Sarni's Scrolls: Big Dance Revelations

Purdue men, South Carolina women top committees' current 16 seeds

February Fever is the prelude to March Madness.

College basketball teams are pushing to make the NCAA Tournaments.

The regular season is reaching its end. Rivalry games. Conference tournaments are coming up.

You know that the Sports Spotlight is on college hoops when the tournament committees reveal their pre-Big Dance top 16 seeds.

The NCAA men's tournament committee revealed its top 16 seeds on Friday.

The four No. 1 selections were not a surprise with Purdue (which surprisingly lost on Sunday), Connecticut, Houston and Arizona being placed in the Midwest, East, South and West regions, respectively.

The Big 12, which is projected to send the most teams to the tournament this season, lead the top 16 seeds with four spots in the reveal. The SEC and Big Ten have three teams.

Midwest (Detroit)

1. Purdue (1)

2. Tennessee (6)

3. Baylor (10)

4. San Diego State (14)

East (Boston)

1. Connecticut (2)

2. North Carolina (5)

3. Iowa State (11)

4. Wisconsin (16)

South (Dallas)

1. Houston (3)

2. Marquette (7)

3. Alabama (9)

4. Illinois (15)

West (Los Angeles)

1. Arizona (4)

2. Kansas (8)

3. Duke (12)

4. Auburn (13)

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The women's basketball selection committee revealed its top 16 seeds on Thursday. It will have a second reveal on Feb. 29.

Undefeated South Carolina was inevitably awarded the No. 1 seed. The Gamecocks boast the only flawless record in women's and men's Division I. 

Selection committee chairperson Lisa Peterson heralded the dominant squad as the "only obvious choice," challenging the subsequent picks to separate themselves before the next reveal.

Albany 1

1. South Carolina (1)

2. UCLA (7)

3. UConn (12)

4. Louisville (16)

Albany 2

1. Ohio State (3)

2. NC State (6)

3. USC (9)

4. LSU (14)

Portland 1

1. Stanford (2)

2. Texas (8)$

3. Oregon State (11)

4. Indiana (15)

Portland 2

1. Colorado (4)

2. Iowa (5)

3. Virginia Tech (10)

4. Kansas State (12)

***

Caitlin Clark wasn’t the only one who broke women’s basketball records last Thursday.

Say hello to Lauryn Taylor from Div. II Francis Marion University.

The 5-11 senior center from Blythewood, S.C., had 44 rebounds (30-14)  in its win against North Greenville, the most rebounds recorded at any level in NCAA women’s basketball history.

Taylor said she wasn’t even aware she had etched her name in the record book until after the game when a player from the men’s team handed her a piece of paper with the number “44” written on it.

Like Wilt Chamberlain famously did after his 100-point game in 1962, Taylor posed at center court with that piece of paper.

Taylor appreciated sharing her historic night with Clark, and said she hopes people just keep paying attention to women’s hoops.

“I feel like it’s evolving in many different ways, from every single level,” Taylor told The Athletic. “So just keep your eyes on women’s basketball. And it’s not always about scoring, rebounding is cool too.”

So is L.T.'s record... cool.

***

Chris “Mad Dog” Russo has landed a multiyear contract extension to continue on "First Take."

Russo’s weekly appearances on ESPN's top-rated morning show have introduced him to millions of television viewers unfamiliar with his current 15-year run on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio.

Russo’s manic “What Are You Mad About?” segment has become a big hit.

"I love the First Take gig. I’ve had a renaissance. It’s because of Stephen A.,” Russo, 64, told Front Office Sports.

***

Women's soccer continues its rapid growth in the U.S.

On Friday, U.S. Soccer approved Division I sanctioning for the USL Super League, which is set to begin later this year.

The season will run from fall to summer, different from how the NWSL and MLS currently schedule their games but on par with the European calendar.

To earn the top division billing in the women’s outdoor league, the USLSL needed:

■ A minimum of eight teams... Brooklyn, Carolina, Dallas/Fort Worth, Fort Lauderdale, Lexington, Spokane, Tampa Bay, Washington, D.C. have franchises.

■ Stadiums with 5,000 minimum seating capacity.

■ Operational budget for three years.

■ 75% of clubs to play in metropolitan markets with populations of at least 750,000.

■ Teams with one principal owner with at least a 35% share and an individual net worth of at least $25 million, among other requirements.

***

"Barbie" dominated Sunday's People's Choice Awards... the big winners.

