TAMPA, Florida — UConn isn’t letting Paige Bueckers leave without a national title, so woe to anyone who tries to get in their way.

Just ask UCLA, which was effectively run off the floor by halftime Friday night and wound up on the wrong end of an 85-51 loss. That would be the overall No. 1-seeded Bruins, mind you. Or Oklahoma, which is still licking its wounds from the 40 points Bueckers dropped on the Sooners a week ago.

Heck, ask South Carolina, which headed for the exits at halftime of UConn’s beatdown of UCLA, having experienced this nightmare once already. UConn shellacked the defending champs on their home court less than two months ago. They didn’t need to watch UCLA get picked apart to know what awaits them in Sunday afternoon’s title game.

Opinion: UConn will steamroll Final Four teams. No one is beating Paige Bueckers this March Madness

There was, oh, three decades or so when everyone hated UConn because the Huskies were just better than everyone else. They collected titles like European royalty – 11 so far, for those counting – and the Final Four might as well have been a scheduled game. UConn coach Geno Auriemma had his pick of All-Americans, the Huskies alums a “Who’s Who” of women’s basketball.

But all dynasties eventually end, and the game had seemingly caught up to UConn these last few years. The Huskies haven’t won a title since 2016, and have only made one appearance in the title game since then. It’s South Carolina that’s the team to beat now, reaching the title game for the third time in four years after routing Texas in the other national semifinal.

We all should have known better.

Since a loss to Tennessee on Feb. 6, no team in the country is playing better than UConn. And the Huskies haven’t just been good. They’ve been ruthless, snatching the very souls from their opponents.

They’ve won 15 in a row, all but two by 20 or more points. They’re outscoring their NCAA tournament opponents by 30-plus points, with Bueckers averaging 29 points on 58.7% shooting in her first three games.

Against UCLA, they had a double-digit lead by the end of the first quarter. They’d harassed UCLA into 10 turnovers midway through the second, two more than the Bruins had field goals.

And in perhaps the most audacious moment of the entire night, with less than two minutes left in the first half, Azzi Fudd stripped Elina Aarnisalo and whipped the ball to Bueckers. Bueckers, spotting Kiki Rice at her side, shoved the ball to Kaitlyn Chen, who scored on a layup that put UConn up 39-22.

Bueckers and Chen burst into laughter. UCLA had to want to cry.

But this is UConn and Bueckers’ year.

Bueckers is one of Auriemma’s all-time favorite players – somewhere between 1 and 1,000, she joked last weekend – but her career has not exactly been smooth. She was a freshman during COVID, playing in empty arenas. She missed part of her sophomore season with a knee injury, then tore her ACL weeks before her junior season was to begin.

Last year, Bueckers was healthy but the rest of the Huskies were being held together by bubble gum and sticky tape. That they even got to the Final Four was a minor miracle.

Everything has fallen into place this year for UConn, and the Huskies aren’t about to waste it. They want a title, and they’ll run over anyone they have to to get it.

Consider yourselves warned, South Carolina.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.

South Carolina is making its fifth consecutive trip to the Final Four and the seventh in program history. This year they will be returning to the scene of their first Final Four – the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida. South Carolina fell short in the 2015 Final Four when Tiffany Mitchell was unable to connect on a difficult shot against Muffin McGraw’s Fighting Irish on the game’s final play. Connecticut cut down the nets in 2015 and are favored to do so again ten years later. While this number changes as the money pours in, UConn is the favorite at -155. The Gamecocks are next at +250 followed by UCLA at +750 and Texas at +850. To provide a point of reference for those numbers: in 2023: the unbeaten Gamecocks were -330 and LSU (eventually champion) was +700. So while UConn is the favorite, it’s not by nearly as much as the Gamecocks have been the last two seasons or like Huskies were in the early-to-mid 2010s.

Below are some of our thoughts on the field of four and the last weekend of basketball. Gamecock Scoop and Alan Cole will be following the Gamecocks in Tampa and will have extensive coverage throughout Carolina’s hopeful championship run.

Let’ start with the Gamecocks. For most of the tournament South Carolina’s defense has shown up. Duke exploited the Gamecocks out of the halftime break but for the most part Carolina’s defense hasn’t been the problem. In the last three games, the Gamecocks haven’t gotten into transition to score easy baskets. (A few MiLaysia Fulwiley moments aside), and Carolina’s half-court offense has been stagnant. Carolina can beat Texas the with the way they’ve played the last three rounds, because Texas plays a very similar style, but they won’t beat UCLA or UConn. The Gamecocks were 7-for-23 from 3-point range in Birmingham and Te-Hina Paopao is averaging 7.3 points per game in this tournament. Both of those number must improve if South Carolina is going to cut down another set of nets. The Gamecocks have needed 4th quarter comebacks the last two rounds. With UCLA’s size, Texas’ smothering defense and UConn’s incredibly efficiency- 4th quarter comebacks will be a tall task in Tampa.

UCLA enjoys an advantage that the Gamecocks have the last four seasons, a player that presents a physical mismatch for everyone else in the field. Lauren Betts is 6’7 and is averaging 20 points and nearly 10 rebounds a game. When teams try to collapse on Betts, the Bruins have four guards that shoot over 35% from three including junior star Kiki Rice.

