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Okay, some housekeeping to get out of the way! First things first, this week is heavy with women’s college basketball conference tournament action. If you were here last year, you know that means you’re getting a separate guide to those title games. That should be out by Saturday at the latest.

Don’t worry, because there are plenty of sports left. In particular, the World Baseball Classic will be featured prominently in this edition. Need to get familiar with what’s going on? Well, lucky for you, Brett joined me for a 4-part series on all things WBC. We go pool by pool, giving you some nice info on each team, players to watch, and which teams we expect to advance. We finish up by filling out the rest of the WBC bracket and picking a champion. Start with the Pool A video below and get some history of the event, too:

Now, to the sports!

With host cities being all over the world for group play, that means you’re guaranteed to find a game time that works for you. I’m a big proponent of just watching all of the games. Especially ones involving Hyesong Kim, who is absolutely jacked. Also, someone smarter than me should come up with a “Czech swing” joke.

As you can tell, I love little fun facts. For this game, I didn’t think I’d be able to top that Temple has a freshman, Olin Chamberlain Jr., who is the grandnephew of Wilt Chamberlain. Then, I got to Tulane's leading scorer and rebounder, Rowan Brumbaugh. His mom is an actress-turned-novelist. That’s not the interesting part, though. Her name is Galaxy Craze. That’s her legal birth name. To her credit, she has said that she does not recommend giving your kids weird names.

Double-duty for Czechia! Except it’s two different days in Tokyo, but whatever. Still an impressive feat, and you get bonus points for watching both!

Taiwanese pitcher Wei-En Lin’s mechanics so closely resemble those of Dodgers pitcher Blake Snell that Lin’s nickname is “The Taiwanese Snellzilla.” Between the Godzilla lore and the Dodgers cornering the Japanese market, there’s no more appropriate team for him to face in this tournament. No Roki Sasaki for Team Japan, but his Dodgers teammates Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto are here.

A couple of the game’s most interesting characters, Randy Arozarena and Jazz Chisholm, face off with a special guest appearance from Klay Thompson’s brother, Trayce. The Thompson family is one of the most underrated athletic families in sports history. Another brother, Mychel, played 5 games for the Cavaliers back in 2011-2012. The man who started it all, dad, Mychal, was such an impressive NBA player that Michael Jordan briefly spelled his name the same way as a child until his mom told him to knock it off.

Bad Bunny has set the standard when it comes to patriotism as far as I’m concerned. Why bother becoming a global icon if you aren’t going to use the resources that come with it to win a couple of ballgames? It didn’t work out, but he did offer to pay for Carlos Correa’s insurance policy so he could compete for Team Puerto Rico. Watch what happens to the Gamecocks football program when this newsletter blows up.

Wild to turn around and pull for our country days after we started bombing someone else for reasons that don’t really make a ton of sense, but I guess we should be used to it!

You know the deal with early Saturday morning sports. Automatic.

I’ve even built in a nap time for you! More country versus country action as we check out more SheBelieves Cup action.

I mean, if anything is going to take precedence over the World Baseball Classic, it’s going to be the biggest rivalry in college basketball. Round 1 was ridiculous. Duke looked in control for much of it, then the wheels came off as UNC stormed back to win it on a 3-pointer by Seth Trimble with 0.4 seconds left. I watched it and still don’t understand how it happened. You want to say it was just a blip on Duke’s radar, because they’ve drilled everyone else since then, but you know what they say about rivalry games.

I can’t think of this game without remembering the Steph Curry “Double Bang” game-winner back in 2016. I watched it live, but was on a lot of cold medicine and thought I had possibly hallucinated it. Sadly, he’s out with a knee injury, so we’ll have to turn our attention to the battle between Draymond and Lu Dort for the title of “dirtiest player in the league.” First one to DDT an opponent wins!

If my understanding of time zones is correct, I believe Australians will be watching this one on Wednesday.

If not for women’s sports, they’d have to burn down the entire South Carolina athletic department. A safe bet to assume the women’s basketball team will be playing for yet another SEC conference tourney title today, too, so check out that guide when it drops. The softball team has high hopes this season, but they’re 0-5 against ranked teams so far. Gotta straighten that out if you want to survive the SEC. The Longhorns are 1 of 10 SEC teams ranked ahead of the Gamecocks.

A nice top-10 rivalry matchup to end the regular season. The Spartans were never really in it when they played at the end of January. I cannot imagine the rage that will boil out of Tom Izzo if they look like that again.

American baseball crowds have become less snooty, but we still have a ways to go to catch up with countries like the Dominican Republic. Look at how they get exponentially more insane with each home run in their exhibition against the Detroit Tigers. Plenty of reason to be excited, too, as they have the most talented lineup in the tournament.

Mexico is a great sleeper pick to win it all. They came close in 2023, losing in the semifinals on a heartbreaking walkoff against eventual champion Japan. Keep an eye out for Randy Arozarena’s wardrobe! The Cuban Rocket fully embraced the culture of his adopted homeland by rocking cowboy boots and a cowboy hat last time around.

Get ready to see some players and coaches for the last time! Big fan of these early-round conference tournament games because you don’t know who will show up with desperation and who will show up with apathy.

With all due respect to Tony Soprano, Christopher Columbus was an idiot. Honestly, not a great look for either country. I’m a little shocked that Italy doesn’t have more talent, but Jac Caglianone figures to play a huge role in the Royals’ plans this season. The 6th overall pick in 2024 hit 68 home runs over his final 2 seasons at Florida.

See ACC Tournament entry for my thoughts. Remember back in 2008 when a game went into overtime and saved all of those fans from a tornado?

The last game of the pool play stage!

As always, thank you for reading! Make sure you’re subscribed so you get this in your inbox first thing Thursday mornings! And share with a friend! See you next week!