Lehigh and Holy Cross finished at the bottom of the Patriot League's men's basketball standings this season. But the two teams essentially christened the 2026 edition of March Madness with a wild ending to their quarterfinal matchup in the conference tournament on Thursday.

Nasir Whitlock's heave from half-court gave Lehigh a 69-66 win and a spot in the Patriot League tournament semifinals. 

This story will be updated.

The 2026 World Baseball Classic begins on Thursday and Team USA will open versus Brazil on Friday at Houston's Daikin Park. The U.S. players reported to Phoenix over the weekend for training camp and will play an exhibition against the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday. 

Several U.S. players appeared on Monday's "The Pat McAfee Show," which broadcast live from Arizona for the Team USA workouts. Among those interviewed were team captain and American League MVP Aaron Judge, MVP runner-up Cal Raleigh, National League Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes, Clayton Kershaw and Bryce Harper.

[Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball league for the 2026 MLB season]

Coming off the 2026 Winter Olympics and the U.S. winning gold medals in men's and women's hockey at Milan Cortina, Harper said those achievements have motivated him and his teammates even more to win the WBC. 

"The Olympics, what an incredible thing. I'm missing the Olympics so much," Harper told McAfee. "Seeing the women's hockey, men's hockey take gold... what an incredible experience to watch them play and do their thing and represent our country."

"To take that and come into what we're doing now, it's just the swagger we need to have," he added, referring to Jack Hughes scoring the game-winner versus Canada after getting teeth knocked out. "The cool thing about baseball and the World Baseball Classic, or the Olympics, you see the culture of everything of baseball from the Dominican Republic to Japan to us, to everybody."

Team USA is the favorite to win the 2026 WBC with more stars including AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal, Bobby Witt Jr., Pete Crow-Armstrong and Kyle Schwarber on the roster. Defending champion Japan with NL MVP Shohei Ohtani and World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto is also viewed favorably, having won three tournaments. The Dominican Republic (2013 winners) and Venezuela are also considered contenders. 

Manager Mark DeRosa announced that Logan Webb will start the U.S. opener on Friday, followed by Skubal, Skenes and Nolan McLean. Skubal will face Great Britain, Skenes will pitch versus Mexico and McLean will start against Italy in Pool B play. The top two finishers will advance to the quarterfinals, also played in Houston.