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NCAAM Grant Halverson / Getty Images The Pulse Newsletter ? | This is The Athletic’s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox. Good morning! This is March. Inside: I often view the sports calendar as a frenzied dance routine. Some weeks have multiple sports jockeying for position on the floor, while others give way for one sport to enter center stage. A shining moment, if you will. Advertisement The Olympics are done, as is the NFL Scouting Combine. The NBA is churning, but we’re still a month out from the playoffs starting. That means college hoops, both men’s and women’s, has been ushered to the front of our brains. Today, I want to use history — via Scott Dochterman’s list of the top 50 men’s college basketball rivalries, published this morning — to look ahead at a bracket-laden future as we enter the final week of the regular season. We’ll start at the top: 1. Duke-North Carolina

Shocker. The fun part is that both of these teams are really good this year, and the Blue Devils (27-2) may be the best team in the country. Jon Scheyer may be coach of the year. The Tar Heels (23-6) are ranked No. 18 in the latest Top 25 poll and currently project as a No. 6 seed. But they did beat Duke in an electric game a few weeks ago. 3. Michigan-Michigan State

Maybe our best pound-for-pound entry here if you combine both the historic factor and current success. The only team better than Michigan right now may be Duke, and that’s saying something for a deep field of talent this year. While the Wolvervines (27-2) are likely a lock for a No. 1 seed, the Spartans (24-5) are a top-15 team and will probably end up a No. 4 seed. These two sides also ramped up their already-great rivalry this year. 6. Kansas-Missouri

The No. 14 Jayhawks (21-8) have one of the best players in the country (freshman Darryn Peterson, when he plays) but Mizzou (20-9) should skate in off the bubble after a good weekend. Let’s hope they end up in the same bracket. 10. The Big 5

I wanted to highlight this because it’s both one of the best stories in college basketball — five mid-majors in the Philadelphia metro area who have a long-shared tradition of playing each other throughout the year — and one of our recent bummers, as only Villanova is projected to make the big dance this year. Womp. See Scott’s full list here. Just one note for now on the women, because, well, let me explain: We have a full women’s bracket watch available to peruse competitors for UConn.   Happy March, everyone. Let’s keep moving: A racing nightmare

Jess Mc Clain was having a perfect Sunday in Atlanta: leading the U. S. Half Marathon Championships with less than two miles to go. A win would’ve delivered a national title, automatic qualification for the world championships and a $20, 000 prize. Instead, the lead vehicle in front of her veered off course, and Mc Clain and two others followed before course-correcting, though too late. Mc Clain officially finished ninth, and an appeal was swiftly denied.  See the full drama here. Brutal. Advertisement USC’s leading scorer leaves

Chad Baker-Mazara, who averaged 18. 5 points per game in 26 appearances this year for USC, left the program yesterday, the school announced. It is awful timing for the Trojans, who sit on the bubble of the NCAA Tournament and need the 26-year-old Baker-Mazara, who had averaged 26 a game after leading scorer Rodney Rice went down with an injury in November.  What a 2026 collegiate sports story. More news: ?  Find more news here 24/7. ? MLB: Braves at Tigers

1 p. m. ET on ESPN

If you’re around a screen in the middle of the day, this is worth a watch. A nice change of pace from our normal sports schedule at this time of year, and big-name free-agent starter Framber Valdez is starting for Detroit. Midday baseball, don’t mind if I do. ? NCAAM: No. 4 Iowa State at No. 2 Arizona

9 p. m. ET on ESPN

Huge, huge game, particularly as we enter March. I expect a fun atmosphere as these two jockey for No. 1 seed status. This is a priority. ? NBA: Clippers at Warriors

10 p. m. ET on Peacock

Two big-name teams struggling in the Play-In zone play a stretch-run game that should matter. Tune in. Get tickets to games like this here. A story I truly adored: Jared Weiss’ tale of Luke Kornet, the Spurs backup center who’s really a blogger at heart.  Read this today. We’ll have a bigger roundup here this week, but our NFL staff wrote a great roundup of what they learned at the combine last week.  See their takeaways. Another file for later this week is the MLB fan survey, which published today. Let’s start with: Is MLB headed in the right direction?  Results here. In what is always an entertaining read, Sean Mc Indoe has five post-Olympic break overreactions in his NHL weekend rankings. You know who’s still good? The Suns, who are powered by an unlikely friendship between Devin Booker and Dillon Brooks. Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Connor Storrie’s “Saturday Night Live” monologue. Most-read on the website yesterday:  Our story behind that monologue ☝️. ? That’s all for now! Say hello at thepulse@theathletic. com, and check out our other newsletters. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle Chris Branch is a senior writer for The Athletic's daily newsletter. Before joining The Athletic, he covered the Phillies for The News-Journal and worked as a content strategist for various industries. He graduated from LSU, where he worked for The Daily Reveille. Follow Chris on Twitter @cbranch89