take our recommendation, and place your bets, at your individual danger.
1. Caitlin Clark and Iowa received’t make it again to Last 4
Sorry Hawkeyes, take it up with the choice committee, not me. I count on third-seeded LSU to upset No. 2 UCLA within the regional semifinals after which, in a rematch of the 2023 title sport, Angel Reese and the Tigers will dominate within the paint and head to their second consecutive Last 4. A part of Clark’s dominance within the Large Ten is how a lot she intimidates different groups. That received’t be a problem for Reese & Co.
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OPINION:Caitlin Clark and Iowa get no favors in NCAA Match bracket regardless of No. 1 seed
2. Kamilla Cardoso will redeem herself and be named Most Excellent Participant at Last 4
After an unpleasant ending to the SEC championship sport, the place Cardoso received hit with a preventing penalty and was ejected after a shoving match, the 6-foot-8 senior can be anxious to vary the storyline. She has tositout South Carolina’s first sport vs. both Sixteenth-seed Sacred Coronary heart or Presbyterian, however when she comes again, count on her to dominate the paint on each ends of the ground and lead the Gamecocks to their third title. If Cardoso performs like she’s succesful, it’s all anybody will wish to discuss.Â
3. Everybody can be rocking the JuJu Watkins’ bun in Cleveland
Southern Cal coach Lindsay Gottlieb likes to name her star, the very best freshman within the nation, “your favourite participant’s favourite participant.” That’s the kind of reward that JuJu Watkins has earned from a few of the sport’s biggest, together with LeBron James. And will she lead USC again to the Last 4, a spot the Trojans haven’t been since 1986, you may count on a whole lot of individuals within the crowd rocking the JuJu bun, as they go loopy for the following face of the ladies’s sport.Â
4. This would be the final March Insanity go-round for a minimum of one legendary coach
Who’s going to retire first, Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer or UConn’s Geno Auriemma? May each step down on the similar time? Does Lisa Bluder determine to bid adieu concurrently her generational expertise? School basketball, with NIL, the switch portal and convention realignment leading to quite a few cross-country airplane rides, is a teen’s sport. Don’t be shocked if one, or a number of, of the sport’s longest-tenured coaches determine to name it quits after this season. Different potential candidates: Texas coach Vic Schaefer and Iowa State’s Invoice Fennelly.Â
5. Virginia Tech would be the first 2023 Last 4 staff to get knocked out − and it’ll occur by way of upset
This actually isn’t anybody’s fault, however how far can one moderately count on the Hokies to go with out Liz Kitley, the three-time ACC participant of the 12 months? Kitley, who returned this season for her COVID 12 months, didn’t play within the ACC event and her availability for the NCAAs is up within the air. We suspect she’s achieved, and with out her, fourth-seeded Virginia Tech can be upset by fifth-seeded Baylor within the second spherical on the Hokies’ house ground.Â
6. The final Gonzaga staff standing would be the ladies, not the boys
Sorry, guys, however it’s only a matter of seeding: The Gonzaga ladies, the highest mid-major staff all season in ladies’s hoops, are a No. 4 internet hosting at house. The boys, who had been at risk of lacking the event altogether not that way back, are on the highest finish of the dreaded 5-12 seed matchup, and so they’ve received to play in Salt Lake Metropolis. The ladies can be house and whereas a tantalizing second-round matchup with Utah seemingly awaits and will go all the way down to the wire, the Zags’ veteran squad will earn a visit to the Candy 16.Â
7. The Ivy League goes to make main noise
It was occasion time for the nerds Sunday, when it was revealed that each Princeton (automated) and Columbia (at-large) would go dancing, the primary time the Ivy League has despatched two groups to the event. It’s additionally Columbia’s first journey. This was a win not only for a few of the most prestigious tutorial colleges within the nation however mid-majors at massive. And I count on them to win their first video games, Columbia over Vanderbilt within the First 4, and Princeton over West Virginia within the first spherical. This prediction applies to gamers, too − particularly, the three Ivy League grad transfers who will assist push the Southern California ladies to the Last 4.
8. Stanford will miss the Candy 16 for the second consecutive 12 months
The Cardinal has had a tough final couple weeks, being upset by Arizona at house (Arizona barely made the event, for what it’s value), then falling to Southern Cal within the Pac-12 event championship sport. That was the second time the Trojans beat them this 12 months in as many tries, a positive signal that one thing is amiss. Then, so as to add insult to harm, USC was the West Coast staff awarded a 1 seed whereas Stanford fell to a 2 behind Texas. It is simple to think about the Cardinal feeling deflated, and taking part in prefer it. Whereas Stanford is clearly robust to beat in Maples Pavilion, it’s been achieved earlier than, particularly throughout event time. Iowa State received’t be intimidated.Â
9. Hannah Hidalgo will steal the ball, after which the presentÂ
Don’t be shocked when the 5-foot-6 level guard for Notre Dame, a participant informal followers have but to listen to sufficient about, turns into the breakout star of March Insanity. The rookie, who performs with extra ardour than most likely anybody else you’ve seen, can do all of it, from scoring to dishing to rebounding. She’s finest often called a menace on protection, the place she all the time finds a approach to steal the ball. And by the point you’ve discovered how she did it, she’s taken off for a layup on the different finish.Â
10. The ladies’s Last 4 will outdraw the boys’s
You may suppose that is inconceivable, particularly if prediction No. 1 seems to be true, and Clark just isn’t taking part in for a shot on the nationwide championship. However hear me out: Clark, who will quickly turn into the No. 1 decide within the 2024 WNBA Draft, is a generational expertise who has achieved greater than every other particular person to raise the sport. Persons are tuning in as a result of they wish to see what ridiculous file she breaks subsequent.
However the very best half about her drawing so many new followers to the sport is that they’ve discovered different, youthful gamers to comply with. There’s extra pleasure and power across the sport than ever earlier than, and whereas Clark has definitely helped construct it, the sport itself is larger than only one participant − and this March and April will show that. (It additionally helps that the ladies’s title sport can be on ABC, whereas the boys’s is scheduled to air on TBS.)
E mail Lindsay Schnell lschnell@usatoday.com and comply with her on social media @Lindsay_Schnell