Monday night seems to be a strange night to recap the weekend, but I do it here as a natural break before the major college basketball conference men’s tournaments begin.
Two international multisport competitions had their opening ceremonies: one on Saturday afternoon and one Monday night. The Winter Paralympics had their Opening Ceremony from the Verona Arena in Verona, Italy that was televised live by the USA Network in the United States. That got attention not only for the pageantry, but also for who did and did not participate in the parade of nations. Russia and Belarus were included, so several nations, such as Ukraine, Finland, and the Baltic states chose not to participate in the Paralympics Opening Ceremony. The other event, much less publicized, was the Opening Ceremony of the Arctic Winter Games in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada.
The 2026 Winter Paralympics is scheduled to have 55 nations and 612 athletes participating in 79 events in 6 sports. The Arctic Winter Games has only 8 teams consisting of three Canadian territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut), northern portions of two Canadian provinces (Nunavik–northern Quebec and northern Alberta), one US state (Alaska), one Danish autonomous territory that has been in the news lately (Kalaallit Nunaat–Greenland), and a region of Scandinavia (Sapmi or Lapland).
For those whose attention was not there, it was a busy weekend in basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer. and many other sports. In the United States, college basketball dominated the conversation. Several men’s and women’s conference championships were decided.
In NCAA Division I men’s action, the first championship was clinched by the Long Island University Sharks on account of a tournament finals foe who is ineligible for the NCAA Division I tournament while they transition to Division I. The first team to clinch a spot in the D-1 tournament by winning was the Tennessee State Tigers of the Ohio Valley Conference. Other men’s teams who clinched spots were High Point (Big South), Queens (ASUN), Northern Iowa (Missouri Valley) on March 8. Furman (Southern) and Troy (Sun Belt) clinched on March 9.
Many NCAA D-1 women’s basketball tournaments concluded over the weekend and into Monday. Once again, the Ohio Valley Conference was the first to crown a champion, the Western Illinois Leathernecks (16-4, 26-5). On Saturday, Duke defeated Louisville to win the nation’s oldest women’s basketball tournament, the ACC tournament. UCLA (18-0, 31-1) won the Pac…er…Big Ten crown by crushing Iowa, Texas (13-3, 31-3) won the Southwest…er…Southeastern Conference title in a convincing win over South Carolina. West Virginia won the Big East…er…Big Twelve championship over top-seeded TCU in a low scoring affair. To no one’s surprise, the Connecticut Huskies rolled through the Big East tournament to complete their regular season undefeated at 34-0. There are some who were so impressed by UCLA’s dominance in the Big Ten that they want to move UCLA past UConn for the overall seed. The 34-0 record and their dynastic dominance speak to the foolishness of that potential move. The Huskies do not need bulletin board material! Other Division I tournament champions are Jacksonville (ASUN), Rhode Island (Atlantic 10), High Point (Big South), Fairfield (MAAC), South Dakota State (Summit), and James Madiason (Sun Belt). Sixth seeded Samford clinched their spot in a sixteenth seed play-in NCAA tournament game by winning the Southern Conference tournament to finish the season 16-18. Enjoy the trip to Storrs or Columbia, Lady Bulldogs.