| | | | | | | Presented By Help Scout | | | | Axios Sports | | By Kendall Baker ·Mar 16, 2021 | | 👋 Good morning! We'll be doing an Axios Sports Bracket Challenge this year. I'll share more info tomorrow. Let's sports. Today's word count: 1,870 words (7 minutes). | | | | | | 1 big thing: 🏀 Women's bracket unveiled | | Photo: Found Image Holdings/Corbis via Getty Images 64 teams will make the trip to San Antonio for the women's NCAA Tournament, though one will be without their Hall of Fame head coach for at least the first weekend, Axios' Jeff Tracy writes. - ICYMI: UConn's Geno Auriemma tested positive Sunday and can't rejoin the Huskies until at least March 24, the day after their second-round game.
- The good news: He has no symptoms, his team has continued testing negative and second-in-command Chris Dailey has been with Auriemma since he took over at UConn in 1985.
Selection notes: The four regionals are named after San Antonio landmarks, with Stanford in the Alamo, UConn in the River Walk, South Carolina in the Hemisfair and NC State in the Mercado. - No. 1 seeds: Stanford, UConn, South Carolina and NC State
- No. 2 seeds: Baylor, Louisville, Maryland, Texas A&M
- First four out: Houston, DePaul, Notre Dame, Oklahoma
- Bids by conference: ACC (8), SEC (7), Big Ten (7), Pac-12 (6), Big 12 (5), West Coast (2), American (2), Big East (2), Missouri Valley (2), Summit (2), 21 conferences (1)
UConn celebrating winning the Big East Tournament last week. Photo: Benjamin Solomon/Getty Images The best... - Region: The River Walk is stacked, with the Player of the Year from the Big East (Paige Bueckers; No. 1 UConn), Big 12 (NaLyssa Smith; No. 2 Baylor), SEC (Rhyne Howard; No. 4 Kentucky) and Big Ten (Naz Hillmon; No. 6 Michigan). Plus, No. 5 Iowa has Caitlin Clark, who led the nation in scoring (26.7 ppg) as a freshman.
- In-state matchup: No. 3 Tennessee faces No. 14 Middle Tennessee, which is led by former Lady Vol Anastasia Hayes, the nation's second-leading scorer (26.5 ppg).
- Conference: The SEC got one fewer school in the field than the ACC, but all seven SEC teams are top-7 seeds while half the ACC teams are seeded No. 8 or lower.
Notes: - Parity at the top: The SEC (No. 1 South Carolina; No. 2 Texas A&M) and ACC (No. 1 NC State; No. 2 Louisville) are the only conferences with multiple top-two seeds.
- The streaks continue: UConn is making its 32nd straight NCAA Tournament appearance, the third-longest streak all-time behind Tennessee (39) and Stanford (33).
- First-timers: High Point, Stony Brook, Utah Valley and Bradley are making their debuts.
- Wake's return: No. 9 Wake Forest is back in the field after 33 years, the longest gap in tournament history. The best part? Wake's head coach, Jen Hoover, was the best player on that '88 squad.
Printable bracket. |     | | | | | | 2. 🏀 Inside the bubble: Waking up in Indy |  | | | Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios | | | | Over 2,000 student-athletes, coaches, trainers and support staff members will wake up this morning in the Indianapolis bubble. The state of play: The 34 Tier 1 individuals who are part of each team's travel party were tested upon arrival. They're required to quarantine for two days and have two consecutive negative tests. - Daily PCR tests will be administered to each team until departure, and all Tier 1 participants must wear a "SafeTag" contract-tracing device.
- Missing team: Most of Virginia's roster will be in quarantine until Thursday, so the plan for the Cavaliers is to arrive on Friday.
Housing: Teams are staying in five Marriott hotels. They're all connected via skywalks to the Indiana Convention Center and Lucas Oil Stadium, so participants can move around without leaving the bubble. - Hotels: JW Marriott, Marriott Downtown, Westin, Hyatt Regency, Le Meridien (find them on the map above).
- Details: Each team has its own floor, and each player has his own room. Meeting rooms and dining areas have been set up to maintain social distancing.
Venues: Teams will practice at the Convention Center, and games will be split between six venues: four in Indianapolis and two in nearby cities. - Indianapolis: Lucas Oil Stadium (Colts), Bankers Life Fieldhouse (Pacers), Hinkle Fieldhouse (Butler), Indiana Farmers Coliseum (IUPUI)
- Other cities: West Lafayette's Mackey Arena (Purdue) and Bloomington's Assembly Hall (Indiana)
The JW Marriott and connecting skywalk. Photo: Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images Driving the news ... Six top referees have been removed from the bubble after one tested positive following a trip to dinner. - The officials were told to report to their hotels by Sunday night and not leave unless it was to the arena.
