Happy Friday and thank you for joining us for the weekend preview edition of the sports curious podcast. I'm your host Amy Butchansig Fried and we have everything you need to know headed into this first weekend of March madness, which has just been of course insane. Now the women's tournament starts today and we have Stanford, South Carolina and LSU playing today.
For more on the women's tournament, we did a quick video in our Instagram story, breaking down the tournament and giving you a little bit of heads up of what's happening. but that should be great games today. And of course we have Iowa, teams like Notre Dame playing tomorrow on Saturday. The men started yesterday and continue on through today as well. Before we dive into the men, let's talk really quickly about this great strategic partnership for the women's tournament.
So Epsilon and Open Doors forged a strategic partnership to promote equity for the female student in the Women's D1 Basketball Championship. So their whole thing is about a work together to win initiative. And the campaign centers around Epsilon's core value of collaboration and requires players who opt in to make an Instagram post detailing what teamwork means to them.
So this NIL deal or name image like this deal is eligible or open to anyone who is playing in the Women's March Madness Tournament, which is really awesome. Each player who accepts this offer will receive $500 for their message in addition to free career planning resources and mentorship opportunities for participating players. So it's cool to see both in the men's and women's tournaments, you're seeing these name image likeness deals that have come through, they're open to everyone.
So moving on to the men's tournament, well, like I said, it began yesterday. And while most games went as expected, there are a few big upsets like number 11, Oregon over number six, South Carolina, number 14, Oakland beating number three, Kentucky, and Duquesne beating BYU. Now, as of this recording, Only 0 .0396 % of perfect brackets remain, which means there are not many of you, obviously.
Diving into that Duquesne game, it's LeBron James' former high school coach, Keith Dambrot, who was the coach of Duquesne. And Dambrot will retire after this season. His team pulled off their remarkable win over BYU, which is a first for the school in 55 years. First win in March, in 55 years. And this, of course, came after LeBron gifted the team shoes. So tomorrow.
So today we will be watching Grambling, who won their first four, which means they were on the edge of the tournament and they had to play to win a game to get into the big dance itself. And it was their first ever tournament victory and they'll be playing Purdue today, which is number one ranked and could be a challenge for them, but never say never as we've seen. If you want more March Madness, check out our March Madness headquarters at lastnightsgame .com.
And of course this week's podcast, which is what you need to know about March Madness. Now one quick story before we go. the Los Angeles Dodgers fired Shohei Otani's interpreter, Ipe Mitsuwara, after he was accused of massive theft by Otani's lawyers. So he allegedly used Otani's money for gambling bets with an alleged illegal bookmaker who was currently under federal investigation. So this lead came from the FBI, not an MLB investigation.
Allegedly, Mitsuwara, Well, he was wiring money from Otani's bank account to this bookmaker. And that's where the feds found this sort of red flag for Otani. Turns out it was his translator who has been with him since he broke into the league in 2018. So this is just the beginning of this one. I think we're just scratching the surface. So stay tuned for more on this. For anything else you want, we talked about today, lastnightsgame .com. Have a fantastic weekend to have. Enjoy the basketball.
And of course, hope you bracket. is at least having a good time. At least you're having a good time with your bracket, even if it may be busted.