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TAMPA, FLORIDA - MARCH 22: Kael Combs #11 of the Iowa Hawkeyes celebrates after the victory against the Florida Gators in the second round of the 2026 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Benchmark International Arena on March 22, 2026 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Mike Carlson/Getty Images) Mike Carlson / Getty Images The Pulse Newsletter ? | This is The Athletic’s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox. Good morning! I believe in you. Inside: All weekend, I kept thinking about the volume of the NCAA Tournament. Not the noise — the literal number of games played in four days, especially with the men’s and women’s tournaments now coinciding. There are games on all day; every game is important. Overwhelming, but in a good way, right? Advertisement Then we reach today and, poof, 48 men’s teams are gone. After today, 48 women’s teams will be gone too. It’s almost overwhelming even to recap yesterday. So let’s do a winner, a loser and a visual from both the men and women to encapsulate it: On the men’s side, the winner and visual are one and the same, because we saw a No. 1 seed fall already. Here’s No. 9 Iowa ending Florida’s hope for a second straight national title: ARE. YOU. JOKING. IOWA LEADS. THIS IS MARCH. #March Madness pic. twitter. com/s NDHTqa Gj1 — NCAA March Madness (@March Madness MBB) March 23, 2026 That’s Alvaro Folgueiras drilling a 3-pointer to go ahead with four seconds left. The Hawkeyes’ win sets up a showdown with Nebraska to make the Elite Eight. Basketball schools! Sure! The Sweet 16 is set, and we have reasons to be excited about each matchup. On the women’s side, we saw mostly blowouts. Mostly: But the image from the women’s side yesterday wasn’t even for a winning team. It was Maryland coach Brenda Frese imploring star guard Oluchi Okananwa: Some intense coaching from Maryland coach Brenda Frese to her star player Oluchi Okananwa ? pic. twitter. com/u P7fw HSFZX — The Sporting News (@sportingnews) March 22, 2026 To be clear, this was not a beratement. This was Frese telling Okananwa she believed in her. It quickly went viral as an example of good coaching. Everyone seems to agree on that point, too. The final second-round women’s games happen all day today. More on that in a bit. After today, we have no games in this tournament until Thursday. It was a busy day in other sports, too: Griezmann to MLS
Antoine Griezmann will fly to Orlando this week to complete a deal to join MLS this summer with Orlando City, sources told The Athletic. Griezmann, 34, is a legend at Atlético Madrid, where he is the club’s all-time goals leader, and won a World Cup with France in 2018. Read our full story. Skattebo apologizes
Giants running back Cam Skattebo apologized yesterday for comments made in a podcast interview where he said CTE wasn’t real and an “excuse, ” while also making fun of the host having asthma. In his apology, Skattebo called both “tasteless” jokes. See the whole saga here. Advertisement Arozarena, Raleigh make up
Randy Arozarena said he and Mariners teammate Cal Raleigh have made up after the World Baseball Classic, in which Arozarena — playing for Mexico — said Raleigh, playing for Team USA, could “f— off” and “go to hell” after a stilted interaction between the two. In a team statement yesterday, Arozarena said he apologized and that he doesn’t want the incident to “be a distraction” as Opening Day nears. Something to keep an eye on this season. More news: ? Find more news here 24/7. In a day dominated by basketball, Michael Jordan — the man many consider to be the best basketball player to ever live — also won … another NASCAR race. It’s been quite a year for Jordan, whose 23XI Racing team has now won four of the first six NASCAR Cup Series races this year. Tyler Reddick, yesterday’s winner at Darlington, accounts all four of those victories. Denny Hamlin, a co-owner of 23XI, won last weekend, but competes for Joe Gibbs Racing. Read our full recap of the race here. Still so weird to see Jordan on a track. ? NCAAW: Second Round
Noon-10 p. m. ET on ESPN networks
The women will wrap up the Sweet 16 list today with a full slate of action. No. 1 seeds UConn, South Carolina and UCLA are playing. The best game of the day: No. 5 Kentucky at No. 4 West Virginia at 5 p. m. on ESPN2. ? NBA: Spurs at Heat
7 p. m. ET on Peacock and NBC Sports Network
Another chance to watch the Spurs, which is always a treat. Miami has been on a skid, but every game matters for 53-18 San Antonio, just three games out of the No. 1 seed in the West. Only 11 games left. Get tickets to games like these here. Blue Jays pitcher Max Scherzer had a lingering thumb issue this offseason. He turned to an unusual solution: the piano. Mike Jones wrote a smart column on the NFL’s coaching diversity problem, where owners — and coaches, too — need to be more intentional. Read it here. Advertisement Sean Mc Indoe’s NHL weekend rankings are always a must-read, especially as we inch toward the postseason. His big takeaway this morning: The Pacific Division stinks. Jessi Pierce, the NHL’s local correspondent in Minnesota, died over the weekend in a tragic house fire along with her children. Michael Russo and Joe Smith penned a beautiful obituary. Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Our story on Team USA’s big flag football win over NFL stars. Most-read on the website yesterday: The men’s tourney Round 2 live blog. ? That’s all for now! Say hello at thepulse@theathletic. com, and check out our other newsletters. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle Chris Branch is a senior writer for The Athletic's daily newsletter. Before joining The Athletic, he covered the Phillies for The News-Journal and worked as a content strategist for various industries. He graduated from LSU, where he worked for The Daily Reveille. Follow Chris on Twitter @cbranch89