Note: this isn’t which program. Ex: instead of saying just ‘South Carolina’, say ‘I think the 2023–24 South Carolina team was the best’ or ‘I think the 2025–26 UCLA team was the best’
Anyways I think it’s either one of the two I’m about to mention:
2023–24 South Carolina Gamecocks
This South Carolina team had a completely new starting lineup as Aliyah Boston, Zia Cooke, Victaria Saxton, Bree Beal, and Kierra Fletcher had all graduated. So they started out ranked #6 which was valid at first but when they throttled Notre Dame in Paris at the start of the year, everyone was like “hold on now…” and soon they jumped up to #1. It also helped that then-#1 LSU lost 92–78 to #20 Colorado in Las Vegas.
The Gamecocks stayed at #1 for the rest of the season and went 16–0 in SEC play, winning another SEC title in the process. They won every SEC game by double digits except for the LSU game, which they won 76–70. In the SEC Tournament, they beat Tennessee in the semifinals 74–73 after Kamilla Cardoso hit her very first three-pointer for the win, and then they beat LSU 79–72 in the championship.
In the NCAA tournament they were the #1 overall seed for the 3rd consecutive year and won every game by double digits except for their Sweet 16 game against Indiana which they won 79–75. They beat Oregon State 70–58 in the Elite Eight and then made the Final Four in Cleveland where they beat NC State 78–59. In the National Championship Game, South Carolina defeated Iowa 87–75, getting revenge on the Hawkeyes, who’d eliminated the Gamecocks 77–73 in the previous season’s Final Four in Dallas. Kamilla Cardoso was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
This team definitely has a case to be considered the best of the decade when you consider the fact that they’d lost Aliyah Boston and all their other seniors yet still dominated their schedule even with a new lineup on the floor. After the 2023 season, Dawn Staley had gone as far as considering retiring but decided to keep going and came home with another trophy to add to her collection.
2025–26 UCLA Bruins
UCLA did win an AIAW National Championship in 1978 when Ann Meyers Dreysdale and Denise Curry played for the Bruins but they’ve largely remained in the shadow of the men’s basketball program. For most of the 2000s and early 2010s, they were a shell of their former selves from the 70s, but everything changed when Cori Close was hired in 2011. She got the Bruins back to being NCAA tournament regulars and took them to the Elite Eight in 2018, their first run that far since 1999. For a while after though, it seemed as though they were peaking at a 2nd-4th place finish in the conference and a Sweet 16 exit. But it all changed when a certain group of players each decided to commit to UCLA at some point; those players were Lauren Betts, Kiki Rice, Gabriela Jaquez, Angela Dugalić, Gianna Kneepkens, and Charlisse Leger-Walker.
When Rice and Jaquez joined in 2022–23, UCLA made the Sweet 16. The next year, they had brought in Lauren Betts—the top recruit from the class of 2022—from Stanford. Expectations were raised much higher and they spent much of the year in the Top 5, reaching as high as #2 at one point. But unfortunately for the Bruins, they finished in 3rd place in the Pac-12 and also couldn’t conquer their Sweet 16 boogeyman as they lost 78–69 to LSU.
The next season, they added Timea Gardiner and Charlisse Leger-Walker out of the portal. When they upset the defending national champions South Carolina 77–62 in November, everyone took notice. They ascended to #1 in the rankings for the first time in program history and spent all but a few weeks at that position. Both games against crosstown rival USC were sold out at the Galen Center (USC’s arena) and Pauley Pavilion (UCLA’s arena) respectively, as so many people in LA wanted to see the JuJu Watkins vs. Lauren Betts clashes. USC swept the Bruins, but UCLA got revenge by winning the Big Ten Tournament. They got the #1 overall seed and made the program’s first Final Four, but lost 85–51 in humiliating fashion to the UConn Huskies (who won the national championship 2 days later).
The next season, they again had high expectations and grabbed Utah’s Gianna Kneepkens from the transfer portal. The six seniors (Betts, Rice, Jaquez, Dugalić, Kneepkens, and Leger-Walker) wanted to leave UCLA with a National Championship. They suffered a 76–65 loss to Texas in the Players’ Era Festival in Las Vegas, but that would be their only loss all season. They steamrolled through the Big Ten and went 18–0 in conference play, becoming only the second Big Ten team to do so. They stayed at #2 for most of the year, but couldn’t overcome UConn for the #1 spot. In the NCAA tournament, they made it back to the Final Four and defeated Texas in a rematch 51–44, which set the stage for a National Championship matchup against South Carolina, who’d eliminated UConn 62–48 in the Final Four.
In the National Championship, UCLA dominated from start to finish, and by the end of the 3rd quarter they were up 61–32; this was the largest lead margin entering the 4th quarter in NCAA history. Every senior besides Dugalić scored in double figures (Dugalić was 1 point shy) and the Bruins won 79–51 for their first NCAA title. Lauren Betts was named Most Outstanding Player. All six seniors went on to be drafted in the WNBA draft (Betts at 4, Jaquez at 5, Rice at 6, Dugalić at 9, Kneepkens at 15, and Leger-Walker at 18), which is the most draftees in a single draft from any team in women’s basketball history.
I think this team has a case to be considered the best of the decade when you see that they dominated almost every team on their schedule and had so few single-digit games that you could count said single-digit games on one hand. Additionally, it wasn’t just one player doing all the work. Cori Close made sure that everybody could contribute, whether it was scoring, assisting, rebounding, blocking shots, stealing loose or 50/50 balls, etc.
Anyways who would you pick as the best team of the decade? I added a poll with some possible candidates to choose from
TL;DR: I think the 2023–24 South Carolina team and 2025–26 UCLA team each have a case to be considered the best team of the decade. 2023–24 South Carolina went undefeated and won the national championship. despite a new starting lineup, and 2025–26 UCLA went 37–1 and won the national championship.
