March Madness: Alabama, Houston, Kansas, Purdue the 1 seeds

Alabama is the overall top seed in the NCAA Tournament after cruising through the end of a season clouded by a murder case. Kansas, Houston and Purdue grabbed the other top seeds. Action in the 68-team tournament begins Tuesday with two games in the First Four. March Madness gets into full swing Thursday and Friday with 32 games spread over eight cities. The Final Four is set for April 1 and 3 at NRG Stadium in Houston.

March Madness 2023: Set your brackets! Tide the No. 1 seed

The NCAA Tournament has arrived. The First Four games in Dayton, Ohio, will kick things off and set the final bracket with 68 teams battling it out for the national championship in men’s basketball. Sweet 16 weekend will see games in New York City, Las Vegas, Kansas City, Missouri, and Louisville, Kentucky. The Final Four is in Houston. The semifinals are on April 1, with the championship game on April 3.

Picking the Bracket: Houston wins, 40 years after '83 loss

Picking the NCAA Tournament bracket comes with plenty of potential pitfalls. How do you account for injuries at Houston and UCLA? Can defending champ Kansas make another run after losing handily in the Big 12 Tournament final? Is this the year you can trust the Big Ten? Here's a very preliminary Final Four pick: Alabama, Marquette, Houston and Gonzaga. Houston beats Alabama in the title game, giving the Cougars the championship on the 40th anniversary of Phi Slama Jama’s heartbreaking loss to N.C. State.

South Carolina No. 1 overall seed in women's NCAA Tournament

South Carolina is six wins away from becoming the 10th women’s basketball team to go undefeated for an entire season, and the Gamecocks will enter the NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 overall seed. Dawn Staley’s squad has been challenged a few times this year but has always pulled through. The defending national champions will play Norfolk State in the first round of the tournament. The other No. 1 seeds are Indiana, Virginia Tech and Stanford. The tournament begins Wednesday with four First Four games and the full madness starts Friday.

AP sources: Rams trading All-Pro CB Jalen Ramsey to Dolphins

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Two people with knowledge of the deal say the Miami Dolphins are acquiring All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey in a trade with the Los Angeles Rams. Los Angeles will get Miami’s third-round pick in the 2023 NFL draft and tight end Hunter Long for Ramsey. Both people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because neither team had announced the deal. Ramsey had 77 tackles and four interceptions during the Rams’ Super Bowl-winning 2021 season. Last season, he had a career-high 88 tackles and four interceptions.

Scheffler turns in masterpiece at Sawgrass to win Players

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Scottie Scheffler is back to No. 1 in the world thanks to a masterful performance at The Players Championship. Scheffler ran off five straight birdies around the turn at the TPC Sawgrass. He extended his lead to six shots at one point. Scheffler left all the drama to everyone else. He closed with a 69 to become only the third winner at Sawgrass with all four rounds in the 60s. The five-shot win was the largest in 17 years at The Players Championship. Tyrrell Hatton birdied his last five holes for a 65 to finish alone in second place.

Byron wins 2nd straight Cup race, beats Larson at Phoenix

AVONDALE, Ariz. (AP) — William Byron won his second straight NASCAR Cup Series race, taking advantage of a pair of late cautions to give Hendrick Motorsports a victory in overtime at Phoenix Raceway. Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet got a great start in overtime with two laps left, and just like he did a week earlier at Las Vegas, he overtook teammate Kyle Larson for the win. He also had to hold off Ryan Blaney, who finished second, while Tyler Reddick was third. Byron denied Kevin Harvick a chance to win his 10th race in Phoenix.

In post-Roe world, college coaches search for middle ground

The Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has added another complicated layer for college coaches to navigate. More than a dozen states have enacted laws against abortion. For decades, that topic has not necessarily been a consideration for female athletes choosing colleges. Now it is. And if the athlete lives in a state with strict abortion laws and chooses to tell their coach, the coach may be put in a difficult position. For some coaches, the constantly shifting landscape is making their profession more demanding than ever.

Top overall NCAA seed Alabama headlines South Region bracket

Alabama is the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and headlining the South Region bracket. The Crimson Tide earned the program’s first-ever top regional seed with Sunday’s reveal of the field of 68 teams. That came hours after they closed out a second Southeastern Conference Tournament title in three seasons. The Tide’s top challenger is Arizona, which won the Pac-12 Tournament on Saturday night for the second time in as many seasons under Tommy Lloyd. The Wildcats are the 2-seed in the bracket. The regionals will be held in Louisville, Kentucky.

Houston gets No. 1 seed in Midwest at expense of Kansas

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Houston has received the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region for the NCAA Tournament. The selection committee rewarded the Cougars at the expense of Kansas, which had been hoping its national title defense would include a stop in Kansas City, Missouri, just down the road from its campus in Lawrence. Texas earned the No. 2 seed after routing the Jayhawks in the Big 12 finals. Xavier is the No. 3 seed and Indiana the fourth.

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