The Aporia · Women's basketball's season set to tip with return of JuJu Watkins, South Carolina, UConn top teams

Women's basketball's season set to tip with return of JuJu Watkins, South Carolina, UConn top teams

Read the original at Toronto Star ↗

Cite

APA MLA Chicago

Feinberg, D. (2026, October 25). Women's basketball's season set to tip with return of JuJu Watkins, South Carolina, UConn top teams. Toronto Star. https://www.thestar.com/sports/basketball/women-s-basketball-s-season-set-to-tip-with-return-of-juju-watkins-south-carolina-uconn-top-teams/article_fa077d52-8763-58e2-8454-cef2ebc58e9b.html

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

Quick Summary

Women's college basketball is set to begin its season with key players like JuJu Watkins returning from injury and top teams like South Carolina and UConn aiming for championships. The NCAA Tournament field has expanded to 76 teams, and the national championship game will take place on April 4 in Columbus, Ohio. Notable transfers include Dawn Staley's addition of Jordan Lee from Texas to South Carolina, while new coaches such as Carla Berube at Northwestern aim to lead their programs to success.

Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-25, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

The upcoming women's college basketball season tips off with the return of JuJu Watkins, a star guard at South Carolina who missed last year due to an ACL injury. The season begins overseas on November 1st and 2nd with games in Rome and Paris, featuring matchups like Notre Dame against Villanova, and South Carolina facing Maryland while North Carolina plays Oklahoma State. Dawn Staley's top-ranked Gamecocks aim to bounce back from their loss in last year’s national championship game to UCLA, which had its entire starting lineup drafted into the WNBA but still managed to recruit well through transfers. The tournament field has expanded to include 76 teams, with the final taking place on April 4th in Columbus, Ohio.

Written for “Women's Basketball Season Starts” on 2026-10-25, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

Why this leaning score

This article does not take a side on a contested political question, so it has no leaning score. That is an answer rather than a gap: a match report or a rescue can be warmly or critically written without being left or right, and scoring it anyway is how approval of a subject gets recorded as a political position.

No political leaning scored for article 106156 · logged 2026-10-25

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Claims extracted

sentences that state something as happening or true

Uncertain

1 of 19 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")

Leaning

not political

takes no side on a contested political question

Publisher signals

64/100

Toronto Star's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.

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Running correction rate · 26 correction(s)

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Who wrote this

Doug Feinberg

30 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction

🔮 A day later, the Gamecocks will face No. 20 Maryland and No. 12 North Carolina plays No. 21 Oklahoma in Paris.

2026-10-25 · assertive framing · Women's basketball's season set to tip with return of JuJu Watkins, South Carolina, UConn top teams

🔮 Trailing 2-1 in the best-of-seven WNBA Finals against Atlanta, they know a win on Saturday will give them back home-court advantage with a trip to “Ballhalla” awaiting.

2026-10-24 · assertive framing · Golden State Valkyries trail Atlanta Dream 2-1 heading into pivotal WNBA Finals Game 4

🔮 Gray briefly left Game 3 after Gabby Williams made contact with her injured hand.

2026-10-24 · assertive framing · Allisha Gray plays through a hand injury as the Dream lead the WNBA Finals 2-1

🔮 The Atlanta Dream have imposed their will defensively on Golden State in the WNBA Finals so far, using their size and strength to dominate the Valkyries.

2026-10-22 · assertive framing · Atlanta Dream smother Golden State, riding a bruising defense to a 2-1 WNBA Finals lead

🔮 So I definitely will miss it.

2026-10-21 · assertive framing · A packed State Farm Arena awaits as the Dream host their first WNBA Finals game in 13 years

🔮 Engelbert described traits that would help her successor.

2026-10-17 · assertive framing · WNBA's Cathy Engelbert says a search firm is vetting candidates to replace her

🔮 The WNBA will crown a first-time champion with the Golden State Valkyries and the Atlanta Dream playing for the title in the best-of-seven series that starts Saturday.

2026-10-17 · assertive framing · A first-time WNBA champion awaits as the Valkyries and Dream open the Finals

🔮 Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password.

2026-10-13 · assertive framing · WNBA moves up Game 3 of Finals by a day to allow Atlanta Dream to host Valkyries at State Farm Arena

🔮 New York will be making its third appearance in the semifinals of the WNBA playoffs in the past four years when the Liberty play the Atlanta Dream on Sunday in Game 1 of the best-of-five series.

