WNBA star Elena Delle Donne shares her March Madness picks for one of the least predictable women's tournaments in history
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Meredith Cash
Mar 9, 2023, 03:23 IST
Elena Delle Donne.AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson
Elena Delle Donne wants to see "more hype" and "more brackets" for women's March Madness.
The two-time WNBA MVP teamed up with Just Women's Sports and DICK'S for their $150,000 bracket challenge.
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Elena Delle Donne wants to see "more hype for women's college basketball" and the upcoming NCAA tournament.
And she thinks bracket-building could be the way to raise "visibility" for the game, which has steadily gained viewership over the years.
The two-time WNBA MVP and lone woman in basketball's elusive 50-40-90 club is putting her money where her mouth is through a partnership with Just Women's Sports and DICK'S Sporting Goods. The brands are teaming up for the second annual NCAA women's bracket challenge, which offers a whopping $150,000 to the participant who correctly predicts the most March Madness matchups.
"What's so fun about just having a bracket — but also being able to win some money with it — is you can even get the casual fan who doesn't watch a lot of sports involved," Delle Donne told Insider. "We all know when March Madness hits and you've got that bracket you're checking in with, it's a different feel and it'll just continue to bring more fans to our incredible game."
And the 2023 NCAA women's tournament is poised to be one of the most exciting and least predictable yet. Yes, the South Carolina Gamecocks — who are undefeated on the season and have been the top-ranked team in the country all year — are the clear favorites to hoist the trophy on April 2. But there are more teams than ever before in legitimate contention for a spot in the Final Four.
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There are the Indiana Hoosiers, who lost just three games on the year despite competing in a historically stacked Big Ten conference. The Virginia Tech Hokies, who faced a similarly impressive slate of ranked teams in ACC play, dropped just one more game than Indiana and head into the NCAA Tournament without taking a loss since January.
The 2021 champion Stanford Cardinal may be able to leverage "their size and their talent" to challenge the mighty Gamecocks, Delle Donne says, while her hometown team — the Maryland Terrapins — are "playing really well at the right time."
"What you see is South Carolina doing everything that was expected," Delle Donne said. "They just play so hard, especially being a championship team. [Head coach] Dawn [Staley] gets them to play so hard.
"Obviously they're a strong favorite, but I think it should be exciting," she added.
And, of course, the Washington Mystics superstar has been following Caitlin Clark and her Iowa Hawkeyes. The 6-foot guard leads the nation in assists and ranks second in points per game this season, but she's perhaps best known for "hitting crazy shots," as Delle Donne puts it.
It's no wonder the junior superstar is Delle Donne's pick for National Player of the Year.
"She's just having such an impressive year," Delle Donne said. "She's just so fun to watch and carrying that team.
"She's playing at a ridiculous level," she added. "It's insane."
Delle Donne listed "Indiana, South Carolina, and Stanford" as three of her Final Four picks, but said she's not sure "about my fourth yet — I'm still thinking that one over." She'd "love to see Maryland in that last spot" and knows it's never wise to count out the UConn Huskies, who haven't missed a Final Four since 2007.
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She acknowledges that "it could be so many" teams who wind up dancing their way to Dallas.
"It's gonna be interesting filling out these brackets because it's gonna be a fun one," Delle Donne said. "I love to see it."
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