Women’s college basketball had a bit of déjà vu at the Final Four in Phoenix last season as all four teams that made it in 2025 returned to the national semifinals in 2026.
UConn saw its hopes of an undefeated season come to an end with a loss to South Carolina and Texas came up short against UCLA in a bid to reach the title game. The Bruins won their first national championship with a comfortable victory over the Gamecocks.
Entering this season, much has changed for each of those four rosters.
Seeing the Bruins, Gamecocks, Huskies and Longhorns all make the Final Four again seems unlikely.
Let’s take a closer look at each team.
UCLA
Coach Cori Close had to start rebuilding the Bruins’ roster almost immediately after winning the national championship.
The transfer portal opened the next morning and UCLA had to replace the production of the six players it sent off to the WNBA: Lauren Betts, Kiki Rice, Gabriela Jaquez, Gianna Kneepkens, Angela Dugalic and Charlisse Leger-Walker.
UCLA got a solid haul in the portal, landing Iowa State’s Addy Brown, North Carolina’s Elina Aarnisalo, TCU’s Donovyn Hunter, Arkansas’ Bonnie Deas and Notre Dame’s KK Bransford.
Aarnisalo should be familiar to Bruins’ fans as she played for Close as a freshman. She spent last season at North Carolina, helping the Tar Heels make the Sweet 16 while averaging 10.2 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game and shooting 40.4% from 3-point range. The 5-foot-10 guard from Finland scored 21 points in UNC’s second-round win over Maryland to punch the Tar Heels’ ticket to the second weekend.
Hunter was a Big 12 All-Defense selection last season and Deas nearly averaged a double-double with 10.2 points and 9.1 rebounds per game. Brown — a two-time All-Big 12 selection — has long been a versatile, do-it-all player, averaging 13.6 points, 8.1 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game across the three previous seasons. Those three and Aarnisalo will pair nicely with returner Sienna Betts, Lauren’s younger sister. Bransford battled injuries at Notre Dame, but should be a standout role player if she can stay healthy.
Timea Gardiner is also expected to be healthy after missing all of last season. A former Pac-12 Sixth Player of the Year, the 6-foot-3 forward averages 9.4 points and 4.9 rebounds for her career while shooting 39.1% from 3-point range.
UCLA checks in at No. 12 in the USA TODAY Sports preseason Coaches Poll. The Bruins open the season at home against Lehigh on Nov. 2, and will play their first true road game on Nov. 22 at Tennessee.
“Success leaves clues. We want to make sure we have those clues. I think we have a very proven roadmap that is easy for a group of people to buy into,” Close said at Big Ten media day. “I do think we were able to reload, and I also think the growth of our returners has been immense. It's also the committed growth of the returners that have put me in a position to say the standard is a standard.”
- Expectation: UCLA should finish in the top five of the Big Ten and be a contender for the conference championship. In the NCAA Tournament, reaching the Sweet 16 seems realistic.
South Carolina
It’s another season where South Carolina looks absolutely loaded.
The Gamecocks return a pair of starters from last year’s national runner-up squad in forward Joyce Edwards and guard Tessa Johnson, as well as NCAA Tournament All-Region selection Agot Makeer. Also back for South Carolina are Chloe Kitts and Ashlyn Watkins, who were sidelined last season with injuries. Kitts is a former SEC Tournament MVP, while Watkins was key to South Carolina winning the 2024 national championship with rebounding prowess and expertise on defense.
Coach Dawn Staley also brought in a pair of highly touted recruits in Jerzy Robinson and Oliviyah Edwards. Alicia Tournebize and Adhel Tac also return in the front court.
Other additions include a pair of transfers — Jordan Lee from Texas and Brooke Quarles-Daniels from Michigan — as well as French guard Justine Loubens.
The question for South Carolina is this: After four seasons of Raven Johnson at point guard, who steps into that role as the floor general? Will it be newcomer Quarles-Daniels? Is Robinson ready to do that as a freshman? Can Johnson or Lee make an adjustment to a new role?
On the defensive end, Staley likes what she’s seen from Lee.
“She's an elite defender. Like, elite, elite,” Staley said of Lee. “What we probably lost in Raven, we probably gained a little bit back with Jordan, but we need Jordan to score the basketball as well. The same qualities she gave Texas, we need her to be that and probably lean on her a little bit more.”
