Twelve questions (and answers) ahead of the 2025 women’s NCAA Tournament
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2025 NCAA Selection Sunday preview
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage previewing 2025 NCAA Tournament Selection Sunday for men’s and women’s college basketball on March 16.
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March Madness is back: Twelve questions (and answers) for the 2025 men’s NCAA Tournament
Twelve questions (and answers) ahead of the 2025 women’s NCAA Tournament
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NCAA Tournament time is here again.
The 2025 women’s NCAA Tournament opens play with the First Four on March 19 and 20 at select top-16 host sites, and more parity than ever before in the sport has spectators on the edge of their seats. In the wake of several significant coaching changes, the effective dissolution of the Pac-12 and related conference movement, and a dominant crop of underclassmen packed with rising stars continuing to assert themselves as the new faces of the sport, this year’s tournament promises excitement, iconic performances and, of course, upsets.
From South Carolina’s quest to go back-to-back, to several beloved seniors’ last chance to hoist a national championship trophy, to the handful of realistic candidates to go all the way, there are so many story lines to track throughout March Madness.
Here are 12 questions and answers to get you ready for March Madness:
When and where is the Final Four this year?
The 2025 Final Four will take place at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida. The multipurpose venue, which first opened its doors in October 1996 as the “Ice Palace,” is home to the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning.
The first Final Four game will be played at 7 p.m. Friday, April 4, with the second game set to begin 30 minutes upon the conclusion of the first semifinal. The 2025 NCAA Tournament championship game will take place at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 6.
Where are the other NCAA Tournament games being played?
The women’s tournament utilizes the unique format of granting the top-16 overall seeds the opportunity to host first- and second-round games on their home court. Though we won’t know who those teams are, or their exact seeding, until 8 p.m. on Selection Sunday (broadcast on ESPN), the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee gave two separate previews of the top 16 seeds in February.
Given the shifts between the first and second reveals — and a series of surprising losses sustained by included teams since then — the actual top 16 might feature previously absent programs (looking at you, Ole Miss), or even cut teams previously mentioned among the coveted 16 (a la Tennessee).
Kentucky, fresh off its early SEC Tournament exit after a four-point crusher to certain tournament host Oklahoma, is still expected to host opening-weekend games. Programs sure to have locked in hosting privileges include UCLA, Southern California, South Carolina, Notre Dame, North Carolina State and Connecticut.
The regional rounds will take place from March 28-31, with half the bracket’s games played at Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama, and the other at Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena in Spokane, Washington.
What TV channels will the games be on?
Just like with the women’s Selection Sunday broadcast, ESPN owns all broadcast rights to all women’s NCAA Tournament games. Because of that, games will be accessible across ESPN platforms, including ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, with streaming capabilities through ESPN+.
Who is the defending champion and who are the favorites to win this season?
South Carolina earned its third ever — and third since 2017 — NCAA national championship last year, lifting the SEC goliath up to sit among a few of the sports’ all-time great programs with an undefeated, 38-win campaign. Though South Carolina suffered more regular-season losses (three) than it has since its 2021-22 season, the Gamecocks are still among the betting favorites to win it all.
At the time of the writing of this article, Connecticut led the pack with the best championship odds; the Huskies were followed, in order, by South Carolina, UCLA, Notre Dame, Texas and Southern California.
Who has won the tournament the most times?
Connecticut, under the leadership of longtime coach Geno Auriemma, has won a record 11 national championships. More impressive, though, is the fact that six of the Huskies’ titles have been won on the back of undefeated seasons — 1995, 2002, 2009, 2010, 2014 and 2016, the program’s last national championship.
Tennessee ranks second with eight national titles, each of which was won under the late Pat Summitt. Baylor, Stanford and South Carolina rank third with three national championships apiece. While Tennessee will receive an at-large bid, Stanford is projected to miss the tournament for the first time in decades, putting an end to what is the second-longest consecutive appearance streak (36 straight).
Kim Mulkey, who led Baylor to each of its national titles, earned her fourth national championship as a head coach in 2023 at LSU after returning to her home state in 2021. Her four titles make her the third-most successful women’s basketball coach come March Madness, behind Summitt and Auriemma.
NCAA Division I college basketball coaches with the most championships:
1. Geno Auriemma, Connecticut women (11)
2. John Wooden, UCLA men (10)
3. Pat Summitt, Tennessee women (8)
4. Mike Krzyzewski, Duke men (5)
5. Kim Mulkey, Baylor women (3); LSU women (1)
5. Adolph Rupp, Kentucky men (4)
How much do schools earn by winning NCAA Tournament games?
The 2025 women’s NCAA Tournament marks a landmark shift in gender equity; for years, men’s tournament teams have been rewarded through a revenue-sharing system that rewards conferences (instead of individual schools) via “revenue distribution units.” No equivalent existed for the women’s tournament — which also could not use the term “March Madness” until 2022 following a gender equity review conducted by the NCAA after the 2021 tournament — until now.
