Sports

The selection committees have pushed March Madness past its familiar threshold — both the men’s and women’s fields will expand to 76 teams — and now the sport must prove whether that extra room makes the tournament richer or just messier.

This week’s playoff shocks have turned a steady NBA script into a cliffhanger — and Nikola Jokić’s future is the subplot now driving the whole story.

WrestleMania 42 arrives as part spectacle, part scavenger hunt — and ESPN’s previews make a convincing case that this year’s most interesting moments won’t all come from the headline names.

Rory McIlroy’s opening 67 — the day’s low round — and a share of the lead have eased the unique pressures of defending at the Masters.

As college basketball condenses into a two-week sprint, one quality separates the storylines from the clichés: the ability to stay present. The brackets are set, the best players remain, and history is waiting — if teams can handle the moment.

Thursday’s Sweet 16 served up both theater and head-scratching moments — from a decisive tip-in that sent Purdue onward to a bench blunder that left a coach owning an embarrassing mistake.