Fresh off the program's record-extending 12th national championship, the UConn Huskies will tip off the 2025/26 NCAA season as the top-ranked team on the preseason AP Top 25 Women's College Basketball Poll.
The elite start marks the Huskies' first No. 1 preseason ranking since 2017, as returning starters like sophomore forward Sarah Strong and grad student guard Azzi Fudd prepare to defend their NCAA title.
"Hopefully, it's a little bit of a confidence builder and not, 'Oh my god!'" UConn head coach Geno Auriemma said of his team's poll results. "I'm happy for them…. You tend to finish the year where you're predicted, so I like being in this position."
All of last season's Final Four teams will begin their 2025/26 campaigns on a high note, with national runners-up South Carolina ranking second while UCLA snagged third and Texas fourth.
Not every ranked team remained as unchanged, however, as No. 15 Notre Dame and No. 18 USC saw expectations dip in the face of significant player turnover.
USC will be without superstar guard JuJu Watkins for the entirety of the upcoming season, as the 20-year-old Trojan continues to rehab an ACL tear suffered during 2025's March Madness.
As for Notre Dame, the Fighting Irish lost standouts Sonia Citron and Maddy Westbeld to the WNBA, with the team planning to re-center their approach around guard Hannah Hidalgo after celebrated point guard Olivia Miles transferred to No. 17 TCU.
The 2025/26 NCAA basketball season tips off on Monday, November 3rd.
The 2025/26 NCAA basketball preseason AP Top 25 poll
1. UConn (Big East)
2. South Carolina (SEC)
3. UCLA (Big Ten)
4. Texas (SEC)
5. LSU (SEC)
6. Oklahoma (SEC)
7. Duke (ACC)
8. Tennessee (SEC)
9. NC State (ACC)
10. Maryland (Big Ten)
11. UNC (ACC)
12. Ole Miss (SEC)
13. Michigan (Big Ten)
14. Iowa State (Big 12)
15. Notre Dame (ACC)
16. Baylor (Big 12)
17. TCU (Big 12)
18. USC (Big Ten)
19. Vanderbilt (SEC)
20. Louisville (ACC)
21. Iowa (Big Ten)
22. Oklahoma State (Big 12)
23. Michigan State (Big Ten)
T24. Kentucky (SEC)
T24. Richmond (Atlantic 10)
The 2025/26 NCAA basketball season is just around the corner, and the Big Ten is celebrating by shouting out the conference's top predicted performers in both the coaches and media preseason polls on Thursday.
The UCLA Bruins — the Big Ten's singular 2025 Final Four participant — took the top team spot in both surveys, with the Maryland Terrapins trailing just behind as the conference's No. 2 ranked squad.
Rounding out the Top 5 in both polls were the USC Trojans, Michigan Wolverines, and Ohio State Buckeyes.
As for individual athletes, UCLA senior and the reigning Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Lauren Betts clocked in as the polls' unanimous favorite for Big Ten Player of the Year, with the standout center unsurprisingly capturing the top spot in the absence of injured USC star and 2025 Naismith Player of the Year JuJu Watkins.
Also picking up preseason All-Big Ten Team honors in both surveys were fellow UCLA standout Kiki Rice plus four other seniors: Iowa's Hannah Stuelke, Maryland's Yarden Garzon and Kaylene Smikle, and Michigan State's Grace VanSlooten.
A trio of underclassmen also made the cut in both 2025/26 preseason polls, with Ohio State's Jaloni Cambridge — last year's Big Ten Freshman of the Year — joined by a pair of fellow sophomores from archrival Michigan, Olivia Olson and Syla Swords.
The final spot on the All-Big Ten Team lists went to one of the Washington Huskies, with the 18 conference head coaches tapping junior Sayvia Sellers while the media honored senior Elle Ladine.
The 2025/26 NCAA basketball season tips off on November 3rd.
USC basketball star JuJu Watkins won't take the court this year, with the junior guard announcing Sunday that she'll miss the entire 2025/26 NCAA season while continuing to recover from injury.
