Tag: ncaam

Nate Oats has Alabama looking more like a legit basketball school instead of a football powerhouse

The Crimson Tide look legit.

This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.

Good morning, Winners! Welcome back to the Morning Win! Happy Friday! We’ve made it through the week, folks. Happy Easter if you’re celebrating this weekend.

Alabama-UNC was everything that we love about March Madness. It had a David vs. Goliath vibe to it, you know?

On one side, you had a college basketball blue blood in UNC. On the other hand, you had Alabama, who was considered the underdog coming into this game. That was the weird part about this thing. I’m not quite sure that Bama should’ve been the underdog that it was.

Most people expected UNC to pull this one out, which is reasonable considering how good that team has been all season long. But Alabama doing this shouldn’t be shocking. This program has been pretty good under Nate Oats.

In the last five years, Bama has:

— Made it to the Elite 8 for the first time in 20 years.

— Made it to the Sweet 16 three times (2021, 2023, 2024).

— Been named a No. 1 seed (2023) and a No. 2 seed (2021) in the tournament.

That all seems basketball-school-ish to me.

But that’s the thing, right? This is the wrong sport. When we talk about this school, it’s usually because of something Nick Saban has done. That’s why Charles Barkley called the team frail (and why Nate Oats can have his snappy comeback now). We’re not used to seeing Alabama basketball do this.

But we’d better get used to it — at least as long as Oats is there. I don’t know if he’ll be poached by one of college basketball’s more traditional schools. I don’t even know if Alabama allowed that to happen.

But, until that day comes, put some respect on Alabama Basketball’s name.

RELATED: Who is Grant Nelson? Meet Alabama’s new transfer star

Leaving it on the floor

Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

Sometimes, winning looks ugly. It did for Dejounte Murray and the Hawks on Thursday when they beat the Celtics.

Murray dragged the Hawks to a win. He took 44 shots (!!!!!) to score 44 points, which sounds awful. But, man. Honestly? The Hawks needed every single shot to win that game.

The last one was the most crucial — Murray hit a game-winner over Jrue Holiday for the win.

This was one for the history books, folks. Murray is the third player in the last 20 years to take at least 44 shots in a game. per Stat Muse. You can probably guess the other two: Russell Westbrook and Kobe Bryant.

“I don’t want to take that many shots. But I know Kobe would be proud of me,” Murray said after the game. Yeah, I agree.

A dazzling start

(Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images)

The Juan Soto era is off to an amazing start in New York. He saved opening day for the Yankees with an incredible throw home from the outfield.

Here’s Blake Schuster with more.

“The latest superstar to wear the pinstripes got to play hero on Opening Day, helping the Yankees come back from a 4-0 deficit after the second inning by going 1-for-3 at the plate with two walks and an RBI. But it was what he did at the end of the game that made his debut really stand out.

As the Yankees clung to a 5-4 lead with runners on first and second in the bottom of the ninth inning, Soto gathered a Kyle Tucker hopper to right field and fired a dart back to home to nail Maurico Dubón before he could score the tying run.” 

This throw was unfair, man. Soto is unreal.

Must be nice being a Yankees fan.

Photo Friday: A’s fans have had enough

D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports

A’s fans showed up to the game…but didn’t go into Oakland Coliseum to watch their favorite team. Instead, they partied and protested outside to voice their displeasure with team ownership.

READ MORE: When will the A’s actually play in Vegas?

Quick hits: The best bets on the Sweet 16 … The latest NBA mock draft … and more

— Prince Grimes has you covered again on Sweet 16 bets — this time on the women’s side. I told you he was cookin’.

— Here’s Bryan Kalbrosky with his latest NBA mock draft and the rise of Donovan Clingan.

— 14 women are fighting for roster spots on Team USA’s basketball roster this summer. This camp is STACKED. Meg Hall has more.

— Charles Curtis has the 10 best songs from Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter album.

— Speaking of Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé put a twist on Dolly Parton’s hit record “Jolene.” This is pretty cool. Caroline Darney has more.

— Dan Hurley is funky. Blake Schuster explains.

That’s all, folks! Thanks so much for reading! Enjoy the weekend. We’ll talk again next week. Until then! Peace.

-Sykes ✌️

Jack Gohlke’s NIL deal with TurboTax is even more perfect than you thought

Jack Gohlke has been prepping for this endorsement for years

Jack Gohlke is getting the full March Madness treatment after his star performance in No. 14 Oakland’s upset of No. 3 Kentucky featured 10 3-pointers.

In the NIL era, that means he’s already getting endorsement deals and filming commercials at the team hotel in between practice, media appearances and prep for Saturday’s second round game against No. 11 NC State.

