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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:03 - Top 25 polls are out, both on the men's and women's side.
00:05 We'll start off with women.
00:06 I'll get your opinion on that.
00:08 LSU is the consensus number one,
00:10 followed by UConn at two.
00:13 Iowa should be right there at three.
00:15 And then it feels like that's a really strong
00:17 one, two, three to begin with.
00:18 And you have UCLA, Utah, South Carolina, and some others.
00:22 So, you know, certainly I'll lean on you for this one,
00:24 Gilbert, when you look at this,
00:26 do you see this as like a three team race to the championship
00:30 or do you think more could be involved by the end?
00:33 - You know, typically it always looks like
00:35 it's a three team race and then somebody kind of comes in
00:38 when we least expect it.
00:40 You know, you talk about the historically good programs,
00:42 like a South Carolina or Stanford,
00:45 it was a little bit lower in years past.
00:47 But when you talk about those top three teams,
00:49 you look at the star power that's present,
00:51 Angel Reese and LSU, they're the defending champions.
00:54 And as the defending champions, they added Haley Van Lith,
00:57 who averaged a shade under 20 points per game
00:58 last year at Louisville.
00:59 So LSU is going to be expected to defend their title.
01:04 But again, in any sport, at any level,
01:06 it's hard to repeat as champions,
01:08 especially when you're playing in a tournament
01:09 that's single elimination.
01:11 I'm gonna look at UConn and Paige Becker's
01:13 is back and finally healthy.
01:14 This is a player who was national player of the year
01:17 as a freshman in the past two seasons.
01:19 She's dealt with a lot of injuries.
01:20 She's coming back from an ACL injury.
01:22 So I'm glad to have her back healthy.
01:24 And she plays alongside AZ Fudd and Aaliyah Edwards.
01:28 So UConn is gonna be back to their dominant ways.
01:30 They've fallen off a little bit in years past,
01:32 but they've just dealt with so many injuries.
01:34 And then Iowa, you have to talk about Kaitlyn Clark,
01:36 one of the most special talents
01:38 that we've seen in college basketball,
01:40 men's or women's side.
01:41 What she's able to do, a nightly threat
01:42 to get a triple double.
01:44 That's really hard to do in 40 minute games.
01:46 And she makes it look pretty easy.
01:49 So when you look at those three teams,
01:51 it would kind of feel storybook for Iowa
01:53 to come up short in the championship last year
01:55 and then have the best player in college basketball
01:57 do more historic things
01:59 and then avenge that NCAA championship loss last year.
02:02 So if I had to pick a team right now,
02:04 I think I would go with Iowa.
02:05 (upbeat music)
02:08 (bells chiming)