Duke enters women's tourney as favorite

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Tweet By now, you've probably spent hours breaking down your men's NCAA Tournament bracket. You think you know which No. 12 seed is most likely to pull off the upset, which top seeds look the shakiest and which squads will reach the Final Four.

But your women's bracket might be less than complete. So I'm here to give you a crash course on four teams that have a good shot of being crowned the champion in April.

Four teams that could win it all:

1. Duke — The Blue Devils aren't the tournament's No. 1 overall seed for nothing. They blew through the competition, losing just one game all season — a 70-65 defeat to N.C. State in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament. Despite the loss, they remain the best team in the country as they head up the Greensboro Regional. If MSU can get past its first two games, another Sweet 16 meeting with Duke will be likely. (Duke beat MSU in the Sweet 16 last year, 88-61). Lindsey Harding leads the Blue Devils with 14 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game. The team has been a model of consistency, as the same five players have started all 31 games.

2. Connecticut — The Huskies won 15 straight games before falling to Rutgers in the finals of the Big East Tournament. Despite the loss, they still earned the No. 1 seed in the Fresno region.

The biggest challenge in front of UConn, if everything goes as planned, will be a meeting with Stanford in the Elite Eight. The Huskies have five players who average double figures in scoring and three players who average seven or more rebounds per game. Outside of the loss to Rutgers, Connecticut's two other losses came at the hands of Tennessee and North Carolina.

3. Purdue — While the Big Ten had a down year overall, the teams at the top certainly didn't. The Boilermakers showed a lot of heart and determination in overcoming a double-digit deficit to defeat MSU in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament, and then they dismantled Ohio State to win the title. Katie Gearlds and Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton give Purdue the power to compete with anyone. We'll see if the Boilermakers can hang on to that momentum and if the championship wasn't a fluke. Can Purdue hold up on the national scene? We'll see. This is definitely the long shot pick out of these four, though.

4. Oklahoma — There is one statistic with Oklahoma that is scary: Center Courtney Paris has recorded 58 straight double-doubles, including 23 points and 21 rebounds in the Big 12 Championship game. Suffice it to say, Oklahoma won the game. For the season, Paris averaged 23.6 points and 16.2 rebounds per game.

If she's on her game, the Sooners will be an extremely tough team to stop. To get to this point, though, Oklahoma might have to run over Tennessee and defending national champion Maryland.

Other Big Ten hopes (excluding MSU):

1. Ohio State — The Buckeyes definitely have suffered after losing point guard Brandie Hoskins for the season. A top team in the polls all season, Ohio State fell to the No. 4 seed in the Dayton Regional and got shipped out to Stanford for its first and second round games. While the remaining talent alone should be enough to get them by Marist, getting past Middle Tennessee State in the second round potentially will be a tougher challenge.

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