[Posted Sunday PM after Golf and initial bracket release…]
Brief Add-on up top by noon, Tues.
NCAA Men’s Basketball Quiz: 1) Name the six schools to win at least five NCAA championships. 2) Name the six coaches to win at least three titles. Answers below.
College Basketball
–The Power Five (including the Big East) conference championships pretty much played out to form, but on Thursday, No. 20 Miami (OH) suffered its first loss of the season, 31-1, falling to UMass (17-15, 7-11) in the MAC tournament, 87-83, and the RedHawks, despite the gaudy record, are on the bubble. As I, and many others, said all season, they didn’t play anyone and were penalized thusly…let alone they had a ton of close wins in a weak conference.
—Top-ranked Duke learned Tuesday that they had lost starting point guard Caleb Foster to a broken right foot that will keep him out for an extended period. Reading between the lines from what coach Jon Scheyer said, should Duke make the Final Four, there might be a chance Foster is available.
Duke played in the ACC Tournament without starting big man Patrick Ngonba II, who also has a foot issue, but it’s assumed he’ll be ready for next week.
Duke survived a major scare in the ACC quarterfinals on Thursday, edging Florida State 80-79, Isaiah Evans with 32, and then defeated Clemson 73-61 in the semis, Cam Boozer with 24 points and 14 rebounds.
So it was Duke vs. 10 Virginia in the ACC Finals Saturday night, and the Blue Devils prevailed, 74-70, neither team leading by more than seven points.
In other major conference championship games, 13 St. John’s now awaits the Selection Committee decision on where they are seeded following a decisive 72-52 win over 6 UConn in the Big East Tournament finale, the Huskies just 3 of 19 from beyond the arc.
The Johnnies played a tough early season schedule and were just 9-5, but have gone 19-1 since, the only loss a 72-40 blowout at UConn, so Saturday night was sweet revenge. [ESPN’s Joe Lunardi Sunday morning has St. John’s as a 5-seed! No way. They should be a 3.]
2 Arizona defeated 5 Houston for the Big 12 title, 79-74.
And in an SEC Tournament semifinal, 4 Florida fell to 22 Vanderbilt, 91-74.
I watched the America East Conference final, UMBC over Vermont 74-59, which I only mention because did DJ Armstrong Jr. have a game for the Retrievers or what?! He was 9 of 11 from the field, 7 of 9 from three, 8 of 9 at the foul line…33 points. Off that single performance he certainly earned an invite to someone’s training camp.
[Armstrong is a senior so no NIL riches in store for him.]
Sunday…Penn captured the Ivy League bid, 88-84 in overtime over Yale, as TJ Power had a game to remember for the Quakers…44 points and 14 rebounds for the junior forward who played his first two seasons at Duke and Virginia. Three pretty good academic institutions for the lad.
17 Arkansas won the SEC Championship over 22 Vandy, 86-75, while VCU gets the automatic A-10 bid, 70-62 over Dayton.
18 Purdue defeated 3 Michigan for the Big Ten title, 80-72.
So then they released the brackets and I’ll have much more, including my EXCLUSIVE Final Four selection on Tuesday…but for now the No. 1s are Duke, Florida, Michigan and Arizona.
And what I was really looking for ends up being an 11 vs. 11 play-in…Miami (OH) vs. SMU!
Will Wake Forest get an NIT bid? Fingers crossed.
—Bobby Hurley was fired as coach at Arizona State after 11 up-and-down seasons. The announcement came hours after the Sun Devils’ brutal 91-42 loss to No. 7 Iowa State in the Big 12 tournament. It was the most lopsided game in Big 12 history.
Hurley finished 185-167, making the NCAA Tournament three times, including two straight in 2018 and 2019.
This season, ASU finished 17-16 overall, 7-11 in conference play.
—Adrian Autry was fired at Syracuse after posting a 49-48 record in three campaigns and failing to reach the NCAA Tournament in any season.
Syracuse has now failed to make the Big Dance five consecutive seasons, including Jim Boeheim’s last two. Boeheim endorsed Autry as the choice to replace him.
NBA
—Shai Gilgeous-Alexander broke Wilt Chamberlain’s record for consecutive games with 20 points or more Thursday night, extending his streak to 127 in a 104-102 win over the Celtics, SGA with 35 points and nine assists.
During this 20-point run, the defending champion Thunder are 103-24.
Wilt’s streak goes back to 1963.
Monday, SGA tied Chamberlain in a 129-126 win over Denver. After the contest, Nikola Jokic lauded SGA’s accomplishment.
“I don’t know that people know how hard it is to do that,” Jokic said. “To make 20 points in 10 (straight) games, not 120, whatever it is, it’s special. He’s a special player.”
