On Friday, the four final teams standings will fight for a shot at the 2019 crown. There are storylines galore, a mix of familiar and fresh faces and plenty of incredible hoops ahead. Let’s take a look at what to watch for in the Final Four:
NATIONAL SEMIFINAL #1
2 Oregon vs 1 Baylor (7 p.m., ESPN)
How they got here:
Baylor – defeated 16 Abilene Christian, 95-38 (1st Round), defeated 8 California, 102-63 (2nd Round), defeated 4 South Carolina, 93-68 (Sweet 16), defeated 2 Iowa, 85-53 (Elite Eight)
Oregon – defeated 15 Portland State, 78-40 (1st Round), defeated 10 Indiana, 91-68 (2nd Round), defeated 6 South Dakota State, 63-53 (Sweet 16), defeated 1 Mississippi State, 88-84 (Elite Eight)
Background:
Baylor has been one of the most successful programs in the country the last 15 years, and the Bears are back on the biggest stage for the first time since 2012. Head coach Kim Mulkey led Baylor to four-straight Elite Eights from 2014-17, all ending in losses and near-misses on the Final Four. But she’s got her team back, and her Bears are playing with a vengeance. No one so much as touched Baylor in the first four rounds, pounding its competition by no fewer than 25 points in each game. Reaching the Final Four has been a roadblock for Baylor for much longer than it would have liked, and being back is great, but this program has its eyes focused strictly on winning its third national title. After an extremely dominant regular season and a tournament that followed in suit so far, anything but would be a disappointment.
Oregon is already further than it has ever been before, making its first-ever appearance in the Final Four following losses in the Elite Eight in 2017 and 2018. Head coach Kelly Graves is also in his first Final Four, previously 0-3 in the Elite Eight in his career at Oregon and Gonzaga. He has completely turned the Ducks program around, taking the team from 13-17 in his first season in 2014-15 to this point now in his fifth season in Eugene. The Pac-12 was one of the best conferences in the country this season, and the Ducks managed to take the regular-season crown. This team dispatched Mississippi State in the Elite Eight, which appeared in the last two national championship games and was one of the best teams in the country all season long. While this is the least-storied program in the Final Four, don’t expect the Ducks to be starry eyed and just happy to be there. This team is for real.
Players to watch:
Baylor center Kalani Brown is a tank in the paint and a massive part of what the Bears do. She was a unanimous All-Big 12 First Team selection, and rightfully so. The senior leads her team in scoring with 15.5 points per game, and her 6-foot-7 frame makes her so difficult to handle down low. Baylor is one of the best defensive teams in the country, only allowing 54.3 points per game, the seventh-fewest in the NCAA, and forward Lauren Cox is a big part of that. The 6-foot-4 junior was also a unanimous All-Big 12 First Team selection and won the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year distinction. She led the Big 12 in blocks with 2.5 per game and added 0.8 steals per outing to boot, an impressive mark for a player of her position. Together, these two control the interior offensively and defensively and are vital for Baylor.
For Oregon, you have to start with guard Sabrina Ionescu. The junior is something special and one of the best scorers in the nation, let alone point guards. Her nearly 20 points per game is tops in the Pac-12, and she can shoot with the best of them. When she isn’t scoring, she’s dishes dimes (7.8 per game) and grabs rebounds (7.5 per contest), and she was one of the Pac-12’s toughest defenders. The Ducks have more weapons, like forward Ruthy Hebard, who is averaging almost a double-double on 16.4 points and 9.1 rebounds per outing. She’s near automatic in the post, and her defense is nothing to sneeze at, either.
What to expect:
Baylor will have the advantage inside, and it will probably do everything it can to exploit that. The Bears are also going to rely on their defense and they have done all year, and it has worked all year, mind you. Other than being dominant defensively and in the paint, Baylor ranked third in Division-I in three-point percentage at 38.5 percent. If you can’t tell, this is a well-rounded team, and it’s no mistake Baylor is at this point.
One of the only two teams in the country to shoot better than Baylor from deep is Oregon. The Ducks are the best three-point shooting team out there, hitting 41.9 percent of their 823 attempts. Oregon also likes to move quickly, which is especially important against a team with a defense like Baylor’s. To avoid the Bears twin towers down low, Oregon will likely place a lot of emphasis on scoring on the perimeter. It has four players who shoot better than 40 percent from behind the arc and will use that to its advantage. This offense is supremely efficient, and against a great rebounding and defensive team like Baylor, it will be crucial for Oregon to be as efficient as possible.
