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Michael Voepel
Michael Voepel
ESPN Senior Author
- Michael Voepel is a senior author who covers the WNBA, ladies’s faculty basketball and different faculty sports activities. Voepel started masking ladies’s basketball in 1984, and has been with ESPN since 1996.
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Alexa Philippou
Alexa Philippou
ESPN
- Covers ladies’s faculty basketball and the WNBA
- Beforehand lined UConn and the WNBA Connecticut Solar for the Hartford Courant
- Stanford graduate and Baltimore native with additional expertise on the Dallas Morning Information, Seattle Instances and Cincinnati Enquirer
Oct 28, 2024, 09:30 AM ET
The 2023-24 ladies’s faculty basketball season ended with perfection because the South Carolina Gamecocks went 38-0 and gained this system’s third NCAA championship.
Can the Gamecocks run it again? That is one of many largest questions that can form the 2024-25 season.
Which participant will fill the sport’s brightest highlight now that Caitlin Clark, the two-time nationwide participant of the yr, is gone? What ought to we anticipate from final season’s thrilling freshman class, led by USC‘s JuJu Watkins? How will the breakup of the Pac-12 influence the game?
With the season tipping off Nov. 4, we have a look at 10 of the most important questions heading into the 2024-2025 season.
Can the Gamecocks win back-to-back titles?
Sure, they will. However they may look a bit completely different doing it, at the least early on, for the reason that Gamecocks’ guards may be forward of their publish play.
Middle Kamilla Cardoso, the No. 3 decide within the 2024 draft by the Chicago Sky, led South Carolina final season in factors, rebounds, blocks and subject purpose proportion. However the subsequent two scoring leaders, guards MiLaysia Fulwiley (11.7 factors per recreation) and Te-Hina Paopao (11.0 PPG), return.
South Carolina nonetheless has plenty of expertise within the publish, together with freshman Joyce Edwards. However ahead Ashlyn Watkins (9.2 PPG, 7.4 rebounds per recreation) has been suspended since an Aug. 31 arrest on prices of first-degree assault and battery and kidnapping. Her courtroom look set for Oct. 25 was rescheduled.
One other undefeated season looks as if lots to ask. However the Gamecocks — who return 87% of their minutes performed and 84% of their factors scored from a season in the past — are nonetheless first within the nationwide championship dialogue. — Voepel
Can UConn return to the mountaintop?
UConn is the gold commonplace of faculty basketball with 11 nationwide titles, however the Huskies have not been the final group standing since 2016, Breanna Stewart’s senior yr. The Huskies reached the Closing 4 in all however one season in that span, and performed within the 2022 nationwide title recreation.
May this be the yr they lastly win that twelfth championship? Former nationwide participant of the yr Paige Bueckers is hungry to make it occur in her last season in Storrs earlier than heading to the WNBA. She’ll have lots on her shoulders main a comparatively younger and inexperienced, albeit gifted, group following the departures of Aaliyah Edwards and Nika Muhl. This system might want to have higher luck with well being than it has skilled the previous few years to get again to the mountaintop. — Philippou
Can the L.A. colleges get to the Closing 4?
USC and UCLA had been two of essentially the most thrilling groups to look at final season. Watkins introduced the Trojans again to prominence for the primary time in many years, whereas Lauren Betts, Kiki Rice and Charisma Osborne led a deep Bruins squad.
Each groups ought to be even higher this yr. USC introduced in transfers Kiki Iriafen (Stanford) and Talia von Oelhoffen (Oregon State), plus a stacked freshman class, to assist Watkins. In Westwood, coach Cori Shut snagged intriguing transfers in Janiah Barker (Texas A&M), Timea Gardiner (Oregon State) and Charlisse Leger-Walker (Washington State).
The battle for the Massive Ten will preview each groups’ push to get to the Closing 4 — USC for the primary time since 1986 and UCLA for the primary time within the NCAA period. — Philippou
Who will win participant of the yr?
The favorites going into the season are sophomore Watkins (27.1 PPG, 7.3 RPG, 3.3 assists per recreation) and senior Bueckers (21.9 PPG, 5.2 RPG, 3.8 APG), who was the consensus participant of the yr her freshman season in 2020-21.
Different candidates would possibly emerge through the season, relying on how their groups carry out. Whereas South Carolina is the favourite at No. 1, the Gamecocks’ depth of expertise is such that they do not have an apparent participant of the yr candidate. — Voepel
Which freshmen or transfers will make the most important splash?
Final yr’s freshman class made waves all season lengthy. So did a bunch of transfers. So which newcomers — incoming freshmen or transfers to new applications — will show to be difference-makers in 2024-25?
