But recent history shows that No. 1 overall seeds like the Huskies often don’t win it all in March Madness. Since 2017, the top seed has won three national championships: Baylor in 2019 and South Carolina in 2022 and 2024.

So if UConn upsets and confuses the sportsbooks, which other team out of the 68 teams has the best chance of winning it all?

Here are some strong candidates.

more: UW superstar Sarah Strong may release her ‘Princess Diana side’ this March

south carolina

All 15 national champions since 2010 have ranked in the top 10 in Her Hoop’s statistical rating, all but four have ranked in the top 30 in rebounding, and all but two have ranked in the top 20 in effective field goal defense. More simply, national title winners are typically efficient on both ends of the floor, strong on the glass, and solid defensively.

This spring will be particularly difficult for the 106 million Americans who suffer from allergies or asthma, with seasonal allergies caused by pollen being a major contributing factor, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.

A 2021 study finds that climate change is largely responsible for lengthening North America’s pollen season by an average of 20 days from 1990 to 2018. That’s bad news for the roughly 1 in 4 adults and 1 in 5 children in the United States who suffer from seasonal allergies.

The amount of pollen is starting to increase

It would not be wrong to think that your hay fever is getting worse. According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, climate change has made pollen seasons longer and more intense, so allergy symptoms are more intense and last longer.

REDMOND, Wash. – Sarah Bond fondly remembers sitting next to her father playing King’s Quest II, solving puzzles, navigating mazes, and unlocking doors to rescue a beautiful maiden, Princess Valanice, from captivity.

Six-year-old Bond had no idea where the maze would take him or what lay beyond the doors of reality. How her video adventures in the land of Kolyma landed her in Xbox’s front office as the first Black woman to lead a major global gaming platform before stepping down on February 20th.

“I was totally a gamer when I was a kid,” Bond, 47, told USA TODAY in January. “My dad was a huge gamer, so spending time together was one of the things we did. It was a big part of how we connected.”

It shaped the way she thought about the game. It’s as a way to share experiences and achievements with others who may not look like you, may not speak your language, or may not live in the same country as you. And she set out to make that inclusive worldview a reality.

chart your own path

Unlike the typical programmer-to-studio-head path, Bond landed the top job based on the strategy and deal-making experience he learned during his years as a consultant at McKinsey & Company and chief of staff to former CEO John Legere at T-Mobile. Bond joined Microsoft in 2017 as corporate vice president, products and experiences for game creators, and was named president of Xbox in 2023.

“I’ve always loved consumer technology,” says Bond. At Yale, STEM and business courses called her name. He then earned a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard University. After graduating, “I decided, ‘I’m going to go into consumer technology.’ I love the intersection of rapid advances in technology and the ability to really impact the consumer experience. And at the time, people actually said to me, ‘Hey, that doesn’t make much sense.'”

It was the early 2000s. “We didn’t have iPhones yet,” Bond says. “Facebook wasn’t an IPO.” But she stuck with it. “I never thought about games explicitly, I just thought about influencing technology.

“And that’s when I realized that what I actually started with was gaming, and that was a big part of my experience growing up. But I never had the opportunity to get into gaming from a business perspective,” she continues. “So as soon as I saw the opportunity, it clicked in my mind. I was like, ‘Let’s jump into this with two feet.'”

Making history while looking to the future: Sarah Bond talks leadership, learning and risk

Sarah Bond, former president of Xbox and gaming industry pioneer, says great leaders have a growth mindset. She is one of USA TODAY’s Women of the Year.

Many saw her appointment as a breath of fresh air. Approximately 3 billion people around the world play video games every day, making it an estimated $522.45 billion industry. According to the Entertainment Software Association’s 2025 World Video Games Report, as many as 52% of gamers in the United States are women.

However, a report from financial technology company Xsolla found that of more than 60 gaming companies, only 5% have women in leadership roles, and just 12% of leaders have diverse backgrounds.

Bond’s background uniquely prepared her to break the proverbial glass ceiling. “I’ve spent most of my life in positions that I wasn’t necessarily suited for,” she says. “I’m a woman who has always worked in male-dominated environments. I’ve lived in many different places around the world. I’m a black woman, but I’ve often been in places where white people aren’t the majority.”

“Early in my career, it felt very isolating,” she continues. “At some point, I realized that the chances of meeting someone exactly like me were very low, but because of all the experiences I’ve had and the perspectives I’ve been exposed to, there’s a good chance I have something in common with everyone I meet, and that’s what I should focus on.

“So rather than seeing this as a burden, we see it as an opportunity to build bridges, share understanding, and further advance the way we see the world,” she says. “And I get a lot of energy from that.”

As cloud gaming grows, Xbox has focused its energy on helping brands move beyond gaming consoles to an “anywhere” approach. She spearheaded Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard and championed inclusivity across the industry.

“I think my secret superpower is finding patterns in the noise: white spaces and pockets of opportunity that others don’t notice,” she says. “A true system that helps you unlock opportunities and set the direction for your team to really break through and do new things.”

