Locked On Women’s Basketball: Sweet 16 Spokane Preview — Can Paige Bueckers win a national title?

Leite and Munson started by discussing the matchup between overall No. 1 seed UCLA and Mississippi, who defeated Baylor 69-63 to advance to the Sweet 16.

“I think it’s easy to say that UCLA is a favorite, right?” Munson said. “[They’re] the number one overall seed. They’ve been very good. [Mississippi] doesn’t necessarily have a 6’7 center to combat Lauren Betts. At the same time … [Mississippi] really is very comfortable in the underdog position. That is sort of, I think how [head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin] has always coached her teams and they’ve had some big upsets this year. Something that both the coach and the players pointed out today when they were talking to media is that they had a really strong strength of schedule this year. They started their season against USC in Paris. They played in the SEC and there are six SEC teams in the Sweet 16. … They’ve upset LSU in Louisiana. So they have that experience to upset teams that maybe they shouldn’t. Last year that was Stanford that they upset. It was a bit of a disappointment in terms of Stanford’s performance, but [Mississippi], particularly defensively, is just a team that will dog the ball and they will make it really, really tough for you.”

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Then, they talked about the matchup between LSU, who barrelled past Florida State 101-71 in the Round of 32, and NC State, who posted similarly broad margins (83-49) against Michigan State to advance to the Sweet 16.

“Out of all of the Sweet 16 games, is the one that really intrigues me, because honestly, I didn’t have LSU getting this far in my bracket,” Leite said. “I thought that the injuries to Flau’jae Johnson and Aneesah Morrow [were] going to come way more into play than they have. And, I mean, maybe they’ve healed a lot quicker, or maybe, they haven’t been as big of an issue. But this is also interesting, because NC State ended their regular season, and got really far in their conference tournament, and they have a lot of momentum right now. … They’re trying to come back to the Final Four for a second year in a row. And so this is kind of the clash of these two programs that are kind of trying to get back to their former glory. LSU won the championship in 2023 … and then NC State came back to the Final Four last year for the first time [since 1998]. [They’re] also very similar teams, when you think about these really dynamic, really athletic guards, Aziaha James, Saniya Rivers on NC State, Flau’jae Johnson and Aneesah Morrow, who is technically a front court player, but those are kind of the big hitters for the teams. It’s going to be, I think, a really big offensive game, because that’s what these two teams are really good at. And I think it’s going to be a really fast paced game, if the Florida State game showed us anything.”

Next, the two discussed how JuJu Watkins‘ absence will impact USC, and whether this opens the door for Kansas State to make a splash:

“I think as much as USC will miss her on the court, I don’t think her mentality is going to leave them,” Munson said. “I think if anything, they’re going to want to win for JuJu. They are going to embody her mentality of never giving up, of giving your absolute most. … she is always one of the biggest uplifters of her teammates. And I think the biggest … struggle for USC will be that they haven’t played a lot of minutes without her. It’s not that they don’t have talent. It’s just that they don’t have much experience without JuJu on the floor. It’s been very rare occasions where she’s either had foul trouble or they’ve had a really big lead, so they’ve been able to rest her, but most of the time they’ve had JuJu on the floor. So I agree that Kiki Iriafen will be probably like the deciding factor. She is, I think, their biggest, unquestionably, their biggest scoring threat behind JuJu. … Talia von Oelhoffen hasn’t exactly had the season we might have expected coming out of Oregon State, but she has been to this place because she was here with Oregon State last year, and I think that she is someone who can step up and hit some threes for them. In particular, Rayah Marshall was with USC in this tournament last year. She’s a really big post presence for them. She can also kind of step up her scoring a little bit. The rest of the team is is relatively young. I think my main concern would be that a lot of their guards that come off of the bench, like Avery Howell and Kayleigh Heckel, they’re very good, and they’ve gained a lot of confidence throughout the season. But can that continue into a tournament setting, which is just a little bit harder, a little bit more stressful?”

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Finally, they ended the conversation with an overview of the matchup between UConn, who rolled past South Dakota State 91-57 in the second round, and Oklahoma, who bested Iowa 96-62.

“I think Oklahoma has stronger post play, and I think UConn has stronger guard play,” Munson explained. “When it comes to Oklahoma, Raegan Beers can be an unstoppable force. We saw it last year for Oregon State in the [2024] tournament, and throughout [this] season. And you know, it took her a little while to find her feet at Oklahoma … she struggled with foul trouble quite a bit. But that’s not entirely new to her career. And then Skylar Vann is not necessarily a traditional post player, but she plays in there. And they’re really tough to to stop in the post. And I think it’ll be interesting to see who guards Raegan Beers and how well they can guard her. Does she get in foul trouble? Does she have to sit a lot of the game? I think that’ll be a big factor. And then Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd. And I also think, KK Arnold, Ashlynn Shade, they have really good guards who are very capable of scoring. And Paige Bueckers in particular, I think will have extra motivation … there was a post on social media that was like, ‘Will Paige Bueckers become the best player to ever graduate out of UConn without a national championship?’ You know, she hasn’t won one yet. And that’s what UConn does. So it to some extent, might feel like that’s what she needs to do. And at the same time, Oklahoma are a very strong defensive team, and if you let them get steals and stops, they will run like heck and they will score … so I think security will be really important for UConn, and whether or not they can stop Oklahoma’s post play when their main post player is a sort of undersized freshman in Sarah Strong, who kind of likes to play a little bit more outside of the paint than she does in the paint. Will they be able to stop the post players, or will they just have to shoot enough threes that it overcomes whatever Oklahoma is able to get in the paint? Both are entirely possible.”

Tune in to hear more about each Sweet 16 matchup, and more from inside the Spokane regional from Munson and Leite. Make sure to subscribe to the Locked On Women’s Basketball podcast to keep learning about the WNBA, women’s college basketball, basketball history and much more!