South Carolina’s non-conference schedule is a gauntlet. The Gamecocks open the season in Paris against Maryland on Nov. 2, face North Carolina in Charlotte on Nov. 8 at the Ally Tip-Off, play at Clemson on Nov. 12, then face USC in Greenville, South Carolina on Nov. 15 before playing their first home game on Nov. 17 against Florida Gulf Coast.
- Expectations: While there’s a glaring question at point guard, perhaps no team has as much frontcourt depth as the Gamecocks. They’ve gone to six consecutive Final Fours and anything short of going that far in the NCAA Tournament would be considered a failure by the standard Staley has set.
UConn
Geno Auriemma remains on the sidelines and as long as that's true, the standard for the Huskies will be to win the national championship.
Azzi Fudd has departed for the WNBA — the latest UConn player to be selected No. 1 overall — but the Huskies bring back three starters, headlined by reigning consensus National Player of the Year Sarah Strong. Strong averaged 18.4 points, 7.7 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.6 blocks per game while leading the nation in win shares (9.5) and defensive rating (56.4) last season.
In addition to KK Arnold and Ashlynn Shade, UConn also brings back key contributors in Jana El Alfy, Kayleigh Heckel, Allie Ziebell, and Big East Freshman of the Year Blanca Quinonez, who is likely set for a bigger role this season.
"If she was a first-team All-American this year, I wouldn't be surprised one bit," Auriemma said of Quinonez at Big East media day.
UConn is also expected to lean on freshmen Olivia Vukosa and Jovana Popovic. A 5-foot-9 guard, Popovic has played for the Serbian senior national team and professionally in her native country. Vukosa, a 6-foot-5 center, was the No. 2 ranked recruit in the 2026 class by ESPN.
After opening the season against Cornell on Nov. 2, the Huskies will be tested, rounding out the first month of the season with games against Michigan, Iowa, Ohio State, Louisville, Seton Hall, South Carolina and Duke.
Ultimately, the Huskies will go as far as Strong can take them.
“I think what we'll see is a much more aggressive Sarah,” Auriemma said. “There is more that she has that we're going to see this year as I see it in practice already.”
- Expectations: The Huskies should win the Big East comfortably, as they have done in every season since rejoining the conference in 2020. In the NCAA Tournament, it would be a shock to not see UConn at the Final Four in Columbus, Ohio.
Texas
Madison Booker is back, and that’s great news for Vic Schaefer’s team.
The three-time All-American has been the bus driver for the Longhorns and was the MVP of the SEC Tournament last season. A 6-foot-1 versatile forward from Mississippi, Booker averaged 18.9 points, 6.7 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2.2 steals per game last season while shooting 50.8% from the floor.
Breya Cunningham is the only other returning starter for the Longhorns. The 6-foot-4 forward averaged 7.7 points and 5.6 rebounds per game last season while shooting 59.1% from the floor. In the transfer portal, Texas added Oklahoma starter Zya Vann who averaged 10.4 points per game last season.
Texas is expected to lean on its highly touted freshman class, which featured four players ranked inside ESPN’s top 25 recruits. The group includes 6-foot-1 forward Addison Bjorn, 6-foot-3 wing Brihanna Crittendon, 5-foot-7 guard Lizzy Spaight and 6-foot-2 forward Isi Etute. The first three were McDonald’s All-Americans, while Etute has played for the Luxembourg national team in FIBA competitions.
“Those freshmen that we got coming in, they can all play,” Schaefer told USA TODAY Sports this summer. “They're really special and highly rated. I'm as juiced up about this group as any I've had. I'm excited to get them in the gym and start trying to piece that puzzle together.”
Texas opens the season on Nov. 4 at home against Fairleigh Dickinson. The Longhorns’ first marquee non-conference game is Nov. 22 in Fort Worth against Ohio State.
- Expectations: Texas should finish in the top five of the SEC and make the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Beyond that, the Longhorns’ success will ride on how well the freshmen mesh together and Booker's leadership.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: UConn, South Carolina, UCLA, Texas: Can 2026 women's Final Four teams return?
