NCAA Women's Basketball Bracket 2014: Final Four Schedule and Predictions

After a wild tournament, the women's Final Four is set to take place on Sunday night with the two most dominant programs this season still in the running.

UConn and Notre Dame, both No. 1 seeds and undefeated on the year, come into the Final Four as the clear favorites. But, with a potential chink in the armor for the Irish as Natalie Achonwa is out for the season with a torn ACL, the odds look much bleaker.

Apart from the two No. 1 seeds, No. 2 Stanford and No. 4 Maryland also have a great history at the Final Four. The Cardinal made the championship game in 2008 and 2010, but run up against a monster in UConn.

As for the Terrapins, Brenda Frese is an energetic and outspoken coach who won the NCAA championship in 2006. Maryland's coach spoke about her team and Stanford getting overlooked and the thought of the Irish being tabbed as an underdog, per Mike Organ of The Tennessean:

"

I feel like Maryland and Stanford are the extras at the Miss USA pageant. Everybody’s rooting for the other two. Our job is to be able to crash the party.

Notre Dame can’t play that card. They’ve been to four straight Final Fours. You’re not an underdog. Everyone’s still picking them, so there’s no way they can be the underdog. They can try.

"

With the tournament tipping off once again on Sunday night, here is a look at the schedule for the Final Four and championship predictions.

Date	Time (ET)	Matchup	TV Info	Pick
Sun., April 6	6:30 p.m.	No. 1 Notre Dame vs. No. 4 Maryland	ESPN	Maryland
Sun., April 6	8:30 p.m.	No. 1 Connecticut vs. No. 2 Stanford	ESPN	Connecticut

Bracket Predictions

Going undefeated is a special feat, but it also comes with an immense amount of pressure. UConn is a team used to that pressure and still has every key player on the court to get the job done.

Dominant forwards down low in Breanna Stewart, Stefanie Dolson and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis make up the best frontcourt in women's basketball. While Stewart and Mosqueda-Lewis get the attention on the offensive end, Dolson's pressure on defense makes her an elite forward.

The 6'5" senior made waves all season for her defensive presence, as Jim Fuller of the New Haven Register points out:

The ability that Dolson brings on the defensive end is matched offensively by Stewart. Named the Associated Press Player of the Year, Stewart's sophomore season has been more sensational than her breakout freshman campaign.

While the numbers, like 19.4 points, 8.1 rebounds and 2.8 blocks, look impressive, it's her style of play that makes everyone notice. Head coach Geno Auriemma even compares her to Kevin Durant, one of the best players in the NBA, per Emma Carmichael of Sports Illustrated:

"

Stewart, a 19-year-old sophomore, already has a national championship and a Final Four Most Outstanding Player award. She's 6' 4" with a 7' 1" wingspan, and as Scarlet Knights coach C. Vivian Stringer conceded after the game, "she's just scratching the surface" of her potential.

What makes Stewart special isn't difficult to quantify -- she has averaged 19.7 points this season and scored 1,000 in just 63 games, the second fastest to reach that mark in school history. But there's something else: Stewart is a new prototype for women's hoops. "I don't know that there's been anybody 6' 4" that can do what she does," Huskies coach Geno Auriemma says of his second-year star. "She's the first Durantesque player in the women's game."

"

With both of those elite players in their own right on the court for the Huskies and Mosqueda-Lewis getting her shots off, the Huskies will easily get past Stanford.

As for the matchup between the potentially underdog—and undefeated—Irish and Maryland—who refuses to buy that storyline—the matchup will come down to one player in Alyssa Thomas.

Notre Dame being without Achonwa is essentially like not having one of its best players on the court. But what the senior brought to the team this year has been understated, as head coach Muffet McGraw shared during a conference call (via Laken Litman of USA Today):

"

Natalie Achonwa sets the tone for our team in everything that we do. We talked about it in the locker room. There were no tears, there was no mourning. We are ready to move on, and Natalie is going to be on the sidelines doing everything she can to help us win.

"

Moving on is more difficult than it seems. Especially with the likes of ACC Player of the Year Thomas on the other side. The do-it-all forward was just named an All-American for the third time in her four-year tenure with the Terps.

Thomas annihilated Louisville in the Elite Eight, scoring 22 points and grabbing 13 rebounds in the win. The senior was also a huge part in the Terps' previous meeting with Notre Dame, which was the narrowest margin of victory for the Irish, as Mechelle Voepel of ESPN points out:

But what McGraw still has on the court for Notre Dame is still a great starting cast, highlighted by Jewell Loyd and Kayla McBride. Both are in the top three in scoring for the team and McBride is a finalist for the John R. Wooden award.

Angelo Di Carlo of WNDU in South Bend notes that both were All-Americans:

Even with the firepower of Loyd and McBride, Maryland will be too much for the Irish. Thomas' swan song could include one of her finest performances against an undefeated program with hopes of knocking off another in the national championship game.

Follow R. Cory Smith on Twitter.