
UCLA vs. UConn women's basketball prediction, picks for Final Four of NCAA bracket
UCLA vs. UConn women's basketball prediction, picks for Final Four of NCAA bracket It's UCLA vs. UConn in the 2025 NCAA Tournament Final 4. See our expert picks and predictions for the women's March Madness bracket, along with betting odds and game time.
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UCLA vs UConn, South Carolina vs Texas sets stage for Final Four
USA Today's Meghan Hall previews the women's Final Four teams that will be heading down to Tampa to compete for national championship.
Sports Seriously
The 2025 women's NCAA Tournament is coming down to the wire, folks.
Among the Friday Final Four matchups will be a bout between UCLA and UConn.
The No. 1 seed UCLA Bruins defeated LSU in the Elite Eight to advance in the women's March Madness bracket. Their opponent, the 2-seeded UConn Huskies, most recently upended USC.
Here's how our experts see the Final Four clash playing out. Be sure to check out USA TODAY's complete March Madness bracket breakdown for in-depth analysis.
Without further ado, here are our UCLA vs. UConn picks and predictions.
UCLA vs. UConn picks and predictions
Our experts from across the USA TODAY Network are favoring UConn (2-1) on who will win the Final Four game between the Bruins and Huskies. Take a look at their full bracket predictions.
Nancy Armour, USA TODAY: UConn
Cydney Henderson, USA TODAY: UCLA
Cora Hall, Knoxville News: UConn
UCLA vs. UConn time, TV channel, how to watch
Game Day: Friday, April 4, 2025
Friday, April 4, 2025 Game Time: 9:30 p.m. ET
9:30 p.m. ET Location: Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida
Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida TV Channel: ESPN
ESPN Live Stream: Fubo - Watch Now!
Watch UCLA vs. UConn on Fubo (free trial)
UCLA vs. UConn odds
Odds via BetMGM as of Tuesday, April 1.
Spread: UConn -8.5
UConn -8.5 Moneyline Favorite: UConn -400
UConn -400 Moneyline Underdog: UCLA +310
UCLA +310 Total: 135.5
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As complicated as the modern era of college athletics has become — a record 1,450 Division I players entered the transfer portal after last season — coaches understand they must work within the confines of this new system, which involves the portal acting as a faster on-ramp for roster building. NIL and revenue share are becoming additional incentives for players to consider other programs if they want to succeed. Fourteen power conference coaches interviewed by The Athletic said they've completely altered how they build rosters, recruit and develop talent. 'Coaches are questioning, obviously: Is it even worth it to be in this business? What are we doing? What are we doing if we can't build a program and you're starting from scratch every year to build a team without any rules around it?' one power conference coach said. 'What are we doing? And why are we doing it?' 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Many coaches said this season's top portal players signed deals of upward of $700,000, and some unheralded underclassmen, due to their longer eligibility, were seeking deals of $ 300,000 or more. By comparison, the WNBA supermax this season is less than $250,000, with only four players receiving it. Meanwhile, less than a quarter of the league makes $200,000 or more. Yet, at the college level with limited post players in the portal, many coaches said programs needed to offer a premium of that kind to sign even a marginal big. 'If you were a post player in the portal a month ago and you averaged three points a game at the Power 4, most of them were asking for $200,000 plus,' one power conference coach said. 'And you're like, 'You averaged 2.5 points per game.' ' Even highly successful programs are learning they might need to reset expectations after every season, given the uncertainty of attrition and what those defections mean for their own needs from the portal. Look no further than UCLA. The Bruins appeared in their first Final Four of the modern era and, in a previous era of the sport, would have been considered a prime contender in the 2025-26 season due to the experience returning players gained. Yet, after the Bruins' successful run, the entire freshman class, as well as Londynn Jones, a 31-game starter, and Janiah Barker, the Big Ten's Sixth Player of the Year, decided to transfer. It means UCLA coach Cori Close will be starting essentially from scratch after this core's graduation, rather than steadily building a program, with backups becoming role players and then starters, that is capable of taking down UConn or South Carolina in the Final Four. Notre Dame was ranked No. 1 during the season, and despite a late collapse, seemed poised for a strong upcoming season. But after the Irish lost Miles to TCU, freshman key contributor Kate Koval to LSU and two other players, they dropped out of The Athletic's post-transfer top 25. USC seemingly has prime minutes up for grabs after losing star JuJu Watkins to an ACL tear. Still, Kayleigh Heckle and Avery Howell, two freshmen who figured to be centerpieces next season, entered the transfer portal. Advertisement 'You had to think about sitting out a year, you had to think about the perception,' one power conference coach said about previous transfer implications. 