Days after Chamberlain’s record-setting 126-game mark was severed by an early ejection, Wilt rattled off another run, scoring at least 20 points for 92 consecutive games between Feb. 1963 and March 1964.
The next longest streak? Oscar Robertson had 79 consecutive games with 20 or more. Michael Jordan and Kevin Durant got to 72. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had a streak of 71 games. Kobe Bryant made it to 63.
The Thunder then hosted the T’Wolves Sunday afternoon…and SGA barely kept his streak alive with 20 points on 7 of 22 shooting from the field, 10 assists, as OKC (53-15) won the game 116-103.
–The other big scoring news on the week was Bam Adebayo’s 83 points for the Heat, second most in NBA history to Wilt’s 100-point game in 1962. Bam went 20 of 43 from the field, 7 of 22 from three, and 36 of 43 from the free throw line in a 150-129 Miami win over the Wizards.
So it’s Wilt, 100, 1962
Bam, 83, 2026
Kobe Bryant, 81, 2006
There has been some criticism in how Bam got to 83, because the Heat, well in control of the game in the second half, just started feeding the ball to Bam.
But as coach Erik Spoelstra correctly said, there is nothing to apologize for. That’s basketball.
Bam’s previous high for the season was 32 points.
What I liked is that Adebayo had a clear sense of history after, posing with a handwritten sign with the number 83 on it, just like Wilt did when he set the record on March 2, 1962, at Hersheypark Arena.
“Like I said, I wish I could relive it twice,” Adebayo told reporters. “So this is a special moment. Wilt, me and then Kobe – which sounds crazy.”
[Adebayo had 21 and 20 points in his two games following Tuesday.]
—Victor Wembanyama matched a career-high with eight 3-pointers, scoring 39 points and grabbing 11 rebounds as the Spurs beat Boston 125-116 on Tuesday night.
–The Knicks (43-25) beat the Pacers (15-56) in Indiana Friday night, 101-92, which was noteworthy because for the first time all season, Mitchell Robinson played 30 minutes, 31 to be exact, and he hauled in 22 rebounds.
New York has been extremely careful with Robinson all season, knowing they need the oft-injured big man playing his unique brand of ball in the postseason if they are to go far.
For this season, Robinson is averaging 9 rebounds in just 19.5 minutes of play a game.
The Knicks are playing the Warriors at MSG Sunday night.
WBC
—Team USA manager Mark DeRosa was living with a pit in his stomach for a couple days until Team Italy bailed him out.
DeRosa misread the tiebreaker rules, or just didn’t understand them, and assumed the Americans already had their quarterfinal spot when they played Team Italy last Tuesday, so he rested some of his stars.
“It’s weird. We want to win this game even though our ticket’s punched to the quarterfinals.” DeRosa wrote on social media.
Except it wasn’t punched, and the Americans lost 8-6.
But on Wednesday, Vinnie Pasquantino had the World Baseball Classic’s first three-homer game, leading Italy over Mexico 9-1 to win Pool B and advance the United States to the quarterfinals as the group’s second-place team.
Saturday, Venezuela upset defending champion Japan 8-5 in the quarterfinals, while Italy beat Puerto Rico, 8-6.
The U.S. then advanced to the semis Friday with a 5-3 win over Canada, setting up a huge game against the star-laden Dominican Republic, Sunday night, 8:00 PM Eastern, on FS1.
Golf Balls
We had the ‘fifth major’ this week…The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL…and after two rounds….
Ludvig Aberg -12
Xander Schauffele -10
Cameron Young -9…Go Deacs!
Corey Conners -8
Justin Thomas -8
For JT, what a difference a week makes. After shooting 79-79 last week at Bay Hill in his return from back surgery, he’s right there on the weekend.
But Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy are way back at +1, Scottie continuing his sudden run of mediocre play, while Rory deals with his own back issues.
Speaking of which, on Thursday, Collin Morikawa dropped out after one hole due to a balky back.
Brooks Koepka is at -2.
After 54 holes….
Aberg -13
Michael Thorbjornsen -10
Young -9
JT and Schauffele among a group at -8.
Koepka -5
Scheffler -4
Rory +1
So on Sunday, halfway through….
Aberg -13 thru 9
Robert MacIntyre -11 thru 11
Matt Fitzpatrick -11 thru 9
Young -10 thru 9
Sepp Straka -10 thru 13
Cam Young birdies 10 to get to -11. Go Deacs!
But Aberg puts his ball in the water on the par-5 11th and bogeys.
Fitzpatrick birdies 12…and its….
Aberg -12…11
Fitzpatrick -12…12
Young -11…12
MacIntyre -10…14
Aberg puts it in the water again on the short par-4 12th! Fitzpatrick and Young with great tee shots on the par-3 13th. Both get their birdies.
