A couple of things on that "g" part.

by KGB, Belly o. the Beast, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, 09:19 (20 hours, 50 minutes ago) @ Chris

First, HH improved considerably this past season. She's always been great and disruptive, but she was much more efficient this time around, and she also didn't hit the proverbial wall in February. Hidalgo shot 3-19 in the S16 loss to TCU last season and bears some responsibility for the disappointing fade toward the end of the campaign. She reached a higher level as a player this year, both in performance and conditioning.

Second, the landscape is just way more competitive now than it's been before. UConn looked absolutely dominant all season until South Carolina wiped the floor with them. Some probably even crowned SC at that point, and then UCLA went out two days later and beat them twice as bad. Having a historically-great player guarantees you nothing anymore. The Caitlin Clark Hawkeye teams of just a couple years ago would have been unlikely to advance in this most recent tournament as far as they did in those seasons. Competition is improving rapidly in WBB.