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John Calipari’s reckoning is here, plus last-minute women’s bracket prep

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Good morning! How much is your buyout?

Upsets! Kentucky’s no-good day

The first day of the men’s NCAA Tournament featured some juicy results. None were as shocking as No. 3 seed Kentucky’s stunning loss to No. 14 seed Oakland:

The Wildcats probably should’ve won this game, but what can you do when a bench player comes in and hits 10 3-pointers the way Jack Gohlke did? The Division II transfer who “looks like a high school history teacher,” per one teammate, saved the game of his life for the big stage. Hard to beat.
Zoom out, and Kentucky coach John Calipari might actually be in trouble. “Previously unfathomable questions have to be asked,” writes Kyle Tucker. The Wildcats’ last four seasons ended like this: missed NCAA Tournament, first-round exit, second-round exit, first-round exit. That’s not good enough at Kentucky
Calipari’s buyout is $33 million, which may sound cheap to college football fans, but remains financially onerous. That number drops to $27 million after next season. Hm.

Kentucky wasn’t the only upset yesterday, either:

No. 11 seed Duquesne won the Lame Duck Coach title, beating sixth-seeded BYU to extend coach Keith Dambrot’s career (Dambrot is retiring after the season). Long Beach State coach Dan Monson’s post-firing tenure ended after a loss to No. 2 seed Arizona.
Two other No. 11 seeds — Oregon and NC State — won their games yesterday against South Carolina and Texas Tech, respectively. A Clemson loss to New Mexico today would mean all four No. 6 seeds fell in the first round this year.

See all the results and takeaways on our live blog, including Kansas’ near-choke in last night’s finale. I still can’t believe referees called this a foul late in that one:

This was whistled for a foul on Samford as the Bulldogs were attempting to mount a comeback vs. No. 4 Kansas.

🎥 @MarchMadnessMBB pic.twitter.com/ko9hMtYmq2

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) March 22, 2024

Poor Samford. The rest of round one’s schedule begins in five hours.

News to Know

Mum’s the word
A day after the Dodgers fired his interpreter for alleged “massive theft,” Shohei Ohtani and the rest of the organization largely refused comment about the burbling scandal amid yesterday’s 15-11 loss to the Padres in Seoul. Even worse: New signee Yoshinobu Yamamoto lasted just one inning and gave up five runs. Two days in, the vibes around this team are awful.

NBA to shutter G League Ignite
The G League Ignite — once hailed as a revolutionary way for high school basketball stars to develop into NBA prospects — is shutting down, sources told The Athletic’s Shams Charania. The advent of NIL in college basketball has largely eliminated the need for the Ignite, per the NBA’s thinking. Maybe this funnels more talent back to the college ranks.

More news

More Brackets: Maybe we should talk about UConn more

The women’s tournament officially begins today, with just a few hours remaining until brackets lock. Some resources:

Chantel Jennings picked her full bracket here. She has South Carolina winning it all (popular choice for a reason), plus some surprises. I’m not mad at LSU beating Iowa again.
It’s worth circling back to our 10 most likely upsets, too. Looking at you, Arizona.

Pulse Final Four picks: South Carolina, Stanford, LSU and UConn (Tigers winning it all, of course). I want to talk about the Huskies, though, because of one person: coach Geno Auriemma. Chantel wrote a beautiful story this morning on the legendary Huskies coach. Two things that stuck with me:

Last season, Auriemma weathered maybe the hardest year of his life. His mother died. His team full of All-Americans, including Paige Bueckers, fell to injury. Auriemma himself had surgery. Even UConn’s mascot had to retire because of spleen surgery. “Even the dog,” said the coach.
Auriemma said a feeling of powerlessness “engulfed” him. He took a step back — eight days off. And now? He’s back, a new Geno and old Geno rolled into one. An understanding perfectionist.

Read Chantel’s full story here. It’s worth your time. Auriemma can rub people the wrong way, but there’s a feeling of authenticity around the man that can be so refreshing. It might make you put UConn in the Final Four, too.

See the full schedule and how to watch here.

Watch This Game

NCAAM: No. 11 New Mexico vs. No. 6 Clemson (get tickets)
3:10 p.m. ET On truTV
I’m spotlighting this one because I still just love the Lobos’ story. BetMGM has New Mexico as 2.5-point favorites, too. 👀

NBA: Cavaliers at Timberwolves (get tickets)
8 p.m. ET on NBA TV
Both of these teams are locked in tight playoff seeding races with just under 15 games left in the regular season. For the Cavs, it’s even more urgent: time is running out for them to get right before the playoffs even begin.

Pulse Picks

Purdue’s Zach Edey plays today. The 7-foot-4 star is hard to defend — and even harder to officiate. Fun angle on this story.

Baseball’s new rules thrived last year. This year won’t be as transformative, as Jayson Stark writes, but it’s just as interesting how a game of cat and mouse is occurring.

There is drama in Philadelphia between coach John Tortorella and team captain Sean Couturier. Former Torts players told Kevin Kurz about where the relationship might go from here.

Despite all the outside chatter, Caleb Williams continues to check the “person” boxes for the Bears.

Seth Partnow has an interesting NBA data dive: Why has scoring dipped across the league?

Is NASCAR feeling the “Netflix” effect? Early signs say yes.

Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: NFL Draft butts. Also, shout out to Butt Fumble God Mark Sanchez for commenting on our Instagram post about this story.

Most-read on the website yesterday: NFL beat writer mock draft 2.0, which featured a surprising trade into the top 10.