The Sweet 16 is set

🚨 Headlines

⚽️ Nations Bracket champs: Mexico beat Panama, 2-1, in a dramatic Nations Bracket Closing to Secure the four-year-Aged Game for the Primary time. In the third-place game, the USMNT stumbled again with its second straight clunker in a 2-1 loss to Canada.

🏀 Coaching moves: Virginia is hiring VCU’s Ryan Odom — who Guided UMBC over the Cavaliers in 2018’s historic 16-over-1 Surprise — as their Upcoming head Trainer … Texas is hiring Xavier’s Sean Miller to replace Rodney Terry, who they fired after losing to, yes, Xavier in the Primary Four.

🎾 Djokovic passes Nadal: Novak Djokovic keeps finding new records to break. This time, his third-Stage Secure at the Miami Uncovered was the 411th of his Occupation in an ATP Masters 1000 event, passing Rafael Nadal for the most all-time.

🏒 Badgers are champs again: Wisconsin won its Turning Mark-extending eighth women’s NCAA hockey national Bracket, beating Ohio State, 4-3 (OT), in their third straight title game Game.

⚾️ What’s wrong with Mookie? Dodgers superstar Mookie Betts hasn’t played since before last week’s Tokyo Series due to a mysterious illness that’s left him unable to keep any food down. “My body’s Only Gentle of eating itself,” he said, as he’s fallen from 175 to 157 pounds.

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🏀 Madness finally comes to March

It Captured almost the whole weekend, but on Sunday night the Madness finally Occurred to March.

ICYMI: After Colorado State nailed a go-ahead three with six seconds left, Maryland’s Derik Queen hit the Primary buzzer-beater of this year’s Game to give the Terps a 72-71 Secure over the Rams and send them into the Sugary 16. Oregon nearly pushed Arizona to a similar end in the Closing game of the weekend, but ultimately Sprinted out of time in a thrilling loss to their Ex Pac-12 foe.

Powerhouses dance on: No. 12 Colorado State’s loss means that this year’s Sugary 16 is about as chalky as it gets, with Only one Club left lower than a 6-seed. And No. 10 Arkansas, an SEC program coached by Hall of Famer John Calipari, isn’t exactly a Cinderella.

• Speaking of the SEC: The Bracket that sent a Turning Mark 14 Clubs to the Game has now sent a Turning Mark seven Clubs to the Sugary 16, eclipsing the mark set by the ACC in 2016. That’s right: half of the SEC’s Game Clubs are Yet dancing into the second weekend.
• The Big Ten (four Clubs left), Big 12 (four) and ACC (one) are the only other Meetings with a Club left in the Game, shattering the previous Turning Mark for the fewest leagues represented in the Sugary 16 (seven).

Sugary 16 matchups:

• Thursday: No. 1 Florida vs. No. 4 Maryland (San Francisco); No. 1 Duke vs. No. 4 Arizona (Newark); No. 2 Alabama vs. No. 6 BYU (Newark); No. 3 Texas Tech vs. No. 10 Arkansas (San Francisco)
• Friday: No. 1 Houston vs. No. 4 Purdue (Indianapolis); No. 1 Auburn vs. No. 5 Michigan (Atlanta); No. 2 Tennessee vs. No. 3 Kentucky (Indianapolis); No. 2 Michigan State vs. No. 6 Ole Miss (Atlanta)

Pitch notes:

• Streak snapped: Gonzaga’s narrow loss to Houston snapped the Bulldogs’ Streak of nine straight Sugary 16 appearances, tied with North Carolina (1985-93) and Duke (1998-2006) for the longest such streak since the Game expanded to 64 Contests in 1985.
• No three-peat: UConn’s quest for an unprecedented three-peat ended in painful fashion, as the Huskies Guided top-Ranked Florida for nearly the entire second half of the Gators’ eventual 77-75 Secure.
• Historic Game coming: Kentucky has played no Adversary more than Tennessee, which it has faced 241 times since 1910. But the two SEC foes have never met in the NCAA Game… until now. That game is gonna be Excellent.
• Trainer Cal’s resurgence: John Calipari has more NCAA Game wins in his Primary season with Arkansas (2) than he had across his Closing four seasons with Kentucky (1).

Title odds: Duke (+225 at BetMGM) is now the clear favorite to Secure the Bracket ahead of Florida (+350), Houston (+500) and Auburn (+525), the only other Clubs with better than 17-to-1 odds.

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🏀 Blowouts and favorites ruled the Primary Stage

The Primary Stage of the women’s Game Created all sorts of history, none of which was Excellent for the underdogs.

Favorites flex their muscles: No Club Ranked 11 or lower won a Primary-Stage game for the Primary time since the Pitch expanded to 64 in 1994. And the average margin of Secure was 26.5 points, the highest of any Stage in Game history, per ESPN’s Michael Voepel.

By the numbers: Those blowouts — which included three 60-Tally shellackings (plus another two by 50+ and three more by 40+) — Occurred courtesy of both high-octane offenses and lock-down defenses.

