PHOENIX (AP) — Cori Close and the UCLA Bruins are going to have to work hard to repeat as champions.
They lose their top six players to graduation after putting on one of the most dominant performances in championship history to win their first NCAA title and second overall, routing South Carolina by 28 points Sunday.
But with the transfer portal open now, the UCLA coach can build a new team quickly. Close has said that the school will be very active, looking to add five players.
“Transfer portal just got easier,” Close said smiling.
Challenging the Bruins will be the runner-up Gamecocks and coach Dawn Staley. They look to get over the loss and reach a seventh consecutive Final Four next season and win a fourth national championship. With young stars Joyce Edwards and Agot Makeer returning along with a strong complementary crew they will be one of the favorites for the title when the Final Four moves to Columbus, Ohio.
Joining them should be other Final Four participants UConn and Texas, who have two of the best players in the country with Sarah Strong and Madison Booker. Each will have to replace a key player with Azzi Fudd for UConn and Rori Harmon for Texas gone to the WNBA.
After the four Final Four teams, it could be interesting to see who the women's basketball powers will be in 2027.
So much can change through the transfer portal. Over the past few years so many big name players have changed their schools by entering it. TCU, which reached the Elite Eight the last two seasons has added a half dozen players each of the past two years.
Michigan and Duke also reached the regional final this year and each has potentially a strong nucleus of players coming back.
A few teams have already been hit hard by the portal with many players announcing on social media they were transferring.
Iowa State has lost most of its top players, including the nation's second-leading scorer in Audi Crooks.
Stanford and Tennessee, which had been two of the women's basketball staples in the sport over the past 40 years have been hit hard already with so many of their players announcing on social media that they will enter the portal.
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