"These last few months have been filled with a lot of healing, rest, and reflection," Watkins posted to social media on Sunday. "Following the advice of my doctors and trainers, I will sit out this season and fully focus on continuing to recover so I can come back to the game I love."
Watkins tore her right ACL in the second-round of the 2024/25 NCAA tournament, just days after earning her second straight All-American nod.
The reigning Player of the Year's 23.9 points per game and 6.8 rebounds per game were instrumental in leading the Trojans to the 2024/25 Big Ten regular-season title.
Though ACL recovery timelines can vary, recent history has shown that taking a measured, methodical approach can make an athlete's return even more powerful — an outcome that Watkins is clearly banking on.
While Watkins remains key to the longterm USC game plan, the Trojans' 2025/26 season hopes are still very much alive on the heels of back-to-back Elite Eight appearances.
That said, with the additional loss of USC alums Kiki Iriafen and Rayah Marshall to the WNBA, there are big shoes to fill on the roster — though the Trojans did snag this year's No. 1 high school recruit Jasmine "Jazzy" Davidson to boost their lineup this season.
"While we will certainly miss her impact on the court, [Watkins] continues to play a vital role in our program as a leader and teammate," said USC manager Lindsay Gottlieb. "The strength and maturity she has shown through this process is a reflection of who she is, and we know the Trojan Family will continue to rally behind her."
USC women's basketball is stocking up, bringing on their third No. 1 high school prospect in four years with top-ranked Saniyah Hall committing to the Trojans on Friday.
Set to join the team for the 2026/27 season, Hall follows in the footsteps of 2023 top recruit JuJu Watkins and Class of 2025 No. 1 prospect Jazzy Davidson.
USC reportedly beat out both North Carolina and UCLA in the race to secure a commitment from Hall.
The Northeast Ohio product will close out her high school career at SPIRE Academy, returning to her home state following a junior-year campaign with Montverde Academy in Florida.
The 6-foot-2 guard, who turned 17 years old on Wednesday, has also seen significant international success, first helping Team USA earn gold in the 2024 FIBA 3x3 U18 World Cup.
Hall added a 5x5 gold medal to her collection earlier this month, when the then-16-year-old set records en route to securing Team USA the 2025 FIBA U19 World Cup title.
Her US U19-record 19.9 points per game — plus team-leading averages of 6.4 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 2.9 steals across the competition's seven games — saw the starter named tournament MVP following the July 20th championship victory.
Shortly after returning Stateside, Hall visited USC, announcing her NCAA basketball commitment almost immediately after leaving campus.
"I would say it felt like home. I loved all of my teammates," Hall told ESPN's NBA Today on Friday. "The girls there are so fun to be around."
Women won big at Wednesday's 2025 ESPY Awards, with star athletes from across women's sports earning top honors for outstanding performances over the past year.
Leading the charge was seven-time Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Simone Biles with ESPYS for both Best Athlete, Women's Sports and Best Championship Performance for her trio of golds at last summer's Paris Games.
"Six-year-old me, who first started tumbling on my parents' sofa in the living room, is floored to be standing before you right now," Biles shared in one of her speeches.
Biles's Team USA teammate Suni Lee, who brought her doctor to the awards, won Best Comeback Athlete after battling kidney disease to return to top the Olympic podium.
The night's Best Breakthrough Athlete was USA Rugby star and 2024 Olympic bronze medalist Ilona Maher, who used part of her speech to encourage young women and girls, telling them to "Take up space. Pitch it faster. Run harder. Put another plate on the bar. And never tone it down."
Also snagging honors as the top athletes in their respective sports were Coco Gauff (Best Tennis Player), Caitlin Clark (Best WNBA Player), Katie Taylor (Best Boxer), and JuJu Watkins (Best College Athlete, Women's Sports).
Meanwhile, USWNT icon Alex Morgan and WNBA legend Diana Taurasi shared this year's Icon Award in recognition of the new retirees' impacts on their respective sports.
"Our mission has always been very similar," Morgan said in her acceptance speech alongside Taurasi. "We fought to leave our game in a better place than where we found it."
