Wings are team to watch after Fudd goes first in WNBA Draft; Champions League quarterfinals return

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🏀 Five things to know Tuesday

1. Azzi Fudd is reunited with Paige Bueckers, and UCLA sets two records at WNBA Draft. With a selection that will make the Wings a team to be reckoned with, Dallas selected Fudd with the No. 1 draft pick a year after selecting Bueckers with 2025’s top pick. The selection reunited the UConn stars, who last July confirmed they’ve been in a relationship. Overall, UCLA set records with five first-round selections and six players selected overall. The biggest shock of the night was when the Valkyries traded Flau’jae Johnson to the Storm minutes after the selection. (You can probably guess who our Jack Maloney has among his winners and losers of the draft.)
2. Our final thoughts on the 2026 Masters. Rory McIlroy started this year’s run at Augusta National in excellent form, and despite a stumble on Moving Day and a charge from Scottie Scheffler on Sunday he was able to recover and earn the green jacket for a second straight year. Give our Masters takeaways a read to get our final thoughts on the first major of the year.
3. The NBA Play-In Tournament begins. A pair of play-in tournament games go down tonight, with the Heat facing the Hornets and the Trail Blazers taking on the Suns. We have a full slate of expert predictions of how the full bracket for the NBA Playoffs will play out.
4. Elite NFL Draft prospect Rueben Bain’s fatal car accident comes to light. Bain, a pass rusher out of Miami, is projected to go in the Top 10 of the NFL Draft. However, news of a 2024 car accident that left one of four passengers in Bain’s car dead surfaced on Monday. Teams are now doing due diligence on Bain ahead of the draft.
5. Champions League action returns. Two quarterfinal second-leg matches take place this afternoon. We have a look at what to expect from Liverpool vs. Paris Saint-Germain and Atlético Madrid vs. Barcelona. In preparation for both matches, which stream live on Paramount+, take a look at our UEFA Champions League power rankings and burning questions ahead of Tuesday and Wednesday’s quarterfinal matches.

🔠 Do not miss this: Grading the WNBA Draft

The WNBA Draft went down on Monday night. The Wings kicked things off by taking UConn guard Azzi Fudd with the No. 1 overall pick. Fudd is the beneficiary of the new collective bargaining agreement and is set to earn $500,000 in 2026 and $646,360 by the final year of her deal. By contrast, 2025 No. 1 overall pick Paige Bueckers made $78,831, and a supermax contract — the biggest salary in league history to that point — was $249,244.

While Fudd is in a great spot and deserves plenty of attention as the No. 1 overall pick, only one pick on Monday received an A+ in our draft grades: Awa Fam Thian, who was taken third overall by the Storm.

• Jack Maloney: “The 19-year-old Fam, who has been playing professionally for Valencia in her native Spain, has the most potential of anyone in this class and was a candidate to go No. 1 overall. That she fell to No. 3 is a major win for the Storm, who will begin a rebuild this season. Fam is an excellent athlete, interior finisher and passer, and will be a great fit in the frontcourt next to Dominique Malonga, the No. 2 pick in last year’s draft. Plus, Ezi Magbegor‘s return in free agency will ensure that Fam can be brought along slowly, as Malonga was last season.”

Read more about Fam and why she has so much potential.

⚾ Topsy-turvy nature of early-season MLB turnarounds

Small sample sizes are the enemy of analysis, so early-season power rankings can be misleading. But each week that passes gives more information on players and teams as small sample sizes evolve into larger trends. Unfortunately, the latest edition of our MLB Power Rankings still faces something of a problem as teams that were hot early have cooled, and many teams with disastrous starts have turned around. In fact, when the latest rankings were released on Monday, 24 of 30 MLB teams were within three games of .500.

Those teams hovering near .500 include the Mets and Yankees, who both entered Monday in the midst of five-game losing skids, leading to the question of which New York team fans should be more concerned about. But, as Matt Snyder wrote in the latest MLB Power Rankings, there are some teams that seeme to be trending toward the positive recent bounces taken by teams such as the Padres, Athletics, Orioles and Diamondbacks.

• Snyder: “Might some teams be in the process of a similar bounce? The Mariners started the season a woeful 4-9, but have won three straight now. The Red Sox started 2-8, but have now won four of five. The Tigers lost five in a row to fall to 4-9, but swept a three-game series over the weekend.
  “It can happen awfully quickly. It’s one of the many reasons the regular season in this sport can at times crush your will to live but also give you an extra spring in your step for weeks at a time. There are times you’ll feel like ‘we’re never gonna win again’ and others when the group text is flying high.”

🏈 NFL Draft madness as a franchise-changing night nears

We may be 10 days away from the start of the 2026 NFL Draft, but there is plenty to consider as a night that will change not only the lives of draftees, but of franchises, fast approaches. From every team’s most desired NFL Draft do-over — my Bills missing out on Cal‘s Aaron Rodgers in 2005 still stings — to the 10 biggest draft busts since 1990.

Mike Renner’s three-round 2026 NFL mock draft suggests as many as 20 players are in consideration for the top 10. We also have a look at the biggest need for every NFL team ahead of the draft, which five NFC teams must ace the draft and Ryan Wilson’s final NFL Draft Big Board.

👍👎 The best (and not-so-best) of the rest

📺 What we’re watching Tuesday

⚽ UEFA Champions League: Barcelona at Atletico Madrid, 3 p.m. on Paramount+
⚽ UEFA Champions League: Paris Saint-Germain at Liverpool, 3 p.m. on Paramount+
⚾ Cubs at Phillies, 6:40 p.m. on TBS
🏒 Capitals at Blue Jackets, 7 p.m. on ESPN
🏀 NBA Play-In: Heat at Hornets, 7:30 p.m. on Prime Video
🏒 Penguins at Blues, 9:30 p.m. on ESPN
🏀 NBA Play-In: Trail Blazers at Suns, 10 p.m. on Prime Video
⚽ Women’s International Friendly: Japan at United States, 10 p.m. on TNT