Women’s college basketball Way-Too-Early Top 25 for 2022-23

In a 2021-22 season when more double-digit seeds won games in the NCAA tournament than ever before and parity became a buzzword again, we still saw a chalky Final Four, with three 1-seeds, plus UConn.

South Carolina, UConn and Stanford all made it to the season’s final weekend in back-to-back years, and they will be favorites to do it again in 2023. It’s difficult to pick against them being in Dallas 12 months from now. Just look at the star power they will have returning: The Gamecocks’ Aliyah Boston, the Huskies’ Paige Bueckers, and Haley Jones and Cameron Brink of the Cardinal. They, along with Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, will be on every 2022-23 preseason All-America team.

The fun is in determining which teams will best challenge them. The transfer portal will have plenty to say about that. With over 900 players currently looking to change programs — 179 of them from Power 5 schools — this Way-Too-Early top-25 list will almost certainly need some revisions when the dust finally settles and rosters are set.

For now, this is how we see next year shaping up. The road to Dallas can’t start soon enough.

Having the national Player of the Year in Boston back would be a good enough foundation for most teams, but all of her classmates are also set to return. Zia Cooke, Brea Beal and Laeticia Amihere give the Gamecocks essentially the same cast that won the national championship.

If Raven Johnson returns healthy from a torn ACL, Dawn Staley will also have her at point guard to replace Destanni Henderson. Saniya Rivers and Sania Feagin should improve on their first season in Columbia, and 6-foot-7 Kamilla Cardoso is still a defensive force. In other words, South Carolina is still loaded with talent.

A full season of Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd paired together in the backcourt should be plenty to offset the graduations of program mainstays Olivia Nelson-Ododa…