ESPN analysts preview South Carolina vs. UConn Final Four matchup
Dawn Staley and the South Carolina women’s basketball team are playing in their sixth straight Final Four on Friday.
The only thing standing between the No. 1 seed Gamecocks and a third straight trip to the NCAA Tournament championship game is a date with No. 1 overall seed UConn.
South Carolina and UConn will tip off from Mortgage Matchup Arena in Phoenix at 7 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPN.
On Friday, several ESPN women’s basketball analysts and personalities previewed the Final Four with the media. Here are the highlights of what analysts Andraya Carter and Chiney Ogwumike and play-by-play broadcaster Ryan Ruocco had to say:
Is South Carolina an underdog?
The Gamecocks enter their Final Four matchup as the underdog — something that hasn’t happened all that often in the program’s recent history.
As of Thursday, DraftKings has UConn as a 6.5-point favorite, while ESPN Analytics gives South Carolina just a 35.1% chance of winning.
While South Carolina might technically be the underdog, Carter believes there’s pressure on both teams.
“Even if they’re an underdog, South Carolina knows the expectation is a national championship, and UConn knows that as well,” Carter said. “So there’s pressure on both sides. I don’t know if being an underdog in this specific matchup makes a difference for either team, because the expectations for the program set the precedent when it comes to pressure.”
Ogwumike disagreed with the notion that South Carolina is an underdog . She pointed out that UConn, which is undefeated and the reigning national champ, didn’t look perfect in its Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games.
“I don’t think they’re an underdog at all,” Ogwumike said. “UConn has been phenomenal, but we saw a little bit of humanity from them in the Elite Eight. … Now, with South Carolina like they fear no one.”
Expecting a close game
Ruocco is expecting a “really tight game” and could see either team walking away with a win. He added that South Carolina has played great basketball in the last few months, with the only “blip” on its resume being the SEC Tournament championship loss to Texas.
The deciding factor could be whether either team — both among the best shooting teams in the country — has a poor shooting night.
“If UConn is shooting at a really high percentage from three, they’re really tough to beat,” Ruocco said. “If Azzi [Fudd], Ashlynn [Shade] and Sarah [Strong] are all hitting their threes, Allie Ziebell, then UConn is probably winning that game. But if you catch them, and they’ve had some poor shooting games in this tournament, in a game where they’re not shooting well, they become a little more vulnerable. And South Carolina is a team that absolutely is positioned to take advantage of that.”
UConn is averaging 87.9 points per game (No. 2 in the country) and shooting 52% as a team (No. 1 in the country) from the field, along with a 38.7% clip from beyond the arc (No. 2 in the country) this season. In the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight, UConn saw those numbers drop to 66.5 points per game, 42% from the field and 27% from 3-point range.
“South Carolina has more momentum in terms of offensive continuity and confidence in the shot making that we’ve seen,” Carter said. “We haven’t necessarily seen that from UConn in the regionals. Fort Worth was a struggle just hitting shots. So shot making- wise, play making-wise, I think South Carolina matches up really well. Their size could be huge, just with Madina Okot on the inside. I think that matchup-wise, I think they match up well.”
Both teams will have an ample number of All-Americans on the court Friday. UConn is led by AP first-teamers in Fudd and Sarah Strong. Both Fudd and Strong are finalists for the Naismith National Player of the Year. South Carolina was represented by Joyce Edwards (second team) and Raven Johnson (third team) on the AP All-America teams.
With so many stars clashing, Ogwumike expects it to be a heavily defensive matchup.
“A lot of times we think about the offense in the headlines, but the defense is a superpower and that’s the reason why they win,” Ogwumike said. “… These matchups are grind-it-out matchups where your defense has to show up.”
Gamecocks freshman could play a big role
The consensus among Carter, Ogwumike and Ruocco is that South Carolina freshman Agot Makeer will be an X-factor in the Final Four matchup.
“I think if South Carolina beats UConn, I feel pretty confident we’re going to be talking about Agot playing a significant role in that,” Rucco said. “She has incredibly unique athleticism, pro gifts that you can just see. I think those sort of raw skills and talents and dimensions are important in these games where you’re going up against the most athletic, the most skilled teams and players.”
Makeer has excelled off the bench for the Gamecocks in her rookie campaign. She’s playing 18.9 minutes per game and averaging seven points. Makeer has seen those numbers spike to 14.8 points in 27.8 minutes per game during the NCAA Tournament. The guard is coming off a career-high 18 point-performance in South Carolina’s win over TCU in the Elite Eight.
“I think she thinks really highly of herself, in a good way, like she knows the plays that she can come in and make, and she has a lot of confidence in that,” Carter said. “So watching it all come to, at the perfect time, you couldn’t really ask for anything more than that, especially from a freshman.”
This story was originally published April 3, 2026 at 8:00 AM with the headline "ESPN analysts preview South Carolina vs. UConn Final Four matchup."
