With women’s college basketball returning at the end of the month, there is room again to decide who the face of the sport will be. Now that Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese are flourishing in the WNBA, there is still room for a multitude of star power. Whether it’s UConn’s Paige Bueckers, USC teammates Kiki Iriafen and JuJu Watkins or Notre Dame’s Olivia Miles, a lot of players will garner attention.
The season brings with it a host of storylines yet again.
How many wins does South Carolina get?
Dawn Staley’s team went 38-0 last season en route to a third national title for the program. Looking at the Gamecocks’ schedule this season, there’s reason to believe they can add onto that impressive winning streak.
In the six games before the Fort Myers Tip-Off on Nov. 28, South Carolina plays one AP-ranked opponent, No. 9 ranked NC State. Its other four opponents are Michigan, Clemson, East Carolina, Coppin State and UCLA. The UCLA Bruins had the best finish of that group last season. Regardless, South Carolina tends to field intimidating lineups, and even if center Kamilla Cardoso isn’t on the team anymore, there’s still plenty of returning weapons.
How do Georgia Amore and Kenny Brooks look in the SEC?
Amore followed her coach at Virginia Tech to the University of Kentucky and the Southeast Conference. ESPN has Amore ranked No. 12 in its 2025 WNBA mock draft, so Amore has one last season to show why she’s ready for pro ball. She was a dominant scorer at Virginia Tech, and how that transfers over to her new home will certainly play a factor in her draft stock. Amore and Brooks were some of many players and coaches to find new homes for the 2024-25 season.
How does Hailey van Lith transition TCU?
After a season at LSU sharing the court with Angel Reese, van Lith decided to take her talents elsewhere. When she joined LSU, she was tabbed by ESPN as the No. 1 overall transfer player in the portal. She landed at TCU, where she’ll share the court with star center Sedona Prince, who started in all 21 of her games last season as a graduate student. Expect van Lith to be a focal point of the offense at TCU and for the van Lith-Prince connection to be utilized multiple times throughout a game.
Kim Mulkey: A walking storyline
Van Lith’s former head coach, LSU’s Kim Mulkey, is always a storyline heading into a college basketball season. From her flowery outfits to her fiery expressions, Mulkey remains unpredictable as to what her tone will be to begin a new season. What we can predict is that she’ll have LSU ready to play and make a statement early in the 2024-25 season. Like South Carolina, LSU’s first loss of the season may not come early if Flau’Jae Johnson and company are clicking.
Jeff Goodman’s Top Coaching Hires for the 2024-25 Season
The coaching carousel was as active as the transfer portal this offseasonWhich Mid-Major will be a two-bid conference?
Princeton and Columbia both made the NCAA tournament last year. Their rosters looked significantly different than they do right now, but there is a possibility these two Ivy League juggernauts get favorable outcomes by the selection committee come March. What will that take exactly? Well, it’ll take a performance similar to last year where the two programs shared the Ivy League’s regular season title.
Ultimately, Princeton went on to win the conference championship and got the auto bid and Columbia got the at-large, but there is a significant chance that if the Ivy League is as competitive as it was a season ago, the conference could see two members playing in March Madness. Princeton was ranked No. 1 in the Ivy League Preseason Poll, and Columbia was No. 2 with five first-place votes.
Can Paige Bueckers get a title in college?
Bueckers is the presumptive No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft. She could have entered the draft with Clark, Reese and the rest of the star-studded 2024 class, but elected to return to UConn for one more season. A driving factor behind that decision was another chance to win an NCAA title. She scored 14 points in a loss against South Carolina in the 2022 National Title game but since then has not been back. Seeing how UConn navigates the Big East and eventually March Madness will be fun to watch as Bueckers puts a bowtie on her college career.
JuJu Watkins’ Sophomore Jump
Watkins was unanimously named to the AP’s Preseason All-American list on Tuesday. Per ESPN, it was the first time that three sophomores were on the list. Watkins had a busy offseason. Nike extended Watkins’ contract in early October. The company first signed Watkins in 2022. On the court, Watkins is slated to be one of the most prolific sophomores in the country and replicate last year’s success. She averaged 27.1 points per game and grabbed 7.3 rebounds. She had a season-high 51 points on the road against Stanford in February.
New Teams in New Places
As fans have seen throughout the fall, conferences look a bit different this year, and later in October, those changes will hit the basketball court. USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington joined the Big Ten, and Oklahoma and Texas joined the SEC from the Big 12. It makes the conference slate that much tougher, and while there are other teams shifting around, this cohort of schools are the most consequential. For the Big Ten, there is now much more cross-country travel, and that may or may not impact game performance. Either way, it certainly makes things interesting facing new opponents.
Will Ratings Remain High?
Largely fueled by a star-studded senior class, Caitlin Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes drew record ratings wherever she went. She was also selling out arenas on the road. On broadcast, the women’s basketball championship game generated more viewers (18.9 million) than the men’s final (14.8 million) for the first time ever. There are still a plethora of stars to watch on the women’s side this season like Bueckers, Watkins, Kiki Rice and many more, but will the ratings follow?
Notre Dame is healthy. Watch out.
A healthy Olivia Miles joins Hannah Hidalgo for the upcoming season. Miles missed last year with an injury but Notre Dame still had a massively successful campaign and was awarded the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Fighting Irish made it to the Sweet 16 last year, but it will be interesting to see how much further a fully healthy roster pushes them.