2026-10-03 · assertive framing · New York Liberty face the Atlanta Dream in Game 1 of the WNBA semifinals

🔮 Minnesota couldn’t get closer than seven points the rest of the way.

2026-09-30 · assertive framing · No. 8-seeded Liberty sweep top-seeded Lynx 87-71 in quarterfinals, advance to WNBA semifinals

Also by Doug Feinberg

Golden State Valkyries trail Atlanta Dream 2-1 heading into pivotal WNBA Finals Game 4

2026-10-24 · Toronto Star

Allisha Gray plays through a hand injury as the Dream lead the WNBA Finals 2-1

2026-10-23 · Toronto Star

Angel Reese fuels Atlanta Dream’s WNBA Finals surge and is now 2 wins from her first title

2026-10-23 · Toronto Star

Players in WNBA Finals tuning out President Trump, other outside noise, say their focus on the games

2026-10-23 · Toronto Star

Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.

All 30 articles by Doug Feinberg →

Topics

Bruins Gamecocks NCAA UCLA USC

Subjects

Bruins ORG · 2× Gamecocks ORG · 2× Maryland ORG · 2× NCAA ORG · 2× NCAA Tournament ORG · 2× Oklahoma State ORG · 2× Princeton ORG · 2× Texas GPE · 2× UCLA ORG · 2× USC ORG · 2×

Narrative

Other key moves in the offseason included Jordan Lee going from Texas to South Carolina, Nunu Agara heading from Stanford to Maryland, Liv McGill leaving Florida for Oklahoma State and Aaliyah Crump going to Duke from Texas.

framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-25

🔮 A day later, the Gamecocks will face No. 20 Maryland and No. 12 North Carolina plays No. 21 Oklahoma in Paris.

2026-10-25 · Toronto Star

Women's basketball's season set to tip with return of JuJu Watkins, South Carolina, UConn top teams · assertive framing

Claims (19 extracted, 1 hedged)

JuJu Watkins is back as women’s college basketball has one of its brightest stars returning from an ACL injury that sidelined the USC guard all of last season. asserted

that → have → season

Watkins headlines a talented group of stars, including AP Player of the Year Sarah Strong of UConn, Hannah Hidalgo of Notre Dame and South Carolina’s Joyce Edwards. asserted

Watkins → headline → Dame

Dawn Staley’s top-ranked Gamecocks are looking to rebound from last season’s national championship game loss to UCLA. asserted

Gamecocks → rank → UCLA

The Bruins took a huge hit with their top six players all getting drafted by WNBA teams. asserted

players → take → teams

Still, coach Cori Close used the transfer portal well to bring in a new group to try and defend the Bruins first NCAA title. asserted

Close → use → title

The season begins overseas once again with Hidalgo’s 13th-ranked Irish team facing Villanova in the Eternal City Tip-Off in Rome on Nov. 1. asserted

team → begin → Nov.

A day later, the Gamecocks will face No. 20 Maryland and No. 12 North Carolina plays No. 21 Oklahoma in Paris. asserted

Carolina → face → Paris

The national championship game will take place on April 4 in Columbus, Ohio. asserted

game → take → Columbus

The champion will come from an expanded NCAA Tournament field that will have 76 teams for the first time. asserted

that → come → time

Old faces in new places As has been the case over the past few years, some of the top players changed schools this past offseason. asserted

some → change → schools

There was a mass exodus from Iowa State including star center Audi Crooks going to Oklahoma State and Addy Brown heading to UCLA. asserted

Brown → be → UCLA

Talaysia Cooper left Tennessee as part of another mass leaving to head to Ole Miss. asserted

Cooper → leave → Miss.

Crump → include → Texas

Even with the NCAA allowing players to stay five years now, there’s a huge crop of promising freshmen who can make an impact immediately for their college teams. asserted

who → allow → teams

North Carolina’s Kate Harpring, USC’s Saniyah Hall and Iowa’s McKenna Woliczko all could produce quickly. uncertain

Harpring → produce → ?

Northwestern brought in Princeton coach Carla Berube to take over for Joe McKeown , who retired at the end of last season. asserted

who → bring → season

Berube has gone 531-125 in stops at Division III Tufts and then Princeton. asserted

Berube → go → Tufts

She led the Tigers five consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and won 84% of her games at the school. asserted

She → lead → school

Other major coaching changes included Tanisha Wright taking over at her alma mater Penn State; Ayla Guzzardo becoming the head of Georgia and Aaron Roussell leading Virginia after leaving Bucknell. ___ asserted

Roussell → include → Bucknell