NCAA Women's Tournament Bracket: Arizona State Sun Devils preview

Who? The Sun Devils of Arizona State.

When do they play in the first round? ASU will play Ohio on Saturday, March 21 at 6:30 p.m. ET or so.

What? Sparky's official rank is imp (but you have to admit, Sun Imp isn't exactly intimidating).

Where? Tempe, Arizona, which has an aquarium in a mall, which doesn't make sense to me in a desert, but I am not Arizonan.

Why? Sweet, sweet RPI.

How? They were an at-large selection.

Surprise? Predicted to finish seventh in the conference, they rose to second, just one game behind Oregon State.

RPI: 18

SOS: 39

Record: 27-5 (15-3 Pac-12)

Good wins: Nothing here is really spectacular. Probably Middle Tennessee, but I believe that might have been without Cheyenne Parker. (Also, awesome for the Pac-12 that a season sweep of Stanford is not remarkable enough to go in the "good win" column- love to see this conference deepen!)

Bad losses: Nothing here is really awful. The worst loss is probably Green Bay in Florida.

Who's running this show? Charli Turner Thorne, since 1996.

Extra, Extra! The Arizona Republic.

Statistically, sophomore forward Sophie Brunner leads the Sun Devils in scoring, at 11.7 points per game, but with six different players taking game-high honors in the last month or so, that's as misleading as a stat can get. Junior guard Katie Hempen is a very narrow second at 11.5 ppg. Senior guard Promise Amukamara, at 10.9 points per game, has been getting some talk as well.

Statistical quirk that will probably amuse only me: three scorers clustered between 11 and 12 points, the next tier of three clustered between 7 and 8 points.