Amidst the confetti shower and celebratory TikTok dances, reality now sets in โ this installment of the college basketball season has come to an end. Back in October 2025, we did our best to predict who would be part of the storylines for the upcoming year in the womenโs game. There were new head coaches, transfers landing in new programs and key players who would be spectators only as they recover from injury. The 2025-26 season has been our first in this new era of revenue sharing in college athletics. Parity is no doubt more of a reality during the regular season โ but be sure to fill out your March Madness brackets in chalk.
The early weeks of the season are when teams start to find their way with lots of home games and tougher challenges at beachside tournaments. No longer do we need to wait for the calendar to turn to the new year to start conference play โ December kicks off the grind in earnest for many. The weekly awards start to accumulate for players in every league while coaches and support staff become sleep-deprived. By March 2026, we crowned regular-season conference champions, and teams turned their focus to their conference tournaments to claim that coveted at-large bid. If you want to guarantee your name is part of Selection Sunday, then you need to capture a tournament title and flaunt the shiny ring that comes with it.
The 2026 version of March Madness was set with a tournament bracket that gave us a snapshot of the parity we saw throughout the season in womenโs basketball. Could all four No. 1 seeds advance to the Final Four? Would there be a Cinderella to spoil someoneโs travel plans to Phoenix? Would there be a repeat champion who was tempting the basketball gods for lucky number 13? Who would be the name we would be talking about after the 2026 NCAA Tournament? Those questions and more were answered as the action unfolded with big shots, monster wins, heartbreaking losses, and magnificent individual performances.
The 2026 Final Four was a top-seed four-step โ each of the No. 1 seeds advanced to Phoenix after decisive victories in their respective regional finals. Defending national champion UConn landed in the Valley of the Sun on a 54-game winning streak and as the overall top seed in the field. Texas claimed the 2026 SEC tournament title and cruised through its regional to earn back-to-back trips to the Final Four. Both teams had been in the spotlight all season, handling the challenges and pressure as well as anyone. While these two programs did not advance to the national championship, they continue to elevate the womenโs game in every way. Congratulations to all of you โ thank you for giving us a fantastic season.
The national championship game on Sunday, April 5, was full of storylines that set it up for history in the making: two teams with a combined five losses on the season, a program searching for their first-ever national title, an elite head coach spun up in post-game drama, and her program looking to capture their fourth championship in nine years. This title game was a culmination of the season we watched โ pressure is not for the weak, everything is earned, and in the end, the better team now bears the crown.
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP โ South Carolina vs. UCLA
These two teams were no strangers to winning during the 2025-26 season. UCLA dropped just one game during its regular slate, a game the Bruins avenged in their win over Texas in the national semifinals. The Bruins ran the table on their way to capturing the Big Ten regular-season and tournament titles. South Carolina had won 16 of 17 games before their arrival in Phoenix. They executed a flawless game plan to shut down UConn and assert their physicality on the Huskies. The Gamecock victory spoiled the defending national championsโ quest for a perfect season.
Many called this a matchup of โblue bloodโ programs, but let us set the record straight. UCLA is a โblue bloodโ in menโs basketball. This was just their second trip to the Final Four ever on the womenโs side, and they have never won a national title. South Carolinaโs success in the womenโs game only started with the arrival of head coach Dawn Staley in 2008. These two programs are elite, but in the new era of womenโs basketball.
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This highly anticipated matchup had us wondering if nerves would be running on overdrive for either team. Both UCLA head coach Cori Close and Staley knew they needed strong starts from their squads. It was the Bruins that were dominant from the opening tip and did not look back. They raced out to an 11-point lead after the first quarter, jumping on South Carolina 21-10. It was 36-23 at halftime, and in the second half, the route was on. UCLA never once trailed in the game and dominated the Gamecocks inside and out. They destroyed South Carolina on the glass (49-37), including 21 offensive rebounds that they turned into 25 points. Their unselfish play resulted in 23 assists on 30 made field goals, and five Bruins finished in double figures. Senior guard Gabriela Jacquez led all scorers with 21 points and added 10 rebounds, while fellow senior Lauren Betts had 14 points, 11 boards and two blocks. When the buzzer sounded and the confetti began to fall, UCLA had captured its first-ever national title by dismantling South Carolina, 79-51.
