Yahoo Sports AM: March Madness has already begun
In today's edition: March Madness starts early, tennis' new power couple, Duop Reath's remarkable NBA journey, a moose wreaks havoc at the Iditarod and more.
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🚨 Headlines
🎓 Dartmouth votes to unionize: The Dartmouth men's basketball team voted Tuesday to unionize. While historic, the move is likely months away from impacting other programs as an appeals process works its way through the National Labor Relations Board.
🏀 Record viewership: Caitlin Clark's history-making game on Sunday averaged 3.4 million viewers on Fox, the largest audience for a women's regular-season game in 25 years and the second-largest audience for any college hoops game this season, men or women.
🏈 Franchise tags: Tee Higgins (Bengals WR), Michael Pittman Jr. (Colts WR), Brian Burns (Panthers DE) and Josh Allen (Jaguars LB) were among those who received the franchise tag before Tuesday's deadline.
🎾 Halep's ban reduced: Former World No. 1 Simona Halep has been cleared for an immediate return to tennis after The Court of Arbitration for Sport reduced her four-year doping ban to just nine months.
🏀 Streak snapped: The short-handed Cavaliers closed on a 34-11 run on Tuesday to stun the Celtics, 105-104, and snap Boston's 11-game winning streak. Six NBA teams now have 40 wins: Boston, Minnesota, OKC, Denver, Milwaukee and Cleveland.
🏀 The Madness has already begun
The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament doesn't officially start until March 19th, but the madness has already begun.
What a night: The ASUN was the first conference tournament to get underway this week, and Tuesday's quarterfinal slate delivered some incredible drama and storylines.
North Alabama 77, Lipscomb 75: K.J. Johnson hit a running one-handed buzzer-beater to beat his former team and keep the sixth-seeded Lions' season alive.
Austin Peay 101, North Florida 98 (OT): Northwestern State’s entire starting five (including one-armed viral sensation Hansel Emmanuel) entered the transfer portal last March to follow coach Corey Gipson to Austin Peay. Now, they're two wins away from going dancing.
Jacksonville 67, Eastern Kentucky 65: The 10th-seeded Dolphins followed up Monday's win over last year's conference champion Kennesaw State by knocking off top-seeded EKU.
Looking ahead: Stetson beat Queens, 81-73, in the other quarterfinal to set up Thursday's semifinals: No. 10 Jacksonville vs. No. 2 Stetson and No. 6 North Alabama vs. No. 4 Austin Peay. The winner of Sunday's final will earn the ASUN's automatic NCAA tournament bid.
The tournaments before the tournament: Amid reports of the NCAA tournament's impending expansion to 76 teams (if not more), Tuesday was a reminder that March Madness is already huge — with 300+ teams taking part each year. Sports journalist Rodger Sherman said it best:
In pro sports, teams will get eliminated with months left before the end of the regular season. In college football, there are teams that start the season knowing that even if they go 13-0, they won't have a chance to play for the national title.
In college basketball, though, we get to the end of the regular season and there are over 300 teams that have a chance to go on a run and do something that will be remembered for decades. Fairleigh Dickinson and Saint Peter's were not the best teams in their conference. We're gonna remember those names forever.
Conference tournament guides: Men | Women
🎾 Tennis' new power couple
It's not quite Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf becoming a couple the same year they both won the French Open, or Jimmy Connors and Chris Evert getting engaged soon after they both won Wimbledon, but Alex de Minaur and Katie Boulter are having quite the week, Jeff writes.
ICYMI: De Minaur, 25, won the Mexican Open on Saturday, then caught an early morning flight to watch Boulter, 27, win the San Diego Open on Sunday.
It's easily the on-court apex of their three-year relationship, with the Australian de Minaur ranked No. 10 in the world and Boulter — the newly-anointed golden girl of British tennis — rising to a career-best No. 27 after first cracking the top 100 last year.
Both have high expectations entering this week's BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, which features both men and women and is often referred to as the "fifth Grand Slam."
Flashback: In 2003, Lleyton Hewitt and Kim Clijsters both won at Indian Wells on the same weekend, three years into their relationship. Could history repeat itself 21 years later?
Finding love on the court: De Minaur and Boulter aren't the only current tennis couple. Others include Stefanos Tsitsipas (No. 11) and Paula Badosa (No. 73), Alexander Shevchenko (No. 51) and Anastasia Potapova (No. 33), and Gaël Monfils (No. 54) and Elina Svitolina (No. 17).
🏀 A remarkable NBA journey
Trail Blazers center Duop Reath erupted for a career-high 26 points on Monday, the latest highlight in his remarkable journey from refugee to NBA starter, Jeff writes.
Reath's odyssey: The 27-year-old rookie's story began in 1996, when he was born in Waat, South Sudan, amid an ongoing civil war.
Around age six, Reath and his family fled to a refugee camp in Kenya, where they lived for three years before moving to Australia, a haven for thousands of South Sudanese refugees.
