UCLA Women Appear Destined To Face UConn

The good news for UCLA is simple: this is a historically great women’s basketball team.

The Bruins are 31-1 and have built the kind of résumé that puts them in the conversation with some of the best teams in the history of the women’s college game. They have size, skill, experience, and star power across the board. Lauren Betts is a dominant post presence who can control a game on both ends. Kiki Rice is an elite point guard with that rare gift of making everyone around her better. Gabriela Jaquez and Gianna Kneepkens are tremendous shooters who can flat-out score. This is not just a talented roster. It is a loaded roster.

And the WNBA talent is obvious. UCLA has four players who look likely to hear their names called in the first round of this year’s draft, which tells you everything about the level of ability on this team. The Bruins have the profile of a national champion, and there is no question they are good enough to win it all.

The problem is UConn.

That is not meant as disrespect to UCLA. It is just the reality of this season. The Huskies are even more talented, even more proven, and still feel like the one team standing directly in the way of UCLA finishing the job. That is why the entire sport feels like it is moving toward the obvious ending: No. 1 versus No. 2 in the national championship game.

And if we get it, it will be one for the ages.

UCLA will put up a great fight against anyone. That much we know. The Bruins are tough, skilled, experienced, and dangerous enough to beat every other team in the field. But if the matchup everyone is expecting finally arrives, we would still make UConn an 8.5-point favorite.

That said, the number feels like it is trending downward. UCLA is proving more every week that it belongs on the biggest stage and has the firepower to make even the mighty Huskies uncomfortable. That is what makes the potential final so compelling. UCLA is historically good. It just happens to exist in the same season as UConn.