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.
Arkansas walks into Nashville as the No. 3 seed at 23-8, and this feels like one of those quarterfinal spots where the bracket finally asks whether a hot underdog is still rising or just running on fumes. Oklahoma has absolutely earned respect. The Sooners are 19-14, have won six straight, and just stacked 86-74 over […]
March 13, 2026
The 2026 Oscar nominations are officially out, and Best Director is where the Academy most plainly declares what it values. This isn’t “best effort” or “biggest movie.” It’s authorship—mise-en-scène, tempo, image-making, and the invisible logic that makes a film feel inevitable. When this category hits, it reads like a ballot on control: who shaped the […]
March 13, 2026
Chicago is giving this quarterfinal the right kind of light. Purdue walks in as the No. 7 seed at 24-8, Nebraska as the No. 2 seed at 26-5, and the room still feels undecided because the résumés and the matchup are arguing with each other. Nebraska finished the regular season cleaner, steadier, and louder in […]
March 13, 2026
The Best Picture race always turns into a referendum on what the Oscars think movies are for. Some years that means solemn historical sweep. Some years it means a tasteful grief object in immaculate tailoring. And some years—like this one—it means a lineup so stylistically split, so full of monsters, misfits, hustlers, haunted families, political […]
March 13, 2026
San Jose State walks into this Mountain West quarterfinal wearing the record of an 11 seed and the momentum of something much more dangerous. The Spartans are 9-23, but they just beat Boise State 84-74 on Wednesday in the highest-scoring Mountain West tournament game in program history. New Mexico is 22-9, finished 13-7 in the […]
March 12, 2026
UC Davis and Cal State Fullerton get to Henderson with almost no real separation on the standings page, but the path into this game is not the same. The Aggies are 19-13 after beating UC Santa Barbara 79-73 on Wednesday night. The Titans are 17-15, finished 12-8 in league play, earned the higher seed, and […]
March 12, 2026
North Texas and Florida Atlantic finished in the same 9-9 American cluster, and the bracket gave us the most honest possible separator. The No. 6 Mean Green are 18-13, the No. 7 Owls are 18-14, and one side enters fresh while the other had to grind through Temple on Wednesday night just to get here. […]
March 12, 2026
BYU comes into this Big 12 quarterfinal as the hotter team, even if Houston is still the sturdier one. The 10-seeded Cougars are 23-10 and have already won twice in Kansas City, first beating Kansas State 105-91 behind AJ Dybantsa’s 40-point, nine-rebound, six-assist eruption, then drilling West Virginia 68-48 with Dybantsa adding 27, Kennard Davis […]
March 12, 2026
Auburn gets a quick-turnaround tournament shot at Tennessee, but the current form is what makes this quarterfinal feel live. The Tigers have scored 79 or more in five straight games, then opened their SEC tournament run by drilling Mississippi State 79-61 on Wednesday behind 22 points from Kevin Overton. Tennessee still brings the cleaner résumé […]
March 12, 2026
Iowa State and Texas Tech arrive in Kansas City tied at 12-6 in the Big 12, but they do not feel tied right now. Texas Tech is the No. 4 seed because it won the head-to-head in Ames on Feb. 28. Iowa State is the No. 5 seed and already has a game on this […]
March 12, 2026
Virginia and NC State get to Charlotte with the same external stakes and very different internal rhythms. Virginia is 27-4 and rested as the No. 2 seed. NC State is 20-12 and arrives off Wednesday’s 98-88 win over Pitt, a game where the Wolfpack shot a season-best 60.8% from the field, hit 13-of-23 from three, […]
March 12, 2026