Sue Bird's Final Four picks are still intact despite the chaotic opening weekend of women's March Madness

• All of Sue Bird's Final Four picks are still alive heading into the second weekend of March Madness.
• Unsurprisingly, the WNBA superstar chose her alma mater — the UConn Huskies — to win it all.

Sue Bird is riding high heading into the second weekend of March Madness.

All of the WNBA superstar's Final Four picks on the women's side of the bracket are headed to the Sweet 16. Unsurprisingly, the two-time NCAA champion is taking her alma mater, the UConn Huskies, to win it all.

"I'm feeling good about UConn," Bird told Insider before the start of the tournament. "They had a little bit of a slog of a season given injuries, given there was some COVID disruptions at different points, not unlike a lot of other teams... This was a year where there was a lot of highs and lows. And I think what that does is prepare you for the really big moments. So I'm just hoping all of those things come together for them."

"Of course, it's my alma mater, so I'm picking them to win regardless," she added. "But I actually think they have a very talented team, and I think they're trending in the right direction."

Bird's other three selections for the Final Four are looking pretty strong, too. The top overall seed — the South Carolina Gamecocks — entered the tournament with just two losses on the season, and now Dawn Staley's squad is rolling through the Greensboro corner of the bracket.

The Gamecocks dominated the Howard Bison with a whopping 58-point victory in their opening-round game, then took down a surging Miami Hurricanes squad by 16 points, despite shooting a season-low 29.5% from the field. They'll take on the fifth-seeded North Carolina Tar Heels Friday and, should they win, advance to face the winner of Iowa State vs. Creighton for a trip to Minneapolis.

Bird picked the one seed in the Spokane region, too: The reigning champion Stanford Cardinal have been even more dominant on their side of the bracket than South Carolina has been through its first two games.

Stanford beat Montana State by 41 to start its title defense, and two days later, the Cardinal racked up 91 points behind Lexie Hull's 36-point showing to blow out the No. 8 Kansas Jayhawks. A strong, high-octane Maryland Terrapins squad awaits them in the Sweet 16, and if they survive, they'll meet the No. 2 Texas Longhorns or No. 6 Ohio State Buckeyes in the Elite Eight.

"Stanford's a defending champion that, even though they lost Kiana Williams, they're all a year older," Bird said. "So Stanford's gonna be tough."

The 12-time WNBA All-Star rounded out her Final Four picks with the Michigan Wolverines — a three-seed — coming out of the Wichita Region. Though Michigan is the lowest-ranked team of all her picks, Bird thinks that two-time first-team All-American Naz Hillmon and company have what it takes to advance to Minneapolis.

The Wolverines started their run with a 35-point win over American, then took down Maddy Siegrist and a strong No. 11 Villanova Wildcats team by double digits. They'll face a Cinderella team in the No. 10 South Dakota Coyotes on Saturday and then, should they win, face the winner of No. 1 Louisville and No. 4 Tennessee in the Elite Eight.

"Michigan's my dark horse," Bird explained. "They beat [No. 2] Baylor earlier in the year.... For some reason I think Michigan might come out [of the region], but I do think South Carolina will beat them."

"I'm hoping to see a South Carolina-UConn final," she added. "I think that'll be tremendous for women's basketball. I think it'll draw so many eyeballs. It'll be like a battle of styles. They play such different styles. So that is what I hope happens."

The next round of the women's tournament tips off Friday, with Ohio State-Texas and North Carolina-South Carolina at 7 p.m. ET, followed by Creighton-Iowa State and Maryland-Stanford at 9:30 p.m.

Notre Dame-NC State picks up the action at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, with Indiana-UConn, Tennessee-Louisville, and South Dakota-Michigan coming staggered throughout the afternoon and early evening. Fans can catch all games on ESPN networks.