Benjamin Pope

@travisrodgers @brianbeckner @rhs76 #QuicklyYugeQuickly sportssd.iheart.com/content/2026-0…

Tiger Woods crashing his car while under the influence of something, then immediately calling Donald Trump to weasel his way out of it, is the perfect metaphor for Trump’s second term.

I did my best to choose my words carefully. I won't pretend that the voice of a part-time podcaster who doesn't live in Tucson will matter much, but I wanted to get this out there nonetheless. CC @SVGarimella

Final four for Arizona! #BearDown

@MLB @Adobe MLB’s 2026 Opening Week schedule is a nightmare for the average fan. Requiring a Netflix subscription for Opening Night, Peacock for the Mets/Pirates, and Apple TV+ for Friday doubleheaders is predatory fragmentation.

@Swolletariat It really is the best. weekend morning and weekday evening games start at 10a and 5p generally, respectively, better than the 9a and 4 p in Pacific time, but without the jacking up of your sleep schedule like in Eastern and to a lesser extent Central time

in the last 10 years, I've lived in five US time zones: Fla, Washington state, Alaska, Louisiana & now Colorado. Mountain time is THE sweet spot for sports fans. anyone who says otherwise has never lived in MTN.

@DanWolken Schools like Butler, Creighton, and Xavier are perfect examples. Rather than winning the A-10/Horizon League/MVC and winning a game or two in the tournament, they're now middling teams in the Big east.

The 13 seeds this year ranged from 87 to 151 in KenPom. A decade ago, the worst 13 seed was 94. That’s a really meaningful difference and it comes down to realignment and auto bids bumping weak teams into 11 and 12 seeds.

@urquharthoops Seems similar to what's happened in MLB. Rather than analytics being just used by the little guys (e.g., the A's) to even the playing field, now the big market teams like the Dodgers are making themselves more invincible by using it too

A major cause of the reduction of upsets is being completely overlooked — the adoption of the same analytics and focus on efficiency by almost all teams. Only 5-6 years ago, many of us still believed that defense wins championships and hadn’t yet realized that a three-pointer is so much more efficient than a midrange jumper. This led to top teams being inherently more vulnerable. If, as an underdog, you caught a top seed that was slower paced, defensive-minded, and short on shooting, you could beat them with a hot shooting night or a defensive scheme that baited them into taking inefficient shots. Now, the big dogs have optimized their style of play. The big dogs and the underdogs are playing the exact same brand of basketball, but the big dogs have much better players. Take these two Illinois teams as an example: 2020-2021 #1-seed Illinois (#8 ORtg KP) - #320 three-point rate (30.0%) - #54 OREB % (30.3) - Lost in second round to Loyola Chicago, making 4 threes and securing 5 OREBs 2025-2026 #3-seed Illinois (#2 ORtg KP) - #13 three-point rate (50.6%) - #3 OREB % (38.9) - Beat Penn in first round making 15 threes and securing 20 OREBs Coached by the same guy, their entire philosophy has shifted in five years and had made them much more immune to upsets. Other high majors have size and athletes to combat this and potentially turn the reliance on threes into a weakness. But mid-majors don’t. The talent gap has always been there, but now, rather than finding clever ways to compete, mid-majors are forced to try to beat the powerhouses at their own game.

@MarkAGunnels I feel like things have equilibrated now that there are fewer one and dones than previously. It's a bit surprising (given that there were no upsets today), but actually this year the number of double-digit seeds winning is within what you would expect based on historical triends

The NIL + transfer portal era killed true March Madness chaos. We still get “upsets”… but nothing like the old days. No real Cinderella runs. Agree or am I trippin?

@travisrodgers Watching the UCLA-UCF game, and can't help but think how Skyy Clark's mama could afford two Y's @rhs76 @BrianBeckner

So excited to learn I will be sharing our @Padres booth with my brother Mudly for years to come! #SomeKindaNice

@ESPNLunardi @espn Totally agree with you about Selection Sunday and the Oscars being on the same Sunday being an NIT-relegation-worthy decision!. Last Sunday in February, first Sunday in March, or last Sunday in March is where oscars should live so as not to conflict with March Madness!

Joe Lunardi's ultimate guide to men's March Madness 2026 - via @ESPN App. 🏀🏀 Kudos to our great team!! espn.com/mens-college-b…

There isn’t one person on this planet that can convince me that this isn’t the greatest MLB closer entrance of all time. The pause waiting for the music. The bells. The slow build up of the guitar while he jogs to the mound. Enter Sandman could never hold a candle to Hells Bells

@4thGenBruin Gotcha. It's kind of an insult to Cal Baptist really, like "we're not gonna worry about you getting to play so close to home"

@StatsMan2886 Oh I understand that, but it’s the inconsistency that gets me.

So let me get this straight. Cal Baptist gets San Diego as a 13 seed? But UCLA as a 7 seed gets Philly? Come on.

The analyst on the WAC championship just cited the old axiom, "players play and coaches coach". My first thought, the related line from Ralph Wiggum, "Do alligators alligate?"

At least one San Diego team came through in its conference tournament today in Vegas. Second straight year UC San Diego has been eligible for the NCAA D1 Tournament and second straight year Tritons won the Big West. Hammered Hawaii 40-20 in second half to win by 12.

@rhs76 Watching the Big Ten tournament and Ian Eagle says Michigan's Tschetter's name as Cheddar, and I can't help but think that Coach K would love to have him on his team. He'd be a Gouda addition. @travisrodgers

@RachelKryshak More like Radko Goon-das!

In case anyone is keeping track, Radko Gudas has now caused serious MCL injuries to two NHL superstars in the last month. At some point, it’s not an accident and we are well past that point.

Very excited to join @NBCSports full time. And thanks to everyone for the kind words today.