Off-court efforts earn 2025 ESPY Awards
Sports leaders whose impact surpassed the proverbial playing field also took home trophies on Wednesday night.
In recognition of her foundation's commitment to promoting diversity and providing tennis opportunities to underserved communities, US legend Sloane Stephens won this year's Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award.
Later, Penn State volleyball head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley earned a standing ovation alongside her Jimmy V Award for Perseverance.
Schumacher-Cawley, who became the first woman to helm a national title-winning volleyball team by leading her Nittany Lions to the 2024 NCAA Championship last December, did so while battling breast cancer.
"Cancer changed my life, but it didn't take it," said an emotional Schumacher-Cawley. "It didn't take my belief, it didn't take my spirit, and it didn't take my team."
No. 2 seed TCU rode their Cinderella story to their very first Elite Eight berth on Saturday, ousting one-time Women's March Madness favorite No. 3 seed Notre Dame 71-62 behind a 26-point performance from transfer guard Hailey Van Lith.
While chalky on paper, the victory was indeed a bracket-buster, setting the Horned Frogs up for tonight’s showdown against No. 1 seed Texas after the Longhorns’ 67-59 Sweet 16 win over No. 5 seed Tennessee.
“Hailey’s a dog,” said TCU senior Madison Conner of Van Lith, who set the school’s single-season scoring record en route to her fifth Elite Eight appearance. “Regardless of if it’s on the offensive end or on the defensive end, she’s going to do anything it takes to win.”
“Going into this game, I was really just going to go and have no regrets,” said Van Lith. “I wasn't going to put any pressure on myself to necessarily win. I was going to go out there and have fun and play with the joy that God gave me.”
USC faces UConn in highly anticipated Elite Eight rematch
Tonight’s blockbuster Elite Eight rematch between No. 1 seed USC and No. 2 seed UConn will look different without injured superstar JuJu Watkins. But the Trojans aren’t done fighting.
USC lost Watkins to a season-ending ACL tear in the tournament’s second round. Nevertheless, a determined USC took down No. 5 seed Kansas State 67-61 in Saturday’s Sweet 16 clash. Freshmen Avery Howell and Kennedy Smith combined for 37 points on the night.
“With Ju going down, obviously it was a bit of adversity that we had to face,” Smith said after the game. “But just having her in our presence — we talked to her before the game and she was still rooting us on, things of that nature — [we're] just keeping her in our hearts and minds and playing for her as well as for each other.”
USC will subsequently have their hands full. Leading the Huskies to the Elite Eight, UConn star Paige Bueckers is fresh off a career-high 40-point Sweet 16 performance against Oklahoma.
“You try not to think about the stakes or the pressure or getting to the Final Four,” Bueckers said ahead of tonight's rematch. “Obviously that's there, so you try not to think about it and just go out and play every single game the same way like it's your last, like it's the most important 40 minutes of your life... We just want the season to keep going as long as possible. So leaving nothing up to chance, giving it our all for that 40 minutes to play for another 40 is our team mindset.”
Where to watch Women's March Madness games tonight
TCU tips off against Texas tonight at 7 PM ET before UConn takes on USC at 9 PM ET. Both games will air live across ESPN platforms.
The Naismith Awards sliced their already elite 10-athlete National Player of the Year (POY) list down to four finalists on Tuesday, narrowing the race for the 2024/25 NCAA basketball season's top individual honor.
Earning spots in the final tally are two sophomore phenoms, USC's JuJu Watkins and Notre Dame's Hannah Hidalgo, as well as UCLA junior Lauren Betts and UConn senior Paige Bueckers.
"The brilliance of these athletes and their unrelenting passion for college basketball are evident in their outstanding accomplishments," noted Atlanta Tipoff Club president Eric Oberman, whose organization bestows the annual award.
Three of the finalists have already claimed some POY hardware for their 2024/25 performances, with Hidalgo, Bueckers, and Watkins all earning the honor for their respective conferences. Hidalgo and Betts also bagged Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY) awards from the ACC and Big Ten, respectively.