■ Music Icon Award: Lenny Kravitz

■ People's Icon Award: Adam Sandler

■ Movie: Barbie

■ Action Movie: The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

■ Comedy Movie: Barbie

■ Drama Movie: Oppenheimer 

■ Male Movie Star: Ryan Gosling, Barbie 

■ Female Movie Star: Margot Robbie, Barbie

■ TV Show: Grey's Anatomy

■ TV Comedy: Only Murders in the Building 

■ TV Drama: The Last of Us

■ TV Sci-Fi/Fantasy: Louisville

■ Reality: The Kardashians

■ Competition: The Voice

■ Most Bingsworthy: The Summer I Turned Pretty

■ Male TV Star: Pedro Pascal, The Last of Us

■ Female TV Star: Selena Gomez, Only Murders in the Building 

■ Male Music Star: Jung Kook

■ Female Music Star: Taylor Swift 

■ Song: Vampire, Olivia Rodrigo 

■ Album: Guts, Olivia Rodrigo 

■ Social Celebrity: Taylor Swift 

■ Athlete: Travis Kelce... who beat a field of nominees that included Coco Gauff, Giannis Antetokounmpo, LeBron James, Lionel Messi, Sabrina Ionescu, Simone Biles and Stephen Curry.

***

ETC.

■ The Pittsburgh Penguins retired Jaromir Jagr's iconic No. 68 on Sunday.

■ Ohio St. stunned No. 2 Purdue 73-69 on Sunday, making Jake Diebler the second men's basketball head coach since 1996-97 to beat an AP top-10 team in their Division I coaching debut.

■ Coach Amir Abdur-Rahim and his South Florida Bulls (19-5) are one of the best teams in men's college basketball. The AAC leaders defeated No. 24 FAU 90-86 on Sunday... The Owls cut a 26-point deficit to 1 before running out of time... Nice job on the ESPN telecast by realtor/broadcaster Matt Schumacker and Mike O'Donnell.

■ No. 1 South Carolina rallied past Georgia 70-56 on Sunday to win its record 43rd straight SEC regular-season game, breaking the mark set by Tennessee and Pat Summitt.

■ Hideki Matsuyama won the Genesis Invitational for his ninth PGA Tour win, breaking the record for Asian-born players he shared with K.J. Choi of South Korea.

■ Fox will televise the inaugural Women's Champions Classic, Dec. 7, at Barclays Center. Teams: UConn, Tennessee, Iowa, Louisville.

■ Caitlin Clark's Nike ad after setting the NCAA Div. 1 scoring record: "You broke it, you own it."

■ In the next five years, China plans to surpass the U.S. in pickleball, adding 10,000 courts and attracting over 100 million players.

■ Dan Marino agrees with many Miami Dolphins fans that the team should permanently switch back to their old uniforms.

■ The Celtics’ quest to host Boston’s first NBA All-Star Game since 1964 is coming closer to reality, with the city targeting 2029 for the midseason classic.

■ Sacramento has reportedly emerged as the front-runner to host the A's from 2025-27 before it moves to Las Vegas.

■ TNT Sports gave Reggie Miller a multi-year contract extension.

■ The Florida Panthers will face off against the Dallas Stars in the 2024 Global Series in captain Sasha Barkov’s hometown of Tampere, Finland.

***

■ BAFTA winners: Film: "Oppenheimer"... British Film: "The Zone of Interest"... Actor: Cillian Murphy ("Oppenheimer")... Actress: Emma Stone ("Poor Things")... Supporting Actor: Robert Downey Jr ("Oppenheimer")... Supporting Actress: Da'Vine Joy Randolph ("The Holdovers")... Director: Christopher Nolan ("Oppenheimer").

■ Dennis Quaid will play infamous serial killer "Happy Face" in a Paramount+ series.

■ More serial killers ... Peacock ordered a scripted series about John Wayne Gacy.

■ Stephen Amell ("Arrow") will star in "Suits: LA" as Ted Black, a former New York prosecutor who builds an L.A. law firm specializing in criminal and entertainment law.

■ Watch: "United States of Scandal with Jake Tapper." Six-part docuseries. CNN.

■ The Rocky Mountainer is "Travel + Leisure's" Favorite Train in the World's Best Awards. Choo-choo.

***

THEY SAID IT

■ "If we’re blessed enough to win a Super Bowl again, do we do this again? Or do we all just say, ‘Go to Arrowhead Stadium. Walk through metal detectors. Have a very secured, vastly smaller event.’” -- Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas.

■ "It was boring for the business, for the game, and there’s a lot of good players out there who should be somewhere getting ready for the season.” -- Red Sox manager Alex Cora on the lack of excitement (except for the Dodgers) during the MLB off-season.

■ "If you’re not personally offended by this disgraceful farce taking place right now in Indy, you don’t love or understand basketball. These “All-Stars” should be censured. And where are the coaches? Have any of them have any pride? They’re all acting like athletic court jesters." -- "Boston Globe's" Bob Ryan on the lifeless NBA All-Star Game, a 211-186 win by the Eastern Conference.