2026 Women's Elite 8 Recap And Final 4 Predictions

We react to a wild Elite Eight and pull out the details the box score hides, from who actually controlled the game to where the mistakes showed up. Then we preview the Women’s Final Four and explain why UConn vs South Carolina feels like the matchup that could decide the national title.

• UConn vs Notre Dame takeaways and why Sarah Strong stands out as the best player in women’s college basketball right now 
• Hannah Hidalgo’s “worst” March Madness game by her standards and what UConn’s depth says about their ceiling 
• UCLA vs Duke as the closest Elite Eight battle and how the game flipped after halftime 
• Why UCLA still looks championship-capable and why their execution has to start faster 
• Texas vs Michigan and the Rory Harmon assist-to-turnover clinic 
• Madison Booker’s impact and how Texas becomes dangerous when the point guard controls pace 
• South Carolina vs TCU and the depth gap that shows up in the fourth quarter 
• Final Four preview with Geno Auriemma vs Dawn Staley plus Joyce Edwards vs Sarah Strong 
• UCLA vs Texas matchup keys, including how Texas’ size could challenge Lauren Betts 
• Our picks, our lean, and the question we can’t wait to watch get answered

So please make sure to, well, one, tune in to the to the women's side of the college basketball March Madness. But two, make sure you like, subscribe, comment, tell anyone who's anyone about the show.