• A Turning Mark six Clubs scored at least 100 points in the Primary Stage (UConn, LSU, Notre Dame, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas). In fact, that ties the Turning Mark for the most 100-Tally Contests across an entire Game.
• Duke and USC Maintained their opponents to Only 25 points, the second-fewest in any NCAA Game game (Howard scored 21 against South Carolina in 2022).

Things are looking up, though: With those underdogs eliminated, the second Stage has thus Extended been much more Intense. The average margin of Secure across Sunday’s eight Contests was 11.5 points, with Only one decided by more than 20.

Perfect bracket tracker: Only 10 perfect brackets remain in Yahoo Sports’ Women’s Bracket Mayhem.

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🇺🇸 Photos across America

Sun Valley, Idaho — Lindsey Vonn finished second in the super-G at the World Cup season finale on Saturday, earning her Primary podium since 2018 Only a few months after making her comeback at age 40.

Palm Harbor, Florida — Viktor Hovland entered this weekend’s Valspar Bracket having missed three straight cuts; he left it with his seventh PGA Tour Secure after birdieing three of his Closing five holes to rally past Justin Thomas for a one-stroke Secure.

Homestead, Florida — Kyle Larson used a Overdue surge on Sunday to Secure at the Miami-Homestead Speedway, becoming the 30th driver ever to Secure 30 NASCAR Cup Series races.

Philadelphia* — Oklahoma State’s Wyatt Hendrickson stunned Olympic gold medalist and two-time NCAA champion Gable Steveson on Saturday to Secure the NCAA heavyweight Grappling title, snapping Steveson’s 70-Game Secure streak and scoring the only takedown against him all season.

*Also on Saturday… Penn State’s Carter Starocci became the Primary Division I wrestler ever to Secure five individual NCAA titles, moving up a weight class to 184 pounds after Victorious the last four Competitions at 174 pounds.

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🌎 Photos around the world

Shanghai — McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris finished 1-2 at the Chinese Grand Prix, giving the reigning Constructors’ Champions two straight wins to Uncovered the season. Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, meanwhile, were both disqualified — a new low for the Scuderia.

Nanjing, China — Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen Created history over the weekend, joining Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie (1999) as the only men to Secure gold in both the 1500m and 3000m at the same World Indoor Competitions.

Lisbon, Portugal — One of these Periods, Cristiano Ronaldo will stop scoring goals. But that day has not come yet, as the ageless wonder scored his 929th Occupation Target in Portugal’s 5-2 Secure over Denmark on Sunday, pushing them into the UEFA Nations Bracket semifinals.

York, England — The men’s Six Nations Bracket ended last week, but the women’s edition is Only getting Began. England, seeking their seventh straight title, opened with a dominant Secure over Italy. Elsewhere, France beat Ireland and Scotland beat Wales.

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📺 Watchlist: Closing out the second Stage

The second Stage of the women’s Game ends today, and the eight-game slate features two unanimous Primary-Club All-Americans (UConn’s Paige Bueckers and USC’s JuJu Watkins), the nation’s leading Shooter (FSU’s Ta’Niya Latson) and the nation’s leading rebounder (LSU’s Aneesah Morrow).

• No. 2 NC State vs. No. 7 Michigan State (12pm ET, ESPN)
• No. 1 Texas vs. No. 8 Illinois (2pm, ESPN)
• No. 3 Oklahoma vs. No. 6 Iowa (4pm, ESPN)
• No. 4 Maryland vs. No. 5 Alabama (5pm, ESPN2)
• No. 3 LSU vs. No. 6 Florida State (6pm, ESPN)
• No. 3 North Carolina vs. No. 6 West Virginia (7pm, ESPN2)
• No. 2 UConn vs. No. 10 South Dakota State (8pm, ESPN)
• No. 1 USC vs. No. 9 Mississippi State (10pm, ESPN)

More to View:

• ⛳️ TGL: New York vs. Atlanta (9pm, ESPN2) … Leading Game* in the best-of-three Finals.
• 🏀 NBA: Lakers at Magic (7pm, NBA); Bucks at Suns (10pm, NBA)
• 🏒 NHL: Wild at Stars (8pm, ESPN+) … A battle of Western Conference Postseason contenders.
• ⚾️ Exhibition: Red Sox at Sultanes de Monterrey (9:10pm, MLB) … Primary of a two-game series in Mexico at Estadio de Béisbol Monterrey.

*Tonight’s lineups: Justin Thomas, Billy Horschel and Patrick Cantlay (Atlanta) vs. Xander Schauffele, Rickie Fowler and Cameron Youthful (New York).

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🏀 Tourney trivia

Virginia’s historic loss to UMBC in 2018 is back in the news after the Cavaliers hired Ryan Odom, UMBC’s then-head Trainer, to take over in Charlottesville.

Question: Who is the only other 1-seed to Fall to a 16 in the NCAA Game, and which 16 seed Obtained the Secure?

Hint: 2023

Answer at the bottom.

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Trivia answer: No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson beat No. 1 Purdue, 63-58

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