With the women's college basketball season set to tip off on Sunday (Nov. 1), it's worth taking a look at some of the major events of the summer and what programs benefited -- or didn't -- from the offseason. When we last left the sport, UCLA had just routed South Carolina to win the national championship. All six players who scored for UCLA in the Bruins' first even NCAA national title have graduated, but players such as Sienna Betts are embracing bigger roles and showing that the reigning national champions can still be competitive this upcoming season.
Meanwhile, USC is preparing for a bounce-back year with the return of superstar JuJu Watkins. On the opposite side of the country, Dawn Staley's South Carolina Gamecocks are looking like a favorite even after the departure of their starting point guard Raven Johnson. Other programs are still figuring some things out, including the Tennessee Lady Vols, who had a complete roster turnover.
Without further ado, here are the winners and losers of the offseason. The Trojans faced some struggles during their 2025-26 campaign without star player JuJu Watkins. She tore her ACL during the second round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament, but finally made her return to practice this summer.
When the season tips off in November, she will have been out for about 19 months. There might be some rust, but this is the same player who set the NCAA Division I women's basketball freshman scoring record with 920 points during the 2023-24 season. As a sophomore, she averaged 23.9 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 2.2 steals and 1.8 blocks per game.
Despite ending her sophomore campaign with an injury, she still earned the 2024-25 Naismith Player of the Year award. Having Watkins back is great news for USC, but what will truly make the Trojans dangerous is that she will play alongside Jazzy Davidson, who led USC in every major category last season and was named the 2025-26 national freshman of the year. The high-profile freshman streak continues this season as Coach Lindsay Gottlieb added Saniyah Hall, the No. 1 player in the ESPN class of 2026.
JuJu Watkins coached Saniyah Hall at Overtime Takeover last year: “That was before she committed though. So I was in her ear about committing a little bit hoping that she would come to SC.” pic.twitter.com/kM1H8UXaWF Michigan made the top five of our way-too-early power rankings in April because after a historic season with 28 wins and an Elite Eight appearance, the Wolverines were returning most of their key players, including Olivia Olson, Syla Swords, Mila Holloway and Te'Yala Delfosse. Unfortunately, Holloway -- the team's starting point guard for the past two seasons -- is out indefinitely due to a left lower leg injury, the team announced on Sept. 3.
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