Up first is a deal with TurboTax, which makes complete sense since we’re in the middle of tax filing season. Gohlke filmed an admittedly low-budget, but high-comedy ad in what looks like the team hotel ballroom.

But there’s one simple reason his TurboTax deal is even more perfect than it looks on first glance: Gohlke already has his degree in accounting.

Good for Gohlke getting his money — and even better that he can figure out all the tax implications himself without having to ask his new sponsor for help.

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Where is Longwood located as the Lancers play in March Madness 2024

Longwood’s been around for nearly 200 years … but only been in Division I for 19.

The Longwood Lancers don’t get much attention. Such is the plight of a Big South program.

But while the Lancers have only been a Division I member since 2004, it doesn’t mean Longwood is new on the scene. In fact, Longwood University is one of the oldest institutions of higher learning in the country. Founded in 1839 as Farmville Female Seminary, it underwent seven name changes before settling on its current title.

The school may be best known for bringing high-level low-major softball to Farmville, Virginia — a town in the middle of the state roughly an hour and 15 minutes west of Richmond.

2024 marks the men’s basketball program’s second invitation to the big dance, though it had made four other NCAA tournament appearances over its time in both the Division III and Division II ranks.

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Colorado’s wild buzzer-beater upset No. 7 Florida after bouncing off every part of the rim

KJ Simpson’s game-winner couldn’t have been more dramatic.

It seems like we see it all too often at this point.

A team sneaks into the tournament via the First Four and makes a magical run much further than anyone expected. We’ve already watched VCU (2011), Wichita State (2016), Syracuse (2018) and UCLA (2021) do it.

Now we can add No. 10 Colorado (2024) to the list — and calling this team “magical” might be underselling how it held off No. 7 Florida on Friday.

After the Gators clawed their way back from down 12 with 4:30 left in regulation to knot the game at 100, KJ Simpson put up a step-back jumper with five seconds on the clock that looked like it would bounce forever before deciding to go in.

This sequence is peak March.

Seriously, the ball looked like it would deflate before it went through the net. What an unreal shot and make from Simpson, who finished with a team-high 23 points — none bigger than the final two.

Up next for the Buffaloes is a date with No. 2 Marquette on Sunday. We’ll find out soon enough if Colorado has a little more magic left.

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Auburn’s Chad Baker-Mazara slammed refs in a deleted tweet after ejection 3 minutes into opening round

Chad Baker-Mazara was not pleased with his ejection.

Chad Baker-Mazara was ejected for a flagrant 2-foul three minutes into Auburn’s first-round NCAA tournament game with Yale. Afterward, he tweeted and deleted a post that seemed to slam the officials who ejected him.

IT’S BRACKET MADNESS: Enter USA TODAY’s NCAA tournament bracket contest for a chance at $1 million prize.

Chad Baker-Mazara is a massive part of Auburn’s success and one of the reasons the team recently snuck out an SEC Tournament win that had Bruce Pearl in tears. But, if Auburn is going to win its first-round matchup with Yale, it’ll have to do it without its third-leading scorer.

Replays during the game showed Baker-Mazara looking over at his opponent and sending an elbow into the chest of a neaby player. After some discussion, he was ejected. Minutes later, Baker-Mazara tweeted and deleted words ripping the officiating crew.

Per Ainslie Lee of Auburn Tigers of AL.com, Head coach Bruce Pearl made a mid-game statement clarifying why Baker-Mazara responded the way he did. Pearl revealed that his player was defending himself.

Here’s what Pearl said:

“Obviously, we just saw the replay and what he did was wrong. I thought it should’ve been a flagrant 1, not a 2, especially in a game after an entire season of work is something that’s obviously going to disrupt us. He is one of our very best players. It was a retaliation. He had just got hit in the throat the play before, and he shouldn’t have retaliated.”

SURVIVOR POOL: Free to enter. $2,500 to win. Can you survive the madness?

Oakland star Jack Gohlke hit a ridiculous full-court shot during March Madness practice

Jack Gohlke isn’t done hitting absurd shots from long range.

Oakland Golden Grizzlies star guard Jack Gohlke became a household name overnight.

Gohlke’s 32 points on 10 of 20 shooting (all threes) led 14-seeded Oakland to the biggest upset of the tournament so far against coach John Calipari’s three-seeded Kentucky Wildcats and the sharpshooter isn’t done showing off his skills yet.

He’s no stranger to hitting long balls, as only eight of his field goals made this season came from within two-point range, and while practicing on Friday ahead of Saturday’s second-round game against N.C. State, Gohlke demonstrated his range to an impressive extent.

Standing near the far baseline, he netted what was essentially a full-court heave as his teammates watched in awe.

The graduate student from Pewaukee, Wisconsin, spent the first five years of his career at Division II Hillsdale College in Michigan before joining Oakland for his final season of eligibility.

