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USA Today Sports Media Group

Sport

Michael Sykes

Virginia’s First Four loss would be more shameful if it weren’t par for the course

Caitlin Clark UVA Virginia Shohei Ohtani First Four Ben Fawkes Yu Darvish NCAA Basketball Caleb Williams

This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.

Gooood morning, folks! Welcome back to the Morning Win. Thanks so much for rocking with us here at FTW today. We appreciate you.

I’m sorry if you watched that stinker from Virginia on Tuesday along with the rest of us. If you didn’t? Bless your heart. I’m glad you were able to spend your time productively.

Virginia lost to Colorado State 67-42 in a battle of 10 seeds. Well, honestly, calling it a “battle” is probably putting a bit too much spin on it. This game wasn’t very competitive at all. The Cavaliers only scored 14 points on five made field goals in the first half. It’s a wonder UVA even finished with 42.

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This does nothing to diminish the good Colorado State basketball team on the other end. That team deserves a spot in the tournament earned it. I just wish UVA didn’t make it so easy for them.

Fans had no choice but to wonder if the committee got it wrong by picking them. Today, it’s very clear they did. We’d all rather have watched Robbie Avila do literally anything on the basketball court with Indiana State than what we saw.

The worst part is that I’d like to be surprised by this result. But I’m not. It’s become par for the course.

Tony Bennett has built a successful program at Virginia over the last 13 seasons. He’s had a ton of tournament success and, obviously, the 2019 championship goes a long way.

But here’s a wild stat for you: Since 2018, UVA only has six NCAA tournament wins. All six came from that 2019 title run. Every other year the Cavaliers have bowed out in the round of 64. Now we’ve got a First Four loss. It’s not quite worse, but it’s still pretty bad.

Virginia continues the most bizarre 8-year postseason stretch in history:

'17: Lose to Florida 65-39 in R32
'18: Lose to 16-seed UMBC in R64
'19: National Champions
'21: Lose to 13-seed Ohio in R64
'23: Lose to 13-seed Furman in R64
'24: Lose to Colorado State 67-42 in First 4

— Made For March (@madeformarch) March 20, 2024

Tony Bennett is the guy at UVA. He’s not going anywhere. But it’s very, very clear that he’s got a lot of work to do to fix this.

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Betting big on Caitlin Clark and Women’s Basketball

Hate her or love her, there’s no question that Caitlin Clark has changed the future of women’s basketball for the bettor. Did you catch that double-entendre? I sure hope so.

Our Ben Fawkes did some digging into Clark’s impact on sports betting in women’s basketball, and, yes, it’s as significant as you think it is. Here’s more from Ben:

“Clark has also led to an increase in betting interest across the 38 legal U.S. betting states, both on Clark and on women’s college basketball writ large. For several sportsbooks, that’s meant offering individual game props (e.g. Clark over/under total points) on women’s college basketball games for the first time, as well as an expanded menu of women’s games to wager on.”

DraftKings, in particular, shared that betting on NCAA women’s hoops is up 14 times year-over-year by handle and 13 times year-over-year by bets placed. Fawkes spoke with DraftKings Sportsbook director Johnny Avello, who told him that Clark is directly linked to this increase.

“She’s the primary reason why handle has gone up,” Avello told FTW. “We’ve done props on her scoring in individual games, breaking Pistol Pete’s record. All of it has added to the women’s handle.”

Clark is a catalyst for women’s hoops in so many ways. The only thing left to see now is if she can bring this same fervor to the next level when she finally makes her jump to the WNBA.

I’d bet on that going well, too.

Seoul Series Forever

Did you wake up early enough to get a glimpse at the MLB Seoul Series in South Korea? It was a treat.

This morning’s game (or tonight’s game if you’re reading this from South Korea) was the first of two games between the Dodgers and Padres in Seoul, South Korea. It’s the first MLB game ever played in the country and, yes, though the regular season technically hasn’t started yet, these games do count as regular season wins and losses.

That’s good news for the Dodgers, who won the first game 5-2. We saw Shohei Ohtani’s first hit as a Dodger—a single in the third inning against Yu Darvish.

Shohei Ohtani's first hit as a Dodger comes against Yu Darvish. #SeoulSeries pic.twitter.com/6qIRcdM7ja

— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) March 20, 2024

Ohtani also blasted a foul ball through the roof of the stadium they were playing in, which doesn’t count for anything but is still incredibly impressive.