Throw away all your RPI ratings and stat breakdowns. Or at least hold them for the men's bracket. You can pretty much glean the contenders from the pretenders in the women's game by looking at one thing -- point guard.

Yes, Duke has arguably the nation's best all-around player in 2-guard Alana Beard. Sure, Georgia and Louisiana Tech bring two of the nation's best forwards, Christi Thomas and Ayana Walker. And of course, Iowa State center Angie Welle reminds everyone of Notre Dame grad Ruth Riley.

Funny how those teams always look like world-beaters but rarely make the Final Four.

And isn't it noteworthy that the nation's top four guards -- Connecticut's Sue Bird, Vanderbilt's Ashley McElhiney, Oklahoma's Stacey Dales and Tennessee's Kara Lawson -- play for the top four women's teams coming into the season?

Go ahead and print up tickets to San Antonio for all four, and bookmark expedia.com for Florida (with Brandi McCain) and Texas Tech (with Jia Perkins) as well. Because in women's basketball, victory flows from the top of the key.

That's why we decided to profile McElhiney in our preview issue, rather than her better-known and more talented teammate, center Chantelle Anderson. The Commodores' motion offense has so many intricacies that Anderson would never get the ball if McElhiney did not -- literally -- direct traffic.

There are simply fewer playmakers and game-breakers on the women's side, so running an offense and finding a streaking teammate has even more importance on the road to San Antonio than on the road to Atlanta. Style matters little -- Bird draws attention with her scoring potential and then dishes; McElhiney throws the first pass and then sets killer screens; Florida's McCain intimidates with pure quickness -- but impact means everything. On the women's side, momentum swells come quicker and stronger, so stoppers come at a premium.

Just look at the results from the first big weekend. Bird outplayed McElhiney, with five assists and 13 points, as UConn beat Vandy. Meanwhile. Duke turned it over 18 times and lost to Toledo, which had never won a game against a ranked team.

So write in the Huskies, Lady Vols, Sooners and Commodores for the Four. Get the point?

Eric Adelson is an associate editor at ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at eric.adelson@espnmag.com.