While there’s 16 teams left in the women’s NCAA tournament, only one question remains: Can anyone take down UConn?
As was the case on the men’s side, the women’s tournament saw a lack of upsets once again in the early rounds of play, with only one double-digit seed— No. 10 Virginia—making the Sweet 16.Take a look below as we reset where things stand in the women’s tournament heading into this weekend’s games.
UConn Huskies coach Geno Auriemma watches from the sideline as they take on the UTSA Roadrunners. | David Butler II-Imagn ImagesNo. 1 UConn vs. No. 4 North Carolina, 5 p.m. ET Friday The Huskies have not lost a game this entire season, and have won their first two games of the tournament by an average of more than 45 points. In the second round,in the first half, scoring 26 points to more than double the production of the entire Syracuse team heading into the break. Can anyone stop the wagon that is UConn basketball? The Tar Heels will be next to try, entering the game as 27.5-point underdogs. Should UConn prevail there, it will be up to the winner of Friday’s game between Vanderbilt and Notre Dame to take on the Huskies. Vanderbilt would represent one of the toughest opponents the Huskies have faced all season, with the Commodores having solid wins over Top 10 teams LSU, Michigan and Texas. Meanwhile, if Notre Dame advances, it will put Fudd in a matchup of college basketball stars against Hannah Hidalgo of the Irish.LSU player Bella Hines reacts after a play against Texas Tech. | SCOTT CLAUSE / USATODAY Network / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn ImagesNo. 2 LSU vs. No. 3 Duke, 10 p.m. ET Friday If the undefeated Huskies didn’t exist, UCLA would be the easy favorite to win the national championship in two weeks. The Bruins have lost just once all season, and that was against No. 4 Texas in early November. Since then, they’ve been perfect, and they are understandably sizable favorites over Minnesota to reach the Elite Eight. Meanwhile, LSU is still LSU, led by coach Kim Mulkey and star senior Flau’jae Johnson. The Tigers took a 16-point win on the road against the Blue Devils in December, but both teams have grown quite a bit since that meeting.No. 2 Michigan vs. No. 3 Louisville, 12:30 p.m. ET Saturday Louisville held off a late charge from No. 6 Alabama in the final minute of their second-round game to punch its ticket to the Sweet 16 in one of the most thrilling games of the tournament thus far. The Cardinals will have to follow that up with another huge performance against a Michigan team that has yet to be challenged in March Madness., who have a whopping 14 wins over ranked opponents this season, including against fellow tournament one-seeds UCLA and South Carolina. Kentucky was able to keep things relatively close with Texas when the two schools met in the regular season—an 11-point win for the Longhorns—but the Wildcats will have to take things up another level if they’re to get the win here.No. 1 South Carolina vs. No. 4 Oklahoma, 5 p.m. ET Saturday You can simply never count out a Dawn Staley South Carolina squad in March Madness, and the Gamecocks’ Sweet 16 matchup against Oklahoma is one of the most fascinating of the entire weekend. The Sooners delivered South Carolina one of its only three losses all season—a 94–82 overtime shootout in Norman, Okla., in January. Can South Carolina avenge the loss? Or is it possible this Sooners team has the Gamecocks’ number?against TCU. If the Cavs can win, they’ll become just the second 10-seed to ever reach the Elite Eight in the women’s tournament, joining Oregon’s run from 2017.Tyler Lauletta is a staff writer for the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI, he covered sports for nearly a decade at Business Insider, and helped design and launch the OffBall newsletter. He is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, and remains an Eagles and Phillies sicko. When not watching or blogging about sports, Tyler can be found scratching his dog behind the ears.
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