Here are the teams and players to watch in the NCAA women’s tournament

Seven teams have a real shot at winning the title, including three with Philly ties: Dawn Staley's reigning champion South Carolina, Geno Auriemma's Connecticut, and Hannah Hidalgo's Notre Dame.

South Jersey-born Notre Dame guard Hannah Hidalgo is one of the biggest stars in this year's NCAA women's basketball tournamentRead moreYong Kim / Staff Photographer

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published March 16, 2025, 9:50 p.m. ET

Though there are no Big 5 teams in this year’s NCAA men’s or women’s tournament, the women’s field is rich with Philadelphia ties.

If you follow women’s basketball in any way, even casually, you might have heard of them: South Jersey-born Notre Dame star guard Hannah Hidalgo, North Philly-born South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, and Norristown-bred Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma.

Now that it’s March, the spotlight grows on all three. And with the bracket set, they know their paths through a tournament that could be terrific drama.

In past years, Auriemma’s Huskies and Pat Summitt’s Tennessee dominated the sport so much that some casual followers thought it was getting boring. There can be no such accusation this year, with as many as seven teams capable of winning the title.

The No. 1 seeds

The list starts at the top: Staley’s Gamecocks, Southern Cal with its superstar JuJu Watkins, Texas, and overall No. 1 UCLA. Then come three No. 2 seeds: UConn, Notre Dame, and North Carolina State.

South Carolina doesn’t have as big of a star as it has in recent years with post powerhouses Aliyah Boston and Kamilla Cardoso. But it has great guards in MiLaysia Fulwiley and Te-Hina Paopao, and frontcourt depth in Sania Faigin, Chloe Kitts, and freshman Joyce Edwards, the team’s leading scorer.

They will make a deep run if they all play defense to Staley’s high standards. You’d expect nothing less from the defending champions, looking for their third title in four years and Staley’s fourth overall. But losses to UCLA, UConn, and Texas raised questions about whether the Gamecocks can win it all.

Then the SEC tournament brought an emphatic answer: a 64-45 rout of Texas in the title game.

Southern Cal has the game’s biggest name in Watkins. Her game and the huge crowds watching her in arenas and on TV have proved that Caitlin Clark isn’t the only women’s player there’s ever been. Of course, the Trojans know that perfectly well, given that Cheryl Miller was their original star 40 years ago.

Can Watkins bring the school its first title since Miller’s heyday? She sure can, with her 24.6 points and 6.9 rebounds per game — plus good helpings of assists, blocks, and steals. But the real reason USC can win is Watkins doesn’t do it alone. Senior forward Kiki Iriafen, who transferred from Stanford after the Pac-12 fell apart, will be a marquee pick in this year’s WNBA draft.

UCLA also has a star in forward Lauren Betts, a likely first-team All-American, and great guards in Kiki Rice and Gabriela Jaquez. The question is whether the Bruins have the fortitude to make the Final Four after falling in the Sweet 16 in each of the last two years.

In particular, what will happen if the Elite Eight matchup is against veteran-laden No. 2 seed N.C. State?

We’ve seen four hints so far. The first was UCLA’s win over South Carolina, 77-64, in November at home in the famed Pauley Pavilion. The next two came in the regular season, losses home and away to USC. But the Bruins topped their eternal rivals in the Big Ten tournament final, commanding the fourth quarter in an outstanding contest.

Texas doesn’t always get as much attention as the other teams, especially in this part of the country. Let’s change that before you make your picks. Guards Rori Harmon and forwards Madison Booker and Taylor Jones are big-time talents, and they led the Longhorns to the SEC regular-season title.

Coach Vic Schaefer is a battle-tested veteran. Before taking the Texas job in 2020, he led Mississippi State to back-to-back national championship games in 2017 and 2018 and was the national coach of the year in the latter.

In the first, Schaefer topped Auriemma in the Final Four before losing to Staley in the title game. In the second, he came even closer to a title until Arike Ogunbowale’s all-time buzzer-beater for Notre Dame. This year could see him back in the Final Four, with perhaps the most talent he’s ever had.

Two No. 2s — and a surprise No. 3 — who could be the one

All eyes are always on Connecticut in March; they will be again this year. The Huskies had a case for the fourth No. 1 seed, but the Big East’s lack of depth compared to the SEC gave Texas the edge.

