Women's Final Four 2023 - Ranking the top 25 players in March Madness

The 2023 women's Final Four is set, and for just the second time — and first since 1993 — Iowa has advanced to the national semifinals.

The Hawkeyes are joined by Final Four first-timer Virginia Tech, LSU, a program returning for the sixth time but first in 15 years, and favorite South Carolina, which is back for a third year in a row.

ESPN updates our top 25 players in the women's NCAA tournament one final time before the season ends, and we have a much smaller pool from which to draw. Sixteen players made the list for the first time — and Gamecocks account for nearly one-third of our rankings.

But Iowa's Caitlin Clark remains No. 1. Her 41-point triple-double in the Hawkeyes' regional final victory over Louisville is the stuff NCAA tournament legends are made of. And prior to Iowa's Elite Eight game, another legend — former Seattle Storm star Sue Bird — visited the team during its shootaround Sunday at the regional in Seattle, making a special day for Iowa even more memorable.

Bird won two NCAA titles, four WNBA championships and five Olympic gold medals. She finished her UConn career with a perfect season in 2002, the same year Clark was born. Bird watched Clark lead the Hawkeyes to the Final Four on the same Climate Pledge Arena floor where Bird ended her Storm career in September.

«There's an energy that she plays with, a passion that she plays with,» Bird said of Clark. «She talks a little s---, which is nice.

»What's really cool, I see this young player who obviously has the game — and we can talk about step-back 3s and the way she sees the floor, we can talk about the X's and O's all day. But what I really see is a player who kind of sees what her future could be, sees what her opportunities can be and is really