There hasn't been quite as much madness in March Madness in recent years. The top four seeds in each region have gone unbeaten in the first round in each of the last two NCAA Tournaments. Coaches say the influx of money into the sport now that players can be paid has led to what one coach called a “chasm” in talent between the haves and the have-nots. The ability for players to move freely in the transfer portal has also made it harder for strong mid-major teams to stay together.
Forty games into the NCAA Tournament, fans hoping to fill out a perfect bracket were a respectable 2 for 26,587,885. No. 11 seed Texas all but wiped out the remaining unblemished entries in the annual March Madness contests with its upset of No. 3 seed Gonzaga on Saturday night. After the win by the Longhorns, there were 22 perfect entries in ESPN’s bracket challenge and 27 in the NCAA’s contest. The last three games on Saturday were won by higher-seeded teams, but No. 4 seed Nebraska was hardly a sure thing. After Nebraska held off Vanderbilt and Arkansas beat High Point, ESPN had two perfect brackets and the NCAA had four.
LeBron James might be running out of records to chase. He already has gotten plenty of them: most points scored, most seasons played, most minutes played, most All-NBA selections, most All-Star selections, most field goals made, most field goals attempted, most playoff games, most playoff points, highest career earnings. James has all those marks, and many more. Becoming the outright holder of the games-played record was inevitable.
HOUSTON (AP) — On the night Kevin Durant passed Michael Jordan for fifth on the NBA’s all-time scoring list, the 37-year-old was already looking ahead. “Four more to go,” he said with a smile. Durant scored 27 points in Houston’s win over the Miami Heat on Saturday night to move past Jordan. Durant, who was the second overall pick in the 2007 draft, had 21 points entering the fourth quarter and hit a 3-pointer with less than five minutes left to inch close to passing MJ. He did it on his next shot, sinking another 3 from nearly the same spot in the right corner to give him 32,294 points, two more than Jordan.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Philadelphia Phillies have agreed to a new six-year contract with opening day starter Cristopher Sánchez. The deal for last season’s NL Cy Young Award runner-up begins in 2027 and will run through 2032 with a club option for 2033. Terms were not immediately available. Sánchez had been pitching under a $22.5 million, four-year contract that was through 2028.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Tyler Tanner was inches from March Madness immortality. After Nebraska’s Braden Frager made a driving layup with 2.2 seconds left to give the Cornhuskers a two-point lead over Vanderbilt in a second-round NCAA Tournament thriller on Saturday night, Tanner had no choice but to chuck one toward the basket. His heave from beyond half court was on target. The ball crashed off the center of the backboard and dropped halfway below the rim — and then, somehow, it rattled out, and Nebraska escaped with a 74-72 victory. Players on both sides say they thought Tanner had made the shot.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Texas has become the first team in five years to go from the NCAA Tournament’s First Four to the Sweet 16. Jordan Pope and Matas Vokietaitis each scored 17 points, and Camden Heide hit a game-sealing 3-pointer in the Longhorns' 74-68 win over Gonzaga on Saturday. First-year coach Sean Miller’s 11th-seeded Longhorns will face either No. 2 seed Purdue or No. 7 seed Miami on Thursday in the West Region semifinals in San Jose, California. The last First Four team to reach the Sweet 16 was UCLA, which made it all the way to the Final Four in 2021. Graham Ike scored 25 points for No. 3 seed Gonzaga.
North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham says the school is evaluating “all facets” of its tradition-rich men’s basketball program after another early exit from the NCAA Tournament under Hubert Davis. Cunningham issued a statement Saturday saying he is working with UNC chancellor Lee Roberts and executive associate AD Steve Newmark in that review. Newmark will take over as Cunningham’s successor in the coming months. Davis closed his fifth season with a first-round loss to VCU after blowing a 19-point lead. UNC has just three March Madness wins in the last four seasons.
KVITFJELL, Norway (AP) — Sofia Goggia has won her third super-G of the season at the World Cup finals to secure the discipline title and Emma Aicher further closed the gap to overall leader Mikaela Shiffrin. Aicher started the race 95 points behind the American but had a solid run to place fourth and gain 50 points. Shiffrin then came 2.78 off the pace in 22nd and didn’t add to her tally. The American star now carries a 45-point lead into the last two races of the season. Goggia secured her first super-G globe after winning the downhill title four times.
March Madness wasn’t for mid-majors this year. For the first time since the women’s NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1994, no programs from mid-major conferences advanced to the second round. The 32 remaining teams all hail from the Power Four conferences and the Big East. In the men’s tournament, five mid-major teams made the second round. There were 23 teams in the first round from smaller conferences, and they went 0-23. Colorado State, a 12 seed, got the closest, losing 65-62 to Michigan State. The rest lost by double digits.
Finals
INTERLEAGUE
Final Atlanta 6 Boston 1
Final Pittsburgh 8 Toronto 3
Final Houston 7 N.Y. Mets 5
Final Baltimore 10 Philadelphia 8
Final San Francisco 10 Cleveland 7
Final Kansas City 6 Colorado 5
Final Arizona 5 Texas 2
Final Chicago Cubs 7 Seattle 1
Final Cincinnati 11 Chicago White Sox 7
Final Athletics 5 L.A. Dodgers 5
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Final Tampa Bay 3 Minnesota 2
Final Detroit 3 N.Y. Yankees 1
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Final St. Louis 7 Miami 4
Final Washington 3 N.Y. Mets 1
Final Milwaukee 6 San Diego 1
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Final SO Pittsburgh 5 Winnipeg 4
Final Nashville 4 Vegas 1
Final Buffalo 4 Los Angeles 1
Final Philadelphia 4 San Jose 1
Final OT Minnesota 2 Dallas 1
Final Columbus 5 Seattle 2
Final St. Louis 3 Vancouver 1
Final Ottawa 5 Toronto 2
Final Montreal 7 N-Y Islanders 3
Final Boston 4 Detroit 2
Final Tampa Bay 5 Edmonton 2
TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Final (1)Duke 81 TCU 58
Final (3)Michigan 95 Saint Louis 72
Final (5)Houston 88 Texas A&M 57
Final (11)Michigan State 77 (23)Louisville 69
Final Texas 74 (12)Gonzaga 68
Final (13)Illinois 76 VCU 55
Final (14)Arkansas 94 High Point 88
Final (15)Nebraska 74 (16)Vanderbilt 72