The Huskies will take on the NCAA Tournament’s No. 1 overall seed with a trip to the national title game on the line.
UConn women’s basketball is back in the Final Four for a second straight season and its 16th time in the last 17 tournaments. The Huskies have made it this far on 24 occasions, more than any other program in women’s basketball history. They’ve been to Tampa for the event three times previously.
Meanwhile, UCLA is making its NCAA Final Four debut this weekend. The Bruins went in the AIAW days back in 1978 and 1979 but haven’t been one of the last four teams standing since.
Yet while UConn is the betting favorite, UCLA has the better resume this season. The Bruins won their first 24 games and have only lost two games — though both defeats came to USC. They’re the No. 1 overall seed for a reason and are coming in with the self-belief of such.
“This is this year’s UConn’s team, not the last 10 or 20 years of UConn teams, and this is our UCLA team,” head coach Cori Close said. “I have a lot of confidence, both mentally and physically and tactically, in this UCLA team and I think it’s going to be a great battle.”
How to watch
Date: Friday, Apr. 4
Time: 9:30 p.m. ET (approximate)
Location: Amalie Arena, Tampa, Florida
TV: ESPN
Stream: SlingTV (You can watch every March Madness game live with SlingTV)
Radio: UConn Sports Network (97.9 Fox Sports and affiliates)
UCLA Bruins
Record: 34-2 (16-2 Big Ten)
Seed: 1 (First overall)
Location: Los Angeles, California
Head coach: Cori Close (14th season)
Path to the Final Four: 16-seed Southern, 8-seed Richmond, 5-seed Ole Miss, 3-seed LSU
Final Four history: First appearance (NCAA era); UCLA made the AIAW Final Four in 1978 and 1979.
Names to know
No. 51 Lauren Betts — Standing at 6-7, Betts is the best post player in the country, won Naismith Defensive Player of the Year and is a finalist for most national player of the year awards. In her junior year, she’s averaged 20.0 points and 9.6 rebounds while serving as the anchor for a UCLA team that lost just twice all season. Betts can single-handedly win the games for the Bruins, especially against a UConn team that prefers to play small.
No. 1 Kiki Rice — Rice runs the point for UCLA, averaging 5.1 assists. She can be an inconsistent scorer — she finished with 10 points in the NCAA Tournament opener, dropped 23 in the second round, followed it up with 13 in the Sweet Sixteen but only had eight in the Elite Eight — but is the only other Bruin (along with Betts) to average double-figures.
No. 23 Gabriela Jaquez — A 6-0 guard, Jaquez does a little bit of everything for UCLA. She plays the third-most minutes on the team behind only Betts and Rice while putting up 9.9 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists for the Bruins. If the name sounds familiar, her brother, Jaime Jaquez, helped UCLA men’s basketball to the Final Four in 2021 and now plays for the Miami Heat.