The South Carolina Gamecocks have been the most dominant team in women’s college basketball during the 2022-’23 season, and it shows in their likeliness to win the NCAA Championship again during March Madness this year.
Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks are the defending champions, and were nearly as dominant last season. They lost just two games in 2021-’22 by a total of three points, and rolled in March by capping off the tournament by defeating the UConn Huskies by 15 points in the title game.
Women’s March Madness 2023: South Carolina Has Best Odds To Win
They backed up that performance this year but finishing the regular season with an undefeated record. Star players Zia Cooke and Aliyah Boston have led the way by averaging 13+ points each, and Kamilla Cardoso completes a twin-tower set down low, as she and Boston average 2+ blocks per game each.
Due to the dominance, South Carolina is the far and away favorite to win back-to-back championships. They are listed at -160, giving them a 61 percent chance to hoist the hardware and cut down the nets. The Stanford Cardinal finished tied atop the Pac-12 with the Utah Utes with identical 15-3 conference records, but they have the second-best championship odds while the Utes are all the way down in 8th. Stanford is +600 while Utah is +2800.
Indiana is led by scoring machine Mackenzie Holmes, and they come in in third place in the odds listings at +600. UConn is number four, with a +900 designation.
The next two teams are somewhat long shots, but they are star-driven and could force some upsets during the tournament. Iowa is listed at +2000, and they have the nation’s second-leading scorer in Caitlin Clark averaging 27 points per game. Angel Reese is even more statistically dominant, as she puts up 23.4 points per contest and a whopping 15.5 rebounds.
South Carolina won the SEC Tournament on Sunday, their seventh conference title in the last nine seasons. Boston was the MVP of the tournament, and Cooke scored 24 points in the championship game against Tennessee. The Gamecocks have been had the designation of being the nation’s top team for 37 weeks in a row. For the first game of the NCAA tournament, they will play the winner of the contest between Chattanooga and SE Louisiana. The Final Four is on March 31st in Dallas.