Thanks to a unanimous vote at the NCAA’s annual convention this January, women’s tournament teams will also now earn these same performance units on behalf of their conferences due to the creation of the Division I Women’s Basketball Fund, and approval to fund two categories for revenue distribution to increase these performance units’ value to “$25 million over three years.” Per the NCAA release published in January, “The distribution structure for the Women’s Basketball Equal Conference Fund and Women’s Basketball Performance Fund will be similar to that of the Division I men’s basketball tournament.”
Any units won in this year’s tournament will be paid out in 2026 from a combined value of $15 million in the 2025-26 fiscal year. That value is planned to increase to $20 million for the 2026-27 fiscal year before reaching the promised $25 million value in 2027-28, with the annual growth rate of about 2.9% in each year to follow.
How much money are players paid?
Though the nation awaits the outcome of the House v. NCAA settlement, athletes participating in the NCAA Tournament are not currently allowed to be compensated directly by their NCAA institutions. In the event the settlement is approved by Judge Claudia Wilken at the final approval hearing set for April 7, current student-athletes — and those who’ve opted in and competed at the NCAA level at any point beginning in 2016 — regardless of sport would be eligible to receive back pay for the use of their name, image and likeness, colloquially referred to as NIL.
Active NCAA athletes are able to earn money through the usage of their name, image and likeness, and the increasing popularity of women’s basketball means opportunities abound.
Who are some of the most successful women’s college basketball players when it comes to NIL?
Though the explosive growth of women’s college basketball means any athlete can try their hand in the NIL space, every industry has its stars. Since the NCAA first ruled athletes could make money through NIL, many of the sport’s biggest names have collaborated with leading brands in sports, fashion and culture.
▪ Flau’Jae Johnson, LSU: The All-SEC first-teamer and professional recording artist has been dominant in the NIL space since she came to Baton Rouge in 2022, and told On3 last June that, “Between my music career and brand endorsements, my deals amount to about $4.5 million, which gives a substantial indication of my market value.” Johnson has collaborated with Unrivaled, JBL Audio and Apple Cash, among others, and released songs with artists like Lil Wayne and NLE Choppa.
▪ Azzi Fudd, Connecticut: The former top-overall prospect in the class of 2021, Fudd has successfully used her brand by making deals with companies like Madison Reed, Nespresso, Epic Games, Savage X Fenty, Bose and Curry Brand, among others.
▪ Juju Watkins, Southern California: Another top-prospect-turned-star, Watkins has pushed her hometown Trojans back into the national spotlight — and, in doing so, pushed herself into the conversation for national player of the year. The nation’s second-leading scorer (24.5 points per game) has worked with the likes of Nike, Gatorade, State Farm, United Airlines and, most recently, Degree Deodorant.
▪ Hailey Van Lith, TCU: The former Louisville and LSU guard has elevated her WNBA draft stock in her final season of college basketball, guiding the Horned Frogs to their first-ever Big 12 Tournament championship in their first appearance. Tournament MVP Van Lith has inked brand deals with companies like Dick’s Sporting Goods, Adidas, Topps and LaCroix.
Who are five players I should know that everyone will be talking about?
▪ Juju Watkins, Southern California: The aforementioned Watkins is, to put it plainly, a massive deal. Her decision to stay home in hopes of returning a once-elite program to the biggest stage was a huge one, and it’s paying off for the Trojans. The 2024 national freshman of the year and reigning All-America first-teamer is a front-runner for the national player of the year this season, leading the Trojans to a Big Ten regular-season title in their first year in the league. In addition to her 24.5 points, she averages 7.0 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 2.2 steals and 1.9 blocks per contest.
▪ Lauren Betts, UCLA: Likely Watkins’ biggest competition for national player of the year, the No. 1 recruit in the class of 2022 developed from averaging fewer than 10 minutes per game during her freshman year at Stanford to leading the Bruins in scoring during each of her two seasons since then. Betts, who dropped 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting in UCLA’s redemption win over rival Southern California in the Big Ten Tournament championship, is averaging 19.7 points, 9.9 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 2.9 blocks per contest.
▪ Paige Bueckers, Connecticut: Bueckers, the presumptive first pick in this year’s WNBA draft, has been a superstar since high school despite injuries majorly impacting her career since being crowned national player of the year as a freshman in 2021. In her final season at UConn, Bueckers is averaging 18.7 points, 4.5 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 2.1 steals for a Huskies team with 30 wins and counting. Hopeful WNBA franchises waited with bated breath in November to see who would win the lottery and be the team to scoop up the scorer, with the Dallas Wings coming out on top.
▪ Sedona Prince, TCU: Prince, a top-five finalist for the 2025 Lisa Leslie Center of the Year Award, has helped pioneer TCU’s turnaround. Now in her seventh season (and third school after Texas and Oregon) of college basketball, Prince is averaging 17.7 points, 9.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 3.1 blocks. A controversial figure, Prince highlighted the stark inequity in resources between the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments via a viral TikTok back in 2021 but, per the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, has also faced assault allegations from four former partners, one of which filed a lawsuit in 2022 that was later dropped. Most recently, the Star-Telegram reported that Prince “was involved in a physical altercation with an ex-girlfriend on Jan. 18,” after obtaining a police report.
