There's a very good chance that the defending champion UConn Huskies are better this season than last season, despite the loss of Paige Bueckers. The team currently sits at 13-0 on the season, and it's hard to see a potential loss on the horizon — at least until the NCAA Tournament, where a trio of other really good teams potentially await.
The question at this point isn't "can UConn win back-to-back titles," but "if UConn wins back-to-back titles, where does it rank among the all-time great women's college basketball teams.
Let's take a look at how this UConn team compares to some of the best teams we've seen in women's college basketball.
2025 UConn
I'm not sure I'd call last year's UConn team one of the greatest teams of all time, but I wanted to bring them up here because it's interesting to think about how a team lost Paige Bueckers and somehow got better.
This isn't some kind of Ewing Theory thing. Instead, it's simply that Sarah Strong is on track to be one of the best players of all time, and she came back ready to prove that in her second season.
What 2025 UConn had over 2026 UConn was Bueckers as that elite lead guard, but the team has done a good job spreading out the playmaking, with Strong leading the team in assists, while KK Arnold is just 0.1 assist per game behind her. Where this year's Huskies have a major advantage is that Strong has blossomed into an elite game-changer. As great as Bueckers is, Azzi Fudd is able to mostly make up for the loss of her perimeter scoring, and Strong is just a step above where she was at in 2025.
2024 South Carolina
There are a few years we could go with for the Gamecocks, but for simplicity's sake, let's go with the undefeated 2024 national championship team.
That South Carolina squad was undefeated and led the nation in net rating despite playing in a very tough SEC, and Kamilla Cardoso on the inside was a big advantage. The lack of a go-to outside scorer might be an issue in this hypothetical matchup, though. The Gamecocks were deep, but their best outside weapon was MiLaysia Fulwiley, who averaged just 18.4 minutes per game.
I think I take that South Carolina team, but it's close.
2018 Notre Dame
The 2018 Fighting Irish were loaded offensively — Jackie Young, Arika Ogunbowale, Marina Mabrey and Jessica Shepard are an elite quartet of players. However, defense could be an issue with that group, as the team was 239th in scoring defense and 168th in defensive rating.
While I worry that this UConn team lacks some of the needed shooting to keep up with Notre Dame, I also tend to believe that wouldn't really matter and that Notre Dame's defense was so bad that the Huskies would have eaten against it.
2016 UConn
This is where we get to the point where the distribution of talent in women's college basketball starts to put current teams at a disadvantage.
This current Huskies team is great, but the 2016 version had so many stars. Breanna Stewart is the big name, as she was at the end of her run as arguably the great women's college basketball player of all time, but the talent around her was absurd as well: Kia Nurse, Moriah Jefferson, Morgan Tuck, Katie Lou Samuelson, Gabby Williams, and a young Napheesa Collier, who wasn't yet the player she'd become but gave the team very good defense in her minutes. That team would run over this team, and I don't mean any offense to the current UConn team.
2012 Baylor
UConn would probably have to basically throw everything it could outside of Strong at Brittney Griner to slow her down, and I just don't know if it would be enough. Griner was a monster that season, and as good as Serah Williams is right now, it's hard to imagine her really shutting her down.
I do think this current UConn roster has the edge as far as depth goes, but I'm not sure that even matters when the Bears have Griner, plus Odyssey Sims at point guard is probably the best guard between the two teams. It's at least very close between her and Fudd.
2002 UConn
I think 2002 is far enough back that the conversation changes from "who would win a matchup" to "who has the better team relative to era," because there just wasn't really anyone that I'd trust to stop a prime Sarah Strong.
With that said, 2002 UConn was an elite team. The trio of Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird and Swin Cash is arguably the greatest collection of guard talent in college basketball history, and seven players from that roster went on to play in the WNBA.
1998 Tennessee
We can't end this without mentioning at least one Tennessee squad, and the 1998 version stands out, as it was the only undefeated season for long-time Lady Vols head coach Pat Summitt.
That team has a similar issue to the 2002 UConn team, which is figuring out what to do with the size of the Strong-Williams combo, but Tennessee had two all-time greats in Chamique Holdsclaw and Tamika Catchings. UConn wins a hypothetical matchup because of the frontcourt, but Tennessee was a better team based on how it compared to the other teams in 1998 than UConn is compared to the other teams this year.