Let The Madness Begin

Good morning! It's Monday, so we're ready to start another crazy week. We'll discuss some bracketology, review scores from the weekend, and discuss a robbery on hole 18 of The Players Championship.

Let's go.

Let the Madness Begin

Before we get into bracket talk, we've got to chat about conference championships.

🏀 Auburn had an impressive victory over Florida in the SEC Championship yesterday. Despite Florida's strong SEC performance leading up to the final, Auburn proved to be the better team, winning 86 to 67. Unfortunately, Florida's center, Micah Handlogten, suffered a terrible leg injury early in the game and had to be taken out on a stretcher. We wish him all the best in his recovery.

🏀 In the Big 10, we had a matchup between Wisconsin and #13 Illinois in the final. Wisconsin wouldn't get upset for the second day in a row after they upset number #3 Purdue on Saturday.  Wisconsin would fall 93-87, and Illinois had some big numbers from two players, with Terrence Shannon Jr. having 34 points and Marcus Domask having 26.

Bracket Time (get your bracket here)

Now, getting into bracketology, the defending national champion, UConn, got the overall #1 seed and will play in the East region. This will keep them close to fans as they play in Brooklyn and Boston.

Who got the other one seeds? Houston, Purdue, and North Carolina all secured one seeds even though Houston and UNC lost in their conference championship and Purdue lost in the semis.

We can’t run you guys through every matchup, but we’ve got two play-in games tomorrow, and the tournament kicks off on Thursday, where all the excitement and the madness begins.

Who Got Snubbed?!

Let's take a look at who got snubbed from the tournament and where all the regions are playing so you can see if you can grab last-minute tickets and catch the action live

👎️ Oklahoma was snubbed with having no bad losses, as all their losses came to quad one opponents. Even though they finished the season with 2-5 record in their last seven, they were dealing with some injuries and probably shouldn’t have been left out. Let’s just thank everyone that there aren’t only four teams allowed in the playoffs.

👎️St. John's has been one of the hottest teams in college near the end of the regular season, and they had a five-game winning streak to finish up. They were playing great in the Big East tourney and fell to UConn. I think lots of people feel like St. John’s got screwed, and so did head coach Rick Pitino.

👎️Another Big East team that probably deserved to get into the tournament, as they picked up big wins against UConn and Marquette this season and finished in the Big East with a 13-7 record, was Seton Hall. You might see a trend here, but yes, I think the Big East got screwed.

👎️Sometimes, it’s not how you start; it's how you finish. Providence started the season 11-2 and went 10-11 for the remainder of the season. Some of those losses came from the Big East, which might be the best basketball conference. That is the name of the game when it comes to March Madness, though, and unfortunately, some teams just don’t get in.

Where are the final four games this year?

📍 Let’s start this backwards here. The Final four will be at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The Final Four games will be played on April 6, and the National Championship will be on the 8th.

What About the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 Games?

👉️ The East Regional will be played at the TD Garden in Boston

👇️ The South Regional will be played at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

👈️The West Regional will be played at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

👆️ The Midwest Regional will be played at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.

Some smaller cities will get the second-round games.

These include places like Memphis, Spokane, Salt Lake City, Pittsburgh, Omaha, Indianapolis, Charlotte, and, why not, Brooklyn.

NBA Stats and Scores

Let’s take a look at some NBA stats and scores from Sunday.

🏀 Victor Wembanyama had an impressive day as the San Antonio Spurs picked up a 122-115 win over the Brooklyn Nets. Wemby scored 33 points and had 15 rebounds, seven assists, and seven blocks!

🏀 Damian Lillard had a big day against the Phoenix Suns, where the Milwaukee Bucks won 140-129. Dame had 31 points and 16 assists. The Bucks also had some help from Bobby Portis, who scored 31 points.

🏀 The Dallas Mavericks surprise everybody with a 107-105 win against the Denver Nuggets. Luka Dončić finished with 37 points and 10 rebounds, and Kyrie Irving finished with 24 points, seven rebounds, and nine assists

🏀 The Boston Celtics are continuing on their dominance as they defeated the Washington wizards, 130-104. Jayson Tatum finished with 30 points, six rebounds, six assists and three steals. Sam Hauser had 30 points for the Celtics as he finished 10 of 13 from beyond the arc.

🏀 The Los Angeles Clippers continue to slide as they lost 110-93 against the Atlanta Hawks. Paul George finished with 26 points, and Kawhi Leonard had 28, but they didn’t have much help from the rest of the squad.

Sundays On Ice

We had more high-scoring games in the NHL. Let’s take a closer look.

🏒 The New York Rangers beat the New York Islanders 5-2. The Rangers had five goals from five players, and the Islanders got two from Bo Horvat.

🐧 The Pittsburgh Penguins got a much-needed win with a 6-3 win against the Detroit Red Wings. It was a team effort for the Penguins, as they had four players finish with multiple points.

👉️ The Chicago Blackhawks are trying to finish the season strong as they got another win yesterday against the San Jose Sharks. The final score was 5-2. Chicago was down 2-0 almost through the 2nd period and then scored all five of their goals in the last 26 minutes of play. Like we said, said. Strong finish.

⛈️ The Carolina Hurricanes brought a storm to Ottawa, where they beat the Senators 7-2. It was tied up 2-2 in the 2nd, but Seth Jarvis would give Carolina the lead with just 22 seconds left in the period. The Hurricanes would score four unanswered goals in the third period to win.

What a Way To End The PLAYERS

🏆️ Scottie Scheffler has become the first player ever to win The Players Championship in back-to-back years. He completed the feat by pulling off the biggest final-round comeback in Players history as he trailed by five strokes at the end of round three. Like we said yesterday, it could be anyone’s day at TPC Sawgrass.

Many golfers battled it out yesterday, and few had a chance to force a playoff on the 72nd hole. No one was closer than Wyndham Clark. Clark had a ball enter the hole, and then it quickly exited. Clark would come up one stroke short of forcing a playoff. Watch the clip of Clark putting the ball and then go through all the emotions. We’re right there with you, buddy.

💰️ While Clark is looking for wins and $4.5 million, tying for second and winning $1.9 million ain’t too bad either.

📺️ If any of you have been watching full swing and is wondering how Joel Dahmen did, he finished tied for 11th at -12 and he won $606,000. Geno will be happy.

What’s On TV Tonight?

NBA

🏀 Miami Heat @ Philadelphia 76ers, 7:30 pm ET on ESPN

🏀 NY Knicks @ GS Warriors, 10 pm ET on ESPN

NHL

🏒 Washington Capitals @ Calgary Flames, 8:30 pm ET on NHL Network

🏒 Buffalo Sabres @ Seattle Kraken, 10 pm ET on ESPN+

That’s all for today people. Enjoy your Monday, and make sure you get a head start on your work this week so you can watch all the games on Thursday and Friday!

-The Daily Breakroom