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Good morning! Pull up from half court today. Coming up:
This is March: A perfect team and an insufferable debate
Last night, Ohio’s Miami University beat the Ohio Bobcats, 110-108, in overtime to move to 31-0, in one of the most thrilling games of the season. You’ll rarely see a regular-season college hoops game that feels like a bigger deal as it’s unfolding. Personally, it might be the most fun regular-season college hoops game I have ever watched, wrapping up on a missed OU three that would’ve won it at the overtime buzzer. Ideally, this result will preempt the whole discussion we’re about to have. I expect that it will, and Miami should, finally, be a confirmed March Madness team.
After all, the No. 16 RedHawks are the first men’s basketball team to finish a Division I regular season undefeated since Gonzaga in 2021. They were already the first in 35 years to start a season 30-0.
The RedHawks should now be looking forward to their inevitable Cinderella opportunity in March Madness. Except that isn’t universally agreed, because a wretched discourse from college football has crossed into basketball: Should a non-power team with an exceptional resume get a shot at the sport’s premier postseason event? If Miami loses in its conference tournament next week, should the RedHawks be forced to the NIT while an SEC or Big Ten team with double-digit losses takes their slot? It’s highly doubtful, but some folks will keep arguing it.
Of course, Miami could win the MAC tournament and make this all moot. But the anti-RedHawk movement is real, and it’s important to preemptively push back on those who would dump them if they lost a single game. The brewing case against Miami is a case against everything people claim to enjoy about college basketball.
The face of the anti-Miami movement has a conflict of interest:
Bruce Pearl built Auburn into an SEC powerhouse, then retired just before the season, effectively forcing the school to elevate his son, Steven, to head coach.
It’s gone poorly, with Auburn staring down a 7-11 record in SEC play if it loses at No. 16 Alabama today. The Tigers have faced a brutal schedule, sure, but they’ve performed badly against it. “No team is feeling the pressure of the bubble more than Auburn,” our staff says. It turns out that collecting a huge sack of TV cash in an expanded conference also means playing games you might lose.
So it was galling when the elder Pearl went on TV last weekend to argue against Miami, which could jump Auburn in the bubble queue: “If we’re selecting the 68 best teams, then Miami is going to have to win their tournament to qualify as a champion. Because as an at-large, they are not one of the best teams in the country,” Pearl told his TNT colleagues, contrasting “best” with “most deserving.” He later defended himself, claiming “there is no nepotism involved here.” (Pearl does say that nepotism played a role in his son getting the Auburn job — obviously — but that’s a separate Pearl-nepotism storyline.)
We have seen this a billion times in football, a sport where the power conferences have tried to manipulate the playoff format to hoover up as many spots as possible — after years of denying the smaller conferences any chances at all. (If something good accidentally happens for non-power teams, the rules quickly change.)
Sure, Miami’s schedule is light, with a best win over No. 62 Akron. But loads of power-conference teams declined to schedule the RedHawks when they asked. You can’t beat who you can’t play, and the genius of the NCAA Tournament is that your opponents don’t have a choice. College basketball is supposed to love potential Cinderellas.
If people like Pearl got their way, the selection committee would more or less just grab .500-ish teams based on their KenPom ratings — Auburn is 40th, Miami 90th — and turn the tournament into an “on-paper” referendum that the power conferences would always win. Having fewer mid-majors in the tourney would only expand the power conferences’ financial advantages.
In any format, a selection committee will balance “best” (stats, roster quality, the “eye test”) with “most deserving” (resumes, achievements). College football disputes invented that terminology. But if wins and losses don’t matter, what’s the point? Spurning Miami would tell most of Division I that there is no point. It would also deny us the chance to see how far Miami could go, all to watch a totally forgettable team from a bigger league wash out after the same one to three games as Miami. I know why Bruce Pearl might want that, but why should we?
News to Know
Mitchell Leff / Getty Images
Raiders trade Crosby to Ravens
A busy day of NFL news ahead of free agency ended with a bang, as Las Vegas agreed to trade star pass rusher Maxx Crosby to Baltimore for first-round picks this year and next. Crosby has been the face of the Raiders franchise, and the move shows both their commitment to starting wholly fresh and the Ravens’ burning desire to shore up a defense that wasn’t itself last year. The Cowboys and Jaguars were also in hot pursuit. Much more on the megadeal here.
