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Good morning! Great things sometimes come in fours.
Brackets
Will the Final Four provide a chaotic end to a chalky men’s NCAA Tournament?
The Sweet 16 and Elite Eight showed signs, even as a few lower seeds found themselves getting shot out of cannons by the four No. 1s — Auburn, Duke, Houston and Florida — that reached San Antonio. The average margin in the regional rounds was 10.9 points, but five of the 12 games between the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight came down to two possessions or fewer. Now there’s no cannon fodder left.
This is probably the most stacked Final Four ever. The other candidate is 2008, the lone previous year to feature four No. 1 seeds. In both years, the No. 1s equal the four top teams in Sports Reference’s Simple Rating System. But SRS would favor all four 2025 teams over 2008’s best team and eventual champ, Kansas.
My favorite subplot: Each semifinal pits an old-school NCAA rulebreaker against a millennial coach who will never know a world where he might get himself ousted over “impermissible phone calls” to recruits, as Kelvin Sampson did once upon a time at Indiana. Arguably, Sampson resigned under pressure over alleged lies, but bear with me and go read Joe Rexrode’s story about Sampson at Houston, fellow NCAA outlaw Bruce Pearl at Auburn and relative infants Jon Scheyer at Duke and Todd Golden at Florida.
What do we make of each semifinal? Auburn and Florida get things started tonight at 6:09 p.m. ET on CBS.
- One slightly surprising thing: These SEC rivals have only played once this season, a 90-81 Gators win at Auburn. That’s because the conference has 16 teams now, and Auburn did not get in Florida’s SEC Tournament path. A mere sequel, rather than a threequel or even fourquel, feels fresh!
- A matchup to noodle on: Florida big Alex Condon gets to guard Johni Broome, the Auburn forward who should come in second for National Player of the Year. Broome is, of course, a headliner on our “non-Cooper Flagg players to watch” index.
- Pick: Auburn +2.5 (via BetMGM). Purely a gut pick that Pearl finds a way.
Duke and Houston follow around 8:49 p.m. ET.
- One slightly surprising thing: Sampson now has more wins (723) than Jayhawks arena namesake Phog Allen, whom he passed during this tournament. If Sampson could win two more games here, we’d have to start talking about him as an all-timer.
- A matchup to noodle on: Flagg against the stifling recesses of Sampson’s defensive mind. Houston has the best defense in the country and will make the forthcoming No. 1 pick sweat for everything he gets. The prodigy might win the day, but I look forward to seeing Sampson’s approach.
- Pick: Duke -5.5. I’ll say someone other than Flagg has the biggest night.
One more story for the road: CJ Moore’s collection of coaches’ perspectives on the semis. Next, our women’s final is now set.
News to Know
Staley vs. Auriemma to crown a champion
The favorites looked like … well, the favorites. Neither of the Final Four matchups in the women’s NCAA Tournament provided much intrigue last night. No. 1 South Carolina pulled away in a 17-point win over No. 1 Texas, while No. 2 UConn dominated in a 34-point shellacking of No. 1 UCLA:
Paige Bueckers. Basketball wizard. 🪄
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— Daniel Thompson (@dr-thompson.bsky.social) April 4, 2025 at 10:23 PM
A few storylines to watch Sunday:
- UConn won by 29 when these teams met less than two months ago, snapping South Carolina’s 71-game home winning streak. Don’t expect the sequel to look the same.
- Dawn Staley has a chance to win her fourth championship and her third in four years, cementing South Carolina as a dynasty.
- Lest we forget about Geno Auriemma, who will coach for his 12th (!) national title.
Speaking of greatness:
Ovechkin ties Gretzky
The Great Eight has tied the Great One. Alex Ovechkin ripped home a pair of one-timers in last night’s win over the Blackhawks to match Wayne Gretzky atop the NHL all-time goals leaderboard. Ovechkin reached the 894-goal mark in 1,486 games, one less than the 1,487 games it took the GOAT. Oh, and Gretzky took it all in from a suite in Capital One Arena. Read his comments on Ovechkin’s chase here. Much more on Ovi in tomorrow’s edition of The Pulse.
What to Watch
📺 MLB: Reds at Brewers
7 p.m. ET on FS1
Though it is not this newsletter’s policy to promote April NL Central baseball, this particular national TV spot includes Elly De La Cruz on one side and Jackson Chourio on the other.
📺 UFL: Memphis Showboats at D.C. Defenders
8 p.m. ET on ABC
The spring football league of the moment, ready-made for those of you going through pigskin withdrawal. The Defenders have Lynn Bowden, the former Kentucky star, at a million different positions. Very fun player! Elsewhere Chris Vannini’s story on Birmingham going for this league’s fourth title in a row, now under longtime college coach Skip Holtz, son of Lou.
📺 Formula 1: Japanese Grand Prix
1 a.m. ET Sunday on ESPN
Red Bull has already swapped out new driver Liam Lawson, sending him to the second-team Racing Bulls in favor of Yuki Tsunoda. It’s a ruthless business. McLaren has won the year’s first two grands prix, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri splitting them.
Pulse Picks
The Athletic’s weekly sports news quiz.
Popsicle/ice pop molds, like these, which help me nefariously sneak veggies into my daughter’s diet. — Chris Branch
Xero “barefoot” running sandals. — Jason Kirk
Rebecca Tauber’s story on how the woman with a near-perfect men’s NCAA Tournament bracket made her picks.
This handy guide to groceries worth stocking up on when they’re on sale. — Torrey Hart
I started Assassin’s Creed: Shadows this week (Just in time for the Japanese GP 🇯🇵). As a certified history nerd who someday wants to overcome his fear of heights, I love this series. The ninja main character is noticeably short, too, so it’s just nice to see myself represented in a video game. — Patrick Iversen
These Vietnamese American garlic noodles from J. Kenji López-Alt – Alex Kirshner
Those three-minute key-moment MLB highlight packages when your team actually wins. Sublime. — Chris Sprow
Marcus Thompson on LeBron James’ telling reaction to the Warriors’ win Thursday.
Adventure time. Spotify recommended a song titled, “･－･･ ･ － ･･ － －－･ －－－.” It linked me to an IG page, which led me to a compilation from 2020. But when I plugged the code into Google — nothing. A morse code translation site: “Cannot translate these characters.” Then I realized they were the wrong dashes and dots. I typed it in manually (.-.. . – .. – –. —) and got “LETITGO.” Back to Google. “LETITGO” + the name of the label that had appeared along the way. And I found it. The artist is Peter Broderick. — Levi Weaver
Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Our newser on the Cowboys’ acquisition of Joe Milton from the Patriots.
Most-read on the website yesterday: Britt Ghiroli’s fun story on some MLB players’ frugal tendencies.
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(Top photo: Patrick Smith / Getty Images)