MacIntyre with a terrific birdie on 15. Aberg double-bogeys 12. Unreal.
Fitzpatrick -13…13
Young -12…13
MacIntyre -11…15
Aberg -10…12
Straka -10…16
Fitzpatrick bogeys 14, Young pars it.
Fitzpatrick -12…14
Young -12…14
Four at -10…Aberg, Straka, MacIntyre, Schauffele.
Fitzpatrick birdies 15! Young pars it.
Schauffele birdies three of last four, including 18, to finish -11!
Fitzpatrick and Young both par the 16th.
Fitzpatrick -13…16
Young -12…16
Schauffele -11…F
MacIntyre -10…F
Fitzpatrick safely on 17…but Young gets it much closer…this is great stuff.
Young birdies it! The two are tied at -13 heading to 18.
Young a spectacular 375-yard drive, Fitzpatrick in the pine straw, Young’s approach close, Fitzpatrick’s off the green.
Fitzpatrick a terrific 3rd…Young from 15 feet to win it. It’s just wide…up to Fitzpatrick to sink a par putt from 8 feet. It’s wide right!
Young with a tap in to win it…YESSSS! GO DEACS!
Cameron Young with a life-changing win, a massive multi-year exemption…overall win No. 2 of what we hope is many more to come.
—PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp gave his State of the Tour address on Wednesday, and as the AP’s Doug Ferguson wrote:
“He built his presentation around six themes – a season from late January to September, 120-man fields, a big opener on the West Coast at a famous golf course, finding bigger media markets, meritocracy and a more dramatic finish to the season.
“One possibility was introducing a form of match play at the Tour Championship or throughout the postseason to provide ‘win or go home’ moments. Television partners have favored match play, though top players have questioned why golf should have stroke play all year and have a different format for the biggest prize.”
The bottom line is that big changes are coming, and Rolapp wants to start implementing them next season, but you still need everyone on board, especially the sponsors, and Rolapp conceded it could be 2028 for everything to be lined up.
There is definitely a push to double the number of signature events and expand fields to 120 players with a 36-hole cut.
And to have two tracks of tournaments – some two dozen elite events and the rest of the tournaments that would be geared toward promotion.
“It is by no means a baked cake,” Rolapp said. “These are simple areas we are starting to see a meaningful consensus.”
And clearly Tiger Woods, as chairman of the Future Competition Committee, is heavily involved, and that’s good.
Rolapp said he envisions 21 to 26 tournaments for the top players – as many as 16 signature events, The Players Championship, four majors and the three postseason events.
“We will have a second track of PGA Tour tournaments, which will ladder up to the elevated events,” which would run concurrently with the season, he said.
We know this. Rolapp does not want to compete with the NFL, so the season will begin maybe even in February with the West Coast affair to draw in a prime-time East Coast audience.
NFL
–After I posted last Tuesday, the deal to send star defensive end Maxx Crosby to the Ravens exploded in Baltimore’s face, the team backing off the trade agreement, saying Crosby failed his physical.
It was huge news last Friday when Baltimore announced it was acquiring Crosby for two first-round picks. But all NFL trades require players involved to pass a physical before becoming official. And all trades couldn’t be finalized until the start of the league year last Wednesday.
By the end of the week, Crosby said he was glad to be back with Vegas.
And Baltimore pivoted by signing former Bengals pass rusher Trey Hendrickson, 31, who led the league in sacks in 2024 and was first-team AP All-Pro.
The Ravens signed Hendrickson to a four-year, $112 million contract, and Baltimore keeps its two first-round picks. All-around, a much better deal for the team.
However, Baltimore management has suffered a major black eye in the way this whole thing went down.
–The Jets are turning to an old friend, quarterback Geno Smith, to be a bridge to whatever the future holds for this crappy franchise.
Smith, 35, played four seasons for New York, a miserable 12-18, with 28 touchdown passes and 36 interceptions.
But at age 32, he resurrected his career in Seattle and became a productive signal-caller, only to have an absolutely miserable 2025 in Las Vegas, going 2-13, with a league-leading 17 interceptions.
The Jets, however, just want an experienced QB to help them play some competitive ball while they gird for a top QB in the 2027 NFL Draft. They will also no doubt draft one this year, though the pickings, beyond Fernando Mendoza, are slim. Next year’s class is said to be much better, headlined by the likes of Arch Manning.
–Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray signed a one-year deal with the Vikings.
Murray, 28, was the first overall selection in the 2019 NFL Draft, earning Rookie of the Year honors that season, but underwhelmed since and was 38-48-1 as a starter for the Cardinals.
Last season, he only played in five games because of a foot injury.