He picked up basketball after a few years in Brisbane, and during a travel tournament in 10th grade a JUCO scout offered him a scholarship. So in 2014 he moved to Texas to attend Lee College, where he played well enough to earn another scholarship at LSU.
After going undrafted in 2018, Reath continued his career abroad, with stints in Serbia, Australia, China and Lebanon — supplemented by offseasons in the NBA Summer League.
Last fall, after failing to catch on with three other teams, Portland gave him a two-way contract. Then during last month's All-Star break — 40 games and 11 starts into his NBA career — the Trail Blazers signed him to a three-year, $6.2 million contract.
What he's saying: "It doesn't feel real," said Reath while recalling his NBA debut. "[But it] also felt like that moment was something that was just meant to be. It felt like, 'Okay, you're in your dream right now. Enjoy it. Have fun.'"
🇸🇪 In photos: The 100th Vasaloppet
Vasaloppet, the world's largest and oldest recreational cross-country ski race, held its 100th edition this past weekend in Sweden.
Nearly 16,000 participants competed in the grueling 56-mile race from Sälen to Mora, which has been called a rite of passage for Swedes.
The race was inspired by the journey Gustav Vasa made in 1521 while leading the rebellion against Denmark and becoming Sweden's first king. Vasaloppet is Swedish for "Vasa Race."
There are sister races all over the world, including Vasaloppet USA, which has been held annually in Mora, Minnesota, since 1973.
📆 Mar. 6, 1983: The USFL's debut
41 years ago today, the USFL began its inaugural, 12-team season, Jeff writes.
A league reborn: That first iteration lasted just three years, but in 2022 a new USFL was born. And later this month, the newly-formed United Football League — a merger of the USFL and XFL — will begin its inaugural, eight-team* campaign.
🥊 1964: Two weeks after converting to Islam, 22-year-old Cassius Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali.
🏀 1982: The Spurs beat the Bucks, 171-166 (3OT), in what remains the third-highest scoring NBA game ever.
*UFL teams: Five come from the XFL (Arlington Renegades, D.C. Defenders, San Antonio Brahmas, St. Louis Battlehawks, Houston Roughnecks) and three come from the USFL, all of which were also names in the original league (Birmingham Stallions, Memphis Showboats, Michigan Panthers).
📺 Watchlist: USA vs. Canada
The USWNT headlines tonight's CONCACAF W Gold Cup semifinal action in San Diego, with the U.S. vs. Canada (10:15pm ET, Paramount+) following Brazil vs. Mexico (7pm, Paramount+).
One-sided rivalries: The USWNT holds a massive 53-4 advantage (plus seven draws) over Canada. Brazil has a similar edge over Mexico, leading 14-2 with one draw.
More to watch:
🏀 NCAAM: No. 4 Tennessee at No. 17 South Carolina (7pm, ESPN2); No. 2 UConn at No. 8 Marquette (8:30pm, FS1); No. 20 BYU at No. 6 Iowa State (9pm, ESPN2)
🏀 NBA: Clippers at Rockets (7:30pm, ESPN); Bucks at Warriors (10pm, ESPN)
⚽️ Champions League: Man City (up 3-1) vs. Copenhagen (3pm, CBS/Paramount+); Real Madrid (up 1-0) vs. Leipzig (3pm, Paramount+) … For a spot in the quarterfinals.*
🏒 NHL: Sabres at Maple Leafs (7pm, TNT/Max); Red Wings at Avalanche (9:30pm, TNT/Max)
🎾 Tennis: Indian Wells (2pm, Tennis)
⚾️ Spring training: Mets at Astros (1pm, MLB)
🏒 PWHL: Montreal at New York (7pm, YouTube); Boston at Toronto (7pm, YouTube)
*Champions League quarterfinals: Two of the eight spots have been filled, with PSG and Bayern Munich advancing on Tuesday.
🏀 NBA trivia
LeBron James won his 954th regular-season NBA game on Monday, passing John Stockton for fourth on the all-time list.
Question: Who are the only three players ahead of him?
Hint: Lakers, Celtics, Spurs. All roughly seven feet tall.
Answer at the bottom.
🐾 Meanwhile, in Alaska
The 52nd Iditarod has gotten off to anything but a normal start, Jeff writes.
What happened: Five-time champion Dallas Seavey shot and killed a moose early Monday morning after it became "entangled" with his team and injured one of his dogs. Then, as per race rules, he had to gut the moose right there on the trail in the middle of the night.
And Seavey wasn't the only one to come across the beast. Other mushers reported running over the carcass after the fact, and race leader Jessie Holmes says he had to punch an angry moose in the nose earlier that night along the same stretch of trail.
The 38 mushers are expected to reach the finish line in Nome early next week after completing the 1,000-mile race through the Alaskan wilderness. Seavey is in 11th as of Wednesday morning.
Injury update: Seavey's injured dog Faloo is in critical condition after undergoing surgery.
Trivia answer: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1,074 wins), Robert Parrish (1,014) and Tim Duncan (1,001)
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