NCAA Women's Basketball Bracket 2019: Final Four Schedule, Live-Stream Info
On Friday night, four of the best women's college basketball teams in the country will take the court at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, looking to secure a spot in this year's national championship game.
Two will advance and go head-to-head Sunday night with the national title on the line.
It's not surprising to see any of the Final Four teams still alive in the NCAA tournament. Baylor, Notre Dame and UConn are all former national champions, while Oregon has also been among the best teams in the nation the past three seasons.
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The top teams in women's college hoops are usually dominant, which has been the case this season as well. But when the Final Four arrives and those schools face off, some of the best games of the year are played.
NCAA Women's Final Four Schedule (All Times ET)
View the full bracket at NCAA.com. All games will be streamed live on Watch ESPN.
Friday
No. 2 Oregon vs. No. 1 Baylor, 7 p.m., ESPN2
No. 2 UConn vs. No. 1 Notre Dame, 9 p.m., ESPN2
Sunday
National championship game, 6 p.m., ESPN
Final Four Predictions
Baylor over Oregon
Baylor has lost only one game this season—at Stanford on Dec. 15—and it enters the Final Four on a 27-game winning streak. And the Bears have been dominant through the NCAA tournament, even beating No. 2 seed Iowa 85-53 in the Elite Eight round.
Oregon will give Baylor a better game than that, but the Bears are the clear better team. In their first Final Four appearance since 2012, they'll prove it.
Baylor may be the No. 1 overall seed, but head coach Kim Mulkey knows the competition will be tough at this stage in the tournament.
"I'm not sure we're the team to beat," Mulkey told reporters Tuesday. "I'm not sure we've been picked to win it. We're one of four teams that can win it all. We're just happy to get there."
It's possible the Bears don't win it all. But they'll beat Oregon and at least have the opportunity to try to do so.
UConn over Notre Dame
The second semifinal features UConn, the best women's college basketball program over the past decade, and Notre Dame, the defending national champions. The Huskies beat the Fighting Irish 89-71 on Dec. 2, but that was early in the season and the stakes are much higher this time.
UConn has won six national championships since 2009. However, the Huskies haven't won a national title since 2016, getting eliminated in the Final Four each of the past two seasons. In fact, UConn lost to Notre Dame a national semifinal last year, falling 91-89 in overtime.
Huskies coach Geno Auriemma told reporters Tuesday that he knows his team has a challenging opponent, even if they did beat the Fighting Irish earlier in the season.
"I think we're playing the best team in the country," Auriemma said to the press. "If you look at their lineup, the amount of scorers that they have, experience that they have, just the quality of their players, I think it's a formidable task for us and I think for anybody to beat a team like that."
However, UConn will find a way to pull out the win and get back to the national championship game for the first time in three seasons.
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