The First #1 Seed Falls; Luka Is On A Kobe-esc Run; Hawks Soar Up The East; MLB Prospects Who Did The Most & Least In Spring

TRENDING FAN CONVERSATIONS FROM THE WEEKEND IN SPORTS

MARCH 20 - 22 2026

TOP 3 WEEKEND MOMENTS

Kevin Durant Passed Michael Jordan for 5th on the All-Time Scoring List Saturday Night — Back-to-back threes in the fourth quarter of a 123-122 Rockets win over Miami, with KD absolutely burying a contested corner shot to move up the board. Final count: 32,294 points, two more than Jordan. Next up: Kobe Bryant at 33,643.

Iowa's Alvaro Folgueiras Hit a Go-Ahead Three with 8.9 Seconds Left to Knock Off Defending Champion Florida — Florida held a two-point lead with 8.9 seconds left. Iowa rushed it down court, Folgueiras caught, shot, and connected to give Iowa a 73-72 lead. The defending national champions are gone in the second round.

Dylan Darling's Buzzer-Beater for St. John's Over Kansas — Kansas trailed by 14 at late into the second half, but with 13 seconds left was able to tie it up. Then Dylan Darling, on his first made shot of the night, laid it in at the buzzer for a 67-65 win. Two championship-winning coaches enter, one Rick Pitino advances.

TOP STORY

March Madness Continues To Deliver Heartbreak, Hero Performances, Epic Finishes, And The First #1 Seed Falls Before The Sweet 16.

In a surprise to absolutely nobody, March Madness continues to deliver the moments and thrills that make March basketball so special!

VCU erased a 19-point second-half deficit to knock off North Carolina in overtime, with Terrence Hill Jr. connecting on five of the Rams' last six baskets to seal it. High Point took down Wisconsin on a buzzer layup from a player who hasn’t made a two-pointer all season for the program's first tournament win in history, and Texas upset BYU despite AJ Dybantsa scoring 35 points, the most by a freshman in an NCAA Tournament debut since De'Aaron Fox in 2017. Unfortunately, BYU only had one other scorer eclipse double-digits in their early bounce from the tournament at the hands of Texas.

Florida set tournament records for points, field goals made, field goal percentage, assists, and margin of victory in a 114-55 obliteration of Prairie View A&M on Friday, looking every bit like the defending champions they are. Then, of all teams, Iowa yanks them off the throne in a thrilling 73-72 finish in the second round on Sunday, sending more than a few brackets into the blender. Iowa makes their first sweet 16 since 1999.

St. John's punched their ticket to the Sweet 16 on a Dylan Darling buzzer-beating layup to edge Kansas 67-65, in what will be remembered as one of the weekend's best finishes. Duke had every bracket holder sweating as they barely hung on to survive 16 seed Siena, then handled TCU decisively in the second round to restore some order at the top of the bracket.

And then there is UConn. Tarris Reed Jr. joined Bill Walton as the only players in the past 60 years to post 30 points and 20 rebounds on 80% shooting in a tournament game, carrying the Huskies past Furman on Friday. Then on Sunday, it was Alex Karaban’s time to take over, as he poured in a game-high 27 points, thanks to lights-out shooting beyond the arc, as UConn handled UCLA to punch their Sweet 16 ticket.

Finally, Texas Tech forgot to show up in their 4 vs 5 matchup with Alabama, as Nate Oats’ Tide took a 24-point lead into halftime and never looked back.

NBA

Luka Is On A Stretch That No Other Lakers’ Player Has Approached Since Kobe in 2012, Shooting LA Up The Western Conference Standings

Luka Doncic leads the NBA with 267 points scored over the last seven games, more than any other player by 30, and becomes just the 5th player in NBA history to average 40+ PPG over an 8-game win streak, joining Wilt, MJ, Elgin and Harden.

But wait, there’s more.

He is averaging 38.1 points, 9.1 rebounds, and 8.0 assists during the streak, including 51-point and 60-point outings, the highest scoring output by any Laker over a six-game span since Kobe Bryant put up 39.5 in 2011-12. In the process, the Lakers have climbed to third in the West and hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over every team directly below them.

Like it or not, the Lakers are a genuinely dangerous playoff team, even with Luka sustaining 75% of the clip he’s been on lately. The Lakers have been especially clutch at winning important games and their defensive improvement during the hot streak is arguably more meaningful than Luka's offensive explosion.

