| It all comes down to this | | 68 teams entered the NCAA's annual March Madness tournament and now it is time for a champion to be crowned. Tonight's title game will be a battle of top-ranked teams when Gonzaga takes on the University of North Carolina. While this year marked Gonzaga's first Final Four appearance, don't be fooled: This is not a David vs. Goliath matchup . Gonzaga is the best defensive team in the nation, and one of the best offensive teams, too — though UNC coach Roy Williams does have the edge in experience coaching the big game. Whether this year's game can live up the wild finish of 2016's championship, which UNC lost to Villanova, remains to be seen. Tip-off is set for 9:20 p.m. ET on CBS. | | Get ready for a Supreme Court showdown | | Shortly after Senate Democrats secured the 41 votes necessary to filibuster Trump's Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, a Senate panel recommended his nomination be sent to the full Senate. It may get ugly, but Gorsuch is still likely to make it onto the Supreme Court. How might you ask? Well, Republicans say they'll just change the filibuster rules. Doing that will have a profound impact on the high court, the Senate and the 2018 elections. Republicans and Democrats have been angrily debating Gorsuch, who Trump picked to fill the seat vacated by Justice Antonin Scalia's death, in part because Dems are still seething at the GOP's refusal to consider President Obama's choice of Merrick Garland last year. Republicans call Gorsuch a stellar jurist. Dems say he's a tool of right-wing zealots and corporate profiteers. | | The latest on the attack in St. Petersburg | | An explosion rocked a subway train in St. Petersburg, Russia on Monday, leaving 11 dead and dozens injured. The cause of the blast is still unknown, though Metro stations across Russia's second-largest city were shut down following the midafternoon blast. Photos and video posted on social media from the scene showed a smoke-filled platform, a damaged subway train and people lying on the ground. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was in the city at the time of the blast, expressed his condolences to the victims and said he was determined to find those responsible. "The causes of this event have not been determined yet," Putin said. "Certainly, we will consider all possibilities: common, criminal, but first of all of a terrorist nature." | | Baseball is back | | America's longtime national pastime is back in full force. After three games Sunday, the rest of Major League Baseball's 30 teams started, or are set to start, their 2017 seasons Monday with games being played throughout the day. Sunday's action featured plenty of excitement to kick off the season, including two home runs by San Francisco Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner and walk-off wins by the Arizona Diamondbacks and St. Louis Cardinals. Today may be game one of 162, but here's how our baseball experts see the upcoming season unfolding. |  | | The problem with Ivanka and Jared being so unbelievably rich | | Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner have a problem. The first daughter and her husband are trusted advisers of President Trump, but experts say after a White House data dump Friday revealed just how much money the couple still make from their massive real estate and investment empire (worth as much as $700 million) they can't advise him on trade, tax reform and Wall Street deregulation without major conflicts of interest. So, you know, small issues. Think of it this way: Ivanka has extensive international clothing, shoe and accessories businesses. That means she and Jared will have to recuse themselves from trade issues and discussions involving these products specifically and textiles more generally, anywhere in the world that may touch on her businesses. The president is counting on Jared and Ivanka, but given their enormous wealth and far-reaching conflicts, it remains to be seen if they can perform their duties effectively — and legally. | | This is a compilation of stories from across USA TODAY. | |
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