The Final Four in the women’s NCAA basketball tournament is officially set, and it will feature all four No. 1 seeds for just the fifth time after Texas and South Carolina won their respective games on Monday.
Here are some winners and losers from Monday’s action:
Winner: No. 1 seeds
The stage is set for a pair of epic clashes in Friday’s Final Four. After Connecticut (38-0, 20-0 Big East) and UCLA (35-1, 18-0 Big Ten) punched their tickets on Sunday, Texas (35-3, 13-3 SEC) and South Carolina (35-3, 15-1 SEC) joined them on Monday. It is the first time since 1996 that the same teams are in the Final Four in consecutive seasons.
The Longhorns held two-seed Michigan (28-7, 15-3 Big Ten) to a season-low 41 points and rode the hot hand of junior forward Madison Booker (19 points, 8-of-13 FG) in a 77-41 win.
The Gamecocks, meanwhile, used a fourth-quarter runaway to knock off the three-seed TCU (32-6, 15-3 Big 12), 78-52. South Carolina specifically excelled on the boards, outrebounding the Horned Frogs, 52-24, and outlasting a TCU squad that was in search of its first Final Four.
The Huskies and Gamecocks will meet in a rematch of the 2025 national championship game, and the Bruins will look to avenge their only loss of the season when they face the Longhorns in Friday’s Final Four nightcap.
Loser: Michigan’s offensive woes
Michigan entered the Elite Eight averaging the ninth-most points per game (83.5 PPG), but that was nonexistent against Texas. The Wolverines fell behind 22-9 after the first quarter and only shot 13-of-57 (23%) from the floor. Texas was going to be a challenge coming in, but trailing early and shooting that poorly only made it even more difficult for Michigan.
Winner: Texas’ historic margin of victory in NCAA Tournament
The Longhorns have dominated their way to the Final Four, and the Wolverines were the latest team to come out on the losing end. According to the ESPN broadcast, Texas has a 142-point margin of victory in the Big Dance, which is the largest by an SEC team entering the Final Four in tournament history.
“I can’t do anything without them,” Texas guard Rori Harmon told ESPN’s Holly Rowe after the game. “I’m not me without them.”