The 24-year-old said after the upset that he knows he won’t be playing in the NBA, but with the stunning win over Kentucky — which marked the Golden Grizzlies’ first in the round of 64 in program history — Gohlke’s collegiate career extends for at least a few more days.

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Bill Raftery was absolutely dumbfounded by FAU botching the final seconds of regulation against Northwestern

Bill Raftery is all of us.

The Flordia Atlantic Owls will probably want their overtime loss to the Northwestern Wildcats back. A lack of urgency during the final seconds of regulation puzzled everyone, including the broadcast announcers.

IT’S BRACKET MADNESS: Enter USA TODAY’s NCAA tournament bracket contest for a chance at $1 million prize.

FAU and Northwestern’s matchup was so good. The Wildcats fought back tooth and nail to tie the game late in the fourth quarter behind a massive showing from Ryan Lanborg and Boo Buie, who combined for 47 points and eight assists. Northwestern’s grit and toughness eventually helped force their matchup into overtime and a 74-63 victory.

However, Johnell Davis from FAU actually had a chance to win the game but seemingly passed it up — yes, really — for a last-second heave. The lack of urgency was so mystifying that announcer Bill Raftery couldn’t believe it. Here’s Raftery’s call about it with Ian Eagle and Grant Hill:

SURVIVOR POOL: Free to enter. $2,500 to win. Can you survive the madness?

Memphis’ band filled in for Colgate and made playing the cymbals into an artform

However you thought cymbals should be played doesn’t even come close to this.

The Baylor Bears are playing the Colgate Raiders on Friday for a chance to advance to the round of 32 during the NCAA tournament. Still, all anyone can talk about is the Colgate band cymbal player because the guy is playing the cymbals like the rent is due.

The best parts of March Madness are the games that make absolutely no sense, the things you didn’t see coming and the instant memes that will live on forever. But something not enough people are talking about is what’s happening in the stands, including a totally-feeling-it cymbal player.

IT’S BRACKET MADNESS: Enter USA TODAY’s NCAA tournament bracket contest for a chance at $1 million prize.

During a matchup on Friday with the Baylor Bears, cameras were rolling when they captured footage of the Colgate band —which was actually the Memphis band filling in because Colgate’s women’s hockey team was playing in the Frozen Four, and the band could only be in place at a time — playing a song for those in attendance. That’s when a pan to the left showed a cymbal player totally nailing how instruments are meant to be played — with a lot of soul and a bunch of confidence.

His performance quickly made the rounds on social media, and fans loved it. Here’s what they said:

Feature image courtesy of CBS.

SURVIVOR POOL: Free to enter. $2,500 to win. Can you survive the madness?

Oakland’s upset win over Kentucky was fun, but you shouldn’t be surprised by it

Change probably isn’t coming to Kentucky, but it’s long overdue.

This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.

Good morning, Winners! Welcome back to the Morning Win! Thanks so much for rocking with me today. Appreciate y’all giving us a bit of your time here.

Is your bracket busted like mine is? Because mine is definitely busted. I haven’t checked it, but I know it is because I had Kentucky riding pretty far in this one. And, well, uh, that’s over. That’s exactly what I get for trusting John Calipari in 2024.

Oakland’s 80-76 win over Kentucky has been most people’s shock of the tournament so far.

Actually, spectacular might be a better word than shocking here. The Golden Grizzlies knocked the SEC powerhouse out of the tournament behind a historic performance by Jack Gohlke, who hit 10 3-pointers while playing the game of his life. He was one 3-pointer shy of a single-game NCAA record. That’s how good he was. He shot the leather off the ball.

READ MORE: Jack Gohlke declares Oakland isn’t a “cinderella” after beating Kentucky

As much as this game profiles as an upset, though, I’m just not quite sure I feel the same way here.

This has become par for the course for John Calipari’s teams in March. High seeds and early exists. His teams just aren’t really built for March anymore. Jay Wright perfectly explained it here — having teams full of freshmen just doesn’t quite work the way it did 10 years ago. Not when the transfer portal spreads experienced talent around. That’s how we got here. More on Cal in a second, though.

Let’s talk about Oakland. Because, man, this win was an impressive one.

Plus, Oakland isn’t necessarily your typical 14 seed. Greg Kampe has coached the Golden Grizzlies for 40 years. He’s seen it all. He knows what type of talent he has and what he needs to do to get the most out of it. No, the Golden Grizzlies hadn’t won in March since 2005 before Thursday. But the team already had 13 all-time wins against Power 5 teams coming into that game. Kampe’s experience there was invaluable.

Ultimately, that experience helped his team overcome a more talented side in Kentucky. All it takes is one game in March and Oakland seized it. Good on them.

