🐺 Huskies History!

Rise and Shine! The nets have been cut, One Shining Moment has played, and the inevitable is official: UConn is the best team in men’s college basketball — again! The Huskies made history Monday by eclipsing Purdue’s star in the national title game to become the sport’s first repeat champions since 2006-07 Florida. We’ll recap the last dance and then say goodbye to March Madness by reliving the men’s tournament By The Numbers. In other winter sports, the NBA took the day off while the sun shined on Storrs, Connecticut, but Auston Matthews continued to set the NHL ablaze with his 65th bingo of the season. Plus, we had 26 MLB teams take the diamond (which is technically a rhombus, but who cares?). Let’s go!

WTF Stat: South Carolina’s win over Iowa in the women’s national championship drew an average of 18.7 million viewers and peaked at 24.7 million, making it the most-watched basketball game (men’s or women’s, college or pro) since 2019 - it also set a new women’s basketball viewership record, a feat Iowa accomplished in each of their final three games (Elite Eight vs. LSU: 12.3M, Final Four vs. UConn: 14.2M).

🔵 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the governing body for mostly small colleges, announced a new policy that permits only athletes assigned female at birth to participate in women’s sports - the move essentially bans transgender athletes from women’s sports

🏀 Huskies History!

NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament - National Championship

• #1 UConn 75, #1 Purdue 60: UConn was inevitable. Now, they’re immortalized. In a top-seeded title match, repeat Naismith Player of the Year Zach Edey (37 PTS, 15-25 FG, 10 REB, 2 BLK) and the Boilermakers went blow-for-blow with the defending champs for the first 20 minutes, but Connecticut went on a late run to claim a six-point lead at intermission and then took over in the second half behind a complete team performance headlined by Tristen Newton (20 PTS, 7 AST, 5 REB), Stephon Castle (15 PTS, 5 REB), Cam Spencer (11 PTS, 8 REB), and Donovan Clingan (11 PTS, 5 REB), and Purdue simply couldn’t hang with the Huskies for a full 40, as Dan Hurley’s squad capped their dominant two-year run with a fitting blowout victory to claim back-to-back national titles

• Tip-ins: Purdue set a season-low in points (60), rebounds (28), and made three-pointers (1). UConn won their six tournament games by an average of 23.3 points, the highest average margin of victory in tournament history. It’s the Huskies’ sixth national championship in program history. And Newton was named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player.

See the full box score here and the entire men’s bracket here.

2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament - By The Numbers

• 0: Twenty-five years ago, UConn had zero national championships. They now have six (‘99, ‘04, ‘11, ‘14, ‘23, ‘24), tied with North Carolina for the third-most all-time - the Huskies are 6-0 in national title games

• 1: Kentucky has won one tournament game in the past five seasons, and their first-round loss to No. 14 Oakland this year ultimately led to HC John Calipari’s departure for Arkansas

• 2: Representing UConn’s back-to-back titles - they are the first repeat champions since 2006-07 Florida

• 2 (again): Only two national championship teams have won all six of their NCAA Tournament games by 13-plus points: 2023 UConn and 2024 UConn - we may have just witnessed the most dominant two-year stretch ever!

• 5: For just the fifth time since seeding began in 1979, all four No. 1 seeds and all four No. 2 seeds reached the Sweet 16

• 9: Gonzaga reached their ninth-straight Sweet 16 under HC Mark Few, the second-longest streak in men’s tournament history - North Carolina holds the record with 13 straight Sweet 16 appearances from 1981 to 1993 under HC Dean Smith

• 10: Jack Gohlke made 10 three-pointers to lead No. 14 Oakland to a shocking first-round upset over No. 3 Kentucky - Gohlke’s 10 threes is one shy of Jeff Fryer’s NCAA Tournament record, set in 1990 for Loyola Marymount

• 11: For the 11th consecutive tournament, a five-seed or worse (Nos. 5-16) reached the Final Four - No. 11 NC State was responsible for keeping the streak alive this year

• 12: UConn’s 12 straight NCAA Tournament victories by 13-plus points is the longest streak in the history of the sport

• 23.3: UConn won their six tournament games by an average of 23.3 points, the highest average margin of victory in tournament history - their plus-140 point differential is also the highest in tournament history

• 25: In their 25th tournament appearance, Alabama reached the Final Four for the first time in program history

• 26: Tom Izzo led Michigan State to their 26th straight tournament appearance, a DI record for a coach at one school - with the No. 9 Spartans’ win over No. 8 Mississippi State, Izzo has won a record 17 games as the lower-seeded team

• 41: Led by tournament darling DJ Burns Jr., NC State reached the Final Four for the first time in 41 years - the Wolfpack’s last Final Four appearance came in 1983 when the late Jim Valvano coached them to a national title

• 177 points scored by Zach Edey, tied for the second-most in a single NCAA Tournament - Edey joined Bill Walton and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the only players to record 35 points and 10 rebounds in a national championship game

• 22,112,822 brackets were made on ESPN.com; zero remained perfect after the first round!

Thank you, March Madness, for another magical ride. Until next time, my friend…

MLB - Top Games

• Cincinnati Reds 10, Milwaukee Brewers 8: Elly De La Cruz (3-4, 2 HRs, 2 RBIs) had himself a day, as Cincy’s rising star blasted a 450-foot moonshot from the left side of the plate and then followed it up with an electric inside-the-park home run from the right side of the plate to lift the Reds over Christian Yelich (1-4, 1 HR, 2 RBIs) and the Brew Crew at the Great American Ball Park - De La Cruz is the first player in MLB history to have a home run from both sides of the plate, including an inside-the-parker, four runs scored, and a stolen base in the same game!

