Women's NCAA championship preview: How Baylor and Notre Dame match up

TAMPA, Fla. -- The women's NCAA title game is here, and Baylor and Notre Dame are both trying to win a third national championship.

We asked espnW's panel of women's college basketball writers on site at Amalie Arena -- Andrea Adelson, Charlie Creme and Mechelle Voepel -- to discuss what they're expecting to see Sunday (ESPN/ESPN App, 6 p.m. ET).

In our championship game predictions, Adelson picked Baylor to win, while Creme and Voepel tabbed Notre Dame as the favorite.

Which one-on-one matchup are you most looking forward to?

Creme: This game is loaded with potentially classic, game-deciding individual matchups. The national championship could turn on any one of them. My focus the entire game will be on Baylor's DiDi Richards against Notre Dame's Arike Ogunbowale. Richards has been the breakout offensive player for the Lady Bears in the NCAA tournament, doubling her scoring average to 13.4 points per game, but her defense on Oregon's Sabrina Ionescu was such an important part of Baylor's semifinal win on Friday.

At 6-foot-1, Richards has the kind of length that also could bother Ogunbowale. The time to really zero in on this matchup will be the second half, when Ogunbowale has shined both in this tournament -- she had 21 second-half points in Friday's semifinal win over UConn, 24 second-half points against Texas A&M and 11 fourth-quarter points against Stanford -- and last year's Final Four (two buzzer-beating, game-winning shots). If Richards can maintain her game plan and stay out of foul trouble chasing Ogunbowale all night, Baylor's chances of winning increase exponentially.

Adelson: Marina Mabrey told me she thought the matchup between Richards and Ogunbowale is going to enhance the women's game because of its competitiveness. Whether the superior offensive or defensive player wins out will be fascinating to watch.

But let's not forget what got Baylor to this point: its presence inside. So the matchup between Notre Dame's Brianna Turner and Jessica Shepard and Baylor's Lauren Cox and Kalani Brown should be right at the top, too. Cox and Brown power Baylor offensively because no team in the country has the twin size they do. Defensively, they are able to take the opposing team's post players out of their game because they are so tall. Notre Dame has a much better post presence than Oregon, so how the Fighting Irish work to contain Brown and Cox might be even bigger than the guard play.

Voepel: I love watching post players who supplement their scoring with a great ability to pass, and that's true of Cox and Shepard. They're both strong, 6-foot-4 presences who can get offensive boards and save their teams that way on possessions that otherwise would come up empty. But they also see the court like guards and pass so well to their fellow posts and the perimeter players. On Friday, Cox had 21 points and 11 rebounds, while Shepard registered 20 and 13; both had seven assists. For the season, Cox has 140 assists and Shepard 124, and they make their teams' high-low games very hard to guard.

What will be Sunday's X factor?

Creme: Whichever frontcourt pairing -- Baylor's Brown and Cox or Notre Dame's Turner and Shepard -- gets the best of the other could decide the game. And foul trouble could be the difference. Turner's presence on the floor is essential to Notre Dame's defense. She picked up two fouls in the first half against UConn and came out of the game. The Huskies surged with effective play from freshman Olivia Nelson-Ododa with Turner on the bench. Imagine what Brown and Cox could do without the 6-foot-3 Turner impeding their progress. Likewise, if either Cox or Brown have to sit, Baylor's biggest advantage is gone.

Adelson: If there's one player who often gets overlooked on Baylor, it's Juicy Landrum. She might be the only starter who doesn't average double digits, but she has quietly worked to become one of the most reliable defenders on the team. Look at the way she helped shut down Ionescu in the semifinals. When Richards found herself in foul trouble, Landrum switched over to guard Ionescu with equally as impressive results. Ionescu went 0-for-6 with Landrum as her primary defender.

On paper, Notre Dame has the edge when it comes to scoring from its guards. Baylor knows its defense must go beyond shutting down Ogunbowale, and Landrum is going to be one of the biggest keys.

Voepel: I'll go with Jackie Young. She had 32 points in the semifinals last year against UConn, and she always is capable of having huge games. You often hear of a player quietly having a great game, and that tends to be how it is with Young. She has great court sense and athleticism, but she does everything so smoothly, it sometimes appears less spectacular than it actually is. Then other times, you are definitely blown away by the things she does. The general consensus is that Young is Notre Dame's best all-around player. As much attention as Ogunbowale demands, Young also is going to present a game-long challenge for Baylor's defense that could make the difference in getting the Irish another national championship.

Who will be the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player?

Creme: Turner, Shepard, Cox, Brown, Ogunbowale and even Richards already have made a good case with great performances in the semifinals. Any one of the them could emerge as the winner with a career-defining game on Sunday. But in that kind of setting, it's hard to bet against Ogunbowale. The Notre Dame senior has become the ultimate big-moment player. No one on the floor will be more confident in a close game, and no one has the ability to shake off a bad stretch like Ogunbowale. A very forgettable two-point first half against UConn turned into a 23-point, when-it-mattered masterpiece. There is no reason to believe she can't do it again.

Adelson: Charlie's right -- it's hard to bet against Ogunbowale, especially since she has come through so many times in the clutch. But I picked Baylor to win based on its post play, so I'm going to go with Cox. Nothing beats her competitive fire, nor her will to get the job done, no matter what it takes. Brown might get more headlines because she is physically bigger, but you can make the argument that Cox is the team's most valuable player. When the Lady Bears needed stops down the stretch against Oregon, Cox made them. I'm betting she does the same against the Irish.

Voepel: Ogunbowale has such a sense for the moment in games, and if it comes down to making big shots, she's the one. But if Shepard gets the kind of numbers on Sunday that she did on Friday, and Notre Dame wins, it's hard not to reward her with the honor. Last year, Shepard came up huge in the national championship game, both with her defense against Mississippi State's Teaira McCowan and her 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting. Shepard can impact the game in many ways as a post player. Against a team as post-dominant as Baylor, she and Turner will need to play at a Most Outstanding Player level.