The Women’s Final Four Felt More Connected Than Divided

I sat at the bar of a Mexican restaurant in downtown Phoenix an hour before South Carolina and UConn tipped off in the 2026 Women’s Final Four. It was packed, but I didn't mind because the energy was electric and I'd heard good things about the rice.

To my right were three female UCLA fans, who had been chatting with two South Carolina fans before they left and I took their place. Texas fans in cowboy hats and burnt orange were across the bar, and a couple sporting Michigan gear sat at a high-top table behind us.

They told me they'd booked these tickets in advance as a way to manifest Michigan advancing to the Final Four for the first time in program history. But they decided to come anyway, because they appreciated how respectful Texas had been after beating them in the Elite Eight.

UCLA Bruins center Lauren Betts (51) | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

It Didn't Feel Like Opposing Sides

It not only felt like an equal split of each team's fans, but the overall diversity was staggering. And while these fans' programs were about to play in the biggest game of their season (and the biggest game of many players' careers), there were no anxious faces. Instead, it felt like a celebration and culmination of how far women's basketball has come and where it was headed.

I usually cover women’s college basketball from my phone, scrolling from home. And the version of this weekend that lives online surely would have been more divided than it had been in person.

This shared experience never really stopped, even when the action was paused. At one point during the UConn vs. South Carolina game, an AT&T commercial played on the Jumbotron that showed Candace Parker being phoned in to jeer an opposing player for a free throw, which worked.

The ad spot got the arena laughing because of how it showed Parker's competitive side. The trash talk in the commercial felt closer to what I expected the Final Four to be like. But it never showed up.

I especially expected hostilities to increase after Geno Auriemma and Dawn Staley got in a verbal spat at the end of UConn and South Carolina's game.

I sat around UConn fans and heard Gamecocks fans debating the exchange in the bathroom. While all fans took their respective coach's sides, they did so quietly, speaking among themselves rather than proclaiming their opinion to anybody within earshot. I kept waiting for it to turn, but it never did.

It felt like folks were watching the same thing from a slightly different, albeit connected, lens.

Geno Auriemma exchanged words with Dawn Staley in the final seconds of South Carolina and UConn’s Final Four matchup. pic.twitter.com/S6anlPKqwe
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 4, 2026

Fans Don’t Just Watch These Players. They Know Them

Both Final Four games plus the national championship (where UCLA routed South Carolina for its program's first-ever title) were low-scoring, and neither ended up being particularly nail-biting. In fact, the biggest crowd reaction on Friday came during a timeout, when the jumbotron showed players from all four Final Four teams getting asked their opinion about various trends.

I didn't know what "kitten heels" were, and I would imagine that a decent portion of the audience didn't either. But that didn't stop everyone from cracking a smile when South Carolina's Tessa Johnson proclaimed they were making a comeback with her typical vigor.

Timeout segments like these are common at every sports game. But while it feels forced in many professional sports, with the players wanting to get the questions and answers over with as quickly as possible, it seemed like taking a stance on kitten heels and mayonnaise on pizza (UCLA's Charlisse Leger-Walker is an advocate) in front of fans was another reason why advancing to the Final Four was a goal.

While all four Final Four teams do a great job with social media activity, many of UCLA's players are active, engaging, and authentic with their content. Leger-Walker has a posting cadence on Instagram and YouTube that makes it hard to fathom how she is also a Division 1 student athlete, and she seems likely to become a vlogger and social media influencer regardless of how her professional basketball career pans out.

Gabriela Jaquez loves to dance, and every one of the half-dozen or so TikTok videos she has done to "What You Saying" by Lil Uzi Vert gets at least half a million views across platforms. Jaquez, Leger-Walker, and star center Lauren Betts also went viral earlier this year for making a cameo with the UCLA cheerleading squad and performing a routine at halftime of a men's basketball game in full cheer attire.

They crushed the routine, and the ensuing video went viral. These three then did the same dance on the court after each UCLA win, albeit this time in whatever championship apparel they were just given.

Watched Charlisse Leger-Walker, Gabriela Jaquez and Lauren Betts doing their infamous halftime dance next to the UCLA dance team.

The dance team approved of the championship performance. pic.twitter.com/PiWU3Wbk6R
— Jordan Hamm (@JordyHamm) April 5, 2026

When this dance routine commenced after UCLA won its NCAA Tournament region's bracket and advanced to the Final Four, what had been nearly unanimous praise before that point became divisive. Several social media accounts went viral for calling this dance "cringe", "corny", or "tired", claiming it had been overused to the point of now becoming cliché.

But here appears that same disconnect between social media and real life. These three UCLA stars continued their dance after their Final Four and national championship, and every fan in the arena loved it; especially those who understood the context of them doing this dance after each previous win.

It was another reminder that what you see online doesn’t always match what it feels like in person. These fans chose to celebrate and champion the sport rather than pick it apart. And in spaces like Tourney Town, where players and fans share the same space without much separation, that kind of interaction felt authentic.

The Experience Didn’t Stop At the Court

Women's Tourney Town took place from Thursday through Sunday in a huge convention center across the street from Mortgage Matchup Arena. All of the presenting sponsors had activations set up, but AT&T's featured player meet-and-greets. Candace Parker, Jackie Young, Chelsea Gray, Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, and Swin Cash all appeared and engaged with fans.

UCLA star Kiki Rice's likeness appeared on an LED wall as part of AT&T’s March Madness interactive basketball game, and she would coach participants on where to shoot and what to do next. I didn't see Rice's coaching in action, but I heard good things about it.

AT&T Women's Final Four Tourney Town activation | Image courtesy of AT&T

The caliber of players AT&T brought in made their activation stand out, but more than that, it brought fans closer to the players they admire, even if they root for different teams.

The event also featured a free Super Saturday concert the night before the national championship game, which Kehlani headlined. The San Francisco Bay Area native has long been a supporter of women's basketball, but this concert served as yet another means for fans to connect through a shared experience.

This feeling that the Final Four fosters hasn't gone unnoticed by athletes. When I asked Las Vegas Aces star Chelsea Gray about the environment in Tourney Town when she was at that AT&T activation, she said, “I think mutual respect is how women's basketball has always operated. We’ve been welcoming, but now there are more eyes and visibility. We can bring fans that weren’t necessarily fans before, and getting to see the players and hear their stories on and off the court keeps the fans around.”

Jackie Young shared a similar opinion. “Everybody is coming together to watch good basketball. You have whichever team you support, but at the same time, there’s a level of respect between everyone. At the end of the day, we’re here to watch these women put on a show. So finding a balance of cheering on your team respectfully and also celebrating the game is everything.”

Hearing Chelsea and Jackie's sentiment solidified that environment I'd noticed wasn't accidental. It's something players feel too, whether they're on the court or at a Tourney Town meet-and-greet.

I’d expected that the fans of the teams that lost on Friday would leave Phoenix; that Tourney Town would feel like it belonged only to UCLA, South Carolina, and local Phoenicians by the end of the weekend. But it never did. It felt like nobody left. And even after the blowout loss, many South Carolina fans stuck around to see Jaquez, Leger-Walker, and Betts do their dance surrounded by blue and gold confetti.

For a weekend built around who wins and who doesn’t, what stood out the most was how many people showed up to share the same moment.

The author attended the event as part of an experience organized by AT&T.