Minnesota was looking for a young, experienced, and talented former starting quarterback to push 23-year-old J.J. McCarthy to the max. Murray checked all the boxes. The battle is on to see who starts in Week One.
–We note the passing of former New York Jets star running back Matt Snell, hero of Super Bowl III.
Snell, a first-round pick out of Ohio State in 1964, was AFL Rookie of the Year, rushing for 948 yards. He would go on to accumulate 4,285 yards on the ground for the Jets in nine seasons.
But he’s best known for his 30 carries for 121 yards and the lone touchdown in New York’s stirring 16-7 upset of the Colts that changed football forever, and made Joe Namath a living legend.
Matt Snell’s career, however, stalled out due to injuries, limiting him to just 12 games his final three seasons before retiring in 1972. Things then turned nasty between Snell and the Jets organization.
What we would learn from Bob Lederer’s 2018 book, “Beyond Broadway Joe: The Super Bowl Team That Changed Football,” Snell said then-part-owner Sonny Werblin promised him a place with the team for life, but Snell felt the organization didn’t follow through after Werblin’s stake was bought out.
He then stayed bitter the rest of his life.
Premier League
Saturday, Arsenal beat Everton 2-0, while Manchester City managed only a 1-1 draw at West Ham (a huge point for them), Arsenal further lengthening their lead over City. And Chelsea lost to Newcastle 1-0.
Sunday, Manchester United won a biggie against Aston Villa, 3-1, and then Liverpool took on Tottenham, the Spurs facing possible relegation.
But in the 90th minute, Tottenham’s Richarlison tied the game at 1-1 and the Spurs picked up a critical point; an awful missed opportunity for Liverpool at home.
Table…30/31 played (out of 38) – points….
Arsenal 31 – 70
Man City 30 – 61
Man U 30 – 54
Aston Villa 30 – 51
Liverpool 30 – 49
Chelsea 30 – 48
- Tottenham 30 – 30
17. Nottingham 30 – 29
18. West Ham 30 – 29
19. Burnley 30 – 20
20. Wolverhampton 30 – 16
Stuff
—The 2026 Formula 1 season is off to a rocky start, all the drivers bitching about new rules and cars at the opening Australian Grand Prix.
And then the F1 governing body had to announce Sunday it was canceling races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia slated for April because of safety concerns related to the Iran war.
There will be no substitutions.
But today in Shanghai, 19-year-old Kimi Antonelli became Formula 1’s second-youngest winner in history, taking the Chinese Grand Prix, ahead of Mercedes teammate George Russell. Lewis Hamilton claimed the first podium of his Ferrari career.
British driver Ollie Bearman, 20, impressed in finishing fifth.
It was a nightmare day for last year’s top three, defending champion Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen.; Norris and Piastri not even starting due to mechanical issues. Verstappen broke down with 10 laps remaining.
–The Toronto Maple Leafs are not playoff bound this year, but they lost captain Auston Matthews for the rest of the season with a knee injury, an MCL tear and quad contusion suffering during a game Thursday against Anaheim.
Matthews sustained the injury after a nasty knee-on-knee collision with Ducks defenseman Radko Gudas; Gudas immediately ejected from the game.
“That’s a dirty play,” Leafs head coach Craig Berube said after the game.
It’s been a rough season for Matthews, though he captained the U.S. men’s Olympic team to the gold medal in February, finishing with three goals and seven points in six games.
–In World Cup Alpine action in Are, Sweden, American Paula Moltzan picked up a second in a giant slalom race on Saturday, and then Sunday, Mikaela Shiffrin did it again…winning the slalom, career win No. 109 for the gold medalist. Just amazing.
Top 3 songs for the week 3/16/63: #1 “Walk Like A Man” (The 4 Seasons) #2 “Our Day Will Come” (Ruby and The Romantics) #3 “You’re The Reason I’m Living” (Bobby Darin)…and…#4 “The End Of The World” (Skeeter Davis) #5 “Rhythm Of The Rain” (The Cascades) #6 “Ruby Baby” (Dion) #7 “Hey Paula” (Paul and Paula) #8 “Blame It On The Bossa Nova” (Eydie Gormie) #9 “What Will Mary Say” (Johnny Mathis) #10 “He’s So Fine” (The Chiffons…B week…)
NCAA Men’s Basketball Quiz Answers: 1) Six schools to win at least five championships….
UCLA (11), Kentucky (8), North Carolina (6), UConn (6), Duke (5), and Indiana (5). [Kansas has 4.]
2) Coaches with at least three championships….
John Wooden (10), Mike Krzyzewski (5), Adolph Rupp (4), Jim Calhoun (3), Bob Knight (3), and Roy Williams (3).
Brief Add-on up top by noon, Tues.
