Yahoo Sports AM: The women’s Sweet 16 is (almost) as chalky as it gets

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🚨 Headlines

🏀 JuJu’s season is over: In a massive blow for USC and every basketball fan, superstar JuJu Watkins tore her ACL during Monday’s win over Mississippi State. The potential Player of the Year’s season is over.

🏈 Ward aces pro day: Miami QB Cam Ward is increasingly looking like a lock to be selected No. 1 by Tennessee after impressing at his pro day following a visit from top Titans brass.

🏀 Drake-Big Ten pipeline: Drake’s last three coaches have all been hired by Big Ten programs in the past week: Ben McCollum is going to Iowa and Colorado State’s Niko Medved (Drake ’17-’18) is going to Minnesota after West Virginia’s Darian DeVries (’18-’24) went to Indiana.

🇺🇸 White House visits: President Trump invited the Chiefs to the White House to celebrate their 2020 Super Bowl after they originally missed that opportunity due to COVID, and Ohio State will visit next month to celebrate their CFP title.

🏀 Last night in the NBA: The Lakers fell to the Magic for their second straight loss since LeBron James returned; Anthony Davis scored 12 points in his first game back since getting injured in his Mavs debut; Devin Booker hit a game-winner to lift the Suns over the Bucks.

🏀 The women’s Sweet 16 is (almost) as chalky as it gets

If you thought the men’s Sweet 16 was chalky, just wait until you see the women’s.

Last teams standing: A trio of 5-seeds are the only thing stopping this year’s Sweet 16 from being all chalk for the second time in tournament history (1999).

• No. 1 UCLA

• No. 1 South Carolina

• No. 1 Texas

• No. 1 USC

• No. 2 UConn

• No. 2 TCU

• No. 2 Duke

• No. 2 NC State

• No. 3 Notre Dame

• No. 3 LSU

• No. 3 Oklahoma

• No. 3 North Carolina

• No. 4 Maryland

• No. 5 Ole Miss

• No. 5 Tennessee

• No. 5 Kansas State

Matchups: The regional semifinals begin on Friday.

• Friday: No. 1 South Carolina vs. No. 4 Maryland (Birmingham); No. 2 Duke vs. No. 3 North Carolina (Birmingham); No. 1 UCLA vs. No. 5 Ole Miss (Spokane); No. 2 NC State vs. No. 3 LSU (Spokane)

• Saturday: No. 1 Texas vs. No. 5 Tennessee (Birmingham); No. 2 TCU vs. No. 3 Notre Dame (Birmingham); No. 1 USC vs. No. 5 Kansas State (Spokane); No. 2 UConn vs. No. 3 Oklahoma (Spokane)

Welcome to the Sweet 16: TCU is in the Sweet 16 for the first time ever, continuing their epic turnaround after winning just a single conference game two years ago.

Game of the day: On Sunday, the Maryland men pulled off the most thrilling victory of the weekend; on Monday, the Maryland women won one of the most exhilarating games in recent NCAA tournament history.

Maryland 111, Alabama 108 (2OT): The Terps stormed back from 17 down in the third quarter to reach their fourth Sweet 16 in the past five years, forcing OT with a late three before ultimately holding on for the win in the tournament’s first double-overtime game since 2022.

Second-highest scoring game ever: The 219 points scored were the second-most ever in a women’s tournament game. Ironically, the Tide were also on the losing end of the highest-scoring game, falling 121-120 to Duke in quadruple overtime in 1995.

Monday recap.

🏒 NHL frontrunners: Curse of the No. 1 seed?

The Capitals and Jets face off tonight in a matchup of the NHL’s two best teams. And though that looks on the surface like a potential Stanley Cup Final preview, history — and the current title odds — says otherwise.

Conference frontrunners: With three weeks left in the regular season, Washington (102 points) and Winnipeg (100) hold sizable leads atop the East and West. But entering the playoffs as your conference’s 1-seed doesn’t end with a trip to the finals as often as you’d expect.

• 2001 was the last year in which both No. 1 seeds faced off for the title, when the Avalanche beat the Devils for their second championship.

• Since then, just seven of the ensuing 22 Stanley Cup Finals have featured a 1-seed. When they do make it that far, though, they tend to win, with six* of those seven hoisting the Cup.

Top 10 title favorites: Add it all up and it’s not hard to understand why these two regular-season juggernauts currently have just the fifth- and seventh-best odds to win the Stanley Cup, per BetMGM.

1. Panthers (+575)

2. Stars (+600)

3. Avalanche (+750)

4. Oilers (+750)

5. Capitals (+1000)

6. Hurricanes (+1000)

7. Jets (+1100)

8. Golden Knights (+1100)

9. Lightning (+1200)

10. Maple Leafs (+1300)

Playoff picture: If the season ended today, these 16 teams would make the playoffs.

