South Carolina is favored to win again after Dawn Staley, Aliyah Boston and the Gamecocks rolled through the 2021-22 season in dominating fashion.

Connecticut, which hasn't won a title in six years, is missing its best player — Paige Bueckers — again.

And parity in the game continues to grow — that was never more evident than last spring, when two No. 10 seeds upset two No. 2 seeds to reach the Sweet 16.

Welcome to the 2022-23 women’s college basketball season. It should be a great one.

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Here are the top storylines to follow this season.

It sure looks that way. Fresh off leading Team USA to gold at the Tokyo Olympics, Dawn Staley returned to South Carolina for her 14th year, where her Gamecocks rolled through the 2021-22 season. They were favored to win the title and did so in dominating fashion, beating UConn 64-49 in Minneapolis. They’re likely just getting warmed up.

South Carolina will return player of the year favorite and perennial All-American Aliyah Boston, the best defensive player in the country who’s also a handful on offense. Also back are guards Zia Cooke and Brea Beal. Point guard Raven Johnson, who suffered a torn ACL last year as a freshman, will get to play a full season. All of this likely adds up to more hardware for South Carolina. Look for the Gamecocks to again cut down nets in March (and April).

OUTLOOKS:Everything you need to know about Top 25 women's teams

REPEAT READY:South Carolina has pieces to win national title again

If anyone is due for some good injury karma, it’s Paige Bueckers. One year after suffering a tibial plateau fracture and torn meniscus in her left knee and missing 19 games, Bueckers tore her ACL this summer (same leg) and will miss the entirety of the upcoming season.

So, here’s what life without Bueckers looks like if you are Geno Auriemma: Super sophomore Azzi Fudd (12.1 ppg) is back, as are forwards Dorka Juhász (7.3 ppg, 5.7 rpg) and Aaliyah Edwards (7.9 ppg, 5.1 rpg). And we’re talking about the Huskies, so of course there’s two top-ranked recruits joining the party: 6-foot-2 Ayanna Patterson and 6-foot-3 forward Ice Brady. It’s been six years since UConn won a title, an agonizing stretch for the most dominant program in the history of the sport. That talk wears on the Huskies, and they’ll be out to prove they don’t need Bueckers to win another one.

Point-forward Haley Jones and shot-blocking sensation Cameron Brink make up maybe the best one-two punch in women’s basketball — and they’re the primary reason Stanford will be favored to make its third consecutive trip to the Final Four. The Cardinal, the 2021 national champ, is an instant contender with Jones (6-foot-1), Brink (6’4) sophomore Kiki Iriafen (6’3) and 6-foot-7 Lauren Betts, the nation’s top-ranked freshman.  (They’ll also be a nightmare to guard inside and probably destroy opponents on the boards.) Stanford is likely to breeze through the Pac-12 again, but early non-conference games against South Carolina and Tennessee will be a good gauge of just how tough the Cardinal is. 

Caitlin Clark, the sweet-shooting 6-foot guard who spurned bigger programs to stay home, is the most electrifying player in women’s hoops. Her seemingly unlimited range – she’s comfortable pulling up as soon as she crosses halfcourt – has drawn comparisons to Steph Curry. She’s actually better as a passer, particularly on the break, and her play gets fans to pack the stands.

But if we learned anything during the tournament, it’s that she needs some help on the perimeter. Iowa got that this offseason, with the transfer of Molly Davis, a 5-foot-7 guard who averaged 18.6 points last year at Central Michigan. Add in post Monika Czinano, who’s back for a super senior year, and the Hawkeyes have every piece they need to make a run to Dallas.

Just like last spring, hundreds of players entered the NCAA’s transfer portal in the offseason, eager to find a new place to play.

A lot of coaches continue to criticize this trend, but let’s be real – a lot of those coaches benefit from it too. Perhaps no one will benefit more this season than Virginia Tech, which brings aboard Ashley Owusu from Maryland. A 6-foot guard who can score at will, Owusu (14.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game in career) will be the perfect complement to 6-foot-6 center Elizabeth Kitley (18.1 points, 9.8 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game last season), another All-American.

Kim Mulkey might be the most disliked coach in college basketball, men’s or women’s.

The second-year LSU coach, who won three NCAA titles at Baylor, frequently makes headlines with her comments (or in the case of her former player Brittney Griner, with her refusal to comment on Griner’s imprisonment in Russia). But Mulkey just keeps winning.

She took over a downtrodden LSU program and in one season led the Tigers to a No. 3 seed in the tournment after finishing second in the SEC. They’ll be even better this year, as they added Maryland transfer Angel Reese, a 6-foot-3 forward who averaged a double-double last season (17.8 points, 10.6 rebounds).

Probably not. Aneesah Morrow at DePaul deserves consideration after averaging a double-double (21.9 ppg, 13.8 rpg) in her first year of college hoops, but Rori Harmon (11.4 ppg, 5.0 apg, 2.5 spg) is a one-woman jolt of energy every time she steps on the floor.

Her motor is unmatched on both ends, keeping up with her is exhausting and keeping her in front of you is next to impossible.

It’s been 14 seasons since Tennessee won a national title, an unconscionably long time considering women’s college basketball is the house that Pat Summitt built. But under fourth-year coach Kellie Jolly Harper, the Lady Vols are poised to make a deep NCAA Tournament run – as long as everyone stays healthy. They welcome four highly touted transfers, including Rickea Jackson (20.3 ppg, 6.8 rpg at Mississippi State), plus 6-foot-4 guard-forward Justine Pissott, a top 15 recruit. Jordan Horston (16.2 ppg, 9.4 rpg) and Tamari Key (10.5 ppg, 8.1) are back, too.

Parity is increasing every year in women’s basketball, and that was never more evident than last spring, when No. 10 seeds Creighton and South Dakota each upset No. 2 seeds to reach the Sweet 16. Now the trick is for mid-majors to win big during the year and put themselves be in a position to earn single-digit seeds. There are a handful of mid-majors ranked in the USA TODAY Sports preseason poll, but women’s basketball is still waiting for its version of what Gonzaga has become on the men’s side – a mid-major in name only.

The NCAA is trying something new this season for the NCAA women's tournament, putting Sweet 16 teams at two regional sites (as opposed to four) in Seattle and Greenville, South Carolina. ESPN analyst Debbie Antonelli has been pushing for years for the NCAA to make Las Vegas the permanent host for the Sweet 16, similar to how the Women’s College World Series (WCWS) is always played in Oklahoma City. Is this a step in that direction? It’s impossible to predict what the NCAA will do, but at the very least it’ll be interesting to track the results of this two-regional experiment.