1. Connecticut
2. Tennessee
3. South Carolina
4. Baylor
5. Florida State
6. Notre Dame
7. Texas
8. Louisville
9. North Carolina
10. Ohio State
Connecticut is in position to win an 11th title honestly.
I struggled with placing SC at #2 because frankly we are not the #2 team unless our guard play improves a bit and we are more consistent from the outside. Our starters next year will be Mitchell, Wilson, Coates, ????, and ???? Who do I replace those question marks with? Dozier? She needs to become a scoring threat. Sessions? She needs to become a scoring threat. Cuevas? Possible, but she has to learn the game more and learn when to attack. Roy? Possible, but Dawn loves bringing her off the bench and her defense could use work. I will say this though, I did like what I saw from Wilson and Coates in the last few games of the NCAA tournament. This summer is huge because Coates will hopefully develop the ability to go for the kill EVERY game and Wilson will hopefully continue to become the player she showed she could be in the Notre Dame game, a nightmare matchup. I'm praying Cuevas matures a little and steals the starting spot from Sessions. If SC gets better at the guard positions then they're that much better than the #3 team..
Tennessee has A LOT of talent but like the article said, it all depends on that talent learning to play together. If they do learn (and I think they will), they're easily a final four team. SC fans know Deshields very well and if she's anything like she was her freshmen year then SC will have it's work cut out for them in the SEC this year. I really think it's 2a and 2b with SC and Tennessee next year.
Just looking at the roster, Baylor should reek havoc next year. That recruiting class is unfair. We wanted Mompremier at SC.
Florida State is definitely a top 5 team. They're big, fast and they can shoot. It wasn't SC's best game, but I'm still not quite sure how we beat this team in the Elite Eight. FSU was all over the place and dominated us in that game.
