Young stars, conference realignment, SEC dominance and more dominate the storylines heading into another NCAA season
College basketball is finally back. Following a season that broke all sorts of records both on and off the court, women’s collegiate basketball returns to gyms and arenas across the country.
As the college sports world continues changing in terms of NIL, rosters and conference alignment, the product on the court has never been better for women’s basketball.
The storylines for the 24-25 season stretch from one side of the country to the other, with underclassmen stars becoming the next generation to lead the sport and stars returning from injury who hope to put a National Championship back in their trophy cases.
Get ready for the season with these storylines and be prepared for basketball that won’t stop until the end of April.
Naismith College Player of the Year Battle
The No. 1 storyline this season is focusing on the stars who’ve helped lift up the sport of college basketball.
Of the five AP All-American First Team honorees for the 23-24 season, two stand out as frontrunners for National Player of the Year — USC’s JuJu Watkins and Paige Bueckers out of UConn.
Watkins is only a sophomore, but as a freshman already established herself as the future of the sport. The No. 1 overall 2023 prospect was second in the nation with 27.1 points per game and led the Trojans to an Elite Eight and Pac-12 Tournament title.
Now that Caitlin Clark, the two-time reigning National Player of the Year, is in the WNBA, Watkins could take her place and stay a frontrunner for the next three seasons.
However, Bueckers has been here before as the only freshman to ever be named the best player in the country. Now, following years of injuries to herself and teammates, Bueckers could win a second Naismith College Player of the Year honor.
Last year, Bueckers showed how important she is to not only the Huskies but the sport, playing every position head coach Geno Auriemma needed, whether its at point guard or even in the paint as a power forward.
While those are two favorites, there are others who will be in the conversation. Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo returns for a sophomore year, following her own AP All-American First Team debut season. There’s also a pair of stars at Texas with Rori Harmon and Madison Booker. Then there’s the undefeated National Championship winners in the South Carolina Gamecocks with MiLaysia Fulwiley.
Those names only scratch the surface for a season that aims to continue the growth of women’s college basketball.
SEC Dominance
As confetti falls and the hoop gets cut down, it’s been SEC teams holding the scissors. For the past three years, the Southeast Conference ended the year with the National Championship trophy and now the SEC is even better.
Of those three-straight champions, the LSU Tigers failed to make the Final Four in 2024 after lifting the trophy in 2023. They return without now-WNBA star forward Angel Reese but have a potent roster to keep things interesting at the top of the conference.
Starters Flau’jae Johnson, Aneesah Morrow and Mikaylah Williams return for head coach Kim Mulkey, who added from transfer portal and 2024 prospect class this offseason. LSU added 2022 ACC Co-Freshman of the Year Shayeann Day-Wilson from Miami and the top Louisiana high school player Jada Richard.
The Texas Longhorns join the SEC this season, adding two top 10 players in the nation with sophomore Booker and senior Harmon to an already stacked list of conference stars. Plus, Texas added First Team All-Big Ten guard Laila Phelia from the Michigan Wolverines.
Joining the Longhorns in the trip southeast, the Oklahoma Sooners made it to the Sweet Sixteen in 2024, falling to the Indiana Hoosiers. The Sooners understood what’s needed to compete in the SEC, adding Third-Team AP All-American forward Raegan Beers from Oregon State. They also return fifth year senior Skylar Vann, who averaged 15.1 points and 7.0 rebounds.
In Kentucky, the Wildcats brought in not only a top talent in the country but a top coach. Virginia Tech point guard Georgia Amoore and head coach Kenny Brooks both left Southwest Virginia for the Kentucky Wildcats.
With Brooks at the helm, bluegrass country has hope for the Wildcats after two season ending with losing records and more questions than answers.
For the Tennessee Volunteers, they made a switch at the top of the program too, adding Kim Caldwell from the Marshall. Caldwell brings a team who won’t be afraid to shoot from deep, breaking the NCAA record averaging 31.9 threes attempted per game last season. In an exhibition on Nov. 1, the Vols shot 48 three-pointers, making 19, in a 135-49 rout of Carson-Newman University.
