#ncaa-tournament

#ncaa-tournament

Morning Sports Update "That's what the Patriots need, especially with Mac Jones coming off that down year.Get him somebody reliable on the outside."The Bruins scored a lopsided 7-0 win over the Sabres on Sunday, running the team's record to 53-11-5.In the NCAA Tournament (both the men's and women's editions), upsets dominated the proceedings over the weekend.

NFL rumors are all the craze these days, especially over in the NFC: the Saints consider signing one of Derek Carr's old friends, the Vikings add more depth on the edge, and the Packers get their Adrian Amos replacement.In a surprisingly uneventful day during NFL free agency, the league mainly had small fish to fry.

Time may or may not be a flat circle, but it certainly has an uncanny repetitive ability.Almost everything that happens can be re-contextualized and compared to something that has happened before.Take the 2023 NCAA Tournament.This year's March Madness was kicked off earlier this week, with the first round starting on Thursday.

Morning Sports Update Beckham last played for the Rams in Super Bowl LVI.The Bruins lost to the Oilers 3-2 on Thursday.Boston will face the Red Wings at TD Garden tomorrow at 1 p.m.The Celtics will be in Atlanta to play the Hawks on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
Also on Saturday, the Pride play the Toronto Six at 2 p.m.

After she lost her hearing at age 87, Clarice Boswell decided to get a hearing device implanted in her ear.The clock was ticking: She wanted to regain her hearing in time to hear her daughter inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.Cathy Boswell, a former basketball star at Illinois State University and an Olympic gold medalist, is due to be inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame Saturday.

Thanks for participating in this week's SB Nation NBA Reacts survey.The national results are below.The Washington Wizards only results can be found here.About two-thirds of NBA survey respondents planned on watching the NCAA tournament
I'm not surprised that most people planned on watching the Big Dance.

March Madness has begun.Although countless college basketball fans will be glued to their screen - and couch - over the next few days, many other sports fans will be chilling on the couch with an extra accessory: a bag of frozen peas.That's because for many men, it's time to heal from a procedure that's historically timed with college basketball playoff season.

Lindsay Gottlieb knew her defense was good.But she didn't realize how good.Allowing just 54.8 points per game, USC is on pace to have the best scoring defense in the program's NCAA history.Gottlieb, the team's second-year coach, raised her eyebrows and nodded in modest approval when she heard the fact.

(Michael Conroy / Associated Press)

Two years ago, when Jim Nantz decided this would be his last time calling the Final Four - a farewell in his hometown of Houston - he knew it would be an emotional experience.But the legendary CBS play-by-play announcer could not have anticipated the flood of feelings that would accompany this goodbye.

This year's March Madness has been just as wild as ever, with the third-ever No. 15 seed advancing past the first weekend in Princeton, to Farleigh Dickinson pulling off the biggest upset in NCAA tournament history, there's been plenty of reasons to tune in as a fan.The Chicago Bulls should also be keeping their eyes on the action, as there are quite a few players still participating in the tourney that would make welcome additions to the team for next season.

Gabriela Jaquez's older brother was the quietest fan in the arena.He sat with this hands folded in his lap and long legs stretched over the back of a seat in Pauley Pavilion as he watched his sister play in the NCAA tournament in person for the first time.Jaquez didn't earn a reaction from Jaime Jaquez Jr. until she grabbed a steal and scored on the other end with a step-back fadeaway shot off one leg.

His ethos can be found under his right bicep, in large black letters."No Vanity," the tattoo reads.It would be so easy to indulge in just a little now.Amari Bailey is no longer an up-and-coming college basketball star.He's here.With every slick move to the basket, every defensive stop, every pass that finds a teammate in the perfect spot, the UCLA freshman guard is elevating an already formidable team into a potentially unstoppable force at just the right time.

How Sweet it is.For the third time in as many seasons, UCLA is advancing to the NCAA tournament's second week.The Bruins made it to the Sweet 16 again because another trend persisted Saturday at the Golden 1 Center: The final minutes continued to be winning time.Shaking off a huge Northwestern rally in which the Wildcats erased a 13-point deficit, second-seeded UCLA held off the seventh-seeded Wildcats for a 68-63 victory in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

It was barely noon Thursday, West Coast time, on the first day of the NCAA basketball tournament that will kidnap our attention for the rest of March and the first few days of April, when we got the ultimate reminder of why they call this March Madness.What is, after all, psychotic and quirky about a bunch of college basketball games?

The Bruins are thin when it comes to defensive depth, so it might be a good time to get a look at Mason Lohrei.The Ohio State sophomore, who was drafted in the second round of the 2020 NHL Draft by Boston, is a top prospect for the B's and posted strong numbers this season for the Buckeyes with four goals and 28 assists.

Thank you for your responses to this week's SB Nation Reacts survey.Our Washington Wizards survey results are below.85 percent of Wizards fans lack confidence in team direction

Last week, a combined 77 percent of survey respondents gave 1s and 2s in how confident they are in the Wizards' team direction .

The Toronto Raptors have been watching the NCAA Tournament like a kettle of hawks over the last few weeks, as they are trying to find which players have the skills needed to join this team and contribute instantly.They've found some standouts, but none of them have made it to the Final Four festivities.

The Toronto Raptors are hovering right on the cusp of the lottery, with the team likely in a position to target some of the best off-ball guards in a draft that promises to be full of them.No team may need an injection of perimeter skill more than Toronto right now.The Raptors might not bring back veteran sniper Will Barton, and the lack of improvement from Malachi Flynn could get them looking elsewhere for replacements.

