By D.J. Harding
With the NCAA Women’s Final Four beginning on Friday, bringing the 2025-26 basketball season to a close, the remaining teams have a bit of history riding on them.
For Texas, South Carolina, UConn and UCLA, this weekend in Phoenix could be one that etches their names in history forever.
The Second Time Around
The Final Four may look familiar to some, and that’s because it’s the exact same teams that appeared last year. This is the first time with back-to-back teams in the Final Four since 1995-1996 with UConn, Tennessee, Georgia and Stanford.
This time around though, the four teams all entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed in each of their respective regions, which is only the fifth time this has happened. The other four times were in 1989, 2012, 2015 and 2018.
Winning in Remarkable Fashion
The Elite Eight round this year saw each game decided by an average of 23 points, which was the largest point differential in this round ever.
For the two teams representing the Southeastern Conference, Texas and South Carolina won every game in the previous four rounds by at least 20 points each. This marks the first time two different teams have had four, 20 plus-point wins in tournament history
The South Carolina Gamecocks’ 78-52 win over TCU not only booked their ticket to the Final Four, but it also gave them a +161 point differential through the first four rounds of the tournament, which is the largest in history for the Southeastern Conference.
This year’s women’s Elite Eight games were decided by an average of 23.0 PPG 😤 It was the largest average margin of victory in the Elite 8 all-time 😯 pic.twitter.com/JSBZ4teo7M
— ESPN Insights (@ESPNInsights) March 31, 2026
A Historic Achievement
Some players and coaches never reach the Final Four. But South Carolina guard Raven Johnson’s last season will be memorable, as she has made the Final Four every year of her college career.
Meanwhile, this will be the sixth straight Final Four for the South Carolina program at large and the second-longest streak by a coach for Dawn Staley. She trails UConn’s Geno Auriemma (14 straight Final Fours from 2008 to 2022).
The UConn Huskies will play in their third straight Final Four and 25th in program history, which is the current record. Auriemma has been with UConn through all 25 Final Fours and looks to bring the Huskies to win their 13th NCAA championship, which would extend the record for most national titles.
Also making history in this tournament is Texas Longhorns head coach Vic Schaefer. After coaching the Longhorns to back-to-back Final Fours, Schaefer becomes the first coach in history to bring multiple teams to multiple Final Fours, including Mississippi State in 2017 and 2018.
For All the Marbles
With a lot of history and achievements on the line, the only thing that is certain is the common goal of winning it all. The stakes are high and the pressure is higher for all Final Four teams as they play for a chance to forever be remembered as a national champion.
D.J. Harding is a sports reporter for HUNewsService.com.
