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.
Opening Day always asks a different question than the middle of June. Forget the long, democratic grind of a 162-game season—celebrate it; but toss its statistical egalitarianism out the window. And instead, search for and lock into the truths are sturdy enough to survive a night game by the bay with fresh arms, colder timing, […]
March 25, 2026
Some revivals are built on nostalgia. The Comeback—as television artifact and at its narrative heart—has always been built on discomfort, timing, and the awful elasticity of show business. That is what makes this return feel earned instead of merely recycled. Lisa Kudrow’s cult HBO comedy first premiered in 2005, disappeared after one season, then pulled […]
March 21, 2026
Nebraska and Vanderbilt arrive here wearing different kinds of danger. Vanderbilt has the flashier silhouette—the SEC offense, the live-wire guards, the feeling that a seven-minute heater can turn the floor into a downhill runway. Nebraska feels heavier than that. The Huskers just authored the first NCAA tournament win in program history with a 76-47 dismantling […]
March 21, 2026
The Round of 64 wrapped on Friday, March 20 with a mix of chalk survival and a handful of mid-seed upsets, but nothing that truly detonated the seed line. No 13, 14, or 15 broke through. That matters now. It means the King of the Dogs target resets heading into the Round of 32—because the […]
March 21, 2026
The first Friday game for a defending champion is always a little theatrical. Everybody wants the ritual—an opening statement, a clean avalanche, a reminder that the machine still works. Florida walks into this one with that weight on its shoulders after a 26-7 season and an SEC run that mostly looked like a title defense […]
March 20, 2026
March comes for brands as often as it crowns them, and Kansas walks into this one carrying more burden than ease. The Jayhawks are 23-10, but the recent trail is choppier than a No. 4 seed usually wants: 2-3 in their last five, 70 points or fewer in four of those games, and a brutal […]
March 20, 2026
UCLA walks in at 23-11 after winning five of its last six before the Big Ten semifinal loss to Purdue, and the Bruins still profile like the cleaner tournament team even with the seed line flattening the difference. UCF is 21-11 and fully credible out of the Big 12, but its path here looks narrower. […]
March 20, 2026
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