{"id":594342,"date":"2026-02-10T10:29:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T10:29:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/594342\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T10:29:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T10:29:17","slug":"should-uconn-be-favorites-to-repeat-as-ncaa-champions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/594342\/","title":{"rendered":"Should UConn be favorites to repeat as NCAA champions?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As February advances, we are getting closer and closer to March\u2026 and therefore March Madness! Last year, UConn women\u2019s basketball defied the odds and won the National Championship, the program\u2019s first since 2016. It was also a significant moment for the eventual No. 1 WNBA Draft pick Paige Bueckers, who spent five seasons at UConn, and persevered through injury in hopes of winning a championship before leaving for the pros.<\/p>\n

Despite Bueckers\u2019s departure, this UConn team may be even better this season. Led by redshirt senior Azzi Fudd and superstar sophomore Sarah Strong,<\/a> UConn has been ranked No. 1 all season and are the last undefeated women\u2019s program in the country at 25-0. They won\u2019t face another ranked opponent now until March Madness, and seem to be steamrolling toward a possible undefeated season and back-to-back National Championships.<\/p>\n

They are so powerful in the Big East Conference that the Huskies even kept Strong out for rest in one of their recent games \u2014 something that is unheard of in women\u2019s college basketball. Strong is averaging 19.2 points per game in just 27.4 minutes, leading the country in win shares<\/a> and second nationally in points per scoring attempt (1.38). She very likely leads the Player of the Year conversations as a sophomore despite playing less than 30 minutes per game.<\/p>\n

UConn\u2019s other star, Azzi Fudd, likely won\u2019t be held out for rest anytime soon. Fudd is in her fifth and final college season, with sights set on declaring for the WNBA draft this spring. After an injury-filled college career, Fudd\u2019s goal in returning to UConn this season was to get as much playing time as she could in order to show WNBA scouts her full potential as a player. She could very well be drafted No. 1 overall in the 2026 WNBA Draft, with UConn sending two No. 1 picks in a row to the WNBA (and Dallas Wings) after Bueckers last year. Fudd is also being strategically deployed by her coach, averaging 17.4 points in just 28.2 minutes per game.<\/p>\n

As the only ranked team in the Big East, UConn is already set to win the regular-season title, is the favorite for the conference tournament, and will likely get the No. 1 seed in the March Madness bracket. Are they a lock for back-to-back National Championships, though? Will other teams be able to keep up with a group that hasn\u2019t even had to put in 100% effort yet? Is there a specific team you think could beat them?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s chat in the comments below!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As February advances, we are getting closer and closer to March\u2026 and therefore March Madness! Last year, UConn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,217,231,772,1544,6135],"class_list":{"0":"post-594342","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-basketball","12":"tag-ncaab","13":"tag-womens-college-basketball"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116045870734186441","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}