'Now it's just normalized. If you lost two or three kids in a year, it used to be like, 'Oh my gosh, what's wrong at that school?' And that's just not the notion anymore.' Some coaches likened the roster turnover to coaching at the junior college level. 'If I can keep the kid for two years,' one said, 'I feel like I've won the lottery.' Although most coaches are frustrated with the lack of oversight and guardrails in place from the NCAA over the past few seasons, they understand that it's also a shifting reality for them. In this era of limited regulation and hazy guidance, coaches and universities that are quick to adapt have had the upper hand, whether that means getting their collectives more involved (generally seen as acceptable among all coaches) or tampering with athletes (seen as illegal, but not currently regulated as such). Now, with the settlement finalized over the weekend, actual regulation is taking effect. As of last Saturday, college athletes were required to report NIL deals worth more than $600 to the newly established College Sports Commission for approval. On July 1, universities can begin making revenue share payments to athletes. The impact of these regulations on athletes' deals is currently unknown. Still, the NCAA has been clear that the NIL-specific regulation is intended to protect athletes from false deals, not to hinder their earning power. However, because the settlement had been pushed back — a decision was expected two months ago — universities and collectives were able to front-load deals, which created an arms race across conferences, which drove up the total 'cost' of rosters. The Athletic asked 12 coaches what they expect it would cost, between revenue share and NIL, to build a roster that could contend for their respective conference title. Multiple Big Ten and SEC coaches estimated the cost between $2.5 million and $3.5 million. Multiple ACC and Big 12 coaches said that building a championship roster costs between $1.5 million and $2.5 million. Most of those numbers exceed even the WNBA's team salary cap of just under $1.51 million. Advertisement However, this number is a moving target. With impending legislation, coaches are uncertain about how it may change in the coming seasons, particularly with the establishment of revenue sharing and the creation of the College Sports Commission. Coaches said that while the leverage has shifted almost entirely to players, there are no safeguards in place for the programs or the collectives that act on their behalf. This movement leaves many coaches working on a year-to-year basis, unsure of what their rosters will look like or how much money they will have to fill potential holes. 'In true professional sports, I know I have this player under contract for four years and I can prepare for that player to go into free agency, or I know I have $200,000 coming off the books ahead of next year. Here, it's free agency every single year, and the tampering is out of control,' one coach said. 'So, please tell me how I do this. Tell me how to manage a roster when we don't know the rules.' Regulation around NIL, collectives and revenue share could provide some stability, but even so, coaches expect both tampering and transfer numbers to remain high every season. From the 2020 high school recruiting class, 17 of the top 25 (and seven of the top 10) players transferred before the end of their college careers, including Angel Reese, Kamilla Cardoso and Hailey Van Lith. In the 2021 class, 13 of the top 25 players transferred, and 18 of the top 25 players in the 2022 class, now rising seniors, transferred. This attrition has had a ripple effect on how college coaches prioritize high school recruiting. Many staff chose not to send multiple (or any) coaches on the road this offseason for the first high school recruiting evaluation period, valuing hosting immediate impact players over seeing talent who wouldn't be on campus for a few years. That signals a significant shift in the overall recruiting philosophy. Five years ago, the lifeblood of almost every program was high school recruiting. Now, the portal offers another option. Multiple coaches said that their focus on high school recruits has decreased from 95-100 percent of their recruiting efforts to somewhere between 50-70 percent. Nearly 80 power conference freshmen transferred this offseason, so coaches also realize that bringing in a freshman doesn't necessarily mean stability. Advertisement As coaches prepare for summer workouts before the 2025-26 season and make plans to attend high school recruiting events, they recognize that their priorities might look different a year from now. Regulations from the House settlement could remove some of the challenges of the past few seasons. Still, coaches will have to navigate a landscape that once seemed unimaginable in college sports. However, one challenge remains the same: UConn and South Carolina are the hunted. 'The job is just different now,' one coach said. 'You just have to make up your mind if you want to deal with the other stuff.' (Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; top photos: Joe Buglewicz, Eakin Howard, Jonathan Daniel / Getty Images)