Double-dipping on the national stage are Betts, Hidalgo, and Watkins, whose POY finalist status comes just four days after the Naismith Awards named the trio to its four-athlete DPOY final list.
Buoyed by their individual contributions, all four players have helped their programs become veritable contenders to claim the 2024/25 national championship trophy.
Betts's Bruins entered March Madness as the overall No. 1 seed, with Watkins's Trojans also claiming a top spot in the 2025 NCAA bracket. Behind team-leading contributions from Bueckers and Hidalgo, UConn and Notre Dame snagged No. 2 and No. 3 seeds, respectively.
"Their efforts have been instrumental in their teams’ successes this season. Recognizing any of these extraordinary student-athletes with the Jersey Mike’s Naismith Trophy would be a fitting tribute to their excellence."
POY race reflects parity-filled NCAA season
Unlike past seasons with arguably clear-cut frontrunners, the 2024/25 NCAA season is stacked with both parity and standout performers, giving each member of the exclusive POY finalist quartet a strong case to snag the prestigious award.
With her third time as a POY finalist, Bueckers — a playmaking guard who shoots over 54% from the field — could add a second Naismith trophy to her shelf, bookending her UConn career after becoming the only freshman winner in the award's now 42-year history in 2021.
That said, she'll have stiff competition from fellow 2023/24 finalist Watkins, whose prolific scoring surpassed the two-season tally notched by the all-time Division I points leader, back-to-back POY winner-turned-WNBA Rookie of the Year Caitlin Clark.
Star center Betts has anchored the Bruins in the paint all season, setting a UCLA record for blocks while shooting over 64% from the floor and averaging a near double-double with 9.7 rebounds per game.
As for Hidalgo, who currently sits third in the league with over 24 points per game, the Irish guard has yet to register a single collegiate appearances with less than 10 points.
The four finalists will have one final weekend of March Madness competition to impress voters before the POY winner is announced on April 2nd — two days before the NCAA tournament's Final Four tips off.
Unfortunately, after suffering a season-ending ACL tear on Monday, Watkins's POY bid rests on her already complete 2024/25 campaign.
How to vote for the 2024/25 National Player of the Year
While the majority of the Naismith Awards' final counts rest with coaches, conference commissioners, journalists, and former winners, fans account for 5% of the total vote.
With POY candidates, DPOY finalists, and Coach of the Year nominees on the ballot, fans can vote once per day online for the NCAA's top basketball personnel. Voting closes at 12 PM ET on April 1st.
USC star sophomore JuJu Watkins suffered a serious injury in the No. 1-seed Trojans’ second-round March Madness win over No. 9-seed Mississippi State on Monday, putting a dismal stamp on the final day of the 2024/25 NCAA tournament's first weekend.
After taking contact from two defenders midway through the first quarter, a visibly distraught Watkins crumbled to the court with a season-ending ACL tear in her right knee. The season's second-leading Division I scorer will soon undergo surgery before beginning rehabilitation.
"I'd be lying if I told you I wasn’t rattled seeing JuJu lying on the floor and crying," said USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb afterwards. "This is a human game, so I obviously tried my best to be what I need to be for the team, but internally it’s a lot."
The arena mirrored Gottlieb's reaction, a testament to Watkins's impact on the USC community.
"You cannot tell me the energy of that crowd, and how sort of angry they were with the other team, and how much fire they showed for our team, is so much about what JuJu has given to this arena, to this program, to the city," added Gottlieb. "And you just want to give it all back."
A National Player of the Year frontrunner, Watkins’s injury will reverberate throughout USC’s tournament run, as the Trojans stare down a potential Elite Eight rematch with surging No. 2-seed UConn.
Trojans step up after Watkins injury
After seeing their teammate carried off the court, USC regrouped in a big way, converting their early 13-2 lead into a 96-59 blowout victory over the Bulldogs to clinch a spot in the Sweet 16.
In light of the Watkins injury, star transfer forward Kiki Iriafen took charge, putting up a season-high 36 points and nearly notching a double-double by adding nine rebounds to her stat sheet.
