Sports Today: March Madness, NASCAR fights, Reds arm troubles, etc.

That, of course, is terrible for the Dayton Flyers.

While there were fears UD dropping its last two games could cause the Flyers to end up in a dreaded 8-9 game, their ultimate fate appears to be worse.

RELATED: A full list of locals in the NCAA tournament

Wichita State is probably better than the actual eight and nine seeds, and the winner of UD-WSU in all likelihood will have to face Kentucky, a team with No. 1-seed talent if not quite accomplishment this season.

Archie Miller's Flyers will certainly play the hand their dealt and show up in Indianapolis ready to play, but the rest of us are allowed to howl about it for a little while because (as I referenced in my initial tourney thoughts) stories like Wichita State in 2013 and Dayton in 2015 are a major part of why the tournament is so popular.

Having them play each other in the first round – much like St. Mary’s and VCU, as a Twitter follower pointed out – means one potential party crasher is automatically gone before they get much of a chance to get their legs.

Nonetheless, Doug Gottlieb of CBS Sports is high on the Flyer’s chances even if Vegas is leaning toward the Shockers.

I’m sure the tournament will still be great, but it’s frustrating to think how much better it could be with just a few tweaks to the initial bracket.

Three of the 8-9 games involve two members of the Power 5 football conferences while the other is Arkansas of the SEC against Seton Hall of the Big East, the league that produced last year’s national champion Villanova, and another of the 7-10 games is Michigan against Oklahoma State.

Wouldn’t UM-UD and WSU-OSU provide more fun matchups? There’s even a bit of a neighborhood element there to juice things more.

At any rate, happy picking…

There were other sports over the weekend, including NASCAR – where a good ol' fight has Joey Logano and Kyle Busch among the trending topics this morning.

Busch went looking for Logano on pit road because he felt like Logano wrecked him late in Sunday’s race.

This will probably do more to race the sport’s profile than whatever new rules the sport’s leadership is cooking up next…

The Cincinnati Bengals lost another popular veteran over the weekend when Domata Peko signed with the Vikings, but they might be bringing in a name familiar to Bearcat fans.

Connor Barwin, a veteran defensive end/linebacker who is a free agent, reportedly is meeting with the team today.

The 30-year-old Detroit native has 50 career sacks, including five last season with the Eagles…

The Cincinnati Reds could be in for some bad news today as their expected Opening Day starter, Anthony DeSclafani, is scheduled for an MRI on his right elbow in the Queen City.

With Homer Bailey already out to start the season, DeSclafani was expected to be the cornerstone of the rotation, so this could be some serious double trouble for a rotation high on potential but low on proven players.

Meanwhile, former Dayton Dragon Sal Romano had another strong performance as he makes a bid to be a surprise member of the rotation himself.

Also: Bronson Arroyo made his game debut Sunday, and the veteran retired six in a row after allowing a leadoff single…

Local gems: Saturday night Springfield rallied to beat Cincinnati Oak Hills in a D-I district final, continuing a nice year for Wildcat athletics… Battle-tested Springfield is ready to compete with anybody, including Cincinnati La Salle on Wednesday night… Kaleb Romero of Mechanicsburg won his fourth state wrestling title and finished the season 52-0. The Indians also won its first team title while Graham won its 17th… Here are five things to know about Xavier heading into the tournament. And five things about UC… ICYMI, Jeremiah Bonsu penned an emotional tribute to the late Steve McElvene. 

Today’s jam: 

"Blowup the Outside World" by Soundgarden.

Seems like a pretty good tune for the bracketbusters this week.