Good morning! Enjoy those brunch leftovers today. Coming up:
🐻 The people’s champ?
🏒 Coaching shakeup
🏈 The other QB carousel
This one wasn’t even close. Ever.
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UCLA absolutely thumped South Carolina for its first women’s NCAA basketball championship yesterday, putting an exclamation mark on the Bruins’ magical run.
Senior guard Gabriela Jaquez paced the team with 21 points, adding 10 rebounds.
Lauren Betts, the 6-foot-7 senior center, had 14 points and 11 rebounds; she was South Carolina’s undoing, forcing its bigs to settle for outside shots instead of daring her in the paint.
All of UCLA’s points were scored by its seniors, a class elevated by Betts’ presence and talent, as Sabreena Merchant writes.
Seemed it. Betts — the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player — was felt everywhere on the floor, and the 79-51 victory was the third-largest margin of defeat in women’s tournament title-game history.
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The Bruins won all but one of their playoff games by a minimum of double digits. Despite the dominance, UCLA felt like the neutral fan’s champion this tournament — and that’s coming from a USC alumna. (For newsletter purposes, I am ditching all self-awareness and am convinced I can be neutral toward my rival school. Definitely impartial. Totally got this.)
UCLA’s 2026 title odds opened around +750, behind UConn and South Carolina. I’ve heard this year’s bracket dubbed “The UConn Invitational,” just a year removed from the Huskies’ last national title. And South Carolina won two of the last three just before that. Plus, Geno Auriemma and Dawn Staley dominated Final Four headlines despite a relatively uneventful matchup between the Huskies and Gamecocks, compared to the UCLA-Texas slog with a late Longhorns surge.
Speaking of … Does Texas have too many existing haters from Texas A&M and Oklahoma students/alumni combined to ever be neutral? (I dunno; I’m from the Northeast. But probably, right?)
So yeah, I think the most neutral team won. I didn’t have to perfectly time my blinks so as not to miss a nanosecond of action during this game, but I’m sure there’s a future night of tears or elevated heart rates just laughing at how peaceful my Easter was.
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Islanders fire Roy
A week after the Golden Knights parted with their head coach during the NHL’s stretch run, the Islanders followed suit. New York fired Patrick Roy amid a close playoff race with four games remaining in the regular season, and hired former Stars coach Peter DeBoer (pictured). Why now? It’s likely twofold: to secure the team’s coach of choice well before the usual hiring cycle begins and to provide a jolt to the current squad amid the postseason push.
More news
Lakers star Luka Dončić traveled to Europe yesterday to get aggressive treatment on his injured hamstring in an effort to speed up his recovery, Dan Woike reports.
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The WNBA and its players union agreed last night to start free agency today, with over 100 players checking in as free agents. More on this soon here.
Michigan men’s basketball’s Dusty May removed himself from the search for North Carolina’s next head coach. Bulls coach Billy Donovan remains a top candidate, per sources.
Cycling star Tadej Pogačar continued his perfect 2026 season yesterday as he raced solo to his third Tour of Flanders (Belgium) win. Demi Vollering won a much-closer women’s race.
Defending U.S. Open champion J.J. Spaun notched a one-stroke win at the Valero Texas Open, the last PGA Tour event before the Masters this week. Weather wreaked havoc.
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Warriors star Stephen Curry returned last night after two months out with a knee injury, and very nearly willed Golden State to a win.
The Dodgers will be without star shortstop Mookie Betts for an undetermined length of time as he heads to the injured list with a potentially tricky oblique strain.
A great 2025 Athletic story illuminated a role in pro sports that requires elite emotional IQ paired with on-field talent: the NFL backup quarterback. It’s a constant balancing act between ambition and selflessness, as Jourdan Rodrigue wrote.
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The league isn’t expected to see major turnover among starting QBs next season, but more than half of teams could feature a new No. 2. Thus, there’s renewed curiosity if you look through that lens. A few of the situations worth following:
Vikings: Carson Wentz out, Kyler Murray or J.J. McCarthy in
Steelers: Pending Aaron Rodgers’ decision
Raiders: Kenny Pickett out, Fernando Mendoza or Kirk Cousins in
Falcons: Cousins out, Tua Tagovailoa or Michael Penix Jr. in
Chiefs: Gardner Minshew out, Justin Fields in behind Patrick Mahomes
Browns: 🤷♀️
Saad Yousuf details the entire backup carousel today, and Jourdan has further meaty notes on the situations in Minnesota and Las Vegas.
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And remember: We’re under three weeks from the NFL Draft, with veteran QBs including Russell Wilson and Jimmy Garoppolo — who perhaps understands the Tao of the backup QB better than anyone — still available. Hold on to your seats.
📺 NCAAM: National championship
8:50 p.m. ET on TBS/TNT/TruTV/HBO Max
No. 2 UConn could win a third title in four seasons here, while No. 1 Michigan is seeking its first since 1989 — and the Big Ten’s first since 2000. Two key players are nursing injuries. Read our full game preview here, including all the stakes and possible X-factors.
📺 MLB: Dodgers at Blue Jays
7:07 p.m. ET on FS1
If you’re not into college hoops: L.A. returns to Toronto for the first time since the World Series, and it’s these teams’ only series this regular season. Both spent to improve in the offseason, but the execution by Toronto has been less than ideal so far.
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📺 NHL: Predators at Kings
10:30 p.m. ET on ESPN+
These teams enter the game tied on 81 points in the Western wild-card standings, with six games left. Fire up the popcorn.
Get tickets to games like these here.
It’s hard to capture how exactly the biggest sports stars really get paid. Our reporters from across sports put their heads together to try to untangle it all.
An Aaron Judge card was the industry’s top sale in March. It sold for … $5.2 million. See the full list, the month’s best-selling athletes and more here.
Jennah Isai was a top women’s basketball recruit in 2022. She had pro aspirations, until an eating disorder derailed her career. But through that loss, she came to “like” herself.
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Popular NFL trainer Jordan Luallen is working with “most explosive athlete” he’s seen: Uar Bernard, who grew up in a small Nigerian village. Get to know the NFL prospect with little football experience.
After that verbal altercation with Geno Auriemma, Dawn Staley showed she isn’t here for the drama by showing restraint.
Speaking of “The Drama,” here’s The New York Times’ review of the new Zendaya and Robert Pattinson movie. (No spoilers!)
Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Jo Adell’s three home run robberies in one game.
Most-read on the website yesterday: The men’s NCAA title game preview from above.
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📫 That’s all for now! Say hello at thepulse@theathletic.com, and check out our other newsletters.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Women’s College Basketball, The Pulse
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