So far as the freshmen go, UConn is the one program with two top-10 recruits, headlined by No. 1 prospect Sarah Strong. Jaloni Cambridge was an enormous get for Ohio State, particularly contemplating this system’s commencement losses. Joyce Edwards, who determined to remain residence and go to South Carolina, has already acquired rave evaluations from coach Daybreak Staley.
Other than the aforementioned transfers into the L.A. colleges, Raegan Beers (Oregon State to Oklahoma), Georgia Amoore (Virginia Tech to Kentucky) and Lucy Olsen (Villanova to Iowa) are among the many key gamers to look at. — Philippou
How will gamers again from accidents fare?
Three big-name guards missed all (Notre Dame‘s Olivia Miles), most (UConn’s Azzi Fudd) or a big half (Texas‘ Rori Harmon) of final season resulting from knee accidents. All are anticipated again, though Fudd most likely will not play till December. They’re dynamic gamers who could make an enormous distinction of their groups’ nationwide championship potential.
Different gamers to look at after harm: UConn heart Jana El Alfy (Achilles) is predicted to make her long-awaited faculty debut. LSU ahead Sa’Myah Smith (knee, performed seven video games final season) may very well be an enormous assist in making up for the lack of Angel Reese to the WNBA. Guard KK Deans (knee, performed six video games) ought to give Ole Miss‘ perimeter scoring a lift. — Voepel
How deep can a Hidalgo-Miles backcourt take the Irish?
With Miles out, Irish followers had been robbed of a yr of a Hannah Hidalgo-Miles backcourt. However we’ll get to lastly see that dynamic duo, and coach Niele Ivey already has stated the pairing goes to be “electrical.”
With Miles and Hidalgo main the cost, optimism is excessive in South Bend that that is the yr the Irish — the ACC preseason favorites — can advance previous the Candy 16 for the primary time in Ivey’s tenure.
These two will not must do it alone, because the Irish additionally return Sonia Citron and Maddy Westbeld and have a robust group of newcomers: transfers Liza Karlen (Marquette) and Liatu King (Pitt) plus freshman Kate Koval. — Philippou
What ought to we anticipate of Stanford in a brand new period?
Of all of the teaching adjustments, none is greater than Stanford not having legendary Tara VanDerveer on the sideline for the primary time since she took over in 1985. Kate Paye takes over, and we’ll see how completely different the Cardinal would possibly look below VanDerveer’s former participant and longtime assistant.
There’s additionally an enormous change in personnel, with Cameron Brink transferring on to the WNBA, Iriafen transferring and Hannah Soar finishing her eligibility. They had been the Cardinal’s prime three scorers from a 30-6 season.
Stanford is troublesome to undertaking proper now as a result of a lot is new, however the Cardinal taking part in within the ACC will likely be as unusual as something. — Voepel
What’s going to Iowa, Kentucky and Tennessee appear like below new management?
The scenario at Iowa is most just like Stanford, with Lisa Bluder stepping down after 24 years and her assistant throughout that point, Jan Jensen, taking on. The Hawkeyes misplaced not only a generational star in Clark, however gamers resembling beginning guards Kate Martin and Gabbie Marshall as nicely. That stated, ahead Hannah Stuelke is primed for an enormous junior season, and Jensen ought to get the most effective out of this group.
Kentucky continues to be in search of its first Closing 4 on the ladies’s facet. Coach Kenny Brooks made that breakthrough at Virginia Tech, so possibly he can do it with the Wildcats. It probably will not occur this season, however give Brooks time to determine his system.
At Tennessee, Kim Caldwell will attempt to switch her up-tempo offensive and defensive fashion to the SEC after success final yr at Marshall. Caldwell does not have a lot Division I expertise, so she should be taught on the fly in a hypercompetitive league. — Voepel
How will realignment influence faculty basketball?
The previous yr’s realignment whirlwind, and the disintegration of the Pac-12, will undoubtedly take some getting used to, significantly with Stanford and Cal now within the ACC, and USC, UCLA, Washington and Oregon within the Massive Ten.
However which applications will take advantage of noise of their new leagues? The L.A. colleges are on the prime of the listing, with each slotted as the highest two groups within the Massive Ten preseason ballot. Within the SEC, Texas was projected to complete behind South Carolina, and Oklahoma was picked to come back in fourth. May the Longhorns — a top-five preseason group nationally — problem the Gamecocks?
Not one of the ACC newcomers appear prone to emerge as convention contenders. Within the Massive 12, Kansas State and Iowa State determine to be the favorites with the Longhorns and Sooners gone. — Philippou