South Carolina Leads Women's College Basketball Preseason Outlook as USC and UConn Stars Eye Top Individual Honor

The 2026-27 women's college basketball season is about to begin, and familiar names sit at the top of the board. South Carolina opened at No. 1 in the Associated Press preseason poll for the fifth time in the past seven years. That comes seven months after UCLA won its first NCAA title and UConn's Sarah Strong collected her first national player of the year awards.

ESPN's panel of Kendra Andrews, Charlie Creme, Alexa Philippou and Michael Voepel previewed the year ahead of Sunday's tipoff. The road ends at the Final Four in Columbus, Ohio. Voepel and Philippou both chose South Carolina as their preseason No. 1, even though the Gamecocks lost to UCLA in last season's championship game and said goodbye to four seniors, three of them drafted into the WNBA.

Voepel pointed to a roster that remains deep, especially in the frontcourt with Joyce Edwards, Chloe Kitts, Alicia Tournebize, Ashlyn Watkins and freshman Oliviyah Edwards. Tessa Johnson returns for her final season, and transfers Jordan Lee (from Texas) and Brooke Quarles Daniels (from Michigan) have joined the group. Philippou noted that coach Dawn Staley has plenty of options, though the team must adjust to life without Raven Johnson and Ta'Niya Latson.

The player of the year race looks wide open. Creme named four candidates: JuJu Watkins of USC, Strong, Notre Dame's Hannah Hidalgo and Vanderbilt's Mikayla Blakes. Creme and Philippou both favor Strong, the reigning winner, who is expected to become UConn's undisputed top option now that Azzi Fudd has left for the WNBA. Voepel noted that Watkins has not played since March 24, 2025, when she suffered a torn left ACL, but argued that her first two seasons justify putting her at the top of the conversation.

Several conference races stand out. Andrews highlighted an SEC featuring South Carolina, Texas, LSU and Vanderbilt, with Blakes voted the league's preseason player of the year. Voepel pointed to a Big Ten that includes defending champion UCLA, which lost six players to the WNBA, along with USC, Michigan and No. 10 Iowa. Creme praised the ACC's competitiveness, noting that Notre Dame's 2018 title is the conference's only championship in the past 20 years.

The panel also named teams poised for big jumps. USC went 18-14 without Watkins last season, and with her back alongside sophomore Jazzy Davidson, the Trojans are chasing their first national title since 1984. Michigan returns its top six scorers from an Elite Eight team and hopes to win the Big Ten for the first time and reach its first Final Four. Iowa, which lost in the second round last spring, adds transfer point guard Dani Carnegie and freshman McKenna Woliczko. The Hawkeyes host Watkins and USC on Feb. 11 and UCLA on Feb. 14.

In the Big 12, Oklahoma State is picked to finish first after adding transfers Audi Crooks from Iowa State and Liv McGill from Florida. The Cowgirls have won a regular-season league title only once, in 1991, when the conference was the Big Eight. Coach Jacie Hoyt rebuilt the roster after a 24-10 season that ended with a first-round loss to UCLA in the NCAA tournament.

Among coaches, Tennessee's Kim Caldwell faces pressure in her third season after the Lady Vols lost their final eight games and exited the NCAA tournament in the first round. USC's Lindsay Gottlieb, who has taken her team to the Elite Eight twice in three seasons, is trying to break through to a Final Four. Stanford's Kate Paye enters her third year after the Cardinal missed the NCAA tournament in both seasons since Tara VanDerveer retired, and an offseason marked by transfers and reported accusations of a toxic culture. TCU's Mark Campbell, who has won consecutive Big 12 titles and reached consecutive Elite Eights, has nine new players among the 12 on his roster.