Also taking up Watkins' mantle were a pair of freshmen guards, Avery Howell and Kayleigh Heckel, who came off the bench to add 18 and 13 points, respectively.
The added emotional tenacity the Trojans displayed was not lost on Gottlieb, who thanked her team in a post-game locker room address.
"I will never forget this game for as long as I live," the USC coach told her players. "You guys did something really special today."
"I have to say it with a calm face and tell you how incredibly proud I am of the way you stepped up for one another...it was a tidal wave of a team."
Top NCAA tournament seeds dominate Sweet 16 berths
Ultimately, losing Watkins is a devastating blow not just to USC, but to college basketball at large, radically reshaping the competitive landscape as March Madness gears up for next weekend's Sweet 16 round.
Monday's final buzzer officially set that field, locking in every team seeded No. 3 and above, plus one No. 4 seed and a trio of No. 5 seeds.
In a day void of upsets, seven of Monday's games averaged a wide 28-point margin of victory. The lone outlier was Maryland's bombshell victory, as the Terps booked their Sweet 16 spot in an instant classic game against No. 5-seed Alabama.
After the Terrapins rallied from a 17-point third-quarter deficit to push the game into overtime, Tide fifth-year guard Sarah Ashlee Barker forced double-overtime with a trio of free throws.
Though the Terps ultimately emerged with the 111-108 victory, Barker set records, notching a career-high 45 points — the most by any SEC athlete and the fourth-most by any Division I player in March Madness history.
"It didn't go our way but, at the end of the day, I'm gonna walk out and hold [my] head high," said Barker about the game that capped her NCAA career. "If you're a women's basketball fan, or anybody that loves basketball, I think that every single person could say that that was one of the best games they've ever watched."
With games between the NCAA's best stacking next weekend's Sweet 16 slate, this year's March Madness tournament is could see even more blockbuster clashes.
With the March Madness No. 1 seeds evenly split between the Big Ten and SEC, April’s Final Four becoming a conference tournament championship rematch doubleheader is very much on the table.
The quadrants led by SEC tournament finalists South Carolina and Texas share one side of the bracket, meaning the Gamecocks and Longhorns could meet before the 2024/25 NCAA championship game in an all-conference semifinal.
Similarly, crosstown rivals UCLA and USC top the other two quadrants, putting the LA teams on course for all-Big Ten semifinal.
Both conference pairs have already faced off three times this season, with South Carolina holding a 2-1 2024/25 record over Texas and USC riding into the Big Dance with the same record over UCLA.
Other top teams hunt rematches with NCAA No. 1 seeds
Before the No. 1 seeds lock in on any all-conference semis, however, they must advance past other elite contenders — some of whom have recent beef with the quadrant queens.
No. 3 seed Notre Dame — the only team to fail to snag a No. 1 March Madness spot after reaching the AP Poll's top ranking this season — awaits a possible 2024/25 rematch with Texas in the Elite Eight round, with the Irish eyeing a second season victory over the Longhorns after toppling Texas 80-70 in December.
As for No. 1-seed USC, the Trojans sit on a collision course with No. 2 UConn, setting up what could be a second-straight Elite Eight battle between the pair. The Huskies won last year's encounter 80-73 behind 28 points from superstar Paige Bueckers, before falling to eventual tournament runners-up Iowa in the 2023/24 Final Four.
That said, USC already defeated UConn once this season, with sophomore phenom JuJu Watkins putting up 25 points in the the Trojans' narrow 72-70 December win.
For these potential non-conference games, the rematches are somewhat by design, as top programs try to stack their schedules with the NCAA's best teams each season, both to challenge their rosters and to build their NCAA tournament resumes.
"If you play a good enough schedule, you're always going to run into somebody you've already seen," explained legendary UConn head coach Geno Auriemma earlier this week.
While bracket busters could impede an all No. 1-seed Final Four, no team seeded lower than No. 3 has ever won an NCAA championship, meaning at least a few of these top-tier rematches are likely in the coming weeks.
