The thrill of an upset has always been at the heart of the NCAA Tournament’s universal popularity, but women’s basketball looks primed for its most unpredictable March Madness in years after widespread parity in the sport this season.

Four different teams held the No. 1 spot in the AP Top 25 this season for just the sixth time in the 49-year history of the poll, and every ranked team enters the tournament with at least two regular-season losses for the first time since 2005. No. 3 UConn is one of six teams with odds better than +1000 to win the NCAA championship, and it is currently second overall behind only reigning champion South Carolina.

Huskies coach Geno Auriemma knows a chaotic postseason will only add to the rapidly-growing audience for women’s college basketball; he just hopes it won’t be at his team’s expense as it chases the program’s first national title since 2016.

“We finally have more good teams wanting to play really good teams in their non-conference schedule early in the year … so now you can actually put them head-to-head and say this is what it looks like,” Auriemma said. “I think there should be more upsets … That hasn’t happened in our game a lot, but I can see it coming. I can see those regional games not going according to plan way more so than previous years.”

“Since I said it — and I own it— it shouldn’t happen to us. Better not.”

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At this time last year Auriemma didn’t even think the Huskies had their eventual Final Four run in them, much less a national championship. An unprecedented series of injuries decimated UConn’s roster last season, and the team went into March Madness with just six players in its rotation. But though the competition will be as fierce as it has been in recent memory, Auriemma is entering the 2025 tournament knowing with certainty that his team has at least the potential to emerge as the best in the country.

“This year I think the sense is we can handle more things that are thrown at us. We maybe have answers to some of the things that we didn’t have last year,” Auriemma said after winning the Big East championship. “Obviously we don’t have the same level of experience that we had last year … but what we do have is the ability, if the game is not going in our direction, that we can change it. That’s comforting to know. That doesn’t mean we’re going to change it, but we have the opportunity to change it.”

UConn’s star backcourt duo of Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd will both be on the court in the 2025 Tournament for the first time since the Huskies’ NCAA title game appearance in 2022, and perhaps for the first time in their college careers at full strength. Bueckers returned from a tibial plateau fracture and meniscus tear just before the tournament began in 2022, and she was sidelined by an ACL tear when UConn’s 14-year streak of Final Four appearances ended with a Sweet 16 upset by Ohio State in 2023.

Injuries limited Fudd to just 42 games over her first three seasons with the Huskies, but she is in the midst of her healthiest year yet making 28 game appearances so far and shooting career-high percentages at all three levels. The Huskies lost their first two top-10 matchups of the season with No. 4 USC and No. 8 Notre Dame in December when Fudd was limited by a knee sprain, and she was the separator with 28 points on six 3-pointers in UConn’s signature win over No. 2 South Carolina on Feb. 16.

Bueckers is having her most efficient season ever as a redshirt senior, averaging 53.6% from the field, 40.6% on 3-pointers and 89.9% at the free throw line for 19 points per game. She leads UConn with 4.9 assists per game plus 4.5 rebounds and two steals, and she has the best assist-to-turnover ratio in the country. With freshman phenom Sarah Strong providing a rock-solid presence in the post, the Huskies can quickly become too much for most defenses to handle when the trio is hitting.

“I believe that all three of them do a lot to help each other, and I think probably Azzi is the biggest beneficiary of all, because when you’ve got to pay so much attention to Paige and Sarah and what they’re doing with the ball, people maybe get a little bit sidetracked,” Auriemma said. “They make a mistake and boom, Azzi has a wide-open three … We’re going to need all three of them to play great every one of these games that we’re going to play.”

Beyond the stars, depth will be everything for the Huskies in the postseason. UConn’s starting five all averaged more than 33 minutes per game during last year’s tournament, and Bueckers was on the court for all but five minutes total across the five-game run. In 2025 UConn has 12 active players entering the tournament, nine of whom averaged at least 13 minutes in the regular season.

“Last year you’re going into the NCAA Tournament with your fingers crossed hoping that nothing else happens, because you’re just so used to one setback after another after another that it almost felt like you’re operating on borrowed time,” Auriemma said. “You knew that your margin for error was so slight … This is the first time we’re going into the tournament with most of the key pieces intact. I think that’s a great place for us to be.”

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