The 2026 NCAA Tournament is here, and South Carolina women's basketball is hoping to make a run to the national championship game for the fourth time in the last five years. The 68-team bracket has been set, and a handful of teams could stand in the way of the Gamecocks' pursuit of another national title.
Duke alone atop ACC
No. 8 Duke is the only team from the Atlantic Coast Conference represented in the top 10 of the final AP Top 25 entering the NCAA Tournament. The team went 16-2 in conference play this season, beating out No. 13 Louisville and No. 15 North Carolina for the conference's top seed. The Blue Devils defeated the Cardinals 70-65 in overtime on March 8 to secure a second straight ACC Championship.
Duke is led by sophomore forward Toby Fournier, who earned All-ACC First Team honors in each of her first two seasons, as well as the conference's All-Defensive Team this year. She's averaging 17.3 points per game, the third-highest mark in the conference.
The highest scorer in the conference is No. 23 Notre Dame's junior guard Hannah Hidalgo at 25.2, also the third-highest mark in the country. She also grabbed 173 steals on the season, the only player in the country with more than 140. The Fighting Irish lost to Duke 65-63 in the semifinal round of the ACC Tournament.
The ACC didn't earn a first seed in this year's tournament, but with four top-25 teams (No. 8 Duke, No. 13 Louisville, No. 15 North Carolina, No. 23 Notre Dame), the conference is poised to operate as a thorn in the side of the nation's best later this March.
SEC superiority
No conference had more teams in the top 25 than the Southeastern Conference, as the SEC made up five of the top 10 and totaled eight teams in the AP's final poll of the season. South Carolina led the way for the entirety of the regular season, and its 15-1 record in conference play earned a fifth consecutive regular season title. After winning three straight SEC Championships, the team was dethroned by Texas on March 8.
The Longhorns and Gamecocks have faced off three times this season, with Texas coming out on top in two of three contests and thus becoming the top-ranked SEC team at No. 3 in the AP poll.
South Carolina followed at No. 4, then came No. 5 LSU and No. 6 Vanderbilt. These four teams lost a combined total of 12 regular season games; eight came against one another.
Despite having the nation's leading scorer in sophomore guard Mikayla Blakes, Vanderbilt was upset in the SEC Tournament quarterfinal by Ole Miss. The Rebels handed the Commodores two of their four losses on the season and finished the year No. 19 in the AP poll.
Rounding out the nation and the SEC's best is Oklahoma, which finished the season at No. 10 in the AP poll. The Sooners are the only team other than Texas to defeat South Carolina this season. The team is led by freshman guard Aaliyah Chavez, who is averaging 18.4 points per game.
On Jan. 26, the SEC set a record with 10 teams ranked in the AP Top 25, the most by any single conference in the poll's 50-year history.
Big threats in the Big Ten
The Big Ten Conference owns three of the top 10 slots in the final AP poll. That group is led by No. 2 UCLA, which capped off a dominant 31-1 season with a win over No. 7 Iowa in the conference championship Sunday. The Bruins made a statement by overpowering the Hawkeyes 96-45 to capture the tournament title.
The Bruins don't have a single player ranked in the top 50 in the nation in points per game, as the team's cohesion has made it a formidable opponent. Its 1.76 assist-to-turnover ratio is the second-best mark in the nation, as is its mark of 51.3% from the field.
The Bruins are dominant in the paint as well, posting an average rebound margin of 14.9 per game this season, a mark that ranks second in the nation.
UCLA's sole loss this season came to Texas on Nov. 26 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The team narrowly escaped defeat on Feb. 8 at Michigan by a score of 69-66. The Wolverines finished the season 25-6, a record that earned the team the No. 9 spot in the final AP poll.
Michigan took the nation's top-ranked team, the Connecticut Huskies, down to the wire in a 72-69 losing effort on Nov. 21. That game remains UConn's only one-score game this season.
UConn unrivaled as nation's best
Connecticut remains the nation's consensus best team, entering the NCAA Tournament a perfect 34-0 and as AP's No. 1 team.
The defending national champions waltzed to their sixth-straight Big East Championship, including a 100-51 win over Creighton in the semifinal round and a 90-51 win over Villanova in the championship.
On offense, the team has posted the highest assist to turnover ratio, field goal percentage, 3-point percentage and scoring offense in the country. Defensively, the Huskies rank first in allowed field goal percentage, scoring defense and steals per game.
The Huskies have played just one team ranked in the top 10 at the time of the game, but have still notched four top-25 wins this season. The team hung on to defeat then-No. 6 Michigan by 3 points.
No one else has given UConn any struggle since well before last year's NCAA Tournament, when the team earned double-digit wins in each of the six rounds, including over South Carolina in the national championship.
March Madness on the horizon
The Gamecocks will play their first game of the NCAA Tournament Saturday at Colonial Life Arena. After earning the lowest of the four No. 1 seeds, South Carolina will face a tough road in working back to national glory.