To your point, I remain baffled that, after UConn absolutely dismantled SC in Columbia last season, many of the so-called pundits continued to push either SC or UCLA as the team to beat for the national championship. My eyeballs told me otherwise, to the point where I began to wonder if I needed new glasses…. 🥸
As has been noted elsewhere, filtering data for relevant results is useful, and I'd like to see what this shows about lots of teams, including SC. The first blowout down in Columbia exposed Dawn's front court, and especially Chloe Kitts, who was asked to do more than her physical skills allowed. Don't get me wrong, I like Chloe's game, but she is not a physical post player and that's what she was being asked to be. Her +/- numbers were the best on the team, though her defensive +/- was weakest among the starters. The same story is visible in the win share numbers: overall highest, but on defense among the lowest. And this reality is even more visible in the competitive games than in the blowouts -- the Texas games, the UCLA game and the UConn games.
If I go by the eyeball test, what I see is that Dawn's front court reserves were weak, especially after the loss of Watkins and Walker. Dauda and Tac simply couldn't carry the burden of the position in competitive games. As a result, It was only Feagin, Edwards and Chloe, and no one would seriously think this group was comparable to the great SC teams of recent years. In effect, they had a front court that topped out at 6'3" and wasn't nearly as athletic as it had been in the past.
Interestingly, on Geno's side, after that first SC game, he worried that his team would not recognize the possibility that a rematch could go very differently. Then he walked into the locker room to see Paige telling them all to expect a rematch to be much more competitive. That shows the other side of the eyeball test: Paige led a very savvy team that wasn't blind to its own vulnerabilities. And when the unsung heroes, like Jana and Ice stepped up in big games, she knew to celebrate them loud and long.