Villanova WBB’s Season in Review: Building On Success

Villanova Women’s Basketball ended a two-year NCAA Tournament drought this past season, making it back to the Big Dance for the first time since program legend Maddie Siegrist took them to a Sweet Sixteen.

The Wildcats have another potential all-time great on their roster in the form of 5-foot-7 point guard Jasmine Bascoe, a unanimous All-Big East selection. While nothing is certain in the era of the transfer portal, Bascoe seems poised to stick around on the Main Line, setting them up for success at the midpoint of her college career.

From two ugly losses to start the season to a ten game winning streak and a legitimate upset bid against No. 1 UConn, Philadelphia Sports Now is here to retrace the highs and lows of the 2025-26 season, one that provides a foundation that Villanova can build on in the coming seasons.

The Wildcats brought in ESPN Top 100 recruit Kennedy Henry, the highly-touted Bender twins and French-Canadian point guard MD Ntambue for their freshman class. They also added transfers like forward Kylee Watson, a starter on a pair of Notre Dame teams that made the Sweet Sixteen, and guard Kelsey Joens out of Iowa State. After making a run to the WBIT semifinals during the 2024-25 campaign, those supplementary additions helped Villanova complete their rebuild.

Freshman Focus

Their improvement wasn’t linear, however, as both forward Brynn McCurry and Archbishop Wood graduate and sixth player Ryanne Allen entered the season banged up. Watson, capable of filling a starting role when healthy, dealt with a litany of injuries throughout the year but still made her impact on the Wildcats as a veteran leader. That thrust their freshmen into the spotlight early, with Henry and Brooke Bender taking on major minutes during the first month of the season as McCurry and Allen worked their way back to full health.

While the freshmen performed admirably, they also went through expected growing pains, and Villanova dropped home games to Fairfield and Princeton in the first ten days of the season. Both those teams ended up making the NCAA Tournament — even banged up, the Wildcats played them close — but Villanova struggled to earn national respect throughout the season. They picked up a statement 81-59 road win over West Virginia on Dec. 1, obliterating a Mountaineers squad that went on to win the Big 12, but even as their winning streak stretched to ten games, the Wildcats didn’t get so much as a single vote in the Associated Press Top 25 poll.

McCurry and Allen warmed up as the calendar flipped to December, boosting Villanova with shot-making and leadership; McCurry won MVP honors as the Wildcats claimed a Philadelphia Big 5 Classic win over Saint Joseph’s at the Finneran Pavilion.

Securing No. 2

The Wildcats’ win streak continued through their first five Big East games before they fell flat in a road loss to Marquette, quashing their chance of climbing into the poll just as they started to generate real momentum. They went 3-2 over their next five games, pummeled against UConn on the road before suffering an upset loss at St. John’s with senior forward Denae Carter out due to a concussion.

From there, Villanova put together another six game winning streak, Carter and Henry discussing just how close of a bond they had with their teammates as they picked up steam.

They carried that momentum through the first half of the return game against the Huskies, becoming the first team to hold a halftime lead against UConn all season. The Huskies managed to flip the script in the second half, handing Villanova an 83-69 home loss. The Wildcats then concluded the regular season on a two game winning streak, enacting revenge on the Golden Eagles behind their stingy defense and locking up the No. 2 seed in the Big East as they began to earn poll votes for the first time all year.

They took care of business in their first two Big East Tournament games against Providence and Seton Hall, dealing with shooting slumps but still managing comfortable wins, before UConn again showed their pedigree as the top seed in the country in the conference championship game.

Still Underrated

Hall of Fame head coach Geno Auriemma complimented Villanova after the game, describing them and the Big East as underrated and describing their future NCAA Tournament games as must-see TV. The selection committee dealt the Wildcats another snub on Selection Sunday, slating them as a No. 10 seed after projections listed them as high as a No. 8.

Throughout the conference tournament and heading into the Big Dance, the Wildcats continued to emphasize their tight-knit team identity, saying that in single-elimination games, their only goal was to secure another 40 minutes on the court with their teammates. While Villanova controlled the pace of play for much of their opening round matchup against No. 7 seed Texas Tech, Joens nailing four threes in the first quarter after dealing with a shooting slump that lasted more than a month, the Lady Raiders took over late and Bascoe’s attempt at a game-tying three in the waning seconds clanged away.

Losing veterans like Carter, Allen and Watson will hurt, as will the graduation of seniors who helped Villanova gel off the court like Maggie Grant and Annie Welde, but the Wildcats have an excellent chance at keeping the core of their roster together heading into next season. Elise Bender will make her Villanova debut after dealing with injuries this season, Romanian point guard Miky Panait has familiarity with the system after joining the Wildcats in January, and they’ll also benefit from the recruitment of legacy commit Alexis Eberz.

Bascoe sticking around for another season or two will, of course, keep Villanova on an upward trajectory.