JuJu Watkins is back as women’s college basketball has one of its brightest stars returning from an ACL injury that sidelined the USC guard all of last season.
Watkins headlines a talented group of stars, including AP Player of the Year Sarah Strong of Connecticut, Hannah Hidalgo of Notre Dame and South Carolina’s Joyce Edwards.
Dawn Staley’s top-ranked Gamecocks are looking to rebound from last season’s national championship game loss to UCLA. The Bruins took a huge hit with their top six players all getting drafted by WNBA teams. Still, coach Cori Close used the transfer portal well to bring in a new group to try and defend the Bruins first NCAA title.
People were interested in these podcasts
The season begins overseas once again with Hidalgo’s 13th-ranked Irish team facing Villanova in the Eternal City Tip-Off in Rome on Nov. 1. A day later, the Gamecocks will face No. 20 Maryland and No. 12 North Carolina will take on No. 21 Oklahoma in Paris.
The doubleheader marks the fourth consecutive year that a women’s game will be played in Paris and the second time that the Gamecocks will be involved.
The annual ACC/SEC challenge will have a huge matchup with Hannah Hidalgo and the Fighting Irish visiting Vanderbilt’s Mikayla Blakes and the Commodores. It’s a rematch of last season’s Sweet 16 matchup that the Irish won 67-64. Hidalgo had a huge game, with 31 points, 11 rebounds, 10 steals and seven assists in that win.
On Dec. 19 and 20, South Carolina, Southern California, Duke, Texas, UCLA and Notre Dame will get together in Las Vegas for the second annual Players Era tournament.
The first night will showcase a national championship rematch between UCLA and South Carolina. Duke plays Texas and Notre Dame takes on USC. That will feature two of the top players in the country, with Watkins and Hidalgo leading their teams.
The second night has Texas playing UCLA in a Final Four rematch, with Notre Dame-South Carolina and Duke-USC the other two games.
The national championship game will take place on April 4 in Columbus, Ohio. The champion will come from an expanded NCAA Tournament field that will have 76 teams for the first time.
Familiar faces in new places: As has been the case over the past few years, some of the top players changed schools this past offseason. There was a mass exodus from Iowa State including star center Audi Crooks going to Oklahoma State and Addy Brown heading to UCLA. Talaysia Cooper left Tennessee as part of another mass leaving to head to Ole Miss. Other key moves in the offseason included Jordan Lee going from Texas to South Carolina, Nunu Agara heading from Stanford to Maryland, Liv McGill leaving Florida for Oklahoma State and Aaliyah Crump going to Duke from Texas.
Talented freshmen: Even with the NCAA allowing players to stay five years now, there’s a huge crop of promising freshmen who can make an impact immediately for their college teams. North Carolina’s Kate Harpring, USC’s Saniyah Hall and Iowa’s McKenna Woliczko all could produce quickly.
Coaching carousel: Northwestern brought in Princeton coach Carla Berube to take over for Joe McKeown , who retired at the end of last season. Berube has gone 531-125 in stops at Division III Tufts and then Princeton. She led the Tigers five consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and won 84% of her games at the school.
Other major coaching changes included Tanisha Wright taking over at her alma mater Penn State; Ayla Guzzardo becoming the head of Georgia and Aaron Roussell leading Virginia after leaving Bucknell.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.