The Athletic has live coverage of South Carolina vs. UCLA in the Women’s March Madness 2026 national championship game.
PHOENIX — Within the drama of a spat between two of the sport’s greatest coaches and another game that was within one possession in the final minute was a dirty little secret: The Final Four on Friday night was not a great showcase for women’s college basketball.
UCLA came in as the nation’s leading offense, averaging 1.014 points per possession, and it scored only 51 points in its win against Texas. South Carolina and UConn each made fewer than 40 percent of their field goals despite each team making about half during previous games. (Count the Longhorns in that group as they came in last at 49.7 percent.)
The Huskies looked incapable of running a secondary offensive set in their 62-48 loss to South Carolina. The Bruins suffered from a season-high 23 turnovers in their 51-44 win over Texas. The Gamecocks missed 15 layups, and Texas’ best offensive player missed 20 field goals.
This is not how these national semifinals were supposed to go. These were definitively the best four teams in the country during the regular season, and they were supposed to bring out the best in each other during the Final Four.
“It definitely was not a pretty game,” UCLA coach Cori Close said. “I wanted to apologize to all the fans for the rugby match and the 23 turnovers.”
Close is outspoken about wanting to grow the game, and part of that process is entertaining the fans. Sure, the Bruins are happy about getting to play in the national championship, but in the grander scope of the sport, it would be better if Friday’s score had been 70-58, like the Elite Eight game when UCLA played a similarly defensive-minded team in Duke.
It’s not a coincidence that women’s basketball experienced rocket-ship growth when Caitlin Clark was in college at Iowa — her style of play is exciting and magnetic. Offense drives interest; points are an easier sell. Professional leagues are constantly updating rules to make it easier to score, whether that’s football protecting the quarterback, basketball abolishing the hand check or baseball getting rid of the shift.
If women’s basketball is to maintain the momentum of the last few years, the product needs to be more watchable on the game’s biggest stage.
The 2023 Final Four had entertaining semifinal games: LSU 79, Virginia Tech 72, and Iowa 77, South Carolina 73, and a national championship in which LSU scored 102 points to Iowa’s 85. In 2024, the scores were 78-59 and 71-69, before an 87-75 South Carolina finale win over Iowa in the most-watched game of all time.
A 2025 Final Four in which at least one team scored in the 50s in all three matchups felt like a nadir … until two teams failed to even clear 50 on Friday.
It’s not that defensive teams can’t be appreciated. The 2024 undefeated Gamecocks had the best defense in the country but also featured MiLaysia Fulwiley’s masterful handle, Tessa Johnson’s lights-out shooting and Kamilla Cardoso’s almost casual interior dominance.
The teams in Phoenix clearly have the skills that larger audiences would appreciate, like Joyce Edwards’ rim-running for South Carolina or Lauren Betts’ shot-blocking for UCLA or Madison Booker’s midrange prowess for Texas. Even UConn’s offense dazzles with all of its ball and player movement.
But many of those attributes weren’t on display in the Final Four. The other teams deserve some credit for taking away opponents’ strengths, but the point of greatness is that it has the ability to overcome. Too often, these games have become a battle of attrition instead of one team or player imposing its will.
In recent seasons, complaints were made about the schedule wearing down players at this point of the season. The teams that play Monday night in the Elite Eight always have a quick turnaround. With travel and extensive media obligations, they have less time to prepare for the most important game of their season compared with regular-season matchups.
“God bless whoever wins Monday night, and they have got to fly cross-country, which is all day Tuesday, then they have two days, Wednesday and Thursday, to play the biggest game of their life,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said last season before going on to win the title in Tampa, Fla. Dawn Staley had a similar complaint about being the No. 1 overall seed and having to play Monday instead of Sunday in 2023. That scheduling has since been updated so the top seeds get extra rest heading into the Final Four.
Even so, this season’s Gamecocks played in Sacramento, Calif., on Monday night and had more energy than the Huskies, who played Sunday morning.
Ultimately, the burden lands on the teams to be their best selves Sunday. They can’t blame the schedule for resulting in exhaustion or the officiating for allowing a certain style of play. They outlasted the other 300-plus teams in the country to get to this point, and they have a responsibility to show the viewing public why they deserve to be here.
If the women’s tournament isn’t going to deliver madness, it has to deliver excellence. The national semifinals fell short of that mark, even if the extracurricular activities of the evening distracted from that truth. South Carolina and UCLA can’t count on additional fireworks Sunday. It’s the final game of the season, and only they can dictate the conversation with a performance that reminds everyone why this game is on the rise and that the future is in good hands.