South Carolinaโs success this season and in the NCAA Tournament has been because of their speed, balance and defensive intensity. Staley was stacked with veteran guards like fifth-year senior Raven Johnson, senior TaโNiya Latson and junior Tessa Johnson, but UCLA had more weapons at every position that kept them in attack mode all day. Too many empty possessions by the Gamecocks were matched by the aggressive onslaught of UCLAโs talented scorers in the paint and on the perimeter. Sophomore Joyce Edwards and freshman Agot Makeer could not answer the physicality of the Bruinsโ frontcourt. The Gamecocks shot just 29% from the field on the day, and only two players reached double figures โ Makeer and Tessa Johnson. The 51 points South Carolina scored in the national final were the lowest scoring output they had all season. The Bruins, however, were on fire from the jump and never let up, shooting 44% on the day, going 8-for-19 from behind the arc, and were 11-for-13 from the charity stripe.
South Carolina understands the pressures of winning a national title, and now so does UCLA. Their ascent to the top is a story of resiliency, teamwork and belief. The Bruins are by no means a Cinderella story โ this team was the No. 1 seed in their regional and lost only one game all season. Yet it is a storybook ending for a coach who believed in her vision for the program, never wavered from instilling a culture of winning and accountability and made UCLA a place where players could thrive during their careers.
The backbone of this team was a group of six seniors, including Jaquez and Kiki Rice (10 points and five assists in the finals), who each played their entire four-year career in blue and gold. Betts, who spent three years in Westwood after transferring from Stanford, was named Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four. The 6โ7 Colorado native has openly shared her mental health struggles as a student-athlete and credits the UCLA program for helping her and giving her a place to thrive. 6โ4 Oregon transfer Angela Dugaliฤ sacrificed her starting spot this season for the betterment of the team and then delivered nine points, five rebounds and four assists in the finals off the bench.
Veteran leadership was ever present from point guard Charlisse Leger-Walker, who missed last yearโs Final Four run with injury but had 10 points against the Gamecocks. Utah transfer Gianna Kneepkens filled a missing perimeter piece that Close did not have a year ago and made her presence known all season. The 6โ guard finished the game with 15 points and four assists. It was a true team effort for UCLA, led by All-American talent and a coach who never lost sight of who they are as a program.
Close has spoken often about her relationship with legendary UCLA menโs coach John Wooden. Her coaching philosophy has been molded by the advice he shared with her. UCLA has its rich history of success in menโs basketball (10 NCAA titles in 12 years under Wooden), but across the board in womenโs athletics. Programs such as water polo, softball, gymnastics and track and field have set the standard in Westwood. While this is the 126th total NCAA title for UCLA womenโs and menโs athletics, it is hard to fathom that this is just the first time that womenโs basketball has cut down the nets. In this insane landscape that we see changing every day in college athletics, it can be an uphill battle to set the standard for success and find those who want to be part of a culture of winning โ on and off the court.
In her postgame interview after winning the national championship, Close said โAll year we have been saying the talent is our floor, but our character will determine our ceiling.โ The Bruins have raised the bar this season and have reached the pinnacle that so many are chasing. When you expect excellence and do it with joy, your chances for success are only going to increase. Congratulations to the 2026 National Champions โ you did it the right way.
END OF SEASON FILM REVIEW
At the end of the season a year ago, we were sitting in anticipation of the changes that were coming to college athletics. The House vs. NCAA settlement that would change the landscape as we knew it was set to go into effect on July 1, 2025. Institutions that opt into the settlement. would be able to compensate student-athletes directly starting in the 2025-26 school year. The permissive cap imposed by the settlement would be $20.5 million per school the first year and include significant changes in how Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) opportunities are governed and overseen. As the transfer portal ran in overdrive last spring, schools were racing to compensate athletes before the revenue-sharing restrictions went into effect. In laymanโs terms, deals were struck for dollars under the umbrella of NIL so that athletes could sign and get bigger payouts before the revenue-sharing restrictions went into effect.
