March Madness Madness: Buzzer-Beaters, Big Upsets, and KD Makes History
Sad news hit the hockey world close to home this weekend: Jessi Pierce, who spent a decade covering the Minnesota Wild for NHL.com, died along with her three children in a house fire in Minnesota on Saturday. The enti...
Minnesota Teams
Sad news hit the hockey world close to home this weekend: Jessi Pierce, who spent a decade covering the Minnesota Wild for NHL.com, died along with her three children in a house fire in Minnesota on Saturday. The entire sports community has been mourning her loss. On the ice, the Wild are still in the thick of the NHL playoff race — more on that below.
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NBA
Kevin Durant just passed Michael Jordan on the all-time scoring list. The 37-year-old Phoenix Suns star now sits fifth all-time in NBA scoring, behind only LeBron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, and Kobe Bryant. He dropped 27 points in a win over the Heat to do it — pretty casual for a guy rewriting the record books.
There was also some drama off the court: a scuffle between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Washington Wizards spilled into the courtside seats on Saturday night. The NBA handed out suspensions to Thunder's Ajay Mitchell and the Wizards' Justin Champagnie as a result.
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MLB
Baseball's big offseason is in the rearview mirror, but the moves were wild. The Dodgers signed outfielder Kyle Tucker to a massive deal, and Pete Alonso (the Mets' slugging first baseman) bolted for a new team. Spring training is wrapping up and the season is almost here.
Also: a jersey Shohei Ohtani wore during Japan's 13-0 blowout of Chinese Taipei in the World Baseball Classic sold at auction for $1.5 million — a record for a WBC item. Ohtani remains very much a phenomenon.
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NHL
The Ottawa Senators are on the playoff bubble and making things interesting. ESPN has them as a live wild-card candidate, and other teams in the race are reportedly nervous. The Stanley Cup playoffs are shaping up to have some great potential first-round matchups — the postseason picture is coming into focus with a few weeks left in the regular season.
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College Sports
March Madness is in full swing, and it's been a wild weekend. The biggest moment: St. John's pulled off a stunning buzzer-beater against Kansas, with a player named Dylan Darling — who had zero points at the time — reportedly calling his own shot in the huddle before draining it. Coach Rick Pitino confirmed the story. Instant legend.
The Big Ten is having a strong tournament, with Iowa pulling off an upset over Florida. Meanwhile, the ACC is struggling heading into the Sweet 16. Kentucky had an early exit despite spending big to recruit star players this offseason — a tough result for a program that expected more.
On the women's side, Iowa State's Audi Crooks is leaving her future uncertain after the Cyclones' first-round loss — she's eligible for the WNBA Draft but is expected to stay in school.
Alabama guard Aden Holloway is in legal trouble: new details emerged that his phone allegedly showed evidence of drug transactions tied to his felony arrest. He missed Alabama's tournament opener while suspended.
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Other Sports
Bryson DeChambeau is on a roll in LIV Golf (the rival league backed by Saudi money). He beat Jon Rahm in a playoff on a rainy Sunday in South Africa to win his second straight LIV event. DeChambeau made the decisive birdie on the first extra hole.
The UFC held a Fight Night card in London, headlined by featherweights Movsar Evloev and Lerone Murphy — two top-five fighters in their division squaring off in what was expected to be a close, high-stakes bout.