Masai Ujiri and the rest of the Toronto Raptors front office, like the rest of us before our bracket got busted by that one crazy upset (looking at you, Purdue), were locked into the 2023 NCAA Tournament.Ujiri had to be overseeing these games with the goal of plucking out the next star that could come right in and make an impact.

(1:25) - MARCH MADNESS: JJ recaps the opening weekend of the 2023 NCAA tournament and talks about FDU, Princeton, and UConn.(12:40) - KNICKS: The Knicks return to the West Coast with a tough victory over the Nuggets.(16:45) - CALLS: Callers talk Jets and Mets.(20:16) - ZACH BRAZILLER: NY Post Knicks and college reporter Zach Braziller returns to discuss the latest on Rick Pitino and St. John's, the local stars in the tournament, the East bracket, and his Final Four.

On Friday, the day before the biggest game of the season, Cori Close gathered her players at midcourt to start practice.With UCLA 's first-round game approaching, the coach wanted to set a tone for her team.No fiery motivational speech needed.The Bruins had a dance party instead.With a balance of focus and freedom, No. 4 UCLA is dancing into the second round of the NCAA tournament, where they will face No. 5 Oklahoma (27-6) on Monday at 7 p.m. PDT at Pauley Pavilion.

An astonishing 1,768 men's college basketball players entered the transfer portal in November, the majority of whom were on Division I teams.With such a turnover of players, coaches are forced to revamp their rosters annually, integrating existing players, incoming transfers and freshmen into their system.

(David Zalubowski / Associated Press)

Mick Cronin has plenty of film of his teams playing Gonzaga.A few seconds aren't approved for all audiences.Rewatching UCLA's 2021 Final Four loss on Monday night, the Bruins coach hit pause as soon as Johnny Juzang's putback tied the score with 3.3 seconds left in overtime.

Morning Sports Update Mel Kiper Jr. also said he could see New England picking a wide receiver.Tonight, the Bruins host the Senators at 7 p.m.
Elsewhere, the Celtics will be Sacramento to play the Kings at 10 p.m.
On Monday night, Japan beat Mexico 6-5 on a walk-off hit to advance to the final of the World Baseball Classic.

The tears before the end of an epic collapse.The 40-footer banked in at the buzzer.If you know, you know.And most everybody does.Drama is assured when UCLA faces Gonzaga in the NCAA tournament.The teams have met three times on college basketball's biggest stage, producing two of the event's most iconic moments.

Instinct will be to point to Saturday night as evidence of why UCLA won't win a national championship.Calmer heads will offer the escape against Northwestern as a reason the Bruins will.Ignore the narrow margin of victory.Mick Cronin's team is on its way.The Bruins couldn't score in the second half.

Miles Norris scored 15 points on six-for-eight shooting, but UC Santa Barbara was unable to keep pace with Baylor in the second half.The Gauchos were outscored by a 39-20 margin in the final 20 minutes of a 74-56 loss Friday in the first round of the NCAA tournament at Ball Arena.Big West Conference player of the year Ajay Mitchell added 13 points and a team-high four assists for the No. 14 seed Gauchos, who were making their second NCAA tournament appearance in the last three years.

Northeastern has reached the final weekend yet again.This time for the first time they will not play Minnesota-Duluth who was knocked out last weekend.Instead they draw the top seeded Ohioii State Buckeyes.Northeastern v Ohio State This will be the first time since 2006 that these teams meet at all.

Wizards center Daniel Gafford grabs a rebound in front of Cleveland's Isaac Okoro during Friday night's Washington loss.(Phil Long/AP)CLEVELAND - The Washington Wizards began a challenging weekend of games with a 117-94 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers that served as a reminder of just how far they have to go to compete with the top of the Eastern Conference.

After Selection Sunday this past weekend, we now know who is going to be in the NCAA tournament this season.While most fans are filling out their brackets in an effort to successfully predict the most unpredictable sporting event in the world, NBA scouts are preparing for the most important part of their jobs.

Before he left the podium late Thursday night, Mick Cronin saluted someone several hundred miles away." Jaylen Clark," Cronin said, "we miss you, buddy."Yes, the UCLA Bruins certainly do.Clark is their best defender, if not the nation's best.He's their emotional spark plug, following his takeaways leading to easy baskets with a muscled flex and a mighty roar.

No Furman here.No Princeton here.No late craziness or shocking weirdness or shining momentousness here.No Cinderella, only smashing pumpkins.UCLA was not going to lose its NCAA first-round tournament game to 18-point underdog North Carolina Asheville at the Golden 1 Center on Thursday night.No way.No how.

Before the chaos of March descended on Pauley Pavilion this week, Cori Close gathered her team at center court at the end of practice.During this time of the year, teams that remember and embrace their identity find the most success, the UCLA head coach reminded her players.That foundation helps overcome inevitable NCAA tournament adversity.

The UCLA women's basketball team will look to continue its promising season when the fourth-seeded Bruins play No. 13 Sacramento State in the first round of the Greenville 1 Regional of the NCAA tournament Saturday.After its stunning win over Stanford, the 17th-ranked Bruins fell to Washington State in the Pac-12 tournament final March 5, dashing its hopes of an automatic bid.

San Jose State's breakthrough season isn't over yet, with the Spartans accepting a bid Sunday night to play in the College Basketball Invitational (CBI).This is San Jose's first postseason appearance since 2011, when the Spartans also played in the CBI.SJSU has reached the postseason for the sixth time in school history and the Spartans are still looking for their first win.

San Jose State's breakthrough season isn't over yet, with the Spartans accepting a bid Sunday night to play in the College Basketball Invitational (CBI).This is San Jose's first postseason appearance since 2011, when the Spartans also played in the CBI.SJSU has reached the postseason for the sixth time in school history and the Spartans are still looking for their first win.