How to watch the Women's March Madness tournament first round
No. 6-seed Michigan and First Four winner No. 11-seed Iowa State open the tournament, tipping off March Madness at 11:30 AM ET on Friday, with live coverage on ESPN2.
The first top seed to take the court in Friday's 16-game slate is South Carolina, who will face No. 16-seed Tennessee Tech at 4 PM ET before UCLA closes out the night against First Four winner No. 16-seed Southern at 10 PM ET.
Both No. 1-seed games will air live on ESPN.
The AP dropped the 2024/25 All-America first, second, and third teams on Wednesday, offering few surprises as top names from star programs dominated the lineup.
Sophomores JuJu Watkins (USC) and Hannah Hidalgo (Notre Dame) both earned first-team honors for the second straight year, becoming just the third and fourth players to ever snag the honor in their first two seasons. They now join former college standouts and WNBA champions Courtney Paris (Oklahoma) and Maya Moore (UConn) in that elite club.
UConn’s Paige Bueckers, Texas’s Madison Booker, and UCLA’s Lauren Betts also earned first-team recognition, with the AP’s roster aligning with last week’s National Player of the Year shortlists.
Watkins, Bueckers, and Betts are the only unanimous first-team selectees, with Bueckers also making a splash by becoming just the 12th-ever player to earn an All-America nod for the third time.
March Madness tournament features all 2024/25 All-Americans
Program success and individual achievement strode hand-in-hand across the All-America selections, with all first-team players representing squads seeded No. 3 or higher in this year’s NCAA Tournament.
The second and third teams were more varied, though all players still feature on the 2025 March Madness bracket.
The second team tapped LSU’s Aneesah Morrow, UConn’s Sarah Strong, Florida State’s Ta'niya Latson, Kentucky’s Georgia Amoore, and Notre Dame’s Olivia Miles.
Meanwhile, USC’s Kiki Iriafen, TCU’s Hailey Van Lith, LSU's Flau'Jae Johnson, Iowa State's Audi Crooks, and Vanderbilt's Mikayla Blakes earned third-team recognition.
Notably, defending champion and No. 1 seed South Carolina failed to see any player named an All-American, though four Gamecocks did receive honorable mentions.
While awards are a small part of a season's story, the 2024/25 AP All-America teams do reflect a year filled with big stars and even bigger parity.
The 2024/25 AP All-America teams
First Team:
- JuJu Watkins, USC sophomore
- Paige Bueckers, UConn senior
- Lauren Betts, UCLA junior
- Hannah Hidalgo, Notre Dame sophomore
- Madison Booker, Texas sophomore
Second Team:
- Aneesah Morrow, LSU senior
- Ta’Niya Latson, Florida State junior
- Olivia Miles, Notre Dame senior
- Sarah Strong, UConn freshman
- Georgia Amoore, Kentucky senior
Third Team:
- Hailey Van Lith, TCU senior
- Kiki Iriafen, USC senior
- Mikayla Blakes, Vanderbilt freshman
- Flau’Jae Johnson, LSU junior
- Audi Crooks, Iowa State sophomore
Honorable Mention:
- Raegan Beers, Oklahoma junior
- Sonia Citron, Notre Dame junior
- Katie Dinnebier, Drake senior
- Joyce Edwards, South Carolina freshman
- Yvonne Ejim, Gonzaga senior
- MiLaysia Fulwiley, South Carolina sophomore
- Rori Harmon, Texas senior
- Izzy Higginbottom, Arkansas senior
- Aziaha James, NC State senior
- Lauren Jensen, Creighton senior
- Taylor Jones, Texas senior
- Chloe Kitts, South Carolina junior
- Ayoka Lee, Kansas State senior
- Cotie McMahon, Ohio State junior
- Te-Hina Paopao, South Carolina senior
- Sedona Prince, TCU senior
- JJ Quinerly, West Virginia senior
- Kiki Rice, UCLA junior
- Shyanne Sellers, Maryland senior
- Serena Sundell, Kansas State senior
- Makayla Timpson, Florida State senior
- Harmoni Turner, Harvard senior
- Mikayla Williams, LSU sophomore