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🚨 Newspaper heads
🏀 Automatic bids: Gonzaga, UNC Wilmington, Robert Morris and Saint Francis won their conference tournaments to hit their tickets for the NCAA Men’s Tournament, while Oregon State and Green Bay places in the field of ladies insured.
🏈 Free desk tracker: The signed Vikingen Will Fries (five years, $ 88 million) and Jonathan Allen (three years, $ 60 million); The Colts signed Daniel Jones (a year, $ 14 million); Joey Bosa (a year, $ 12.6 million) signed the bills; The Ravens signed Deandre Hopkins (a year, $ 6 million) … Full list of movements.
🏀 Wild finish: Tyrese Haliburton pulled a ridiculous 4-point game against the bucks in the last seconds to lift the pacers to a winning of 115-114 for their home crowd. Both teams are now 36-28 of the season.
⚽️ Poch’s Picks: USMNT manager Mauricio Pochettino mentioned his 23-man selection for Nations League Finals next week, which will be his first real test since he took over as a manager in September.
📺 Large number: The Celtics lacquers collided on Saturday evening in Boston in Boston attracted an average of 4.61 million viewers at ABC, the largest audience for an NBA match in the regular season in seven years (excluding Christmas Day).
🏀 The SEC is on a collision course with history
The SEC tournament starts today In Nashville, where the champion of perhaps the biggest competition in the men’s basketball history will be crowned.
History chasing: The Big East 2011 landed a record 11 teams in the NCAA tournament. This year’s sec could get no less than 14. Yes, you read that correctly: a conference with 16 teams can send realistic 14 to the big dance.
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Locks (9): No. 3 Auburn, no. 4 Florida, no. 5 Alabama, no. 8 Tennessee, no. 14 Texas A&M, no. 15 Kentucky, no. 21 Missouri, Ole Miss and Mississippi State.
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Probably in (4): Georgia, Vanderbilt, Arkansas (“Last Four Byes”) and Oklahoma (“Last Four in”) are currently expected to be the 68 team field, per bracketology.
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On the bubble (1): Texas is currently one of the “first four out”, but could endure this week with a strong show.
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A miracle needed (2): LSU and South Carolina, the only teams of the competition in below .500, must win the conference tournament to secure a place.
Best competition ever? This year’s SEC has the best non-conference-winning percentage (.889) since at least 1997, and the second best margin at the time, per Kenpom.
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They went 32-16 against the current Kenpom Top 50, including victories at the current AP No. 1 (Duke), no. 2 (Houston), no. 6 (St. John’s), no. 9 (Texas Tech) and no. 10 (Clemson) teams.
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The competition is expected to land the number 1 general seed (Auburn), six top-4 seeds and has four of the six favorites (Auburn, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee) to reduce the nets.
The problem with so many great teams? An unprecedented number of bids for the SEC will certainly create a headache for the selection committee, writes Jeff Eisenberg of Yahoo Sports.
The more NCAA tournament bids that the SEC receives, the harder it will be for the selection committee to adhere to its bracketing principles. Opening round matchups between teams of the same conference are prohibited. Those matchups are also avoided where possible in the Tour of 32 and the Sweet 16.
“They will still try to prevent teams from the same conference from coming together as much as possible, but the first priority is to keep everyone on their true seed line,” says David Worlock, the media coordinator of the NCAA for March Madness.
Looking ahead: Historical success in the regular season does not guarantee anything in the melting pot that March Madness is. To know, the two best competitions ever by Non-Conference Scoring Marge (1997 ACC and 2024 BIG 12) sent a combined one team to the Elite Eight. If the 2025 sec wants to reinforce its place if the best ever wants to reinforce, it must appear when it matters the most.
⚽️ Yamal, 17, may already be the world’s best player
Lamine Yamal has fueled Barcelona In the quarterfinals of the Champions League on Tuesday, which contributes to a growth-but-all-large-large-large sample size of greatness.
From Yahoo Sports’ Henry Bushnell:
Lamine Yamal is 17 years old and sometimes – when he does not score Champions League goals, or floors defenders, or Barcelona leads to the top of La Liga – he sees it. He is still wearing tooth brackets. He passes his scores for high school exam in June.
And at other times he looks like the best football player in the world. Because he could even be at the age of 17. That is no longer a reactionary, exaggerated claim.
There is a hesitation to anoint him because there are dozens of great players whose CVs are more extensive. There is Rodri, the reigning balloon d’Or winner. There is Mo Salah, who had the best season 2024-25 from everyone in World Football. There are Kylian Mbappé and Vinicius Jr., who have been doing Lamine-like things for much longer.