This list doesn’t even include the most successful SEC team of the past almost decade.
South Carolina Repeat
Head coach Dawn Staley doesn’t seem phased by other teams getting the spotlight.
In 2023, aiming to repeat as champions of NCAA basketball, Aaliyah Boston and the South Carolina Gamecocks fell to the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Final Four. Conference foes LSU went on to win the title, and with the graduation of former National Player of the Year Boston, folks were aiming to shift the attention away from South Carolina and towards Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and LSU.
What Staley did at South Carolina in the 23-24 season is nothing short of amazing. Staley led the Gamecocks in a perfect 38-0 season, culminating in a bit of revenge when South Carolina defeated Clark and the Hawkeyes in the NCAA National Championship game.
Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Even with center Kamila Cardoso leaving in the offseason for the WNBA, South Carolina retooled as roster that already has four returning starters.
South Carolina added three five-star recruits, including 6-foot-3 forward Joyce Edwards, the No. 3 recruit in the nation, someone who Staley said will become a household name.
Staley’s built the premier program in college basketball, a team that has character all of its own and yields results on the court. Now, they aim to be the first team to repeat as champions since 2016, when the UConn Huskies last won a National Championship.
UConn’s Return to the Top
Since UConn won its first national title in 1995, 11 of the next 21 years ended with head coach Geno Auriemma and the Huskies adding another NCAA Division I championship banner to the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Connecticut.
So, failing to win a title for eight years is making UConn fans uncomfortable.
This year could bring the Huskies back to the top, because March 2025 could be the first year that UConn has all of its stars healthy at the same time.
After a National Player of the Year season in Bueckers’ freshman year, the guard suffered the first in a line of injuries that kept her out until the 23-24 season.
Then, adding No. 1 overall recruit Azzi Fudd in 2021 started well, but ended with a string of injuries of her own that only allowed the star to only appear 42 times in three seasons.
Now, with Bueckers playing a full season healthy and Fudd aiming to return towards the conference slate of games, UConn is poised to get past a Final Four bid and back into the National Championship game.
Helping them get there is another No. 1 overall recruit in 2024 freshman Sarah Strong. The 6-foot-2 forward is a big who can pull up from deep an has a track record of winning on the Team USA youth stage.
In his 40th season in Storrs, can Auriemma add a 12th national title to the trophy cabinet? Auriemma’s stacked the Huskies’ non-conference schedule with games to test that ability, facing the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Tennessee Volunteers, South Carolina Gamecocks and more.
New Batch of Outstanding Freshmen
Last season was the first time multiple freshman earned spots on the AP All-American First Team. Watkins and Hidalgo became the fourth and fifth freshman to earn the honor in college basketball history.
It’s proof of the increasing pool of talent in women’s basketball, and the 2024 freshman class will add to that story.
UConn’s Strong is the No. 1 pick, providing size and shooting ability for coach Auriemma, on a team that seems to invite the national spotlight. Strong will play opponents that could shoot the freshman right into the conversation for National Freshman of the Year.
South Carolina added No. 3 recruit Edwards who will help improve the Cardoso-less post Gamecocks post presence, while also having the agility to play like a guard on the perimeter.
At No. 2 is the No. 1 point guard in the freshman class in Ohio State’s Jaloni Cambridge. The high school National Championship winner didn’t join a team with recent national championship success, instead opting to play for the Buckeyes who made the Elite Eight in 2023.
In the absence of now-WNBA player Jacy Sheldon, Cambridge brings speed and court vision to Ohio State. Already, teammates are comparing her to Sheldon and saying the team isn’t dropping in point guard talent. Cambridge’s speed prompted former Ohio State assistant coach, and now Utah State head coach, Wesley Brooks to call her the fastest player in college basketball.