Paige Bueckers is the superstar, and there might be no bigger story than her leading the way to UConn’s 12th national title. A two-time, first-team All-American and the 2021 national player of the year as a freshman, she has battled multiple injuries in her college career but returned for one more year to try to finally grab that ring.

The reason she might get it is the teammates around her. Fellow guards Azzi Fudd, KK Arnold, and Kaitlyn Chen — who won two NCAA games in three trips at Princeton before transferring — are big-time backcourt depth. The frontcourt is led by Sarah Strong, the likely national freshman of the year, and anyone who hasn’t watched her yet will soon see why.

But there’s a huge reason Bueckers might not get it. The selection committee made a stunning move by putting UConn and Southern Cal in the same regional, meaning either Bueckers or Watkins won’t be in the Final Four. That potential regional final is by far the most-anticipated matchup in the field.

Now we get to Notre Dame, and it wasn’t supposed to take this long to get here. The Irish were No. 1 in the country a month ago, with Hidalgo excelling and backcourt partner Olivia Miles showing why she might be the No. 2 pick in the WNBA draft behind Bueckers.

But they lost three of their last five games, all against conference opponents (the ACC, in case you lost track), and didn’t look great in their two wins, either. That knocked them not just out of a No. 1 seed, but down to a No. 3 seed in Texas’ region. TCU is the No. 2.

Notre Dame has the talent to reach the Elite Eight, and perhaps its first Final Four since 2019. It now also has quite a bit of motivation to prove the selection committee wrong. But the questions out there are valid until they’re answered.

The last contender is the team that topped the Irish to win the ACC regular-season title. When N.C. State reached the Final Four last year, it looked like an uninvited guest amid South Carolina, UConn, and Clark’s Iowa. This season, the Wolfpack proved they’re no fluke.

They’re a guard-centric group, led by Aziaha James, the star of last year’s run. She, Zoe Brooks, Madison Hayes, and Saniya Rivers all average double figures in scoring, with Rivers a potential first-round draft pick this year.

Duke topped N.C. State in the ACC tournament title game, and enters the Big Dance as the conference’s highest-ranked team in the AP poll. That’s why the Blue Devils are also a No. 2 seed, in South Carolina’s bracket. But from here, N.C. State is the better team.

What about Cinderellas?

The women’s tournament doesn’t usually see as many early-round upsets as the men’s. But two mid-major conferences have produced teams no power squad wants to see.

The Ivy League earned three bids for the first time, a remarkable feat for schools that will always be known as not good at sports. In fact, the RPI formula — still used for ranking conferences against one another — has the Ancient Eight at No. 6. That’s above the American, Atlantic 10, and Mountain West.

Regular-season champion Columbia loaded its schedule with tests against Indiana, Duke, and Richmond, then went 13-1 in league play. The Lions got stuck in a play-in game as a No. 11 seed but will face a Washington team that has to cross the country to Chapel Hill, N.C. The winner gets No. 6 West Virginia, with No. 3 North Carolina hosting the pod.

Conference tournament winner Harvard had a strong nonconference slate, headlined by an early-season win over the Hoosiers when they were nationally ranked. The Crimson finished third in the league, then beat Princeton and the Lions on back-to-back days. Now they’re a No. 10 seed, facing Michigan State in the first round on N.C. State’s floor in Raleigh.

Harvard and Columbia finished Nos. 34 and 42 in the NCAA’s NET Ratings — Washington was No. 43, a nice touch for that Columbia matchup — and Princeton was No. 47. The last at-large spot came down to the Tigers and No. 46 Virginia Tech, and the selection committee gave it to the mid-major.

Princeton beat DePaul, Villanova (which beat Columbia early in the season), Rutgers, Seton Hall, Temple, and a top-100 Vermont in nonconference play, then was swept by Columbia but swept Harvard to finish 12-2. Now comes Iowa State in an 11-seed play-in game, for the right to play No. 6 Michigan in Notre Dame’s pod.

Another team to know is Fairfield of the Metro Atlantic. The Stags are 28-4 and won the regular-season and tournament titles after some fierce battles with double-runner-up Quinnipiac. They drew a No. 12 seed and will face No. 5 Kansas State in No. 4 Kentucky’s pod.

Lastly, we’ll give a hat tip to A-10 tournament winner George Mason. The Patriots finished second to Richmond in the regular season, then beat St. Joseph’s in the tournament final after the Hawks upset the Spiders in the semis. They’re No. 45 in the NET rankings and earned an 11-seed and matchup with No. 6 Florida State in Louisiana State’s pod.