Fast forward to April 2026 and all we seem to talk about in college athletics is โrev share.โ How much of the $20.5M at institutions that opted has been allotted to womenโs basketball? This question is influencing coaching changes, the transfer portal and retaining players on current rosters. We have seen current head coaches make lateral moves to new institutions simply because they know they will have more revenue-sharing funds available to them and/or they can stretch the amount farther than they could at their previous stop.
From the moment a teamโs season ends, coaches are in renegotiations with current players that could return about their rev share amounts โ for some, they could go up, for others, they could go down. The womenโs basketball transfer portal officially opened at midnight on April 6, and by the time this edition of The Weekly Fast Break reaches our readers, there will be just shy of 1,250 student-athletes in the womenโs basketball transfer portal. Where will they all go, you ask? If only we could tell you, and most really do not know themselves.
2026 NCAA transfer portal trackers
Those discussions do not just occur between players, families and coaches anymore. There are handlers and agents now involved in every discussion. We know that there are many who are making the change for legitimate reasons โ to be closer to home, coaching changes, finding a better fit, etc. Others will make the decision to transfer due to academics, so they can pursue a graduate degree at a new institution while playing. There are a few hundred players who want to see if, after successful seasons in a mid-major program or at the Division II level, they can make it at a Power 5 school.
However, for more than weโd like to acknowledge, they are searching to see if the grass is greener, and by that we mean how much cash is coming to them. Talk of big paychecks is blurring the lines of a constantly moving target. Agents and greedy families are telling players to pit their current school against โan offerโ from someone else to see if they can get more money to stay. The reality to come in the weeks and months ahead in womenโs college basketball is that โrev shareโ is not an open-ended bank account. Most of the $20.5M at a power conference institution is allotted to football and menโs basketball. But what if you have a top-ranked menโs hockey or baseball program at your school? Womenโs basketball falls farther down the list in those cases. Some womenโs programs will always have the means to get whomever they want on their roster โ how they do it is the question.
Throughout this season, we talked a lot about parity in the womenโs game. We saw dozens of teams bounce in and out of the AP Top 25 poll, and many mid-major programs joined in the fun. Sustaining success at the mid-major level in todayโs world is a difficult feat. Players have great seasons and jump into the portal to head to power conferences. Rosters get depleted, and what seems like could be a great season becomes a rebuild yet again. Coaches at every level who can have sustained success are the ones who have found the right formula. They establish a culture of winning where players can stay to develop their talents and win, and for the rosters that stay intact, lots of success is on the other side.
But the question now is that if we have so much parity in the womenโs game, then why, when the Big Dance rolls around, did we have so many blowouts? Where is Cinderella? Can someone else besides a No. 1 seed get to the Final Four? Athletic departments will say they are investing in womenโs basketball. If there is one thing that this season has shown us, it is that the changing landscape has led the top-tier programs to get bigger pieces of the rev share pie than even programs in their own power conferences. They have more money to pay players to come to their campus, plain and simple. The rest are left to piece their rosters together like a small-market team in professional sports.
The portal will make your head spin, and the only thing we know for certain is that it is here to stay. For those that are wanting to craft their version of a โWay Too Earlyโ rankings for next season, may the force be with you. These rosters are going to change every week for the next few months. We go by a simple rule here at The Weekly Fast Break โ when they are on campus in the fall, then we can talk.
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FULL COURT PRESS
With the 2025-26 college basketball season ending, The Weekly Fast Break is headed into an extended media timeout. It is such a pleasure to share the stories of our game with you each week. All of us at The IX Sports are grateful for our readers who support our work and allow us to elevate womenโs basketball across the country and the globe. Here at The Weekly Fast Break, we take great pride in highlighting those teams and players who you do not always see on network TV or making the Top 10 on SportsCenter. We are indebted to the countless womenโs basketball communications contacts across the country that have helped us with statistics, notes and photos throughout the season. Some of the hardest working and best SIDs in the nation work in womenโs basketball โ we truly appreciate every one of you.
While this media break lingers into the next few months, have no fear โ there really is no off-season anymore in college athletics. We think we deserve a little time off, but it cannot be for too long because everyone else is in the gym working on their game. The motivation to be crowned next yearโs national champion is real โ who is coming for the 2026 hardware? We cannot wait to find out.
*All statistics cited in this column are sourced from university and conference-provided statistics