Deadline dealing in the NHL
A flurry of trades got done before the deadline Friday, including Colorado’s acquisition of Calgary’s leading scorer, Nazem Kadri — bringing back one of the key players on the Avalanche’s 2022 Stanley Cup-winning team. The Avs were among the window’s clear winners, per Mark Lazerus, while Connor McDavid and his quest for a first Cup landed among the losers. We’ve got grades for all the major deals here.
More news:
Celtics forward Jayson Tatum made his long-awaited return from a torn Achilles, recording a double-double as Boston dominated. Look out.
President Donald Trump led a roundtable on the future of college athletics and promised a new executive order in the next week. Details here.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver talked at some length about wanting “substantial changes” to the draft lottery system, referencing the WNBA’s method as a possible route forward. His full comments here.
Shohei Ohtani hit a grand slam as reigning WBC champs Japan run-ruled Chinese Taipei, while Aaron Judge went yard for the U.S. in a rout of Brazil. Make time for this story on the teenage Brazil pitcher who is missing high school to, among other things, face Judge with the bases loaded.
A likely top-five pick in this summer’s NBA Draft, North Carolina forward Caleb Wilson broke his right thumb dunking in practice and is out for the season. It’s especially tough luck considering he had just about recovered from a fractured left hand.
Iran’s women’s soccer team was labeled “wartime traitors” by state TV after players didn’t sing the national anthem before a match, calling into question their safety. Not good.
Suns forward Dillon Brooks was arrested on suspicion of DUI. Details here.
Former Michigan coach Sherrone Moore pleaded no contest to two misdemeanors in a deal that dismissed other charges stemming from the dramatic events on the day of his firing. Read the full story.
Penguins center Evgeni Malkin was suspended five games for slashing Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin in the head and neck. It’s bad timing for the Pens, who are also without injured captain Sidney Crosby.
Watch Guide
📺 Soccer: USWNT vs. Colombia
3:30 p.m. ET on TNT
The Americans are flying high right now under coach Emma Hayes, and a draw this afternoon would give the U.S. its eighth SheBelieves Cup title.
📺 WBC: Great Britain vs. United States
8 p.m. ET on Fox
Back-to-back AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal takes the bump for Team USA, facing a British side (soccer term) that is almost entirely made up of less talented Americans. The Yankees’ Jazz Chisholm, from the Bahamas, is the Brits’ headliner.
📺 F1: Australian Grand Prix
11 p.m. ET on Apple TV
The first race of the season, live from Melbourne. Formula 1 has a new American media partner this year, as Apple takes over for ESPN. (Here’s Luke Smith on F1’s calculus in making that move.) We’ll have much more on F1’s year of transitions in tomorrow’s Pulse.
Get tickets to games like this here.
Pulse Picks
Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; Photos: Chris Coduto, Rob Tringali, Daniel Shirey / WBCI / MLB Photos via Getty Images
While you follow the World Baseball Classic action this weekend, peruse our uniform rankings. Who’s got the best fit on the biggest stage?
In honor of this year’s WBC, we’ve compiled a playlist featuring artists representing every nation in the tournament. From Brazilian funk to Korean alternative hip-hop to Czech punk, we’ve got the soundtrack for what will be a global celebration. — Kaci Borowski
In light of Jurickson Profar’s suspension this week, Brittany Ghiroli writes that the problem with MLB’s drug policy isn’t the testing, it’s the league’s guaranteed contracts.
A few Athletic coworkers got together recently to celebrate Women’s History Month and had fun sharing some of our current favorite “inspiring women of pop culture.” Two big hits were the women of “Shrinking” on Apple TV and the women of “The Pitt” on HBO Max. Two hands-down fantastic shows with inspiring characters! — Hannah Vanbiber
Something I saw on social media that I need to try: Ricotta cake cookies. Ingredients? Vanilla cake mix and … a small tub of ricotta. That’s it. If tasty, what a party trick that’d be. — Lauren Merola
What’s it like guiding your sibling in Alpine skiing at the Paralympics? Liam Tharme asked around.
It’s crawfish season here in Louisiana, but you can get a bottle of this concentrated goodness anywhere to use in your cooking. I thought about its power after having some dumplings that were boiled along with crawfish, and that most anything savory would do well with a punch of crawfish/shrimp/crab boil. — Chris Branch
Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Malkin’s neck slash.
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