• Los Angeles Dodgers 4, Minnesota Twins 2: Shohei Ohtani (3-5, 1 HR, 1 RBI) went deep for a third time in five games and added a pair of doubles, while James Paxton (6.0 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 4 Ks) went six strong to help the Dodgers best Manuel Margot (2-3, 1 HR, 2 RBIs) and the Twinnies in Minneapolis - Ohtani has five straight multi-hit games, and Los Angeles is 9-4

• New York Mets 8, Atlanta Braves 7: The Amazins are back! After an 0-5 start, the Mets edged out Ozzie Albies (2-4, 3 RBIs) and the Braves last night for their fourth win in five games, as Brandon Nimmo (4-4, 2 HRs, 5 RBIs) bashed two monster homers before capping a three-run 8th inning with a game-deciding RBI single

• Cleveland Guardians 4, Chicago White Sox 0: Triston McKenzie (5.2 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 4 Ks) put together a strong start, and Cleveland’s bullpen only allowed one hit while Jose Ramirez (1-4, 1 HR, 2 RBI) led the offense with a two-run shot in the 5th, as the Guardians blanked the White Sox to improve to 8-2 - Chicago (1-8) has the worst record in the MLB and has grounded into more double plays (9) than they have runs (8) this season

See the full MLB scoreboard here and the current standings here.

NHL - All Games

• Toronto Maple Leafs 3, Pittsburgh Penguins 2 (OT): Auston Matthews (1 G, 1 A) scored his league-leading 65th goal of the season, and although Pittsburgh’s Drew O’Connor (1 G) tied things up late in the 3rd period to force extra hockey, Jack McCabe (1 G) buried the OT-winner to snap the Pens’ four-game win streak - Matthews’ 65 goals are the most since Alex Ovechkins’ 65 in 2007-08, and the Leafs have five games remaining for him to get to 70

• Vancouver Canucks 4, Vegas Golden Knights 3: Jack Eichel (2 G, 1 A) put the Knights up 2-0 with two early goals in the 1st period, but Vancouver tied the game before the first intermission and then JT Miller (3 A) assisted Conor Garland (2 G) for the go-ahead goal in the 2nd period, as the Canucks rallied to rebound from Saturday’s 6-3 loss to the Kings - Vancouver (48-22-8, 104 PTS) has already clinched a playoff berth, while Vegas (42-27-8, 92 PTS) holds the final wild-card spot in the West by five points

See the full box scores here and the current NHL standings here.

JOIN OUR MASTERS POOL!

The Masters tees off in Augusta on Thursday, and we’re putting together a Masters Pool for our beloved Blitzers. Here’s how it works:

Basic Rules

• Pick six total golfers; one player each from six different tiers - the six tiers are determined by player rankings

• The participant whose six players card the lowest total aggregate score at the conclusion of the tournament wins - in other words: the lowest score wins, just like in golf

• The worst score among your six players will be dropped, so only your top five players’ scores matter

Points System

• -1 point for each stroke under par

• 0 points for a par

• +1 point for each stroke over par

• +8 points for missed cuts or incomplete rounds

The Purse

• Entry will be $10 per roster, and the payout will be awarded to the top three rosters as follows:

  • 1st place: 70% of the pot

  • 2nd place: 20% of the pot

  • 3rd place: 10% of the pot

• You can enter up to three rosters, and the deadline to join coincides with the first tee time on Thursday morning.

Enjoy Masters week, and good luck!

On April 9, 1916, the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) was founded in New York City. The PGA's original purpose was to promote professionalism and elevate the status of golf professionals in the United States. The key individuals involved in its founding were Rodman Wanamaker, a department store owner who sponsored the first professional golf championship in the US, and several prominent players, including Walter Hagen, Jim Barnes, and Jock Hutchison. The organization's first president was Robert White, who, in his early years, was mainly focused on growing the game in America. However, as the organization grew, the PGA expanded its mission to include international tournaments and programs. In the 1950s and 1960s, televised coverage of golf tournaments became more widespread, which helped expose the sport to a broader audience. Overall, the PGA's popularity has steadily increased for over a century, and today, it is bigger than ever, featuring more than 29,000 members in 84 countries - the PGA also saw a large jump after COVID-19.

MLB

• Baltimore Orioles @ Boston Red Sox 2:10pm ET, NESN

• New York Mets @ Atlanta Braves 7:20pm ET, ESPN+

• Chicago White Sox @ San Diego Padres 10:05pm ET, TBS

• Full Schedule

NBA

• Boston Celtics @ Milwaukee Bucks 7:30pm ET, TNT 

• Sacramento Kings @ Oklahoma City Thunder 8:00pm ET, Local 

• Golden State Warriors @ Los Angeles Lakers 10:00pm ET, TNT

• Full Schedule

NHL

• Washington Capitals @ Detroit Red Wings 7:00pm ET, ESPN

• New York Rangers @ New York Islanders 7:00pm ET, NHLPP / ESPN+

• Minnesota Wild @ Colorado Avalanche 9:30pm ET, ESPN

• Full Schedule

UEFA Champions League - Quarterfinals (Leg 1)

• Bayern Munich @ Arsenal 3:00pm ET, CBS

• Manchester City @ Real Madrid 3:00pm ET, Paramount+

Trivia Time Answer

D. 9. UConn’s win last night makes them the ninth repeat champion in men’s NCAA Tournament history, joining 2006-07 Florida, 1991-92 Duke, 1967-73 and 1965-65 UCLA, 1961-62 Cincinnati, 1955-56 San Francisco, 1948-49 Kentucky, and 1945-46 Oklahoma A&M College (now known as Oklahoma State).

Prime Locks of the Day

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Masters preview coming tomorrow! See ya then!