‍With a 87-75 defeat of the Iowa Hawkeyes on Sunday, the South Carolina Gamecocks won their 2nd national championship in 3 years. There is little question that they are the premier program in Women’s basketball, but are they now considered the most dominant program in both men’s and women’s college basketball?

There are a lot of ways to define dominance when it comes to college basketball. Overall record, tournament record, final 4 trips, championships won, and 1st round/lottery picks are the main categories used to argue that a program is the most dominant. 

In the women’s game, South Carolina checks all of these boxes over the last 4 seasons. Their total record is 135-8 with 2 national championships and 2 final four appearances. Since the start of this run, South Carolina has produced 8 WNBA draft picks, with 5 of  them going in the 1st round including 1 top pick Aliyah Boston in 2023.

Additionally, South Carolina is 4-1 against UCONN over the last 5 years including a 64-49 win in the 2022 national championship game. These statistics clearly demonstrate that South Carolina has supplanted Uconn as the most dominant program in the women’s game.

This is not an argument that what South Carolina is doing currently is better than what UCON did from 2000-2016. The Huskies under Geno Auriemma won 10 national championships during that time frame including 4 straight from 2013-2016. That may never be accomplished again as it is exceedingly difficult to do, but I do believe that over the last 5 seasons, the South Carolina Gamecocks are beginning to build their own dynasty to rival any from the past. 

With South Carolina as the clear top program in the women’s game, is there anyone from the men’s game that can remotely rival what that Gamecocks have accomplished over recent years? 

Certain programs can claim dominance in particular categories. For instance, Kentucky has put more players into the NBA than any other program recently, but they lack any semblance of recent tournament success. If UCONN wins tonight and boasts back-to-back national championships, they could have a say in the argument, but there is so much more turnover in the men’s game mainly due to the portal and guys declaring for the draft early.

Take Villanova for example. They won 2 championships in 3 years but since 2018 they have not consistently been one of the top programs in men’s college basketball. 

South Carolina’s women’s team appears to just be building their dynasty under Dawn Staley and will once again be the team to be next year and likely for the next several years. Their ability to reload every season without missing a beat is a testament to what a great coach Staley is and the dynasty that she is building at USC.

It’s hard to argue against the program that nearly has as many championships in 3 seasons as they do losses: nothing screams dominance more than this, which is why they are the top program in all of college basketball.