There is clearly increased competition in this sport now. When I began watching it was Geno and Pat. Some talented players would go play for Gail at Duke but she wasn't a great coach. It was UConn and Tennessee. Than it was UConn and Notre Dame with some Stanford teams to worry about (but as good as Tara is she hasn't won since 1992 for a reason.) In between you'd have a Maryland or Texas A&M or LSU have their moment but they could never sustain it.
Now you got Oregon, Baylor, South Carolina, Mississippi State, Louisville, Oregon State with legit coaches who are recruiting and developing talent. None of these programs are going anywhere. Even NC State, UCLA, Arizona, Northwestern, Indiana, etc are showing signs of taking their programs seriously. I watched an Arizona game the other night and they had a sold out rabid crown in Tuscon. These types of crowds were never thought to be possible outside Connecticut and Tennessee 20 years ago. The sport is getting better. We will have to be at the top of our games to win a title. It's exciting but certainly more nerve wracking. Nothing will be guaranteed anymore.
I don't think we can be too surprised that we are not as good as Oregon and Baylor this year. This is our "down year". Sure we can be dissapointed with the development of certain players but it was always coming down to Oregon and Baylor this year. And last years team probably went as far as they should. Baylor was schooling ND before Cox went down and ND was supposed to be better than us. We blew a lead which sucked but we probably finished where we should have.
What I think really adds to the angst is how our 2017 and 2018 seasons ended. UConn had legit shots to win those years and made huge errors to cost themselves the games vs Miss State and ND which resulted in heartbreaking OT losses at the buzzer. I think that still lingers with the fans and maybe the players and coaches.