Sophie Cunningham, Aaliyah Edwards, and more make their picks as Geno Auriemma and Dawn Staley gear up for national championship game

Ahead of the 2025 NCAA women's basketball national championship game, former student-athletes shared their predictions as Geno Auriemma's UConn Huskies face Dawn Staley's South Carolina Gamecocks. In an X post from the NCAA on Sunday, a GIF featured past stars, including WNBA players Sophie Cunningham, Aaliyah Edwards and more, as they made their championship picks.

Edwards, a former UConn player and current WNBA player, proudly threw her support behind her alma mater.

“Yo! Who you got on Sunday?!” she responded with an image of herself wearing her UConn jersey.

Meanwhile, Sophie Cunningham, who starred at Missouri and now plays in the WNBA for Indiana Fever, shared her respect for UConn guard Paige Bueckers' impressive performances.

“Paige is going CRAZYYYYY,” Cunningham wrote. “And would love to see her get one but I have to stick to my SEC roots, goin South Carolina.”

There were predictions from other stars, such as former Maryland guard and current Phoenix Mercury coach Kristi Toliver. She expressed her support for UConn as she backed Paige Bueckers to finish the job.

“U-C-O-N-N, Paige knows what’s on the line. No one’s more motivated to win than her!” Toliver wrote.

Former Rutgers player Kahleah Copper also chimed in with her pick for the title as she threw her support behind South Carolina.

“Hey! Gotta go wit NORF PHILLYS own. South Carolina,” Copper wrote.

The matchup between UConn and South Carolina represents more than just two top-tier programs going head-to-head. It’s a clash of Auriemma’s legacy of championships and Staley’s era-defining dominance.

Dawn Staley’s South Carolina faces Geno Auriemma’s Uconn

South Carolina and UConn take on each other on the court in Tampa for the 2025 national championship, a matchup set to be the latest chapter in a rivalry between Dawn Staley and Geno Auriemma.

The championship game is the 15th meeting between the two Hall of Fame coaches. Auriemma leads the head-to-head 9-5, but the momentum has shifted in recent years. Since 2020, Staley has won five of the last seven matchups, which included a national title win over UConn in 2022, the only championship loss in Auriemma’s career.

Their first matchup came in 2008, as UConn defeated a rebuilding South Carolina 77-48. Over the years, UConn dominated and secured big wins over South Carolina, including in the regular season and the NCAA Tournament. In February 2020, South Carolina claimed its first win over UConn.

Key games included South Carolina’s 2022 title win, where they stunned UConn 64-49, and a hard-fought victory in 2023, led by an impressive second-half performance from Aliyah Boston. Most recently, in February 2025, UConn inflicted an 87-58 defeat to South Carolina and snapped the Gamecocks’ 71-game home winning streak.

Now, on Sunday, Auriemma is chasing his 12th national title in his 40th season and faces Staley, who is looking to go a perfect 4-0 in championship games.