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.
Yesterday we saw High Point, a 12-seed, upset five-seed Wisconsin. That was as regal as the underdog got, in terms of longshot seeding. We’ve got eight more shots (two more games each with 13-seeds all the way to 16-seeds) to see if a more Cinderellesque midmajor can out-shock the Panthers in purple. Indeed, High Point […]
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
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
Everybody loves an underdog until it is time to actually pick one. That is what makes King of the Dogs fun. The promotion turns the first day of bracket mania into a different kind of puzzle: which upset will actually matter most? A popular 12-seed might feel smart, but if half the field lands there […]
March 19, 2026
The bracket is live, the clock has started, and the clean, orderly version of college basketball is about to disappear for 48 hours. The Round of 64 is where March Madness stops being an analytical exercise and turns into a stress test—of depth, of shotmaking, of composure, and most of all, of possession control. This […]
March 19, 2026
The 5–12 line is where the bracket starts heating up with temptation, and this one has all the right accelerants. Wisconsin enters at 24-10 with one of the sport’s sturdier program brands, its 28th NCAA tournament appearance, and a path through March that usually carries a certain institutional calm. High Point arrives at 30-4 as […]
March 19, 2026
The 4–13 line is where the bracket starts whispering to people. Nebraska arrives in the South Region at 26-6, with a No. 4 seed, a 15-5 Big Ten record, and the kind of wins list that still looks impressive even after the late wobble—wins over Creighton, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan State, Iowa, Kansas State, Oklahoma and […]
March 19, 2026