- But apparently their rooms weren't ready and there was no food when they arrived, so a group of them went to Harry & Izzy's Steakhouse in downtown Indianapolis for dinner.
Of note: There are normally 100 referees for March Madness, but only 60 were brought to Indianapolis for this year's event. | | | | | | | | 3. 📈 The outdoor sports explosion |  | | | Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios | | | | Several outdoor sports and activities boomed during the pandemic as people sought safer, more socially-distant alternatives, Jeff and I write. By the numbers: What began with a cycling boom has since expanded to golf courses, tennis courts, hiking trails and beyond. - Golf saw a 27% year-over-year increase in rounds played in the U.S. from June to December.
- Tennis saw a 22% increase in the number of people who reported playing at least once, while pickleball saw similar growth.
- Outdoors: 8.1 million more Americans hiked in 2020 than in 2019, 7.9 million more went camping and 3.4 million more went freshwater fishing, per AP.
- Disc golf: 50 million rounds of disc golf were played worldwide in 2020, roughly doubling 2019's total. 50% of new players played at least five rounds their first month, per UDisc, a scorekeeping app.
"The pandemic skipped us ahead about three years in our growth curve." — Josh Lichti, CEO of UDiscLooking ahead: Most booms will go bust as the country reopens and people get their lives back. But don't be surprised if some of these activities sustain momentum, particularly as summer approaches. Go deeper: The pandemic drove people to tennis and golf. Will they keep playing? (NYT) | | | | | | | | A message from Help Scout | | How to enhance your company's customer service for free | | |  | | | | Help Scout is a customer service company — and this is the most in-depth course we've ever created on our craft. 6 parts, hours of video, designed uniquely for support pros: a $99 value, yours free. Learn more. | | | | | | 4. 🎙 Cowherd teams up with The Action Network |  | | | Podcast illustration art of Chad Millman. Courtesy: The Volume | | | | "The Volume," a sports podcast network from Colin Cowherd, has struck a content deal with The Action Network, executives tell Axios. Why it matters: It's a rare talent partnership between two upstart media companies, both focused on sports, writes Axios' Sara Fischer. Details: As part of the deal, The Action Network's flagship podcast, "The Favorites," will relaunch as part of The Volume. - Chad Millman, Action's chief content officer, will continue to serve as host for the podcast. Millman will also appear weekly on The Colin Cowherd Podcast, which airs three-times-a-week.
- As part of the deal, The Volume will be able to use the Action app and editorial teams' expertise to inform betting conversations. Talent from The Action Network will contribute regularly to The Volume podcasts.
Catch up quick: Cowherd launched The Volume Network earlier this year to capitalize on betting and creator-driven social media putting people with personalities at the forefront of sports commentary. - "In a strange way, this is an ideal time to start this," said Cowherd, noting the amount of talent that's now available thanks to pandemic-driven sports changes.
- Cowherd launched the network in conjunction with iHeartMedia, which manages the distribution and ad sales for The Volume's network of podcasts. FanDuel has signed on as lead sponsor.
The last word: "Sports gambling is exploding and I want to be the audio platform right next to it," says Cowherd. Speaking of Millman, Cowherd said, "I think he's the best in the space." | | | | | | | | Bonus: 📺 Speaking of Cowherd and Millman... | | Millman (L) and Cowherd on the set of "Colin's Football Show." Courtesy: ESPN One of my first jobs at ESPN was as a production assistant on "Colin's Football Show." - Cowherd was the host and Millman, then editor-in-chief of ESPN The Magazine, was a recurring guest on our "Bet Sharp" segment.
- This was back in 2014, and sports betting was still fairly taboo to talk about on-air. But we leaned in more than most.
Photo: Jeff Overs/BBC News & Current Affairs via Getty Images One of my jobs? Running the teleprompter. Basically, I'd sit in the studio and use a dial to control the words Colin saw while looking at the camera and reading the script. Fun times. 🎥 Watch: How teleprompters work (YouTube) | | | | | | | | 5. 🎙 Exclusive: Fanatics adds 3 Hall of Famers | | Joe Montana signing autographs. Courtesy: Fanatics Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and Charles Woodson have joined the growing roster of athletes to exclusively partner with Fanatics Authentic, the online retail giant's collectibles and memorabilia arm, Jeff writes. The state of play: Known primarily for apparel, Fanatics also deals in memorabilia, which occupies an important corner of the exploding sports fandom investing complex. - Just like trading cards, the memorabilia industry has expanded considerably in recent years. But it wasn't always so organized.
- In fact, it still isn't. Just last year the FBI busted a forgery ring with hundreds of thousands of dollars in fake memorabilia.
