The brightest stars and top storylines for the 2024-25 women’s college basketball season

Women’s college basketball has never been in a better place. Yes, there has always been great talent in the sport, but now the entire world sees it. Last year’s Iowa-South Carolina national championship game drew an average of 18.7 million viewers — with a peak viewership of 24 million. That shattered previous records set earlier in the NCAA tournament, which shattered previous records set the year before in the postseason.

The Caitlin Clark effect was very real, as the two-time National Player of the Year and her insanely deep threes attracted millions of new fans, many of whom stuck around to watch Dawn Staley’s dynasty as well as UConn’s attempt to return to the mountaintop of the sport. But Clark is off to the WNBA, and there are plenty of superstars ready to step into that vacated spotlight.

Oh, and Staley’s team is certainly ready to repeat as national champs, too, even though the way the Gamecocks win will look a bit different with the loss of Kamilla Cardoso. Plus, we’ve got the two schools in Los Angeles now favored to win the Big Ten conference, a changing of the guard at Stanford and so many more storylines to follow as the season gets underway in earnest.

Here are the top storylines for the 2024-25 women’s college basketball season:

Caitlin Clark is gone. Who’s got next?

Clark was a generational talent and a draw unlike anything we’ve seen in any sport in a long time. The NCAA’s all-time leading scorer led Iowa to two national championship game appearances, but, to me, the most memorable images from her college career will always been the lines of fans looped around arenas and parking lots waiting to get a chance to see her play. Or the photos of little girls (and boys) grinning as Clark signed autographs for them.

Caitlin was a first-name kind of household name. The stars of the college game this season are, too — or if they’re not, the will be soon. JuJu Watkins at USC, last year’s National Freshman of the Year and the ESPY winner for…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/brightest-stars-top-storylines-2024-195130032.html

Author : NBC Sports

Publish date : 2024-11-04 19:51:00

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