The Atlanta Hawks Have Played Their Best Basketball Since Trading Trae Young, Ending As The Hottest Team In The Eastern Conference

This is one of the best "addition by subtraction" stories the NBA has seen in years. The Atlanta Hawks went just 2-8 in Trae Young's appearances this season before trading him to Washington in January. Fast forward to most recently, they have won 11 of 12, and averaging 124 points per game in the stretch.

Nickeil Alexander-Walker hit nine three-pointers in a career-high 41-point performance against Orlando, while Jalen Johnson posted a 24-point, 15-rebound, 13-assist triple-double in the same game. Leading the Hawks recent defensive prowess, Dyson Daniels is averaging 2.5 steals per game, a top-five mark in the NBA.

The Hawks’ hot streak has pushed them to a 6-seed, meaning they are officially out of the play-in entirely for the first time in five years.

Ultimately, Atlanta is not exactly a championship contender, but they are exactly the kind of hot, wing-heavy, defensively disruptive team that beats a higher seed in the first round. No team in the East, outside of Boston, wants this matchup right now.

MLB

Prospects Doing The Most

Matt McLain, 2B, Cincinnati Reds

Through 17 spring training games McLain is hitting .529 with 27 hits, 18 runs scored, seven homers, 16 RBIs, and he has more home runs than strikeouts. His OPS currently sits at 1.591, one of the tops marks across Spring Training, and you could argue he’s a top 5 hitter all Spring.

The context makes it even better. After a promising 2023 hitting .290 in 89 games, McLain missed all of 2024 recovering from left shoulder labrum surgery, then posted a .220 average and .643 OPS across 147 games in 2025 while clearly still fighting through residual effects.

Terry Francona never publicly entertained sending him down, and that patience looks prescient right now. His hard hit rate, decision making, and in-zone contact at the plate has substantially improved this spring. Simply put, if this version of McLain shows up in April, Cincinnati has a legitimate playoff lineup hiding in plain sight.

Coby Mayo, 3B, Baltimore Orioles

Mayo is hitting .412 through 13 Spring Training games, going 13-for-26 with three doubles, 12 RBIs, and a 1.082 OPS. His line has been one of the more impressive on the team this Spring and most impressively, he went 4-for-4 with a 434-foot tanker and five RBIs in a single game against Houston.

There is need for some pause, as Mayo posted a .201 average across 102 major league games entering this spring, with a 31.2% career strikeout rate at the big league level.

However, this spring he has struck out only three times in 37 plate appearances and Jordan Westburg's partial UCL tear keeps third base open for Mayo through at least May, and Baltimore's manager Craig Albernaz has made clear the roster spot is his. The defense remains a liability that Mayo will drastically need to get right to hold on to his spot in the field.

The bat has never been in question, as scouts have graded his raw power at 70, the highest possible mark. The question was always whether he could make consistent contact. Right now the answer is yes. And should he have flipped a switch, the O’s lineup ceiling pushes far higher.

Prospects Doing The Least

Cade Povich, LHP, Baltimore Orioles

On the downside for the O’s, Povich made the Opening Day rotation last Spring as part of Baltimore's celebrated young core, making 36 starts over his first two seasons. This Spring he was optioned to the minors after issuing five walks in a single 2.2-inning outing against the Phillies, his second consecutive rough appearance in 8.1 total innings of work this Spring.

He posted a 5.20 ERA across 192 big league innings, and command has consistently been his kryptonite in the majors. Making matters worse, the rotation math was already against his favor after Baltimore added Chris Bassitt and Shane Baz.

Povich now sits eighth or ninth on their pitching depth chart, with younger prospects Trey Gibson and Nestor German closing the gap fast. At 25 with options remaining, the Orioles will be patient. But another Opening Day roster spot is gone, and the window to reclaim one is getting smaller each year.

Jordan Walker, OF, St. Louis Cardinals

Walker arrived to 2026 spring training being described as out of shape and his performance in camp, registering 7 hits in 43 plate appearances, and zero doubles or homers, has backed that assessment up.

Some say he’s overhauling his approach and that’s the cause for concerning results. No matter how you cut it, “concerning” is the consensus feeling from Cardinals fans on Walker at the moment.

Then injuries, inconsistency, steady slide since a promising rookie season, and now a disappointing Spring have created real questions about whether the tools will ever translate consistently. He posted a .215 average across 111 games in 2025, his second consecutive below-average offensive season at the big league level despite being just 23 years old.

The Cardinals have Lars Nootbaar, Michael Siani, and Ivan Herrera competing for his spot, and while Walker might have more raw ability than all of them, he also has lackluster results to show of it. Time is quickly running out.