Everyone will be gunning for UCONN harder than they have the last 3 years. The last three years there was little to no doubt that Connecticut would waltz to a championship, and many times teams played incredibly intimidated and lost the game before it even began. This year everyone in the top 25 will believe they have a chance to hang with and upset the Huskies now that the seniors are gone.
The only years I can think of where there wasn't an obvious front runner in the last ~20 years are 2003, 2005 and 2011. All were years where UCONN was coming off a title and UCONN lost a ton of talent.
2003 was similar to this upcoming year in that UCONN graduated a great senior class and the rest of the top programs all returned their best players. Duke and Tennessee looked extremely formidable, and Beard had all the hoopla of being the next big star in women's basketball. How did it pan out? Another dominant year for the big dogs of Tennessee, Connecticut and Duke with a UCONN repeat. But 2003 had Taurasi, 2017 UCONN doesn't.
2005 was a weird year because the 2004 graduating senior class was amazing, and the incoming freshman class made up one of the best collections for freshman we've ever seen in a season. Fast forward to day, and besides UCONN's seniors, the 2016 senior class was incredibly weak and there isn't a ton of hype regarding the incoming freshmen. UCONN was in a somewhat similar spot to how they are in 2017 in that they lost significant talent that won't be replaced, but have potential stars waiting in the wings (Turner/Strother in 2005 and KLS/Nurse in 2017) and both teams bring in some nice kids with potential to contribute. In 2005, Strother and Turner didn't pan out as stars, Houston didn't emerge as a star freshman and other teams have stronger rosters and played better basketball. LSU was a newcomer on the block but emerged as the early favorite and Tennessee joined them as the other big favorite going into the NCAA tournament until both were upset in the Final Four.
2011 was a really incredible year looking back. UCONN was decimated by graduation/injury/transfer but had the best player in WCBB and still emerged as the title favorite. That year you had 3 other really dominant teams who all posed major threats for the title in Stanford, Baylor led by sophomore Griner and freshman Sims, and to a lesser extent Tennessee who had a really good team that year. Most felt UCONN had a great shot to win a 3rd straight with Maya Moore leading the charge, but it wasn't a slam dunk and would be a much more difficult feat. Notre Dame and A&M were not really on anyone's radar as title threats, although Diggins and Adams were good players in their own right. The tournament went as planned until the Elite 8 and Final Four, when both of those teams went on to pull off huge upsets. ND beats Tennessee for the 1st time in program history, and stops Connecticut who has won 114 of their last 115. I believe the are only team to ever beat Tennessee and Connecticut in the same tournament. As impressive, A&M stops Baylor after losing to Baylor three times earlier that year, and pulls off a miraculous comeback over a LOADED Stanford squad that appeared to be a major title threat. Replay that tournament 10 times and you could have 5 or 6 different winners.
What will happen this year? I bet it'll be similar to 2011 where UCONN still fields a title worthy team even without a superstar. Notre Dame appears to have the best team on paper when you look at their talent and coaching staff. Baylor might have the deepest team, South Carolina may have the best individual player and the top front court next year, and Ohio State has a lot of really strong talent eligible to play this year, but there isn't a standout team that appears to be a heavy favorite like there usually is. It should be a very very exciting season.