Always moving, always learning

The ability to succeed in a new environment is something she learned growing up. Bond’s family (she is one of seven children) moved five times by the time she was 10 years old. Her father worked for a telecommunications company, and at the time, employees moved around based on work demands. New Jersey. Colorado. Massachusetts. At the age of 10, Bond went abroad to boarding school in England.

She didn’t know what would happen next, but she knew more was on the horizon – more mazes to navigate, more puzzles to solve, more doors to unlock.

She credits her parents for her curiosity and determination. “They always instilled in me a sense that I was in control of my outcome, that my efforts were truly contributing to my growth. They taught me that it’s totally okay to try something and not be perfect the first time,” she says. “I think that’s one of the things my dad was trying to teach me when I was playing the game. It’s a great training ground because frankly, even when you’re playing the game, you’re on the first level and you’re going to die.”

“But people don’t really die,” she continues. “Because you come back, you try again, and you go a little bit, a little bit, a little bit more. You keep trying, you keep trying, and you find that all of a sudden you can do things that you never could have done when you first started.”

So is game night something to do with her own kids? Ah, that’s right.

Her daughter (14 years old) and son (11 years old) are both gamers. It reminds Bond of the time he spent with his father.

“The great thing I’ve discovered is that compared to most other things you can do in the tech industry, gaming is really unique and has this beautiful marriage of art and science,” she said. “There are experiences that people get in games that they don’t get in other games.” There’s no doubt that she’ll be taking some time off before her next big role. Her husband is a stay-at-home dad, and before her departure from Xbox was announced, she said she wanted to trade jobs with him for a day. “You know how your kids only talk about their day the second they get in the car? I want to be that person in the car,” she told USA TODAY. I think I’ll have time to share a few other favorites with you. “Bridgerton” is a guilty pleasure. “I love English quotes because I grew up in England. They’re so beautiful and decadent, and they’re always fun and entertaining stories,” she says. And books are a lifelong love. “An opportunity to just read two more books a year? If I had an extra hour a day, I’d definitely take advantage of it.”

She spent several weeks helping Xbox’s new CEO Asha Sharma settle into the role. Another bridge from one woman to another.

“Creating opportunities for other people and seeing them succeed is the best. That’s the best,” she says.

Suzette Hackney is a national columnist. Contact her at: @suzyscribe

In fact, the vast majority of fans who created brackets without the hope of beating the incredibly long odds of creating a perfect bracket have already seen their hopes dashed.

Who is the most likely culprit? No. 12 High Point, led by Chase Johnston, defeated Greg Gard and No. 5 seed Wisconsin. No. 9 TCU technically pulled off an upset over No. 8 Ohio State, not to mention No. 1 overall Duke suffered a near-disaster with a 71-65 victory over No. 16 seed Siena.

Must read: Who is Chase Johnston? The high point guard is March Madness’s newest hero

Yet, at least for now, perfection still remains.

Here’s a look at how many perfect March Madness brackets remain. There are many more opportunities for upsets.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York announced Thursday that Shane Daly, 40, of Galway, Saratoga County, has pleaded guilty to cyberstalking charges.

The office said Daly admitted as part of his defense that he made multiple calls over several days to a work phone used by Thompson’s family. The call began hours after the 50-year-old CEO was shot and killed by a masked man on December 4, 2024.

Daly also acknowledged using threatening and harassing language expressing satisfaction with Thompson’s death and manner of death, adding that the victim and Thompson’s children deserved a similar outcome, the office said.

Without formally identifying the bomb, U.S. Central Command said in a March 17 post on

Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Mark Weatherington later told CNN that the ammunition was a Guided Bomb Unit-72 Advanced 5K Penetrator. The bombs were dropped at locations along Iran’s coastline near the Strait of Hormuz.

The GBU-72 replaces older bomb versions designed to penetrate deeply buried and hardened underground targets, such as missile bases, command centers, and nuclear facilities, with minimal damage on the ground.

“Iran has been the United States’ best ally in the Middle East. Iran has really been the linchpin of American policy in the region,” said Ali Baez, director of the International Crisis Group’s Iran project, but noted that the two countries have a “very complicated history.”

Friendship between the United States and Iran dates back to 1953. At the time, the United States and Britain supported a coup against then Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh due to Mossadegh’s attempts to nationalize Iran’s oil industry and concerns about drawing Soviet influence. The coup, backed by the United States, would return Iran’s last shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, to power.

The United States and Iran remained largely friendly for the next two decades. The United States sold arms and provided military assistance to Iran in its resistance to the Soviet Union, and the two countries embarked on cultural exchanges to improve Iranian higher education.

The American Board of Fine Arts, an advisory committee whose members were hand-picked by President Trump, on March 19 approved the general design for a 24-karat gold commemorative coin featuring the president’s likeness.

Separately, the Treasury Department announced it plans to issue $1 Trump coins, which were approved by the Fine Arts Commission in January, despite protests from Democrats and coin enthusiasts as breaking with long-standing norms.

The commemorative gold coin features a photo of President Trump leaning on a desk of determination, taken by the White House’s chief photographer, and is on display in the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution. The U.S. Mint did not respond to requests for comment on the coins’ prices, but some coins are listed on its website for sale for thousands of dollars.