It’s been waiting for you
From The GIST (hi@thegistsports.com)
Leveling The Playing Field
Welcome to March!
And more importantly, happy Women’s History Month…as if we needed another excuse to celebrate the gals. Turn the page on your calendar, then start turning through today’s sports news.
— Olympic women’s hockey gold medalist and Seattle Torrent star Hilary Knight, appearing on Saturday Night Live with her Team USA teammate Megan Keller and cheekily jabbing men’s hockey gold medalists, fellow guest stars Jack and Quinn Hughes.
- ICYMI, last week U.S. president Donald Trump made a “joke” about having to invite the women’s team to the White House along with the men. Who’s laughing now?
Unrivaled
🏀 Welcome to New York
The GIST: It’s a new soundtrack for the Unrivaled postseason — tonight’s semifinals will be played away from the 3v3 league’s home in Miami and hosted at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY. As for the stakes? They’ve never been higher with $600K up for grabs in Wednesday’s championship, which will take place back in Miami.
- Tonight’s first semifinal tips off at 7:30 p.m. ET, featuring No. 1 Phantom BC vs. No. 6 Vinyl BC, who stunned Laces BC in Saturday’s first round, while the 8:45 p.m. ET showdown should be a high-scoring affair between No. 2 Mist BC and No. 5 Breeze BC. Let’s hoop to it.
👻 Phantom superstar Aliyah Boston sidelined: The Ghost Gang will be shorthanded after the newly-named Defensive Player of the Year sustained a season-ending right lower extremity injury. And it’s an astronomical loss for Phantom: The 24-year-old is averaging 18.9 points, 9.7 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks per game this season. Talk about big sneakers to fill.
- Enter: a dynamic Kiki Iriafen, the perfect candidate to step up in Boston’s absence. Vinyl, meanwhile, will look to build on Saturday’s upset, carried by leading scorer Dearica Hamby and a blossoming Rae Burrell, who’s averaging 25.6 points per game in her last three starts.
🔥 Old dogs vs. new tricks in second semi: Turns out millennials and Gen Z have more in common than you might think. The veteran-laden Mist and youthful Breeze are first and second in the league in rebounds and can score in bunches. That’s a recipe for success, whether it’s Mist’s Breanna Stewart or Breeze’s Paige Bueckers doing the cooking.
- Plus, both squads have a trifecta of talent: Alongside Stewie, Mist boast two bona fide scorers in Allisha Gray and Arike Ogunbowale, while Bueckers is flanked by Rickea Jackson and Dominique “Dunk Queen” Malonga. Expect a generational battle for the ages.
PWHL & NHL
🏒🤕 Sending healing vibes
The GIST: It’s hard to believe the Milano Cortina Olympics ended just over a week ago — unless you look at the PWHL and NHL injury reports. With the second half of both seasons underway, superstars from the hockey leagues find themselves sidelined by injuries sustained while competing for their countries in Milan.
🫂 PWHL standouts, Team USA and Canada captains miss time: Veteran women’s hockey legends Marie-Philip Poulin (Canada, Montréal Victoire) and the aforementioned Knight (USA, Seattle Torrent) were injured during the Games, along with Erin Ambrose (Canada, Montréal Victoire) and Kendall Coyne Schofield (USA, Minnesota Frost).
- Poulin missed one game but was back on the ice last night, while the other three landed on long-term injured reserve and will be out for at least three weeks. Not great.
☹️ Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby could return this month: Canada’s other veteran captain suffered a lower-body injury in the Olympic quarter-finals and missed the rest of the tourney, but there’s chatter that he could be back on the ice in the coming weeks. There’s also good news to report for Josh Morrissey (Canada, Winnipeg Jets) and Mikko Rantanen (Finland, Dallas Stars), who could return before the regular season ends on April 16th.
👉 Why it matters: NHL players were not permitted to play in the Olympics for the last 12 years, and the risk of injury was a major reason why. Now, some of the brightest women’s and men’s stars are sidelined as the real playoff push begins. With growth inevitably comes growing pains.
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🎓🏀 No. 1 UConn women’s basketball goes undefeated in the regular season for the first time since 2018
The perennial powerhouse wrapped up their 11th undefeated season in program history with last night’s 85–49 win over St. John’s. Crushing Big East opponents is old hat for the Huskies, who also capped off their third straight undefeated conference run with the W. Top dogs, indeed.
🏒 Seattle Torrent set U.S. women’s hockey attendance record…again
After setting the previous U.S. attendance record of 16,014 in their home opener last November, the Torrent raised the bar with their first-ever sellout, welcoming 17,335 fans for Friday’s 5–2 loss to the Toronto Sceptres — the third highest attendance total of the season and ninth in PWHL history.
- Now in its third campaign, the league has seen a surge in fan interest after the Olympics, particularly in the U.S., with StubHub reporting that PWHL ticket searches jumped nearly 50% after the gold medal game. Hey, why not forward this newsletter to a new fan? *winks*
⚽ No. 2 USWNT top No. 30 Argentina 2–0 in SheBelieves Cup opener
Captain Lindsey Heaps (née Horan) scored the opening golazo before midfielder Jaedyn Shaw doubled the score in yesterday’s win, but this international friendly felt anything but against a physical Argentina squad. One thing to keep an eye on: forward Trinity Rodman appeared to aggravate her long-term back injury in the waning minutes of the win. Not great.
❤️🩹 Iran may not participate in 2026 men’s FIFA World Cup following American, Israeli bombings in the nation
Iran’s soccer federation president is unsure whether the country’s national team will be permitted to play in the U.S. in the aftermath of this weekend’s shocking bombings. Iran is scheduled to play all three of their group stage games in the U.S., despite the fact that Iranian nationals are currently prohibited from traveling to the country under president Trump’s travel ban.
- And soccer isn’t the only sport affected by the bombings. Formula 1, which begins on March 8th, is monitoring the situation in the Middle East ahead of scheduled April races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, while FIBA has already postponed World Cup qualifiers in Lebanon and Qatar.
Presented By Unrivaled
🔥 It’s the final edition of The Heat Check, our weekly segment spotlighting the spiciest Unrivaled showdowns — and the court is absolutely scorching ahead of tonight’s semifinals. Luckily, there’s still time to snag tickets to take in all the action at the iconic Barclays Center.
💿 Vinyl BC at 👻 Phantom BC — Tonight at 7:30 p.m. ET — TNT
🤝 Hydrate, refuel, and reset
🌬️ Breeze BC at 🌧️ Mist BC — Tonight at 8:45 p.m. ET — TNT
Question of the Day
March isn’t exclusively for Madness — there’s a stellar new slate of sports coming our way this month. Which are you most excited for? Choose from the options below or reply and let us know.
Today’s email was brought to you by Alessandra Puccio, Lisa Minutillo, Lauren Tuiskula, Grace DePaull, and Charlotte Mackenzie. Fact-checking by Molly Potter and Mikaela Perez. Ops by Lisa Minutillo. Managing edits by Lauren Tuiskula and Alessandra Puccio. Head of content Ellen Hyslop.