• East: Capitals (102 points), Hurricanes (90), Panthers (89), Maple Leafs (87), Lightning (85), Devils (81), Senators (79), Canadiens (75)

• West: Jets (100), Stars (94), Golden Knights (92), Avalanche (89), Kings (87), Oilers (87), Wild (85), Blues (81)

*1-seeds to win the Cup since 2002: Red Wings (2002, 2008), Lightning (2004), Blackhawks (2013), Avalanche (2022), Golden Knights (2023). The 2011 Canucks are the lone 1-seed to reach, but lose, the Cup in that time.

📸 In photos: Holloway’s dominance continues

There may be no athlete right now who is more dominant in his or her particular discipline than Grant Holloway, who on Saturday in China became the first hurdler ever to win three consecutive Indoor World Championships.

94 straight wins: The 27-year-old American won gold in the 60m hurdles in Nanjing after also doing so last year in Glasgow and two years earlier in Belgrade. In fact, he’s won 94 consecutive indoor hurdles races, a streak that dates back to 2014 when he was a sophomore in high school.

He’s also the outdoor champ: Unsurprisingly, Holloway is also the world’s premier 110m hurdler, winning gold last summer at the Paris Olympics and at each of the past three outdoor World Championships. He’ll go for the four-peat this fall in Tokyo.

New challenge coming? “I think I can put grace in it, and hang up the 60m hurdles and try out a new event next year,” Holloway said of his future plans for Indoor Worlds. Perhaps the Florida grad will try the flat sprints, relays or long jump, all of which he excelled at in college.

🏀 The NBA’s tanking problem

Cooper Flagg hasn’t worn an NBA uniform yet, but make no mistake about it: After an incredible season and a dominant opening weekend in his first (and only) March Madness, his presence is being felt all across the league.

From Yahoo Sports’ Tom Haberstroh:

The 18-year-old made his NCAA tournament debut Friday against Mount St. Mary’s, fighting through an ankle injury that knocked him out for most of the ACC tournament.

You can be sure that the stands will be peppered with NBA scouts and executives getting a closer look at the loaded Duke Blue Devils, but they know what they’re getting with Flagg. The 6-foot-9 forward has long been considered the consensus No. 1 overall pick while leading the ACC and the entire NCAA field in just about every advanced metric.

We can take a guess at how NBA teams feel about Flagg because the league has launched multiple investigations into teams for purposely sitting good players on bad teams: i.e. tanking. This problem isn’t new as the NBA has wrestled with the black eye of tanking for decades.

It’s clear that tanking practices are alive and well. Last week, the NBA fined the Utah Jazz $100,000 for violating the league’s Player Participation Policy involving 2023 All-Star Lauri Markkanen, who sat against the Washington Wizards earlier in the month (league investigators determined that Markkanen was fit to play).

The league has also reportedly launched an investigation into the Philadelphia 76ers, who have a top-6 protected first-round pick in the 2025 Draft, for sitting their stars Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George.

However, there are more subtle tanking practices that have taken hold across the NBA that seem to be, at the very least, tolerated by the league office. And it has created a problematic climate that staffers around the league worry could get dangerous quickly.

Keep reading.

📺 Watchlist: Crowning a champ

TGL’s inaugural season ends tonight, with Atlanta and New York facing off in Match 2 (and, if necessary, Match 3) of the best-of-three finals (7pm ET, ESPN).

Atlanta leads, 1-0: After Atlanta narrowly won Monday’s championship opener, New York must win tonight’s first match to force a winner-take-all showdown at 9pm. Well, not quite winner-take-all: The champs earn the $9 million grand prize, but second place still pockets $4.5 million.

More to watch:

• 🏀 NBA: Warriors at Heat* (7:30pm, TNT); Thunder at Kings (10pm, TNT)

• 🏒 NHL: Capitals at Jets (8pm, ESPN+)

• 🏀 NIT: Chattanooga at Bradley (7pm, ESPN2); North Texas at Oklahoma State (9pm, ESPN2) … Quarterfinals.

*Jimmy’s return: After five-plus seasons and two Finals appearances with the Heat, Jimmy Butler returns to Miami tonight for the first time since he was traded to Golden State at the deadline. And the Warriors have flourished with their new playmaker, going 16-4 since his Feb. 8 debut.

🏀 Tourney trivia

Question: Can you name all five schools that have won at least three NCAA women’s basketball national championships?

Hint: Three are still alive in this year’s tournament.

Answer at the bottom.

🏀 Sweet 16, throwback edition

Behold, the men’s Sweet 16… but with throwback logos. It’s the graphic I never knew I needed, but am so thankful I have.

Trivia answer: UConn (11 titles), Tennessee (8), South Carolina (3), Baylor (3), Stanford (3)

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