Yahoo Sports AM: The year of the No. 1 seed

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🚨 Headlines

🏒 Last four standing: Penn State and Western Michigan will make their Frozen Four debuts next week in St. Louis alongside defending champion Denver (19th appearance) and longtime powerhouse BU (25th).

⚾️ Still perfect: The Dodgers are the first reigning World Series champions to start 5-0 since the 1985 Tigers, and a win tonight against the Braves would tie their best start since moving to Los Angeles in 1958.

🏒 Chasing Gretzky: Alex Ovechkin scored career goal No. 890 on Sunday. He’s now five goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s all-time mark with nine games left in the regular season.

🏀 Willard to Nova: Kevin Willard is leaving Maryland for Villanova, ending a messy process that clouded his team’s Sweet 16 run. Willard returns to the Big East after spending 12 seasons at Seton Hall from 2010-2022.

🎾 Stuck on 99: 19-year-old Jakub Menšík upset Novak Djokovic in the Miami Open final to prevent his idol from winning his 100th ATP title. Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka beat Jessica Pegula to hoist the women’s trophy.

A historically chalky NCAA tournament is getting the finale it deserves: Four No. 1 seeds at the Alamodome.

The Final Four: Duke (East), Florida (West), Houston (Midwest) and Auburn (South) will enter Saturday’s semifinals in San Antonio with a combined 135-16 record and the most impressive statistical résumé we’ve ever seen.

Duke (35-3): The Blue Devils are in the Final Four for the 18th time, which trails only UNC (21). Their win over Alabama was their 22nd this season by 20+ points, tied for the fifth-most in D-I history.
Florida (34-4): The Gators are still chomping thanks to late comebacks against UConn and Texas Tech, and they will now participate in the first SEC vs. SEC matchup in the history of the men’s Final Four.
Houston (34-4): No program has won more NCAA tournament games over the past five years than the Cougars (15), who have lost just once in regulation all season (their other three losses came in OT).
Auburn (32-5): Can you imagine going 32-5, finishing atop arguably the best league ever, advancing to the Final Four and being considered the least likely champion by oddsmakers? Pretty wild!

Déjà vu: The only other time the Final Four was all No. 1 seeds was in 2008 when Kansas (champions), Memphis (runner-up), UNC and UCLA all made it. Coincidentally, that Final Four was also held in San Antonio.

Notes:

Title odds: Duke (+100 at BetMGM) is the betting favorite, followed by Florida (+275), Houston (+400) and Auburn (+525).
How’s this for a storyline? When Bruce Pearl got the Auburn job in 2014, he hired a 28-year-old from Columbia as his Director of Basketball Ops. His name? Todd Golden, the man he’ll coach against on Saturday.
Rare feat: Duke’s Jon Scheyer joins Hubert Davis (UNC) and Dick Harp (Kansas) as the only men to take their alma mater to the Final Four as both a player and head coach.

Matchups: Duke vs. Houston pits the nation’s No. 1 offense vs. the nation’s No. 1 defense in a Sweet 16 rematch from a year ago; Florida vs. Auburn pits the SEC regular season champs vs. the SEC tournament champs. The Gators won their first meeting in early February, 90-81.

⚾️ “Torpedo bats” are the talk of baseball

Jazz Chisholm wielding a “torpedo” barrel on Saturday. (Screenshot: YES Network)

The Yankees tied the MLB record with 15 home runs in their first three games of the season — thanks in part to some unusual equipment.

Driving the news: During their nine-homer, 20-run victory over the Brewers on Saturday, play-by-play announcer Michael Kay explained that at least a few Yankees were using a new type of bat that was designed by a physicist and features a barrel closer to the hands.

“The Yankee front office, the analytics department, did a study on Anthony Volpe, and every single ball, it seemed like, he hit on the label. He didn’t hit any on the barrel. So they had bats made up where they moved a lot of the wood into the label so the harder part of the bat is going to actually strike the ball.”

Who’s using the bats? Volpe, Jazz Chisholm, Cody Bellinger and Austin Wells used the “torpedo bats” to hit a combined six home runs this weekend, and other Yankee hitters plan to wield them. Aaron Judge, who already has four home runs, is notably not one of them.

The bats don’t violate any MLB rules, which only stipulate that bats must be made of solid wood, be no longer than 42 inches or thicker than 2.61 inches, and not have a cup at the tip deeper than an inch.
“The concept makes so much sense. I know I’m bought in,” Volpe said on Sunday. “I’m sure there’s a part of our clubhouse that would’ve wanted it to be a secret. But it was always going to get out.”

Bigger than the Yankees: Other teams dabbled with “torpedo bats” in spring training, and Orioles All-Star Adley Rutschman is among the non-Yankee hitters who wielded one this weekend. Asked how many other teams are toying with bat optimization, one high-ranking front-office person offered a revealing response: “After this weekend? Roughly 29.”

A “torpedo bat” (above) compared to a regular-shaped bat. (Kevin Smith)

The inventor: These bats are the brainchild of MIT physicist Aaron Leanhardt, who worked for the Yankees from 2018-2024 before joining the Marlins this past offseason. He began conceptualizing the “torpedo” barrel in 2022 and worked closely with MLB rules officials and bat manufacturers to bring it to life last year.

“People back in the day swung very heavy bats made out of hickory, and then someone had this genius idea to swing something lighter, something like ash, and that was revolutionary back in the 1920s, 30s, 40s… and then the industry kind of stayed the course for quite some time. Ultimately, it just takes people asking the right questions and being willing to be forward thinking.”

