Paige Buckers capped her UConn career in storybook fashion, leading the Huskies to an 82-59 victory over South Carolina in the 2025 National Championship – a rematch of the 2022 title game. After setting a Final Four record with a 34-point blowout over UCLA in the semifinals, UConn continued its excellence by winning its NCAA-record 12th national title and the program’s first since 2016. Bueckers, who dropped 17 points in the final, now ranks third all-time in NCAA Tournament scoring with 477 points, trailing only Caitlin Clark (491) and Chamique Holdsclaw (479). She joins Huskies legends like Breanna Stewart, Diana Taurasi and Maya Moore in the pantheon of greatness, and like those three, she’s likely to be the No. 1 pick in the upcoming WNBA Draft with the Dallas Wings. There, she’ll reunite with fellow stars of the 2020 recruiting class, Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Kamilla Cardoso and Cameron Brink, a group whose NCAA dominance set a high bar for future generations.
The 2020 Class: A Legacy of Greatness
The 2020 recruiting class may be the greatest in women’s basketball history, a powerhouse group that has produced five national championships, three National Player of the Year awards and four top-10 WNBA Draft picks, with Bueckers and Hailey Van Lith soon to make it six. Bueckers bookends the class’ accolades: In 2021, she became the first freshman to win the Naismith College Player of the Year award, and now, four years later, she’s a national champion. Cameron Brink kicked off the title haul by winning with Stanford in 2021, where she also won three straight Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year awards and joined an elite three-person club with 1,800 points, 1,200 rebounds and 400 blocks.
Kamilla Cardoso won two championships with South Carolina, one in 2022 against the Bueckers and the second in 2024, while Angel Reese delivered LSU’s first-ever title in 2023. The latest of this elite group of women’s basketball players is Hailey Van Lith, a now projected first-round pick who made history by reaching the Elite Eight with three different schools – Louisville, LSU and TCU – becoming the only player to reach that round five times and leading TCU past the Sweet 16 for the first time ever this season.
Clark’s Near-Misses and the Power of Teamwork
The crazy thing about this class is that Caitlin Clark, arguably its brightest star, has never won a championship despite a stellar career. The two-time national player of the year led Iowa to back-to-back title games only to fall short, first to Reese and LSU in 2023, then to Cardoso and South Carolina in 2024, both fellow 2020 recruits. Clark’s 60 points in those two finals dwarfed the combined 61 points scored by Bueckers (17), Reese (15), Cardoso (19), and Brink (10) in their championship victories, underscoring a harsh truth: one player can take you far, but a team will take you all the way. Iowa’s program, with just three Final Four appearances in its history (two under Clark), isn’t the juggernaut that UConn (12 titles), South Carolina (three in a decade), LSU, or Stanford (15 Final Fours) have been. Clark’s brilliance got them close, but the class of 2020 showed that depth wins out.
A New Era in the WNBA
Now the WNBA can reap the rewards of this historic class. Watching Clark, Bueckers, Reese, Cardoso, Brink, and soon Van Lith compete as pros – while going up against veterans like A’ja Wilson, Napheesa Collier, Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, Brittney Griner, Alyssa Thomas, and Arike Ogunbowale – promises to be electric. Women’s basketball is basking in unprecedented attention, and while Clark’s star power deserves much of the credit, the entire Class of 2020 has raised the level of the game. The momentum is only growing, with NCAA talent like JuJu Watkins, Sarah Strong and Hannah Hidalgo poised to join the WNBA. The revolution began with the 2020 class, and its legacy – five titles, countless records, and a new standard of excellence – will reverberate for years to come.
The Class of 2020 didn’t just play the game, they redefined it. From Bueckers’ UConn triumph to Clark’s scoring heroics, Reese and Cardoso’s title runs to Brink’s defensive dominance, they’ve left an indelible mark. As they take their talents to the pros, the future of the WNBA looks brighter than ever, and the next generation has a towering standard to chase.
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