Thursday Tip-Off

Good Morning. This is the Daily Breakroom. We’re your 5 minute daily sports update. Let’s get this show on the road so you can check out of work early and watch some basketball.

Let’s jump right in.

NCAA Tournament Tip-Off

Today is the start of something special. 63 games with 64 teams. The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament kicks off the first round of games today. The tournament will last about 3 weeks and 1 team will be crowned champion.

Here’s what you need to know.

South Region

Alabama was the overall #1 seed in the tournament and they have a great defense followed up with one of the best players(Brandon Miller) in college basketball on offense. Arizona and Baylor could make a run as the 2 and 3 seed.

Midwest Region

I think the Midwest region is one of the tougher regions. 1 seed, Houston is attempting to make the elite eight for a 3rd consecutive time. 2 seed Texas and 3 seed Xavier are very talented and could make a run at the final four.

West Region

Kansas is looking to repeat as champions and they have the talent to do it. It may prove difficult as Kansas is without their head coach, Bill Self, as he had to undergo health procedures in the hospital a few days ago. UCLA, a 2 seed, is a strong team and is probably a bit overlooked. They could do some real damage in this tournament and I think you could expect them in the final four. Some people like Gonzaga but I’m not super thrilled with all of their wins. They clean up some teams that they should clean up, but against other ranked teams they play pretty close games but lost big against Texas and Purdue. The losses were earlier in the season so maybe the deserve more credit.

East Region

This region is a tough read. This region has four or five teams that have the talent to be 1 seeds but traded some wins and losses in difficult conferences or had tough out of conference schedules. Purdue, Marquette, UCONN, Duke, Tennessee, Memphis are all teams who can win games if the players show up that night. I have a feeling in this region it will come down to height. Purdue and Duke both have multiple 7 footers and they could be the difference maker. Luckily for other teams, Purdue and Duke would face each other in the Sweet 16 and that could open the door for Marquette, Kansas St., and Tennessee to get into the Elite 8. We’ll have to wait and see!

Hopefully you filled already completed your bracket. If you’re looking to make a bet on the tournament champ, check out some of the top odds below.

Wondering what games are on today? Here you go.

PGA tour

The Valspar Championship kicks off at one of the PGA Tour’s most difficult courses, The Copperhead Course. The purse this week is much lower than previous weeks. The total money for prizes is $8.1 million and the winner will receive $1.45 million.

Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth are two of the clear favorites to win this weekend in Palm Harbor. Sam Burns is up for a potential 3-peat and there hasn’t been a there hasn’t been a player winning a tournament 3 consecutive years in a row on the tour in over a decade.

With all the basketball on you might be wondering where you can watch golf if interested. You can stream on ESPN+ and there it also be broadcasted on The Golf Channel and NBC.

We’ll give you more details when we approach the final rounds.

Tiger’s Golf League

Rickie Fowler will be joining the TGL, a tech-infused golf league backed by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. TGL has signed 12 of the 18 players need for the league and the golfers will compete like us average joes, on simulators. Albeit, these will be pretty nice simulators. Three man teams will play virtual courses and it will include a short game complex for chipping and putting.

Matches will last two hours and be played on Monday nights. The season is expected to kick off in January of 2024 and it will be a 15 week season.

NFL Free Agency Updates

There’s a lot going on in free agency world. We want you to relax today and enjoy some basketball. We’ll do a data dump on free agency tomorrow!

That’s all for today.

Happy March Madness!

-The Daily Breakroom Team