A revenge of the Carolina Uconn-South National Championship is exactly what the NCAA tournament needed

TAMPA, Fla. – A year after the women’s college basket has made history by attracting a wider television audience for its national championship than the game of the male title, the question has always lingered: how, perhaps, could this rise at the rise?

There were the individual stars, who, after the departure of Caitlin Clark for Wnba, could continue to bring forward the game – Juju Watkins, Paige Bueckers, Flau’jae Johnson – and non -conference games of the tent among the best contending teams in the country sprinkled throughout the year. But in the same way that a team gives off its inheritance in March and April, so also a season does its last sign on how it will be remembered in the last days of the season.

There is no more suitable way, it is not a better way to continue to advance female basketball than having the two largest programs with the two most important coaches of the game on opposite benches this Sunday, in the running for the national title.

Of course, it is not Geno Auriemma and Dawn Staley on the field, even if both will have their fingerprints in this game. Because it is Stley and Auriemma, Uconn and South Carolina, familiarity and their competitive track have created this rivalry and have also brought new eyes to the game. There will be a small margin of error.

Sunday, Dawn Stley and Geno Auriemma train each other in the 2025 national championship match.

Auriemma holds a head-to-head record 8-5 against Staley, including a post-installation record 1-1. pic.twitter.com/woria184ik

– The Athletic (@Theathletic) April 5, 2025

“It seems that the two most important programs currently in the basketball of the female college are playing for the right to be national champions. And we both deserve it – they deserve to be here; we deserve to be here,” said Auriemma. “Past performances, what happened last year will not be a factor for what happens on Sunday. Our 11 national championships will not help us win on Sunday.”

The story may not play what happens on the floor for 40 minutes on Sunday, but it certainly establishes the background. The 11 national titles of Auriemma have set the standard for what the women’s college basketball could and should be. In recent seasons, since Staley’s program has risen to the top of this sport, its teams have left the game. The South Carolina has reached five consecutive finals, joining the company of standard bearers such as Uconn, Tennessee and Stanford. Gamecocks are in their third appearance of the national title in four years. Stley is 3-0 in the games of the national championship; Auriemma is 11-1 (his only loss coming to the Gamecocks in 2022).

Even before then, the paths of the coaches frowned. They grew 15 miles away in the Filadelphia area over 16 years between their childhood. The first important Auriemma coaching assistant arrived at the University of Virginia since 1981-85, working for Debbie Ryan. In 1985, he left to take the coaching Uconn work and in 1988, Stley became the starting guard of Ryan in a team of Cavaliers who was undertaking two decades of national relevance in the circles of women’s college.

In 1991, Auriemma led the Huskies to their Prime Final Four, where he lost against Staley, Ryan and Uva. Later, during the 2000 Olympics – the second of Staley’s three Olympic appearances – Auriemma was an assistant to the Fortner staff, working with Staley as a player. In 2012 and 2016, he left the team two golds and then delivered the reins to Staley for the 2020 Olympic cycle.

During the first season of Staley in South Carolina, the Gamecocks and the Huskies were addressed and for seven consecutive matches, Uconn delivered. But in 2020, in the South Carolina, the tides turned. The Gamecocks, with a five initial five that included four future WNBA choices in the first round, collected the Huskies at home.

“Things have changed as you knew they would do. They won’t remain like this forever,” said Auriemma. “The more things change, the more they remain the same. Now here we are.”

(2) Uconn vs. (1) South Carolina

The 2025 women’s national championship is set 🏆 pic.twitter.com/r9yxsnfnrr

– The Athletic (@Theathletic) April 5, 2025

It means, of course, that the cloak once was held as opposite perennial Uconn – previously occupied by Pat Summitt and Tennessee; Mcgraw and Notre Dame Muffet – they were now married on Staley and the South Carolina.

“It is difficult to enter what Pat Summitt and Geno have done in the time when they served our game. As, it is really difficult to also be mentioned in that air,” said Stley. “We have been unusually lucky because I think we give hope to other programs that are in progress and who come to know that you can break out. You can enter.”

Since (and included) that 2020 wins at home, the South Carolina has maintained the advantage, going 5-2 against Uconn, including the match of the National title of 2022.

But the game that holds the maximum resonance for Sunday is what happened six weeks ago in Columbia, when the Huskies took a series of victories in the house in 71 games of the South Carolina. It was the type of Uconn performance that Auriemma said that the “requests and needs” of rivalry to remain competitive. The loss, the one in which the Gamecocks never exercised a competitive advantage, was clamor and contributed to the gamecocks who have not received seed n. 1 in the NCAA tournament.

On the contrary, the victory has become the definitive declaration of the regular season of Uconn, a point of reference for how good the Huskies could be when they played against the maximum competition.

This is what you want in a rivalry: two teams that provide mutual measuring spoken.

And now? In the last 40 minutes of the season, we receive a revenge of the two best teams, two more motivated and two more prepared in the country. After a season in which equality has been parrot as a decisive theme, Sunday’s matchup presents the two most obvious answers in terms of who should be here and whoever serves the best this moment.

In a season that has maintained the momentum forward without the individual power of someone as Clark who leads the TV assessments, a game of the title of the South Carolina, a game of auriemma-staley chess provides the perfect ending as they are both at the height of the Hype of what it can be. It also has the stage for what will come.

(Photo: Sean Rayford / Getty Images)