Since the days of women’s college basketball dynasties such as Immaculata University, which won three straight NCAA Division I titles from 1972 to 1974, and Louisiana Tech, which captured the 1982 and 1988 championships, and was the runner up in 1983, 1987, 1994 and 1998, playing in the shadows of their male counterparts is past history.
The popularity of Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese elevated women’s basketball even more in recent years as they led their teams, the Iowa Hawkeyes and LSU Tigers, respectively, to consecutive Final Four appearances, with Reese’s Tigers defeating Clark’s Hawkeyes in the 2023 NCAA Championship game.
Clark’s Hawkeyes avenged the loss in the 2024 Elite Eight by eliminating LSU before losing in the championship game to Dawn Staley’s South Carolina Gamecocks as the ratings for the matchup peaked at 12.3 million viewers — the most-watched men’s or women’s college basketball ever on ESPN. While Clark and Reese are now in the WNBA, they left women’s college basketball in a great position.
After finishing second in the country in scoring last season as a freshman, averaging 27.1 points per game and breaking the all-time women’s freshman scoring record with 920 points, USC’s Juju Watkins is back as a sophomore and has the Trojans as one of the top teams in the country. The 19-year-old Los Angeles native is on pace to break Clark’s all-time Division I scoring record of 3,951 points if she plays four years.
After USC’s loss to UConn in the Elite Eight of last season’s NCAA tournament, Watkins said, “I think just coming up short, that adds a lot of fuel to the fire for the next couple of years. I’m just excited to go back home and get in the gym now. I’m really focused on learning from this season as a whole, things I can improve on. Definitely my efficiency and stuff like that. But I’m just grateful for this year because I’ve learned a lot.” Watkins continues to prove that she did indeed learn a lot as a freshman.
Doubleheader women’s basketball events like the inaugural Women’s Champions Classic at Barclays Center and the 2024 Basketball Hall of Fame Women’s Showcase at Mohegan Sun Arena, both held in Dec. 2024, are emblematic of sponsors’ increased investment in women’s college basketball.
Ultimately, the talent on the court will push the game forward, and there is plenty of that. UCLA center Lauren Betts, Ta’Niya Latson of Florida State, New Jersey native Hannah Hidalgo of Notre Dame and Sarah Strong of UConn have all had tremendous starts this season.
The women’s college game is in a great place and the stars of today hope to push it even further.