Dan Johnson has been an editor, writer, and analyst for DraftKings and DraftKings Network since 2024. He’s previously held editorial posts at The Paris Review, Macmillan Publishers, Bedford/St. Martin’s Press, ASSIGNMENT Magazine, and FantasySixPack. You can find his various editorial work & writing (sports-related and non-) at all of the above.
Iowa walks in at 21-12 with a profile that is cleaner than the old program stereotype—better defense, a real half-court organizer, and enough secondary scoring to keep the floor from collapsing. Clemson is 24-10 and built for the opposite kind of game: lower event, tighter possessions, fewer freebies. That is the tension here. One team […]
March 20, 2026
A 4-vs-13 game like Alabama-Hofstra arrives dressed as a possible disturbance, the kind of matchup built to flatter any underdog with a hot week and a tidy defensive résumé. Hofstra has earned that much respect. The Pride are 24-10, they won at Pittsburgh in December, and they just came through the CAA with the sort […]
March 20, 2026
The bracket did what it always threatens to do and rarely does this quickly: it tore up the script on Day 1. High Point already knocked off Wisconsin 83-82, VCU came back from 19 down to stun North Carolina 82-78 in overtime, Texas sent BYU home 79-71, and Texas A&M took out Saint Mary’s as […]
March 20, 2026
Iowa State enters this first-round game looking like a machine that just took a buzzer-shot bruise and now gets to aim all that leftover violence at a Tennessee State team stepping up several weight classes at once. The Cyclones are 27-7, just pushed Arizona to an 82-80 semifinal finish in the Big 12 tournament, and […]
March 20, 2026
Friday’s Round of 64 slate has a little more stylistic whiplash to it. It opens with Kentucky-Santa Clara and Akron-Texas Tech before rolling into a run of heavyweight favorites—Arizona, Iowa State, Alabama, Tennessee, Purdue, Florida, Kansas, and UConn—all trying to avoid becoming the bracket’s first real cautionary tale. There are coin-flip games tucked into the […]
March 20, 2026
Happy New Music Friday eve. This one’s a multiplex marquee—one of those rare March drop nights where the pop blockbuster, the country heavyweight, and the internet-dominating fandom event all arrive at once. Tomorrow’s slate has a real center of gravity in BTS and Luke Combs, but it also has enough side-action to keep the tabs […]
March 19, 2026
BTS have spent the better part of the decade existing at that superstar scale one might most superficially associate with Taylor Swift and her fandom: their silence becomes part of their own mythology. That is, in large part, so much of what’s lending the lead up to the K-pop supergroup’s newest and yet-to-be-released record, ARIRANG, […]
March 19, 2026
Saint Mary’s walks into this Round of 64 matchup at 27–5, winners of eight straight before the WCC title stumble, and still carrying the profile of a team that prefers to turn games into controlled, half-court negotiations. Texas A&M arrives from the SEC at 21–11 with a much louder statistical identity—87.7 points per game, nearly […]
March 19, 2026
Idaho is one of the better stories in the bracket. The Vandals are 21-14, have won five straight, ripped off four wins in four days to steal the Big Sky tournament, and are back in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1990. Houston is the opposite kind of March team—28-6, battle-tested by a […]
March 19, 2026
Rooster is officially in the part of the season where the premise stops being pilot chaos and starts hingeing on deeply emotional weekly consequence for its characters. Episode 1 detonated Katie’s life in a very public way, and Episode 2 made it clear Greg isn’t just visiting Ludlow—he’s committing to staying close enough to help, […]
March 19, 2026
Arkansas and Hawai’i arrive at this one carrying very different kinds of March memory. The Razorbacks are back in the tournament at 26-8, fresh off their first SEC tournament title since 2000, with a program history that includes 20 first-round wins and a coach in John Calipari making his 25th NCAA tournament appearance. Hawai’i is […]
March 19, 2026