The national championship is here, and it couldn’t feature two more impressive programs. The No. 1 seed South Carolina Gamecocks, with three titles since 2017, will look to become the first team since 2016 to repeat as champions. No. 2 seed UConn, led by presumptive No. 1 WNBA draft pick Paige Bueckers, has a record 11 national championships.
Who will come out on top this season? Stay with NBC News all night to find out.
South Carolina vs. Connecticut
Time: 3 p.m. ET Sunday
How to watch: ABC
As a sicko who doesn’t make a bracket specifically to root for mass chaos, I am legitimately torn on this question. On one hand, the beauty of the knockout tournament is seeing an underdog catch fire and try to ride that wave all the way to the Final Four. On the other, it’s hard to be upset when most of the best talent in the sport is left to battle it out for a championship. So I will say that I err on the side of being pro-top seed. At the end of the day, when the stakes are at their highest, I want to see the sport’s best battling each other in high-pressure situations.
Bueckers’ trying to win a ring as the elder stateswoman on a relatively young Connecticut Huskies squad is as exciting as it gets.
Bueckers has had a roller-coaster collegiate career, essentially having two seasons (one partly, one entirely) ruined by injury. In her senior go-around with the Huskies, she has remained a talented and efficient scorer while also being the playmaker her team desperately needs.
Bueckers and UConn have been in the Final Four each of the last two years (and four out of the last five seasons), but the program hasn’t won a championship since 2016. Bueckers’ returning the Huskies to glory would be an incredibly satisfying story.
