WJPA Sports

Survive & advance. It’s March Madness second weekend for both the men’s and women’s tournaments. After this weekend, we’ll be down to the Final Four. WJPA-AM (1450) is your home for the NCAA Men’s & Women’s Basketball Championships, right through the finals Sunday/Monday, April 5/6. Our Sweet 16 broadcast schedule is below.

Thursday, March 26
Men’s Sweet 16
6:00 pm Tournament Today
7:00 pm #2 Purdue vs. #11 Texas
7:20 pm #4 Nebraska vs. #9 Iowa
9:35 pm #1 Arizona vs. #4 Arkansas
9:55 pm #2 Houston vs. #3 Illinois

Friday, March 27
Women’s Sweet 16
2:00 pm #2 Vanderbilt vs. #6 Notre Dame
4:15 pm #1 UConn vs. #4 North Carolina

Men’s Sweet 16
7:00 pm #1 Duke vs. #5 St. John’s
7:25 pm #1 Michigan vs. #4 Alabama
9:35 pm #2 UConn vs. #3 Michigan State
10:00 pm #2 Iowa State vs. #6 Tennessee

Saturday, March 28
Women’s Sweet 16
12:30 pm #2 Michigan vs. #3 Louisville
3:00 pm #1 Texas vs. #5 Kentucky

NEW YORK (AP) — On the eve of opening day, Paul Skenes set forth lofty goals for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He says they want to win the NL Central or at least make the playoffs. That pursuit begins Thursday, when the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner pitches against Juan Soto, Bo Bichette and a revamped New York Mets lineup in a nationally televised opener at Citi Field. Freddy Peralta makes his Mets debut on the mound after the two-time All-Star was acquired from Milwaukee in a January trade. Even thinking about the postseason is a notable step forward for the thrifty Pirates, who finished last in the NL Central at 71-91 last season. They haven’t won a division title since 1992 or qualified for the playoffs since 2015.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Aaron Judge went hitless on opening day for the first time and struck out four times for the first time since September 2024, but the New York Yankees still produced plenty of offense and beat San Francisco 7-0 in the debut of Giants manager Tony Vitello as the major league season began. José Caballero drove in the go-ahead run with an RBI single in a five-run second and also lost the first challenge taken to Major League Baseball’s so-called robot umpire, unsuccessfully appealing a strike by Logan Webb in the fourth. Max Fried allowed two hits in 6 1/3 scoreless innings.

NEW YORK (AP) — The playoff race in the NHL’s Eastern Conference comes down to seven teams fighting for five spots over the final three weeks of the season. It’s possible that the teams finishing ninth and 10th in the East tie or break the record for the most standings points among those who fail to qualify. Montreal, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Boston, Ottawa and the New York Islanders all have more points than Pacific-Division leading Anaheim, and Detroit has the same amount. They’ll jockey for positioning down the stretch knowing that a single loss could be the difference.

The only person left out of millions who entered men’s and women’s NCAA tournament brackets in ESPN’s competition is an eighth-grader from suburban Pittsburgh. His name is Otto Schellhammer, and you can bet the 14-year-old is enjoying his one shining moment. He is 48-0 through the first weekend of the women’s tournament, and he’ll try to push it to 56-0 when the Sweet 16 takes place on Friday and Saturday. The record for ESPN’s competition is 57-0. The exact odds of a perfect bracket are steep: Most mathematicians put the number at around 1 in 28 billion.