Transcript

Welcome And What’s On Deck

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What's up, everybody? It's your favorite show's favorite show, get a bucket. I'm your host, Trey, as usual. Hope you're all having a wonderful, wonderful day. Today we got to talk about here the women's upcoming Final Four. But before we do that, let's talk about the Elite Eight. Because listen, there were some interesting games, all right. Despite the scoring differential, all right, like there were some pretty good games. Yukon versus Notre Dame. UConn was a one seed, Notre Dame was a six seed. Yukon ended up winning this game. However, I gotta point out a couple things. This was Hannah Hidalgo's worst Marsh Madness game across the board. All right. Now, Hannah has been pretty smooth this entire postseason. But we gotta acknowledge, again, and the numbers that she gave, by the way, ladies and gentlemen, they're usually someone's best, possibly for the career. But we're talking about 22 points, 11 rebounds, three assists, five turnovers, and three steals. She was averaging, like, this is the lowest amount of steals she's had. She just had a 31-point triple double, almost a quadruple double. She was three assists away from getting a quadruple double. But she got 10 steals to make the to make the triple double happen. Like she is the defensive player of the year who is averaging five steals, 5.6, to be specific. She had three. She's also averaging 25 points a game. She had 22. And that was in 40 minutes of play. Ladies and gentlemen, UConn is a problem because we didn't even, I don't even need to articulate what Sarah Strong did, but she played pretty well, 21 points, seven rebounds, five steals, three blocks. Best player in the women's college basketball game. I'm telling you that right now. And I'm seeing a quality big three out of UConn being AZ Fudd and Blanca Keones. Now, Blanca is a freshman. I just want to throw that out there at 6'2. So when AZ does end up leaving after this season, I will be curious what Blanca does next season. But right now, UConn did their thing. Like I said, Sarah Strong, best player in college basketball. And only thing I will say to throw a little wrench in UConn, AZ and Blanca, while y'all part of the big three right now, yeah, you can't have five and four turnovers anymore. Like you're going up against number one seeds. You have to do better than that. But again, the Elite Eight was pretty smooth. Let's move on down to the next game. This one hurt me. Number one UCLA versus number two Duke. This was actually by far the best matchup of the day. Like, without question. Now, it wasn't too good for me because I'm a Duke fan, but I gotta say this: Duke was up the majority of the game. The third quarter is when UCLA came back and eventually took control of the game. Now, I need to note Duke's best player, Toby Fournier, was in foul trouble. And we ended up going away from Tyana Mari because she had early success. Now, we had an abysmal second half. To be clear, Duke's total points in the second half was 19. And UCLA scored 19 points in the fourth quarter. I'm just saying this was this was a lot closer than what the score showed. Again, that second half was ugly work. I'm not saying Carol Lawson's job is in question because Duke has been on an upward trajectory, and we haven't really gone to the Final Four since 2006, if I'm not mistaken. And it was looking like we were going right back there, but UCLA played some good basketball. They found Lauren Betts, Kiki Rice was hooping a little bit. Ladies and gentlemen, UCLA proved something. I think they're going to get to the championship game based off what they displayed. But then again, that first half was a little telling as well. I don't know. Maybe if they go up against a Texas team, it could be a little different. Because again, we know what UCLA is going to produce. We know what UCLA is going to do. Again, ladies and gentlemen, they have a senior-led team. So the execution should be there. And they were a little jittery at first. Kiki Rice didn't have the best game. Angela Dugalik did. Helped out spare extremely well. But again, ladies and gentlemen, this team goes as far as Lauren Betts takes them. Jianna Niepkins played okay, but she does a lot better from three than what she displayed this past game. So again, ladies and gentlemen, when I'm looking at UCLA, they give me vibes that they can get to the March, that they can get past the Final Four. But they do have to play a little bit better than what they did. Now again, Duke was probably the best number two seed or the best team that lost, to be clear. I just want to say that's not bias. That's just my observations. But if you don't believe me, that's cool. Let's talk about the other teams then, shall we? We got here number one, Texas versus number two, Michigan. Olivia Olson was the best player on Michigan's team. You can't really win too many games when you go on two for 13 for 11 points, and you usually give 19 points a game. Madison Booker on Texas looked like the best player on the floor. But here's what really sold me, ladies and gentlemen. Rory Harmon. All right, this is Texas's point guard. She hooped. Oh, she hooped. Like, bro, 13 assists, that's not bad. But it's 13 assists to only three turnovers. Let me say that again. 13 assists, three turnovers. That's about a four to one assist to turnover ratio right there. That's pretty spectacular. Like Madison Booker gave 19 points, seven rebounds, two steals. She had about four turnovers with one assist. But again, Madison Booker was easily the best player on the floor on average. But if Rory Harmon can keep playing the way she did, oh well, that's not bad. And Texas could be a little problematic in the championship game because, hey, if she dripping, if she dopping that, she's dropping 13 assists, bro, that means that some people out there are getting the bucket. Are smooth getting the bucket. And, well, I'm gonna just say this. Remember, my Duke point guard, Tyana, she did put in work against UCLA early on when we went away from her. What happens if Texas, you know what I'm saying? Like, I'm just saying, Roy, she played smooth, and I'm curious about how she's gonna play. But again, over Michigan, she showed her potential. Now, the next game we had was South Carolina versus TCU. South Carolina was a one seed, TCU was a three-seed. End of day, TCU didn't have enough. All right. Like, it was arguable that Olivia Miles was the best player on the floor. Okay. Olivia played a solid game, too. It cannot hold, cannot hold this game against her. She gave 18 points, granted. The field goal shooting was a little bit subpar, six of 20, I hear you, but she was three or six from three, three or four from the free throw. So efficiency-wise, it's not bad. I can take that. Especially when I'm looking at she gave six assists. Yes, four turnovers, but that's almost a two-to-one assist turnover ratio. Plus, she gave two steals. There was only one other person on her team that gave double-digit buckets. That means that there was only one other person that was getting a bucket outside of Olivia Miles. And again, Olivia Miles is the point guard of the team, ladies and gentlemen. She is almost the team. But they went up against South Carolina. And South Carolina had about four players that had double-digit score. And we had Joyce Edwards, who had 24 points and 12 rebounds with three blocks. Not bad at all. That's why I say arguably Olivia Miles was the best player on the team, on the floor. We had Raven Johnson, who did not have a good shooting game, 33%, but she was she went four of 12, got 10 points, though nonetheless, two from three for three, but also had eight rebounds, six assists, and only