The Pulse Newsletter 📣 | This is The Athletic’s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox.
Good morning! Make a basket “on purpose” today. Coming up:
Beauty: The actual most wonderful time of the year
We have talked so, so much about your brackets this week, and rightfully so. Making picks and competing against your friends around a shared event is a beautifully pure form of community.
But I’d like to look past brackets for a bit this morning, as teams board buses to head to their games today. Arguably the greatest sporting event in our country tips off in mere hours, and the best part doesn’t lie in choosing the right upset or winning your pool. It’s about the stories and the emotions we see on screen, game after game, in both triumph and defeat.
A few notes on today through that lens:
We saw it last night in both First Four games. Prairie View A&M beat Lehigh to become the South region’s No. 16 seed. It is the Panthers’ first NCAA Tournament win in program history. That’s something, no matter what happens against No. 1 seed Florida tomorrow. In the nightcap, Miami (OH) got its vindication moment with an impressive win over SMU. Plus, we got the swimmers:
Andy Enfield doesn’t seem amused 😅 pic.twitter.com/uwaiph2aqk
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) March 19, 2026
We will fall in love with a player or two. I am drawn to Arkansas’ Darius Acuff Jr., a prodigiously talented freshman who hasn’t gained the national spotlight he deserved due to a stacked draft class. He can put up 30 any night. Razorbacks coach John Calipari said recently that Acuff is “right there” with elite guards he’s coached like Derrick Rose and John Wall. Acuff also leads our list of the 15 most intriguing players in the men’s tournament.
Others in that category: We also must give an honorable mention to “Cream Abdul-Jabbar,” Saint Louis’ center who has become a cult hero. Or Gonzaga’s Tyon Grant-Foster, a 26-year-old who’s back in the tourney after an eight-year career that’s seen two heart surgeries. Maybe even Kansas’ Darryn Peterson, who has the skills to be the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft but has dealt with questions about his motor. His story goes deeper than that.
We’ll have some more on the women’s tournament tomorrow for its tipoff. And yes, I’m not leaving you without some last-minute bracket advice:
We have a full guide for procrastinators. Get to typing.
Pulse men’s tourney picks:
Arizona as champion
Other Final Four teams: Michigan, Houston and … St. John’s
First-round upset winners: South Florida, VCU, Santa Clara, Hofstra and High Point
Enjoy the day. We’ll have everything you need to know tomorrow.
Feedback Loop: Yowza, folks
Firstly: Wow. Look at this spread on yesterday’s Matt Leinart poll:
If you didn’t catch yesterday’s edition, we asked readers if, in light of Leinart’s comments indicating he has refused to un-retire his No. 11 at USC, the Trojan legend was correct to feel the way he did. Nearly all of you supported the 42-year-old Leinart.
And I agree. It’s a casualty of our new reality:
Leinart’s diagnosis — why would he let someone wear his number who might transfer a year later? — is spot-on, and it’s an unfortunate side effect of this player empowerment era. No longer are we forging three- and four-year bonds with star athletes regularly. How do you assess the case for even Fernando Mendoza, who led Indiana to an unthinkable place atop the sport but was only there for one season? What about Joe Burrow, who became a legend at my alma mater but spent more time in Columbus in college? The latter is an unequivocal yes, in my brain. But otherwise in the last seven years … who else even qualifies?
This may just be a cost of doing things a better way, no matter how frustrating that is for the layman college football fan right now. For every Leinart, there were hundreds of players stuck in bad situations, likely unpaid for their efforts, with little to no power over their own future after signing a Letter of Intent. Maybe we can rebuild these pathways with some sort of collective bargaining agreement, but that seems to be a long way off.
And, as Until Saturday writer Jason Kirk posed to me: Should we stop retiring numbers, anyway? My heart says no, as seeing another LSU player wear No. 9 would end me. But there may be a cold truth there, too. This is laundry we’re talking about, anyway, and what happens when a school has 45 numbers left in a couple of decades?
Thank you for voting. Moving on:
News to Know
Erica Denhoff / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Impact of the WNBA’s new CBA
Finally, the WNBA can move. For all the bluster about the league’s incredible financial come-up in the last few years, the lingering and often bitter negotiation about a new collective bargaining agreement finally ended late Tuesday night. Now the league and its players can focus on other important things: an expansion draft, a college draft and, most of all, free agency, where WNBA stars are set to see salaries skyrocket. Sabreena Merchant has more details on the road ahead.
The “No Offseason” podcast crew, including brand new co-host Layshia Clarendon (a former WNBPA VP), reacted to the deal in a special emergency episode last night, which is worth a listen today.
Giannis, Bucks again at odds
The Milwaukee Bucks and franchise centerpiece Giannis Antetokounmpo are once again in disagreement over his future, as the team prefers Antetokounmpo — who has missed 32 games this year due to injury — sit out the remaining 14 games on the schedule to fully heal for the offseason … in which he could be traded. Antetokounmpo, meanwhile, is steadfast in his desire to finish the year on the floor. Can these two break up already? Sorry. See the full context here.
More news:
Maxx Crosby spoke for the first time following the botched Ravens trade, saying he was “terrified” after the decision. His full comments are worth a read.
Penguins star Sidney Crosby was back in the lineup last night after his Olympic injury, and promptly scored.
World No. 1 tennis player Aryna Sabalenka said she may skip a top WTA event after withering criticism from its director. More on the drama here.
Deandre Ayton said he is “110 percent” bought in with the Lakers after reflecting on comments from earlier this season. Interesting.
Former reality TV star Jessie Holmes won his second straight Iditarod title. Read our full story.
U.S. World Cup host cities finally got the $625 million in security funding that was held up. More here.
A former Amtrak rail yard in Chicago’s South Loop could be home to a new White Sox stadium.
Late Colts owner Jim Irsay’s memorabilia collection sold for a total of $94 million at auction. It set 28 records.
Watch Guide
📺 NCAAM: All tournament games
12:15 p.m.-10:10 p.m. ET on CBS, TNT, TBS and truTV
Just find a screen somewhere, whether that’s furtively on your work laptop, a sports bar, your couch, whatever. This is a day of dreams. Embrace it.
Get tickets to games like these here.
Pulse Picks
Alex Slitz / Getty Images
The World Baseball Classic is gone, and Opening Day nears. Keith Law has breakout player candidates for the coming MLB season. See the list.
Just as valuable: this year’s MLB Hope-O-Meter, which measures how each fan base is feeling heading into 2026. Vote here.
NBA expansion? Jay King says the league has issues to fix first. Also: Can Las Vegas even support a team?
Speaking of Maxx Crosby: What goes into an NFL physical anyway? Jayna Bardahl wrote about the entire process, and how it can go wrong.
Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: The Leinart poll.
Most-read on the website yesterday: Men’s NCAA Tournament consensus picks.
📫 That’s all for now! Say hello at thepulse@theathletic.com, and check out our other newsletters.