But Yamal looks like a more complete player, at least occasionally. He leads La Liga in assists and goals making actions. His progressive dribbling figures are almost the same as Vini’s. And so is his sauce. Some of his on-ball skills are astonishing. His personal list of “defenders I made, look crazy” is ridiculously long.
“I think it’s stupid to compare him with Messi, because Messi is unique and never there anyone will be like him,” said Gavi, Yamal’s Spain and Barcelona teammate, in January. But then he continued: “Lamine is the best for me today.”
Keep reading.
📸 By De Lens
Cleveland – The Cavaliers all laughed on Tuesday after beating the nets to improve to 55-10 (bound for the fifth best start in the NBA history) and to record their second 15-game winning streak of the season. The last team that does that? The Suns 2006-07.
Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida – After he was the first golfer to win the player championship in 2024 in 2024, World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler this week back for a shot at the unprecedented three-level.
Liverpool, England – The history of Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League is full of failure. That changed on Tuesday when the French club Liverpool was surprised to continue to the quarterfinals.
Livigno, Italy – Xinpeng li from Team China during a practice session during the Aerials & Moguls World Cup competition this week in the Italian Alps, not far from where the Winter Olympics will be kept in 2026. Sports photography is so cool …
⛳️ Tiger is not going out
Tiger Woods underwent surgery On Tuesday for a torn Achilles, an injury will probably keep him from all four Majors this season.
From Yahoo Sports’ Jay Busbee:
We will not soon see Tiger Woods golf. But if you think we’ll never see Tiger Woods golf again … think carefully again. It would be easy to explain the career of Woods – another operation, a lost year in a career that has only been a few years to give.
It would be easy … and it would be wrong. Tiger Woods doesn’t go out like that. He will come back in one way or another. When he leaves the golf game, it will be on his own conditions.
This does not mean that he will someday lift another trophy. Woods will almost certainly end three shortage of the 18 Majors of Jack Nicklaus. He will almost certainly remain bound with Sam Snead for most PGA Tour wins at 82. And yet … you would not bet your house against Woods, right?
Because he just like you think he is out, he collects back to win the US Open on a broken leg or to win the Masters again. Woods built his career on dominance, but he sustained it on resilience. Underestimated one of them, and you would be in the clubhouse and sign your score card well before it was.
Keep reading.
📺 Watchlist: final preview in Boston?
The Celtics are organizing the Thunder tonight (7:30 pm et, ESPN) In a collision of title favorites such as Boston’s seasonal mission to repeat while champions continues.
Title chances: Boston (+220 at Betmgm) and OKC (+225) are heavy favorites to win the NBA final, followed by the Cavaliers (+500), Lakers (+1000), Nuggets (+1200) and Warriors (+1200).
More to look at:
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🏀 Ncaam: Lamar at Mcneese (17:00, ESPN2); Marine with American (7 pm, CBSSN); Montana vs. North -Colorado (11:30 pm, ESPN2) … Southland, Patriot and Big Sky Title Games.
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🏀 NCAAW: Montana vs. Montana State (17:00, ESPNU); Rice vs. USF (7 pm, ESPNU); Wyoming vs. San Diego State (10.30 pm, CBSSN) … Big Sky, AAC and MWC title games.
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⚽️ Champions League: Round of 16, second leg* (1: 45-4pm, Paramount+) … four quarter -final places on the line.
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🏒 NHL: Sabres at Red Wings (7:30 pm, TNT); Ducks in Utah (10 p.m., TNT)
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🎾 Tennis: Indian Putten, quarterfinals (2 pm, tennis) … No. 3 Coco Gauff and no. 5 Madison Keys, the two top American women, are both in action.
*Where it stands: Atlético Madrid (1-2) vs. Real Madrid; Lille (1-1) vs. Dortmund; Aston Villa (3-1) vs. Club Brugge; Arsenal (7-1) vs. Psv. Who will become a member of Barcelona, PSG, Bayern Munich and Inter Milan in the quarterfinals?
⚾️ MLB Trivia
Ask: Which MLB division has three of the top five world series favorites?
Answer below.
📸 Photo finish
Maple Leafs defender Simon Benoit After dropping gloves with Michael Kesselring of Utah, Airborne went back to put his thumb back in place from the penalty box. Hockey players – they are nothing like us!
Trivia Answer: NL East. Braves (+900 at Betmgm), Phillies (+1100), Mets (+1200)
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