The long offseason is over. Women’s college basketball is back.
It’s been seven months since the Final Four in Dallas, where Iowa ended South Carolina’s perfect season and LSU triumphed over a Virginia Tech team making its national semifinal debut. In the championship game, the Tigers contained Caitlin Clark just enough to win their first-ever national title, and the fourth overall for coach Kim Mulkey.
Some stars like Aliyah Boston and Diamond Miller went off to the WNBA, while others like Elizabeth Kitley and Celeste Taylor came back to college for one more year. Other offseason headlines were powered by the transfer portal and coaching changes.
Here’s a few storylines that you need to pay attention to as the season gets underway.
Can LSU repeat?
The Tigers won their first-ever national title in Dallas last season behind a once-in-a-lifetime performance from Jasmine Carson, the steady guard play from Alexis Morris and Angel Reese’s dominance in the paint.
Reese and Kim Mulkey are back – as is starting guard-slash-rapper Flau’jae Johnson – and the Tigers reloaded by adding stars like Louisville’s Hailey Van Lith and DePaul’s Aneesah Morrow through the transfer portal. LSU also picked up Mikaylah Williams, who is ranked as ESPN’s second-best recruit in the 2023 class. Can Mulkey make all these playing styles and personalities fit? We’ll see.
It’s worth noting that, of Mulkey’s three title teams at Baylor, none of them made it to the Final Four in the following tournament. Overall, the sport hasn’t seen a repeat champion since 2016.
Which transfers will make the biggest impacts?
The transfer portal absolutely dominated the offseason as major players found new teams. Some of them went from coast-to-coast while others stayed in the same conference, or even the same state.
With five starters leaving, Dawn Staley was active in the transfer market and found a new guard for the South Carolina Gamecocks by bringing in Te-Hina Paopao from Oregon, a player that shot 42.4% from 3-point land last season. Staley also added 6-foot-5 Sakima Walker, who was the Division I JUCO Player of the Year at Northwest Florida State last season.
After losing Kennedy Todd-Williams to Ole Miss and Destiny Adams to Rutgers, North Carolina made moves too. Courtney Banghart brought in Iowa State’s Lexi Donarski, Boston College’s Maria Gakdeng and Stanford’s Indya Nivar to pair with the likes of Deja Kelly and Alyssa Ustby. Donarski is a former McDonald’s All-American and a Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, Gakdeng broke shot-blocking records at Boston College, and Nivar is a versatile and athletic wing that was once a five-star recruit.
Other top players like, like ACC Defensive Player of the Year Celeste Taylor (Duke to Ohio State) and 2022 No. 1 recruit Lauren Betts (Stanford to UCLA) found new homes too.
It’s the last year of the Pac-12 as we know it.
Because of football-driven conference realignment, the Pac-12 is about to fracture and cease to exist.
But before we mourn the death of the Pac-12, we should celebrate it. Because the conference is going to be ultra-competitive this year.
Colorado is coming off its best season in 20 years and returns four starters. Utah brings back everyone – including reigning Pac-12 Player of the Year Alissa Pili – from a Sweet 16 run. At Stanford, Cameron Brink is back. At UCLA, Charisma Osborne and Kiki Rice return.
USC looks a lot better too after landing the nation’s top recruit in JuJu Watkins and three transfers who were All-Ivy League players in Kaitlyn Davis, McKenzie Forbes and Kayla Padilla. Rayah Marshall also returns after averaging 12.7 points, 11.5 rebounds and 3.5 blocks per game as a sophomore last season.
Paige Bueckers is back.
Remember, last year was considered a down year for the Huskies, and they still won the Big East and made the Elite Eight – without Bueckers and without fully healthy seasons from Azzi Fudd and Caroline Ducharme. All three are expected to be ready to go when the season tips off, as are All-American talents Aaliyah Edwards and Nika Muhl, and five-star recruit KK Arnold.
Barring injuries, the sky is the limit for UConn.
The stars are still here.
Of course, we couldn’t get through a post previewing the upcoming women’s college basketball season without mentioning Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, the reigning consensus National Player of the Year. She’s back, and so are several other stars, like Virginia Tech’s Elizabeth Kitley and Georgia Amoore. The Hokies and Hawkeyes will face off in Charlotte on Nov. 9 in what should be a banger of a non-conference matchup.
Other former All-Americans, from Indiana’s Mackenzie Holmes to Texas’ Rori Harmon to Florida State’s Ta’Niya Latson, are still here too. It’s another year where the sport is loaded with talent.
