A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
March Madness brackets are here. The rounds of 64 get underway on Thursday for the men's and Friday for the women's tournament. NPR sports correspondent Becky Sullivan is here. So, Becky, let's start with the men and top seed Duke. And for this, I'll bring back one of the best quotes ever uttered, by former Providence coach Pete Gillen. "Certainly, Duke is Duke. They're on TV more than 'Leave It To Beaver' reruns."
BECKY SULLIVAN, BYLINE: Yep. Wow. Nailed it.
MARTÍNEZ: (Laughter).
SULLIVAN: Yeah, I mean, the Blue Devils have been really good this year. It's honestly, A, a moment for me - basketball fans like me, I think, to feel a little old because the Duke coach is Jon Scheyer, who of course was the captain of their 2010 national championship team. And their biggest star right now is the freshman forward, ACC Player of the Year Cameron Boozer. That last name might sound familiar to you, A. he's the son of Carlos Boozer, who of course also played for Duke and then went on to have an All-Star career in the NBA.
So, yeah, they're just really good. They're 32 and 2. They just won the ACC tournament title game on Saturday despite injuries to a couple key players, who they expect could be back for the tournament or at least sometime in the tournament. Seems like they're always in the mix, as you say. They are. But they actually haven't won at all since 2015, so I'm sure their fans are getting a little itchy.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, when the kids of the people you cover as a sports reporter start playing...
SULLIVAN: (Laughter).
MARTÍNEZ: ...That's when you know that you're getting old. Now, so who else could be contending?
SULLIVAN: You know, there are a lot of teams that I think could be in the mix. You know, the top overall team has only won the tournament a handful of times over the past couple decades. So who knows? I mean, the other No. 1 seeds are Arizona - they're very good. You've got Michigan. You've got the defending national champions in Florida. And then one thing I think about this men's season in college basketball is that there have been so many talented freshmen, one of the most loaded freshmen classes ever. You know, Boozer is one of them.
But you also have Darryn Peterson of Kansas. They're No. 4 seed. He's an incredible guard. You have AJ Dybantsa BYU. They're six seed. He's the leading scorer in all the NCAA this year. Other freshman stars on teams like Houston and Illinois. All of these guys are going to be early first round picks. Like, we're talking like top five, top 10 come NBA draft time in July. And so I think any of them are good enough to sort of single-handedly change a game and just kind of put their team on their shoulders to make a run. So it's hard to know who to keep your eye out for, but I'd be watching all of those guys.
MARTÍNEZ: Absolutely. Now, in the women's bracket, UConn back in the driver's seat again. It's all blue bloods...
SULLIVAN: Yeah.
MARTÍNEZ: ...In this top seeds, yeah.
SULLIVAN: Yeah, it is. You know, obviously, the Huskies, you know, they were really incredible. They had this huge run back in the mid-2010s where they won a bunch of titles in a row. But they'd actually been pretty quiet for about a decade until last year. That was when the star guard Paige Bueckers helped lead them back to that trophy. She's in the WNBA now, but the Huskies are still loaded. They have two great new leaders and Sarah Strong and Azzi Fudd. They are 34 and 0, undefeated. Their average margin of victory this year, A, has been like 38 points.
MARTÍNEZ: (Laughter) Oh, God.
SULLIVAN: But despite that, there was actually some debate about whether they should get the top overall seed, which they did, because UCLA has also been incredible. They have only lost one game. That one time was back in November to one of the other No. 1 seeds in Texas. They have this trio of seniors, center Lauren Betts and guards Kiki Rice and Gabriela Jaquez, who are looking for some redemption this year after they were blown out in the final four against UConn last year. And then just got to mention the other fourth top seed. That's South Carolina.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
SULLIVAN: Under the coaching leadership of Dawn Staley, you can never count them out.
MARTÍNEZ: And quickly, it seems like a controversy-free year.
SULLIVAN: Yeah, honestly, the rare year where that seems true. There was one kind of tricky team on the men's side. That was Miami Ohio, a kind of mid-major team. But they only lost one game. They went 31 and 1. That was the best record in Division I. But they didn't play any ranked teams, didn't play any major conference teams - by advanced metrics, arguably the worst ever at-large team. In the end, they got an 11 seed, which I think was the right call. And I'll be very curious to watch them.
MARTÍNEZ: That's NPR's Becky Sullivan. Becky, thanks.
SULLIVAN: You're welcome.
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