Paige Bueckers is doing everything that Caitlyn Clark did last year but unlike the Hawkeyes, the Huskies have two other potential top WNBA Draft picks on their roster to fall back on. Azzi Duff, I mean Fudd, looks healthy and Sarah Strong is the freshman of the year. UConn ranks in the top five in the country in field goal percentage (No. 1), points per play and per 100 possessions (No. 1), 3-point percentage (No. 5), assists per game (No. 3), fewest turnovers per game (No. 3) and margin of victory (No. 1). UConn is short team without a true dominant post. Betts and Bruins might be the toughest matchup for the Huskies of their three possible opponents.

The Gamecocks have seen Texas three times, splitting a home-and-home in the regular and in the finals of the SEC Tournament. They know each other. From the three matchups this season, if you can control Madison Booker, you are going to beat the Horns. Texas just doesn’t have another scorer that scares quality opponents. The Longhorns also do not shoot the three ball well. If an opponent can build a double-digit lead early, Texas will struggle to make up ground. The Horns are tenacious on defense and are an excellent rebounding team.

Stephen: I’ve ridden with the Gamecocks throughout this tournament, but you’d have to have been blind to say that the UConn Huskies haven’t looked like the better the team the last two months. On February 16th, walking out of the CLA after witnessing UConn roll the Gamecocks by 29, I dismissed it as a one-off. A game which the Gamecocks played poorly and Connecticut played its’ best game in almost a decade. Now it looks like it was the first time that UConn was fully healthy this season and a showcase for that they were capable of. South Carolina can still beat UConn, as can UCLA, but right now Connecticut looks like the country’s best/hottest team. UConn over Carolina.

Alan: I think I have to side with Stephen on this one. UConn has not only been playing the best basketball in the country for the last month, but continued to improve throughout the NCAA Tournament. The Huskies have looked a little better every weekend, while South Carolina’s halfcourt offense has been invisible nearly the entire tournament other than the Tennessee Tech game and the second half against Indiana. Can it come back? For sure. And I wll never fully write off a Dawn Staley team. But right now it feels like UConn’s to lose, and i think UConn beats South Carolina.

An illegal immigrant on the run from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement was busted for a devastating hit-and-run crash that killed a University of South Carolina student Wednesday, according to police and sources.

Rosali I. Fernandez-Cruz, 24, allegedly fled the fatal scene after he failed to yield and rammed his pick-up truck into a motorcycle operated by Nathanial Baker, 21, on Blossom and Assembly Streets near the university’s campus in Columbia around 2 p.m., according to the Columbia Police Department. 

The careless motorist, who was allegedly driving without a license, was wanted by ICE since 2018, a Department of Homeland Security source told The Post. 

“A South Carolina student was killed yesterday because of an illegal alien who had no right to be here,” South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace said in an X post Thursday.

“We’re going to fight like hell to get every last illegal alien out of South Carolina. We’re praying for the victim, his family, and the students at USC who have been touched by his passing. Hold the Line South Carolina.”

Sources said Fernandez-Cruz, a native of El Salvador, illegally crossed the US-Mexico border at an unknown date but was arrested by border patrol in Hidalgo, Texas on Dec. 24, 2016. He was released the next day and issued a notice to appear as DHS initiated removal proceedings.

An immigration judge in Charlotte, North Carolina, then ordered the undocumented migrant to be sent back to his home country on Sept. 6, 2018, sources said.

South Carolina police said Fernandez-Cruz was driving with two male passengers when he killed Baker, a business major from Glen Allen, Virginia, and fled the crash site. He then abandoned his truck and was nabbed by a nearby officer who found and detained him near the 1100 block of Greene Street, according to cops.

ICE was notified of the arrest after police discovered Fernandez-Cruz’s name listed in the National Crime Information Center database.

The two passengers, who also ran from the scene, aren’t facing criminal charges, police said.

Scores of grief-stricken USC students have since created a memorial on a sidewalk near the deadly crash site, leaving behind messages in chalk, flowers, pictures, and candles, according to local reports.

“Rest in Peace, Nate,” one message said, WACH reported.

“Thank you for the memories. We love you so much.”

Baker’s fraternity, Phi Gamma Delta, also shared their sorrow on Instagram, calling their fallen brother a leader, role model and a true embodiment of what their group stands for.

“Nate Baker brought light, laughter, and love into all of our lives,” the fraternity wrote in the post.

“Nate will always be remembered for the way he showed up for others and the impact he had on everyone around him. His passion, loyalty, and love for this brotherhood will never be forgotten. May we honor his memory by living with the same kindness, selflessness and generosity that he showed to everyone around him.”

The university released a statement calling the situation a tragedy. School officials offered their deepest sympathies to Baker’s family and friends while reminding the campus community that university counselors are available to grieving students.

Fernandez-Cruz was charged with hit-and-run resulting in death, failure to give information and render aid, failure to yield the right of way, and driving without a license.

He is being held without bond at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center.