Now, they get to keep dancing.

John Calipari’s seat has to be scorching

Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

There shouldn’t be a seat in college basketball hotter than John Calipari’s.

As I said above, failure in March has been more of a calling card for coach Cal in recent years than anything else. Sure, he’ll send great players to the NBA, and his teams will rack up regular-season wins. But he’ll let you down when it counts the most.

Kentucky has just one NCAA tournament win in the last four seasons. The Wildcats haven’t made it beyond the round of 32 since 2019. That isn’t getting the job done at Kentucky, to put it simply.

So, will he lose his job? Probably not. There are about 35 million reasons why, our Cory Woodroof writes.

“However, thanks to the 10-year contract that Kentucky gave Calipari back in 2019, the school would reportedly owe Calipari $34,968,749 to buy out his contract through a firing without cause, per The Courier Journal.

That is a lot of money to fire a coach, which is probably why Kentucky will ultimately stomach yet another March Madness misfire and keep Calipari on for the 2024-25 season.

Losing to Oakland stings, but firing your coach and paying more than $34 million to do so stings even more.”

That would be a lot of money to pay to a guy for failing at his job. So it sounds like Cal will be back for at least another year. Good luck, Kentucky. You seem to need it these days.

RELATED: Kentucky’s five worse losses under John Calipari

The NFL isn’t listening to its players

(Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

The hip-drop tackle simply isn’t that big of a deal. The players don’t mind it and it doesn’t lead to injury as often as you might think. So, with that in mind, when the players say there’s no need to ban it, you’d think the league would listen.

But nope! It looks like they’re moving forward with a ban anyway. Here’s Robert Zeglinski on why that’s so shameful.

“Banning the hip drop isn’t about improving player safety at all. It’s about the league finding another avenue to streamline and protect its financial investment in offensive players. Even if that comes at the expense of the quality of the game or what the players themselves actually desire, the NFL wants to eliminate all contingencies to protect its broadcast (as well as fantasy and betting) money — the talented offensive players who light up NFL RedZone every Sunday.  I can think of many, much more efficient ways to improve NFL player safety — as much as one feasibly can in a brutal sport like football — before I ever even entertain the subject of hip-drop tackles. That should tell you everything you need to know.

This is virtually the league’s skill-player version of the old rule that bans hits on quarterbacks below the knee. And, if passed, it will be applied in the same byzantine manner. The NFL doesn’t care that defenders will struggle to adjust. You either eat the flag and fine in a situation that often isn’t even in your control, or you simply can’t be part of the fun anymore. Because it’s not about the defense or sanctity of the sport, and it never was.”

The numbers on this are staggering. It’s really not a huge issue. It’s just the NFL being the NFL.

A MUST READ: The NFL is only pretending to listen to its players

Photo Friday: The other side of March

(Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

Upsets are fun for us, but always devastating for the loser. Here’s Trevin Knell and the rest of BYU’s team walking off the court after being upset by Duquesne.

Quick hits: Bold predictions for the women’s tourney … Bye bye, G League Ignite … and more

— The women’s NCAA tournament starts today! The stars are aligned. Here’s Mitch Northam with three bold predictions for the tournament.

— The NBA quietly announced the end of the G League Ignite program on Thursday while tournament games were going on. You probably missed this.

— The Tush Push is officially legal for the 2024-25 NFL season. Here’s Cory Woodroof with more.

— A little bit of trash talk goes a long way for Oregon’s Jermaine Couisnard. Here’s Bryan Kalbrosky with more.

— Here’s Ben Fawkes with the five wildest betting moments from Thursday’s action

— Charles Curtis has the scoop on how many perfect brackets are left out there.

That’s all, folks! Thanks so much for reading TMW this week. We appreciate you. Have a fantastic weekend and enjoy the basketball. We’ll talk more next week! Peace.

-Sykes ✌️

Where is Drake located as the Bulldogs play in March Madness 2024?

The midwestern university is the second most relevant result when you search “Drake basketball loss.”

If it’s March and we’re talking about Drake, it means one of two things. Most commonly, a certain Degrassi: The Next Generation star turned rapper has cursed whatever team has a rolling bandwagon with his fanhood. In 2024, this is the Houston Cougars.

Recently, however, it means the Drake Bulldogs have emerged as Missouri Valley Conference tournament champions, punching their dance ticket in hopes of escaping to their first Round of 32 appearance since 1972. This year, that came at the expense of Indiana State, sending one of the country’s most popular mid-majors to the NIT and heaping loads of scorn onto the selection committee.

The Sycamore’s loss is Iowa’s gain, however. Drake is located in the state capital of Des Moines, roughly three miles from the state capitol and, for a much more useful waypoint, less than two miles from the Big Grove Brewery and Taproom.

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