one turnover. We had Tessa Johnson, four of seven, three of three from three with 11 points. And then we had Agate McCure, who had 18 points on eight of 14 shooting, three assists, three turnovers with three steals and four rebounds. Ladies and gentlemen, that was a mean disparity between TCU's team and South Carolina. Again, TCU didn't have enough support to help out Olivia Miles. Not to mention, because the game was kind of close. South Carolina goes on a 10-0 run to start the fourth quarter, making it 59-41. The game ended up being 78-52. Like if my math is correct, at the start of the fourth quarter, South Carolina had 49 points. TCU finished the game with 52 points. That goes to show you that was belt to tail in the fourth quarter specifically. End of day, Olivia Miles has proven what type of player she is. South Carolina is just a daunting task to get over. So I can't overly blame Olivia Miles for not getting TCU further than where she took them. The Elite Eight going up against, hey man, let me say this. If they played against UCLA, based on what I saw, that could have gone a little interesting. But can't crowd for spilled milk. The Elite Eight, yes, the scores were a little bit long. We're a little bit large. The Delta was crazy. But that makes you think, well, the final four game is going to be pretty smooth. So let's think about this. Yukon versus South Carolina. One, all number one seeds made it. UCLA is battling Texas. Obviously, Yukon versus South Carolina. That's going to be my most favorite game to watch. Reasons why. We got Gino versus Don. Gino Ariyama versus Don Staley. Two of the best head coaches in the game, without question. Next, because we we we we know those legendary coaches are gonna breed excellence, right? Joyce Edwards versus Sarah Strong. I just told y'all, Joyce Edwards gave 24 points, 12 rebounds, three blocks. Now here's the good thing. She's a sophomore at 6'3. Sarah Strong is a sophomore at 6'2. And Sarah gave 21 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 5 steals, 3 blocks during her matchup. This is gonna be the biggest matchup on the floor. Yes, Gino and Don are gonna be matchups off the floor coaching, but Joyce versus Sarah, I want to see who wins that matchup. We might even see them battling against one another. Now, to round out their big threes, quote unquote, we gotta see something from Raven Johnson and Tania Lotson. Remember, Tanaya Lotson just last season was looking like she's about to be a top five pick. And Raven Johnson's no slouch either, ladies and gentlemen. And I mentioned earlier that AZ Fudd and Blanca Keones both have to lower their turnovers. Against a team like South Carolina, you have to lower your turnovers. Or else you're not gonna win that game. So while Joyce Edwards and Sarah Strong is gonna be the best matchup of the day, their second and third options on both teams. That's gonna help out. So, ladies and gentlemen, this UConn versus South Carolina matchup, I don't know who wins. I'm pulling for UConn. I am pulling for UConn. I genuinely do like Sarah Strong. And AZ FUD, I've been a fan of for a while, too. It's a jump ball right now for me, though. It's a jump ball for me right now. But I lean UConn because I do think Sarah Strong is the best player and she has adequate support around her. But let's wait and see. UCLA versus Texas. I mentioned Lauren Betts earlier. I've talked about Lauren Betts. You can't teach height, ladies and gentlemen. 6'7 is still 6'7. 6? 6'7. Shout out to the kids, right? But Texas does have two bigs that can slow her down. Now, when I saw Lauren going up against Toby Fournier on my Blue Devils, Lauren wasn't really scoring that well. She wasn't dominating like that. It was not until Toby Fournier gets into foul trouble where Lauren starts going off. Unlike my Blue Devils, though, Texas has a player who's 6'4 and a player who's 6'6. So even if Lauren gets the starter into foul trouble, you're bringing someone 6'6 off the bench. That's not bad. And we got to remember, too, Madison Booker could very well be the best player on the floor. Yes, Lauren Betts is the top five pick potentially, but Madison Booker, hey, bro, she's no slouch too, ladies and gentlemen. We got to keep a spade. Look, we got to call a spade a spade. All right. Madison Booker very well could outplay Lauren Betts. The reason why I say that, I saw, I saw Toby when she was playing. And there were times where she looked on par with Lauren Betts. I'm not saying Madison Booker is definitively better than these two players. I'm saying Madison Booker could potentially outplay Lauren Betts because I saw Toby Fournier potentially do that as well, too. And again, I mentioned this earlier. Can Rory Harmon on Texas score the way Tyana did for my Blue Devils? Now the decision making, she needs to maintain without question. But she also will have the ability to score based on what I saw versus Duke. So for me, I'm actually leaning Texas. Now it's crazy because UCLA has been here a few times. Like they've been projected to go quite far. And this is supposed to be the season for them, especially right now. Like they can beat Texas. But I lean Texas only because they have the tools to get past the UCLA. Now, if UCLA's team does not show up the way they did versus Duke, well, I mean, look, Lauren Betts was able to dominate a little bit easier than what I think she might do against Texas. Could she still dominate? Yes. But ladies and gentlemen, again, going up against two bigs, what happens if Lauren Betts gets into foul trouble? I'm curious what UCLA looks like then. Now, Lauren does have a sister who's about 6'4, so they kind of reverse this. But ladies and gentlemen, to put the sh to put that amount of pressure on a freshman who don't play as much, that could be a lot. But again, UCLA does have a quality backup to fall back on, too. So again, I lean Texas, ladies and gentlemen, because again, Madison Booker looks solid and promising. Roy Harmon did her thing. And they have something to do with Lauren. Meaning they can combat Lauren's height and skill. So again, ladies and gentlemen, I do expect to see UConn versus Texas in the championship game. However, there is a world where we see South Carolina versus UCLA, or UConn versus UCLA, or South Carolina versus Texas. All of these teams could advance. Now, if you had switched up some of these, let's say UConn was playing UCLA and South Carolina was playing Texas, I would expect UConn and South Carolina to advance because they have the better coaching play. They have the better coaches, they have the better players. Unfortunately, we get to see them in the Final Four, though. So I do feel whoever wins this UConn versus South Carolina matchup ultimately wins the championship. But we got to wait and see, though, because ladies and gentlemen, this should be some good games. This should be some good battles. But I'm curious, though, one, what was your favorite Elite Eight matchup? Mine was UCLA versus Duke. Non-biased, that was the closest matchup there, and it had a lot of energy throughout the game. But I'm curious, what was your favorite? And then what's your favorite Final Four matchup? And what are your expectations of the Final Four leading to the championship game? Now I'll talk about the Final Four and my expectations of the championship game after April 3rd. But, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, that does conclude the end of the episode. So please make sure to, well, one, tune in to the to the women's side of the college basketball March Madness. But two, make sure you like, subscribe, comment, tell anyone who's anyone about the show. My name is Trey. I'm the host of Get a Bucket. I hope you are all having a good one. Take care.