The 2026-27 women's basketball campaign kicked off Sunday as Notre Dame took down Villanova in Rome. Most teams, though, are getting their seasons started on Monday and Tuesday. JuJu Watkins is back, UCLA enters are defending champs and South Carolina comes into the season as the nation's No. 1 team.
So what should we expect this season? We're predicting the 2027 Final Four, the national champion and the National Player of the Year below. Gibbs: I know that there are no sure things in college sports anymore, but UConn and South Carolina making it to the Final Four is about as close as it gets.
Both teams lost some key pieces last year – most notably Azzi Fudd and Raven Johnson to the WNBA – but are still incredibly stacked. UConn has the returning national player of the year, Sarah Strong, as well as veteran players like KK Arnold, Jana El Elfy and Ashlynn Shade. The Huskies are also adding Olivia Vukosa, the No. 2 player in the class per ESPN, and have sophomore Blanca Quiñonez back and ready to take on a bigger role.
There are a few more questions for USC, but mainly because the Trojans haven't made a Final Four since 1986. But they did make the Elite Eight in 2024 and 2025, and have the most talented roster of Lindsay Gottlieb's tenure. Not only is JuJu Watkins back after 588 days away due to her ACL injury, but she's joining the 2025-26 Freshman of the Year, Jazzy Davidson, and the No. 1 recruit from the class of 2026, Saniyah Hall.
This should be a Final Four team at last. The fourth team was tough to choose – Michigan, LSU, Texas, Vanderbilt, even Notre Dame are all in the mix of about 10 teams I'd consider for this spot. However, I went with Duke.
Kara Lawson's squad is coming off of back-to-back Elite Eight appearances, and added the No. 4 recruiting class and Texas Transfer Aaliyah Crump to the mix. I'm expecting Toby Fournier to be in the National Player of the Year conversation and both Arianna Robinson and Riley Nelson to take big steps forward. Plus, redshirt freshman Emilee Skinner – who Lawson was bullish about ahead of the 2025-26 season before Skinner's injury interrupted it – is finally healthy.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
