March Madness delivers with crazy ending to UConn-Duke
Men's college basketball delivers the excitement, the Padres prepare to take on the winless Giants, nobody can stop the Wave, and so much more in today's Front Row Seat newsletter.
There is lots of great stuff for you to read below. The San Diego Padres salvaged their opening series thanks to a revamped Randy Vásquez and Mason Miller, who debuted a new walk-out song. UConn beat Duke to move onto the Final Four in one of the most memorable moments in college basketball history. The San Diego Wave once again look ready to dominate the NWSL.
In short, the slow part of the sports schedule is over. Over the next month, we’ll see the MLB, MLS and NWSL seasons getting underway while determining the men’s and women’s champions in college basketball before the start of the NBA and NHL playoffs. Oh, and the NFL Draft!
It’s an exciting time. I’ll be on vacation for much of this week, which means I’ll be watching less sports than normal (and on smaller screens), but I am going to try to not miss any days with this newsletter while also trying to not enrage the rest of my family by doing so.
If a day goes by and you don’t get a newsletter, you’ll know why.
Now, onto the links!
San Diego Padres
Vásquez became a completely new pitcher -- with a little help from Yu - MLB.com
In no uncertain terms, Vásquez is a different pitcher entirely than the one the Padres acquired in December of 2023. He spent most of his first couple of seasons struggling to miss bats and nibbling around the strike zone. Vásquez always possessed an innate ability to get big outs when he needed them. But he routinely put himself in bad situations.
The numbers called for regression. Vásquez’s ERA was in the 3s. His FIP was in the 5s. This wasn’t supposed to be sustainable.
Except a funny thing happened last summer. Vásquez never regressed to the mean. The mean regressed to Vásquez. He started missing bats. His velocity ticked up. He stopped nibbling, and his walk rate went down.
Padres’ Randy Vásquez takes matters into his own hands in first win of the season - The Athletic
His eight strikeouts were one shy of his career high, set in September against an awful Colorado Rockies lineup. The Detroit Tigers supplied a stiffer challenge, and for a night, at least, Vásquez was the stopper. Behind the right-hander’s six scoreless innings, the Padres avoided a season-opening sweep and shut out the Tigers 3-0, giving Craig Stammen the first win of his managerial career.
“We needed a big start from him after the first two games,” Stammen said. “He delivered.”
On deck: Padres hosting winless Giants to start NL West play - San Diego Union-Tribune
The Giants suffered back-to-back shutout losses to start a season for the first time in their 144-year history and have scored just one run in three games under former Tennessee coach Tony Vitello.
The Padres lost their first two games of the season before salvaging the series finale against the Tigers. San Diego won 10 of 13 meetings last year against San Francisco.
March Madness
UConn’s Mullins Magic creates a March Madness memory that will last forever - The Athletic
From right near the March Madness logo, 35 feet from paydirt, off a reckless turnover committed by a juggernaut team that led by 19 points in the first half, and by 15 at halftime. The Blue Devils simply could not lose this game. It was not possible. The Huskies missed 17 of their first 18 3-pointers, for goodness’ sake.
But UConn made four of its last five, including one with 0.4 seconds left that will never be forgotten as long as this game is played.
Two Dazed Freshmen Authored The Tournament’s Immortal Moment - Defector
UConn freshman Braylon Mullins watched his last shot Sunday night arc toward the basket from 35 feet away. If his eyes had been shut, he still would’ve known, not only from the pandemonium of the crowd and the euphoria of his teammates, but from the wonderful knife-plunge noise of a swish from great distance. Chuh! That’s the best sound basketball has to offer. It’s very much like the sound of Michael Myers jamming a large blade into someone’s chest, which is fitting.
Cayden Boozer takes blame for Duke collapse after fateful turnover: ‘I ruined our team’s season’ - The Athletic
For a moment, he almost held it together.
Almost.
But then the bloodshot eyes started to water, again. The deep voice, cracking with every word.
“I ruined our team’s season,” Cayden Boozer finally choked out. “That’s the best I can put it.”
And though Boozer is certainly not solely responsible for Duke’s latest stunning postseason collapse — a 73-72 meltdown to No. 2 UConn in Sunday’s Elite Eight — his turnover with six seconds left will endure forever as one of the all-time bungles in the history of the NCAA Tournament.
Michigan’s Elite Eight rout of Tennessee added to a men’s NCAA tournament record number of blowouts - Yahoo Sports
If you thought there had been a lot of blowouts in the 2026 men’s NCAA tournament, you’re onto something.