Will one of the top three surge into the spotlight like Watkins or Hidalgo or is there someone else who will separate themselves from the top prospects?
Watkins and the USC Trojans
Part of the realignment overhaul in college sports is the Big Ten improving at the top of the conference. Both major Los Angeles, California universities are now part of Big Ten country, and the USC Trojans could take Iowa’s place in the Final Four and National Championship conversation.
Last season, No. 1 overall freshman Watkins took the country by storm, averaging 27.1 points per game, second only to fellow Big Ten guard Clark. Watkins brought an effortless poise to the Trojans and led them to a Pac-12 Tournament title and trip to the Elite Eight, before falling to the Huskies.
In the offseason, USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb made the Trojans even better, adding forward Kiki Iriafen. The former Stanford AP All-American honorable mention adds size, midrange scoring and rebounds to an already tough Trojans.
Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images
Gottlieb also recruited the No. 6 overall 2024 freshman Kennedy Smith, a threat on both the offensive and defensive ends of the court. A wing who’s a three-level shooter and can get into the paint to rebound.
USC has the roster and skills to not only sweep Big Ten trophies but earn a No. 1 seeding in the NCAA Tournament, giving the Trojans an easier road to the Trojan’s first Final Four berth since 1986.
New Era at Stanford
Stanford’s been hit hard over the past year. After leading the Stanford Cardinals since 1985, legendary head coach Tara VanDerveer retired at the end of the 23-24 season. Then, Pac-12 Player of the Year Cameron Brink left for the WNBA and star forward Kiki Iraifen wasn’t too far behind, transferring to the USC Trojans.
Leading the Cardinals is head coach Kate Paye, who played for VanDerveer from 1991 to 1995, and then coached alongside her since 2007.
Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images
Now, playing their first year in the Atlantic Coast Conference, despite being over 2,000 miles away from the Atlantic Coast, Stanford enters the season unranked in the AP preseason top 25 for the first time since 1999.
Paye isn’t phased by Stanford’s new underdog status.
“Our program goals remain the same. We want to win a conference championship,” said Paye. “We want to go to the Final Four in Tampa Bay. We want to win a national championship.”
In the offseason, Stanford added forward Mary Ashley Stevenson, the Big Ten Rookie of the Year out of Purdue, and two top 100 freshman recruits with forward Ume Kennedy and point guard Wrenwyck Ijiwoye. They join remaining 23-24 Stanford starters Elena Bosgana and Talana Lepolo.
Paye’s schedule for this season shows Stanford isn’t lowering its standards, facing the Indiana Hoosiers in Bloomington, Indiana, the LSU Tigers and Ohio State Buckeyes before the calendar turns to all ACC games. Will Stanford get back into the top 25 or will the Cardinals miss the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1987.
Continuing the Momentum
Women’s sports is establishing itself in the national spotlight, and its long overdo. In the 23-24 season, the NCAA saw increased support in both arena seats and home couches.
The First Round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament featured a 26% increase in attendance, making only that round the fourth most attended women’s tournament of all time. By the end of the postseason, 436,055 people went to an NCAA Tournament game, making it the most attended tournament in women’s basketball history.
In the National Championship game, the South Carolina Gamecocks and Iowa Hawkeyes had an average audience of 18.7 million viewers, with a max audience of 24 million. Also, for the first time, the women’s tournament had a larger viewing audience than the 14.82 million average viewership of UConn’s win over the Purdue Boilermakers.
Individually, schools set individual and season attendance records and this season hopes to show that the spotlight isn’t moving.
Conference realignment and network’s growing desire for sports programming means more games will be televised to national audiences, with Watkins and Trojans part of a record Big Ten season with 16 conference games airing on either NBC, FOX or CBS.
Despite Clark leaving the sport, who was part of many attendance records throughout the season as fans flocked to see the guard shoot from close to midcourt, names like Watkins, Bueckers and Hidalgo will continue the trend.