▪ Hannah Hidalgo, Notre Dame: Hidalgo is a top-tier defender — ranking fourth in the nation in steals per game with 3.7 — an elite scorer — ranking fourth nationally with 24.2 points per game — and another impressive member of what is a showstopping sophomore class. Also averaging 5.1 rebounds and 3.7 assists, Hidalgo followed up her 2024 ACC Tournament title, tournament MVP and first-team All-America honors with a co-regular season championship. She is also the reigning winner of the Dawn Staley Award, which seeks each year to reward the sport’s best guard.
What is Kentucky’s outlook in this year’s NCAA Tournament?
The Wildcats will return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2022, a testament to head coach Kenny Brooks and his inaugural Kentucky roster.
Labeled a four-seed in each of February’s top-16 previews, Kentucky will probably check in as either a No. 3 or No. 4 seed and have a home-court advantage for the first and second rounds. Led by 2025 SEC Defensive Player of the Year Clara Strack and projected first-round WNBA draft pick Georgia Amoore — a finalist for the Nancy Lieberman Point Guard of the Year Award and one of 15 players named to the ballot for this season’s John R. Wooden Award — the Wildcats will attempt to go further in the tournament than any team before it; UK’s current postseason peak is the Elite Eight, which it has reached four separate times and most recently in 2013. In its 17 NCAA Tournament appearances, the Wildcats have assembled a March Madness record of 22-17, and reached the Sweet 16 six times, most recently in 2016.
The Wildcats will enter March Madness on a two-game losing streak — falling in both their regular-season finale at SEC co-champion and conference tournament champ South Carolina and its SEC Tournament quarterfinals matchup against Oklahoma — but with a record of 5-6 against teams categorized as Quadrant 1 by the NCAA.
What is Kenny Brooks’ history in the NCAA Tournament?
This year will mark Brooks’ 11th NCAA Tournament appearance as a head coach, nearly 20 years after his first berth with James Madison in 2006. Brooks has an NCAA Tournament record of 7-10, and reached the second round once with the Dukes in 2014 and three times at Virginia Tech (2021, 2023, 2024). His best showing came in 2023, when he, Amoore and All-America center Liz Kitley led the Hokies to a Final Four before falling to eventual national champion LSU.
What other Kentucky connections will be in this year’s tournament?
Given the natural turnover that comes with a coaching change, several ex-Cats will be trying their hand at an NCAA Tournament run.
Former head coach Kyra Elzy, now an assistant coach at Duke, helped lead the Blue Devils to an Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament championship — Duke’s first since 2013 and first under head coach Kara Lawson. The Blue Devils, ranked among the nation’s top teams all season long and finished the regular season with a record of 23-7 (14-4 ACC).
Jen Hoover, who served as an assistant coach under Elzy from 2022-24, was hired last April by Megan Duffy as an assistant coach at Virginia Tech. In the first season post-Kenny Brooks, the Hokies finished the regular season with a record of 18-11 (9-9 ACC) and are considered a bubble team.
Jenny Huth, who spent last season under Elzy as an assistant coach and associate coach of player development, joined head coach Charmin Smith at California as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. Relocated from the Pac-12 to the ACC, the Golden Bears (25-8, 12-8 ACC) are one of eight ACC programs projected to earn an at-large bid.
Ajae Petty made a massive jump in production ahead of her senior season with the Wildcats last year, leading the team in points, rebounds and blocks. After Elzy’s firing, Petty opted to transfer to Ohio State, which finished third in the revamped Big Ten and may very well find itself with hosting privileges. Petty is averaging 9.4 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 0.9 steals through 31 contests.
Ohio State junior guard Kennedy Cambridge made her way to Columbus in 2023 after spending her freshman season with the Wildcats. The redshirt sophomore is averaging 5.0 points, 2.7 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.6 steals in 16.4 minutes per game.
Former two-year UK guard Jada Walker is in her second season with the Baylor Bears. She’s averaging 11.2 points, 2.7 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.5 steals per game, and helped the Bears to a second-place finish in the Big 12.
Eniya Russell, a Kentucky guard from 2022-24, chose to spend her fifth and final season of college basketball at Mississippi State; she began her career at South Carolina. The Bulldogs’ second-leading scorer (11.6 points per game) also paces the team in assists per contest with 3.5.
2020 Miss Kentucky Basketball Maddie Scherr chose to transfer back to her home state in 2022 after beginning her career at Oregon. The former McDonald’s All-American transferred to TCU after UK hired Brooks, but took a medical redshirt this season due to a back injury; the Horned Frogs announced in December that Scherr intends to return next year. TCU won both the Big 12 regular-season and Conference Tournament championship, and will certainly host first- and second-round games.
Sunday
Women’s NCAA Selection Show
When: 8 p.m.
TV: ESPN
