Top overall seed South Carolina or perennial favorite Connecticut will take home the 2022 N.C.A.A. Division I women’s basketball championship on Sunday. This outcome seemed unlikely after the bracket was revealed three weeks ago, but only because there was so much confidence in Stanford, the reigning national champion and one of the top teams in the field.
But a South Carolina-UConn showdown is fitting considering expectations at the beginning of the season. A South Carolina team stacked with top recruits that was denied a second trip to the championship game by a heartbreaking 1-point loss in the 2021 Final Four seemed like the perfect foil for a UConn team that has Paige Bueckers, the youngest player to earn the women’s Naismith Trophy, and was overdue for a trip to the biggest game of the year by its own dynastic standards.