No. 1 seeds UCLA and South Carolina prevailed on Sunday, punching their tickets to the Final Four and putting a bow on a wild NCAA tournament weekend that nonetheless ended in chalk.
After surviving a surging No. 4 seed Maryland offense 71-67 on Friday, the Gamecocks took down No. 2 seed Duke 54-50 in Sunday’s Elite Eight, building a watertight defense to silence the Blue Devils.
Coming off Friday’s strong 76-62 win over No. 5 seed Ole Miss, the Bruins went on to blank No. 3 seed LSU 72-65, holding off the Tigers despite All-American center Lauren Betts’s early foul trouble.
“The game was lost in the second quarter,” said LSU coach Kim Mulkey. “That’s where the game was lost. We didn’t capitalize on Betts being off the floor.”
South Carolina, UCLA bring different strengths to Final Four
With both teams having topped this season’s AP Poll rankings, UCLA and South Carolina pose different physical threats fueled by similar mental resilience.
The Gamecocks will make their fifth straight Final Four appearance. As such, the reigning champs are managing to keep the repeat dream alive despite some shaky starts.
“We know that every night is going to be a battle, and we know that they’re going to come for us,” said senior Te-Hina PaoPao.
On the flip side, next weekend will mark UCLA’s first-ever NCAA Final Four.
“All season we’ve talked about how our talent is our floor and our character is our ceiling,” guard Kiki Rice said. “And to just be the tougher team every single day out there on the court is really the difference.”
Subsequently, maintaining poise down the stretch could be the key to winning this year’s NCAA title.
How to watch Women's March Madness Final Four games
UCLA tips off the Final Four at 7 PM ET on Friday, April 4th, before South Carolina takes the court at 9:30 PM ET. Both games will air live across ESPN platforms.
College basketball made its return by unleashing a blockbuster slate of games to tip off the 2024/25 NCAA season on Monday.
While fans will have to wait until Thursday for their first season look at No. 2 UConn's preseason All-American Paige Bueckers, 16 of the preseason Top 25 teams hit Monday's court, including No. 6 Notre Dame, No. 7 LSU, and No. 8 Iowa State.
Paris doubleheader tips off college basketball season in style
It all started with a ranked doubleheader in Paris, France. First, No. 3 USC squeaked by No. 20 Ole Miss 68-66 behind double-doubles from preseason All-Americans JuJu Watkins and Kiki Iriafen.
Even though USC led by 11 points after the first half, they needed both sophomore phenom Watkins's 27 points and 10 rebounds plus Stanford transfer Iriafen's 22 points and 13 rebounds to stave off the Rebels' 40-point second-half surge.
As for Ole Miss, guard KK Deans made an early season statement by leading her team with 19 points. All-SEC shooter Madison Scott put up another 14. Out of the gate, the Rebels expertly disrupted the Trojan offense, forcing USC to commit 26 turnovers in their season opener.
Later, No. 5 UCLA followed USC in bringing a season-opening win back to California. Led by star center Lauren Betts's 18-point, 12-rebound double-double, the Bruins — who committed 22 turnovers — defeated No. 17 Louisville 66-59.
Despite the loss, Louisville freshman guard Tajianna Roberts made a major splash, racking up 21 points in her college basketball debut.
Notably, the first-ever Paris NCAA basketball game was contested to open the 2023/24 season. At that time, South Carolina defeated Notre Dame, kicking off an undefeated run all the way to the 2024 NCAA Championship — a path USC and UCLA will be eager to follow after Monday's victories.
Other Monday matchups showcase NCAA basketball talent
Overseas battles aside, much of the NCAA's opening day pairings were dominated by ranked schools. Top-25 teams triumphed over lesser opponents, none more so than No. 19 Florida State's 119-49 win over North Florida.
However, the day's most intriguing ranked-unranked matchup is still to come, when No. 1 South Carolina takes on Michigan in Las Vegas.
With the exception of Chicago Sky rookie Kamilla Cardoso, the Gamecocks return every starter and most of their bench from last season's championship roster. They'll look to extend their unbeaten run into this season, starting with the Wolverines.
How to watch the South Carolina vs. Michigan NCAA basketball game
South Carolina women's basketball will tip off against Michigan in Las Vegas at 7:30 PM ET on Monday, with live coverage on TNT.
For the first time in 20 years, Southern Mississippi basketball has opened its season with a 7-0 record. And on Dec. 2, the team collected its first ranked win since 1999 against No. 19 Ole Miss, which remains winless in the Golden Eagles’ arena since 2000.
“I really and truly think it boils down to one thing, and it’s grit,” Southern Miss head coach Joye Lee-McNelis said. “It’s that Southern Miss grit. I thought we just out-hustled in the second half. We got all the loose balls. I think that was the game-changing difference.”
And Lee-McNelis knows a thing or two about grit. The woman leading Southern Miss on its strongest charge in decades is battling something far bigger than basketball — her third brush with lung cancer.
Lee-McNelis coached Southern Miss through the close matchup with their in-state rivals, which also happened to be the Eagles’ annual lung cancer awareness game.
And Lee-McNelis’ squad pulled through for her, securing a 61-59 victory against the Rebels to stay undefeated.
With nine-and-a-half minutes left in the game, Southern Miss went on a 10-point run to take the lead from the Rebels — and the Golden Eagles never gave it up. With four seconds left, sophomore guard Nyla Jean drove to the basket and sank a breakaway layup to keep the game just out of reach of Ole Miss.
Southern Miss players donned #McNelisStrong t-shirts during warmups, according to the Clarion-Ledger. The Golden Eagles secured a win for the woman leading them on and off the court.
“It was McNelis strong,” Lee-McNelis said. “But my team made this happen.”
Ole Miss women’s basketball head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin — better known as “Coach Yo” — is determined to see her team return to the NCAA Tournament after the No. 8 Rebels lost to No. 5 Louisville, 72-62, on Friday.
“The new standard for us is Sweet 16, and I think that that’s fair,” McPhee-McCuin said after the loss. “I’ve got five star-studded freshmen coming in and I’m about to do damage in the portal. So we’ll be back.”
McPhee-McCuin — who got her job coaching at Ole Miss after cold-calling the school to pitch herself — has gained a reputation as a coach adept at navigating the transfer portal. Of the nine Ole Miss players who averaged at least 10 minutes a game during March Madness, six were transfers.
The Rebels were playing in the Sweet 16 after upsetting No. 1 Stanford in the second round, holding the Cardinal to their second-lowest points total of the season.
“She’s the queen of the transfer portal,” said Myah Taylor, who concluded her NCAA eligibility as a graduate student at Ole Miss after playing four seasons at Mississippi State. “This team has just been a breath of fresh air for me. Coach Yo has really pushed me to embrace my journey and to write my own story, and I really feel like I did that here at Ole Miss.”
“Anybody who is whining about (the transfer portal) is going to be out of the business in two years. Remember I said that. You better evolve or you’re gone, all right? And the portal is a part of life, baby. So I just embrace it,” McPhee-McCuin said.
In addition to being a helpful recruiting tool, McPhee-McCuin appreciates that the transfer portal gives players more freedom. Prior to an NCAA rule change in 2021, Division 1 athletes who transferred between schools were required to sit out a year.
“These are young people. Give them a chance to correct their wrongs, you know? Freedom of choice,” she said.
“I make wrong decisions all the time. I bought a Lexus. I was ready to take that thing back after two weeks because I should have gotten a hybrid. As soon as I filled that tank up, I knew I made a mistake. I can’t go in the portal. I’m still stuck with the damn RX, okay?”