The big picture: Deals like this hope to change the status quo, as their exclusivity agreements and on-site authenticators provide a similar, forgery-protection service as the blockchain does for NFT's. What they're saying: "I do a lot of signings, and it's comforting to know, now that this is exclusive with Fanatics, that people can guarantee they're getting legitimate stuff," Montana tells me. - Montana couldn't remember the first autograph he signed; a tacit acknowledgement of how far the industry has come.
- "Back then, it wasn't as prevalent as it is today. ... Knowing what was going to take place, and what it's turned out to be, I would have paid more attention."
P.S. ... "Joe Cool" estimates he's signed over 100,000 autographs per year since 1981. All those signatures and he still somehow had enough juice left in that hand to win four Super Bowls and two MVPs! | | | | | | | | 6. 🌏 Photos around the world | | Photo: Shane Bevel/NCAA Photos via Getty Images STILLWATER, Okla. — BYU's Conner Mantz won the Men's Individual NCAA Cross Country National Championship, the first American to do so since 2008. He finished an impressive 22 seconds ahead of second-place. Photo: Kirill Kukhmar/TASS via Getty Images NOVOSIBIRSK REGION, Russia — A friendly ice hockey match between two district teams on the frozen Orda River. Photo: Bas Czerwinski/Getty Images BOLLÈNE, France — Germany's Max Scachmann defended his title at the 79th Paris-Nice, also known as "The Race to the Sun." | | | | | | | | 7. 📊 By the numbers |  Table: Axios Visuals 🏒 717 goals: Alexander Ovechkin scored his 717th goal in the Caps win over the Sabres, tying Phil Esposito for sixth-most all-time. 🏈 $235.5 million: Following their first losing season in two decades, the Patriots agreed to contracts worth up to $235.5 million in the span of eight hours on Monday. The biggest splash: $50 million for TE Jonnu Smith. 🏀 67-58: Indiana fired men's basketball coach Archie Miller, who has a $10+ million buyout. Miller went 67-58 in four seasons and didn't play in a single NCAA tournament game. ⚾️ 90 feet: For nearly 130 years, the distance between pitchers and batters has remained the same. Should MLB move the mound back? ❄️ 5th title: Dallas Seavey won the pandemic-shortened Iditarod on Monday. It's his fifth title, matching the record for most ever. | | | | | | | | 8. 📆 March 16, 2008: Tiger's hat toss |  | | | Photo: Andy Lyons/Getty Images | | | | 13 years ago today, Tiger Woods sank a 24-foot putt on the 18th hole at Bay Hill to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational — then spiked his hat in celebration. By the numbers: This was Woods' 64th PGA Tour win, tying him with Ben Hogan for third most all-time. He's currently tied with Sam Snead for the most ever with 82. The backdrop: Despite his season being cut short by knee and ACL surgeries, 2008 was arguably the apex of Woods' powers. - He won five of the seven events he played in and finished top five in the other two. He won the U.S. Open on one leg, finished second at the Masters and did it all while battling injuries.
- Wild stat: The win at Bay Hill marked the third time Woods had won five straight PGA Tour events. No other golfer has done that more than once.
The celebration: Golf Digest ranks "the hat toss" as Woods' eighth-best celebration. The top five: - 2008 U.S. Open: "Double fist pump"
- 2005 Masters: "Moving fist pump"
- 2000 PGA: "Running point"
- 2019 Masters: "Return to glory"
- 1997 Masters: "Win for the ages"
| | | | | | | | 9. 🏈 NFL trivia |  | | | Photo: Billie Weiss/Getty Images | | | | Ryan Fitzpatrick has signed with Washington, where he'll have a chance to start and throw a TD for a record ninth NFL team. - Question: Can you name the eight teams he's already started and thrown a TD for?
- Hint: Seven AFC, one NFC.
Answer at the bottom. | | | | | | | | 10. 🎥 Monday's top plays | | Giphy - 🏀 Lonnie Walker!!
- ⚽️ Lionel Messi!!
- ⚾️ Kyler Fedko!!
- 🏒 T.J. Oshie!!
- 🏀 Nerlens Noel!!
Watch all 5. | | | | | | | | A message from Help Scout | | How to enhance your company's customer service for free | | | | | | | | Help Scout is a customer service company — and this is the most in-depth course we've ever created on our craft. 6 parts, hours of video, designed uniquely for support pros: a $99 value, yours free. Learn more. | | | | Talk tomorrow, Kendall "Teleprompter guy" Baker Trivia answer: Rams, Bengals, Bills, Titans, Texans, Jets, Buccaneers, Dolphins | | Invite friends to follow Axios Sports Use your personal link to track how many readers you bring into the community  You currently have 00 referrals. Share with a friend For questions email referralsupport@axios.com. Participation in the Axios Sports Referral Program constitutes your acceptance of the Axios Terms and Conditions of Use, which can be viewed here. | | | | Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters.
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