NATIONAL SEMIFINAL #2
2 Connecticut vs 1 Notre Dame
How they got here:
Notre Dame – defeated 16 Bethune-Cookman, 92-50 (1st Round), defeated 9 Michigan State, 91-63 (2nd Round), defeated 4 Texas A&M, 87-80 (Sweet 16), defeated 2 Stanford, 84-68 (Elite Eight)
Connecticut – defeated 15 Towson, 110-61 (1st Round), defeated 10 Buffalo, 84-72 (2nd Round), defeated 6 UCLA, 69-61 (Sweet 16), defeated 1 Louisville, 80-73 (Elite Eight)
Background:
Notre Dame is making its second-straight Final Four appearance, ninth overall and sixth dating back to 2011. The Fighting Irish won their second national championship last season and are back again to repeat. This program is very familiar with narrowly missing out on the sport’s biggest prize having lost in the national title game in 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015. But South Bend hopes last season started a new era of Irish basketball, and now is the time to make the ultimate statement that this program has usurped Connecticut as the dominant force in the sport. Head coach Muffet McGraw is one of the most legendary names in the game, and adding a third national championship to her resume would bump her up a peg as she’s currently tied for third-most all-time with Kim Mulkey, Linda Sharp and Tara VanDerveer at two titles.
This is UConn’s 12th-straight Final Four, which is one of the most incredible runs in all of modern sport. But the Huskies haven’t won it all since 2016, which could be considered a drought in Storrs. This senior class was part of the last championship, but no class has gone without more than two national titles since 2008. These seniors do not want to join that club. This has been a bit of an unusual season for the Huskies already, though. For the first time since 2006, UConn was not a No. 1 seed, and although this team has only lost twice all year, many other teams have kept it close with the Huskies late into the game, uncharted territory for many of head coach Geno Auriemma’s past teams. But this team is plenty good enough to finish the job, and you can never count a UConn team out.
These two teams have plenty of history, duking it out when they were both in the Big East and playing many tournament games against one another. The two met in the Final Four last season, with Notre Dame winning on a shot with one second left in overtime, 91-89, snapping a three-game tournament losing streak to the Huskies in the 2015 National Championship Game, 2014 National Championship Game and 2013 Final Four. Notre Dame beat Connecticut in back-to-back Final Fours in 2012 and 2011, and also knocked off the Huskies in the 2001 Final Four. If you can’t tell, these two programs are very familiar with one another, especially in late March and April.
Players to watch:
Last year, guard Arike Ogunbowale was the hero in the Final Four and National Championship Game, sinking the game winners in both to secure McGraw’s second national crown. The senior is back with another year of experience under her belt, and what a year it has been. She’s scoring 21.5 points per game, the best in the ACC, and still playing with the same killer instinct. This is a high-octane offense, and another big piece of it is forward Jessica Shepard. She’s averaging a double-double (16.8 points, 10.2 rebounds per game) and shooting better than 60 percent from the field. This is a team loaded with experience, and you won’t find many players in the country who have been through the thick of it more than these two.
Connecticut guard Katie Lou Samuelsson was a rock in the Elite Eight against Louisville, scoring 29 points and splashing seven threes, often at crucial times for her team. She’s been huge for the Huskies all season long, putting up 18.5 points per game and getting buckets when Connecticut is in a crunch. Forward Napheesa Collier has done her part, too, averaging a double-double with a team-leading 21 points and 10.8 board per outing, and she plays a great defense game as well. She was named to the AP All-America First Team for a reason, and that reason is she can ball.
What to expect:
Notre Dame is one of the most experienced teams in the nation, starting four seniors and a junior and returning almost all of last season’s national championship-winning roster, so the first thing you can expect is for nerves to never be an issue for this team.
You can also expect one of the most potent offenses in college basketball history, men’s or women’s. The group of Ogunbowale, Shepard, forward Brianna Turner, guard Marina Mabrey and guard Jackie Young are the first group in NCAA history, regardless of gender, to collectively score 10,000 points. You have to be doing something right offensively to make a mark like that, and this team can make the points pour on quick. Just ask Stanford, who was beating the Irish 33-26 at the half of their Elite Eight game before Notre Dame flipped a switch in the second half and proceeded to score 58 points in 20 minutes to ultimately win comfortably. Any team that can score like that is a threat at all times.
It sounds silly, but it’s important for Connecticut to shoot well. The team shot poorly in its two regular season losses, especially against Baylor when it went 29.4 percent from the field. When the Huskies beat Notre Dame, 89-71, in the teams’ regular season meeting Dec. 2, UConn shot 45.3 percent. Look for Auriemma to do what he can to get open shots early to get his shooters going, especially if his team can replicate its 14-of-26 performance from behind the arc against Louisville in the Elite Eight. It’s also important for UConn to keep Notre Dame off the offensive glass, which is something it struggled with earlier in the tournament. The Irish are fifth in the country in offensive rebound rate, and you can’t give an offense like theirs second-chance opportunities if you want stops.