— Leanhardt (via The Athletic)

The new normal? Unless MLB cracks down on this design, there’s reason to believe it could become the weapon of choice for many hitters. “It makes sense to everyone who plays,” says retired infielder Kevin Smith, who spent the 2024 season in the Yankees farm system.

“It’s not going to make you an elite hitter if you aren’t already (I tried),” Smith added. “But for the best in the world, any slight advantage could be the difference.”
“Lenny was always amazed it wasn’t already a thing. He would say, ‘5-10 years from now this is all anyone will be using.'”

Bottom line: For decades, the process for choosing a bat was “yeah, this one feels good.” As MLB’s 150th season gets underway, it appears players are just now realizing that they can take a far more detailed approach and customize their lumber to fit their swing.

🇺🇸 Photos across America

Birmingham, Alabama — Reigning champion South Carolina rallied to beat Duke, 54-50, on Sunday and advance to its fifth straight Final Four. No. 1 overall seed UCLA beat LSU, 64-55, to advance to its first-ever Final Four.

Alysa Liu reacts after her winning routine. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

Boston — Two months after tragedy struck the U.S. figure skating community, Americans won three of the four World Championship events for the first time ever, with Ilia Malinin (men), Alysa Liu* (women), and Madison Chock and Evan Bates (ice dance) all taking gold.

Minneapolis — A dust-up between the Pistons and Timberwolves on Sunday quickly escalated and spilled into the stands, resulting in the ejection of seven players and coaches.

Miami — The Marlins went 3-1 against the Pirates to open the season, and all three wins came via walk-off.

*Comeback kid: Liu walked away from figure skating at 16 years old, saying it felt like a job. Three years later, she returned to the sport, found joy in skating and became a world champion. “I’m not going to lie, this an insane story,” she said.

💰 $366k Clark Card shatters record

A Caitlin Clark rookie card sold at auction on Saturday for $366,000, making it the most expensive female sports card in history.

Dethroning Serena: The previous record of $266,400 belonged to Serena Williams, who was the queen of the women’s sports collectibles category before Clark came along.

The WNBA card market is on fire thanks in large part to the Fever guard, who has now had three cards sell for $100,000+.
Wild stat: The 30 most expensive WNBA cards ever sold are all Clark cards.

Why this specific card? Panini is the WNBA’s exclusive trading card license holder, and this was the rarest Clark autograph rookie (1/1) in their most popular set (Prizm). Once it was pulled from a pack and put up for sale, this card was bound to become her most valuable.

In other collectibles news… An autographed Shohei Ohtani card that includes the MLB logo from the pants he was wearing when he established the 50/50 club sold for $1.1 million.

✍️ Extra points

Minjee and Min Woo pose for a photo during the Paris Olympics, where they both represented Australia. (David Cannon/Getty Images)

⛳️ The Lees make history: Min Woo Lee, who won his first PGA Tour title on Sunday in Houston, and Minjee Lee (10 LPGA Tour titles) are the third brother-sister duo to win on both tours, joining Jim Gallagher Jr. and Jackie Gallagher-Smith (six combined titles) and Billy Kratzert and Cathy Gerring (seven).

⚾️ Rough start: Rafael Devers reluctantly switched to DH after the Red Sox acquired 3B Alex Bregman, and it’s not going great so far. He’s 0-for-16 with 12 strikeouts, and his 10 Ks entering Sunday were the most ever through the first three games of a season.

🏀 An unstoppable force: MVP favorite Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 33 points in OKC’s win over Indiana on Saturday, marking his 47th game this season with 30+ points and his 67th straight game with 20+ points. Remarkable.

📺 Watchlist: Who’s heading to the Final Four?

Paige Bueckers scored a career-high 40 points in Saturday's win over Oklahoma. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images) — Paige Bueckers scored a career-high 40 points in Saturday’s win over Oklahoma. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

The Women’s Elite Eight concludes tonight with No. 1 Texas vs. No. 2 TCU (7pm ET, ESPN) in Birmingham, followed by No. 1 USC vs. No. 2 UConn (9pm, ESPN) in Spokane.

WNBA mock draft: UConn’s Paige Bueckers (No. 1), USC’s Kiki Iriafen (No. 3) and TCU’s Hailey Van Lith* (No. 10) are all projected first-round picks in this year’s draft. TCU’s Sedona Prince, USC’s Rayah Marshall and Texas’ Rori Harmon could also hear their names called.

More to watch:

🏀 NBA: Celtics at Grizzlies (7:30pm, TNT); Rockets at Lakers (10pm, TNT) … Why did Memphis fire head coach Taylor Jenkins? Nobody really knows.
🏀 NCAAM: College Basketball Crown (3-11pm, FS1) … Fox’s new postseason tournament tips off with four games in Las Vegas.

*Miss March: This is Van Lith’s fifth Elite Eight appearance — with her third different team. She made three straight trips with Louisville (2021-23) and one with LSU (2024) before leading TCU to this stage for the first time in program history.

🏈 UFL trivia

D.C. and Birmingham at the line of scrimmage. (Samuel Corum/UFL/Getty Images)

Season 2 of the revamped UFL kicked off over the weekend with games in Texas, Tennessee and Washington, D.C.

Question: Can you name the UFL’s eight teams?

Hint: Arlington, Birmingham, D.C., Houston, Memphis, Michigan, San Antonio, St. Louis.

Answer at the bottom.

🍿 Baker’s Dozen: Top 13 plays of the weekend

Watch all 13.

Trivia answer: Arlington Renegades, Birmingham Stallions, D.C. Defenders, Houston Roughnecks, Memphis Showboats, Michigan Panthers, San Antonio Brahmas, St. Louis Battlehawks

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