Michigan’s 95-62 win over Tennessee in the Elite Eight on Sunday was the 21st game with a margin of 20 points or more this March Madness. That’s a modern tournament record, according to CBS Sports. The previous record had been 19 20-point games in 1999 before Arizona beat Arkansas by 21 points in the Sweet 16 on Thursday.
The number of blowouts jives with how well favorites have done throughout the tournament. Betting favorites went 16-0 in the second day of the first round, and though No. 1 Florida lost in the second round and No. 2 Houston fell in the Sweet 16, the Final Four will feature at least two No. 1 seeds and the lowest-seeded team is No. 3 Illinois.
Early Men’s Final Four preview: Arizona-Michigan, UConn-Illinois predictions - ESPN
The 2026 men’s Final Four is set!
UConn will open Saturday’s national semifinals against Illinois after mounting a successful comeback against Duke in the Elite Eight, followed by a battle of No. 1 seeds Arizona and Michigan in Indianapolis. Who do ESPN’s college basketball experts see advancing to the championship game on April 6?
Jeff Borzello and Myron Medcalf break down how each team reached the final weekend of the NCAA tournament -- and their keys to advancing to the title game.
Soccer
Best week ever: Wave outlast Chicago for third win since Sunday - San Diego Union-Tribune
The San Diego Wave made team history on Saturday night, winning their third game in the same week with a 2-0 victory over Chicago Stars FC.
The Wave have played three games in seven days and come away with nine points, which has them tied for first in the NWSL standings with Seattle, Portland and Angel City.
San Diego beat Utah, Portland and Chicago by a combined score of 7-2 in three wins.
During the three-game win streak, Wave coach Jonas Eidevall has integrated midfielder Lia Godfrey into the starting lineup. She scored a goal in all three matches.
Mohamed Salah warned against US move as MLS clubs eye Egyptian footballer - Al Jazeera
If he does move to the United States, recent MLS expansion club San Diego FC, who reached the playoff semifinals in their debut season last year, have been heavily linked with Salah, not least due to their British-Egyptian owner, Mansour.
“He’s probably one of the great players today. And any team that will get him, or any country that will get him, he will definitely be an asset,” Mansour told the AFP news agency at a summit in Atlanta on Thursday.
Mansour declined to answer whether he is actively trying to recruit Salah or has previously sounded out a move for the striker.
But he added: “Of course, Mo Salah is somebody that, as an Egyptian, my origin, I’m very proud of. He is somebody that reached the world stage as one of the great players.”
Fans at World Cup risk facing ‘troubling attacks on human rights’, warns Amnesty - The Athletic
Amnesty International has warned that football fans attending this summer’s World Cup risk being confronted with “troubling attacks on human rights”.
Amnesty said the “safe, welcoming and inclusive” tournament promised by FIFA, the sport’s governing body and the competition’s organisers, was compromised by “severe restrictions on freedom of expression and peaceful protest”.
In a report published on Sunday, Amnesty said the U.S. is “facing a human rights emergency”, while risks in co-hosts Mexico and Canada are also discussed.
Odds & Ends
Sources: NFL, far apart with NFLRA, to begin hiring replacement refs - ESPN
NFL owners are “alarmed” by the state of negotiations with the NFL Referees Association and have authorized staff members to begin hiring and onboarding replacement officials in the coming weeks, league sources said Sunday at the start of the league meetings.
The NFL began compiling a list of college-level officials to recruit earlier this month, and owners are expected this week to approve a sweeping set of replay enhancements to support replacement officials in preseason and regular-season games. A league source said that training of the new replacement officials will begin May 1.
Inside The NBA’s $16 Billion Expansion Plan: Why Seattle And Las Vegas Are Getting Teams - Huddle Up
To be clear, this week’s vote does not guarantee that the NBA will add two new expansion teams. It simply begins the process of determining whether the league should add two new expansion teams. Potential investor groups will now submit detailed proposals, including financial disclosures, arena plans, and org charts, with the NBA planning to put its finalists up for a formal vote by the end of 2026.
But let’s not kid ourselves: With so much money at stake, an uncertain future for media rights post-2035, and some unique tax incentives that make it a financial no-brainer for owners, NBA expansion has always been a matter of when, not if.
Tiger Woods Charged With Suspicion Of DUI In Florida - Defector
In the case of Woods’s most recent crash, Martin County sheriff John Budensiek spoke to the press directly. He told the assembled reporters that law enforcement got a call Friday shortly before 2 p.m. reporting a rollover crash on South Beach Road. Jupiter Island police went to the scene, where they found a pickup truck that had been pulling a trailer with pressure cleaner and a Land Rover rolled over onto its side, the driver’s side door on the ground.
“Initially, right off the top, it did appear that the driver of the Land Rover might be impaired,” Budensiek said.