South Carolina snaps UConn’s 54-game win streak in NCAA semis
PHOENIX — Ta’Niya Latson scored 16 and Agot Makeer added 14 points and South Carolina played stifling defense to beat UConn, 62-48, on Friday night, ending the Huskies’ 54-game winning streak and advancing to the women’s NCAA Tournament championship game. The Gamecocks will face the winner of Texas and UCLA...
Powerhouses Arizona, Michigan meet in Final Four in matchup with championship feel
INDIANAPOLIS — More than 24 hours before the first shot flew at a Final Four that really feels like a five-team affair, Arizona already had a win. The Wildcats kept their coach from bolting to that fifth team — North Carolina. Tommy Lloyd dropped the news of the contract extension...
Illinois tries to erase memories of previous matchups with UConn heading into Final Four
INDIANAPOLIS — Illinois coach Brad Underwood doesn’t need any reminders about what happened the last two times his team faced UConn. He can just plug in the game tapes, rewind them and watch them again. Back in November, the Huskies led wire-to-wire in a 74-61 victory. Two years ago in...
President Trump signs executive order that aims to stabilize college sports
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday aimed at restoring “order, fairness and stability” to college athletics. The order directs federal agencies to bolster the effectiveness of key rules on transferring, eligibility and pay-for-play by evaluating whether violations of such rules render a university unfit for federal grants and...
Height, size got Illinois, UConn, Arizona, Michigan to the Final Four
INDIANAPOLIS — Tarris Reed Jr. sat at his locker Thursday, fielding questions about his run as the interior-scoring, rebound-snagging force in UConn’s latest Final Four push. Yet he wasn’t the main attraction. That’s because across the room, an even bigger gaggle of reporters waited for freshman guard Braylon Mullins —...
Keaton Wagler leads deep group of talented freshmen still putting their imprint on March Madness
INDIANAPOLIS — Keaton Wagler’s high school basketball transcript contained everything a college coach would want in a recruit. The 6-foot-6 sharp-shooting Illinois guard helped Shawnee Mission Northwest High School in Kansas win its first two state titles, one coming with a perfect season. He won a school record 80 games...
Michigan starter Elliot Cadeau joins teammates at Final Four after accidental exposure to nuts
INDIANAPOLIS — Michigan starting point guard Elliot Cadeau rejoined his teammates for the Final Four and said Thursday his allergic reaction that required hospitalization a day earlier was the result of an accidental exposure to nuts. “I just ate something I was allergic to,” the junior said as he sat...
Kansas coach Bill Self is returning for a 24th season with the Jayhawks
LAWRENCE, Kan. — Kansas basketball coach Bill Self is returning for a 24th season with the Jayhawks. The program released a statement from Self on Wednesday confirming his return for another year with the program he has led to 21 regular-season conference championships, four Final Fours and a pair of...
Geno Auriemma takes undefeated UConn team to Final Four for 9th time
Geno Auriemma is taking an undefeated UConn team into the women’s Final Four for the ninth time. This group, while extremely talented like the rest, is a bit different than the previous ones. Auriemma recalls those earlier teams with AP Player of the Year winners Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Tina...
Reed, Demary hoping to help UConn win title with transfers again
STORRS, Conn. — In the days and weeks after Silas Demary Jr. arrived on the next stage of his basketball career, he sought out the one UConn men’s player who was navigating a similar path coming from another power conference school. The year before Demary left Georgia to try to...
Texas’ Schaefer chasing an elusive title in 4th women’s Final Four
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas coach Vic Schaefer has come agonizingly close to winning a national championship. Close as in three previous trips to the Final Four. And two title game appearances, including one lost on a last-second 3-pointer. The 65-year-old Schaefer is close again. Only he’s over being close in...
Underwood waited 26 years for D-I job, now has Illinois in Final Four
Illinois’ Brad Underwood coached for 26 years before landing his first Division I head coaching job. Now in Year 39, the well-traveled 62-year-old finally is heading to the Final Four, where the Fighting Illini meet UConn on Saturday. He’s doing it in what he’s long referred to as his dream...
Nebraska-Missouri and Penn State-Kentucky volleyball matches are set for Wrigley Field in September
CHICAGO — Wrigley Field will host a women’s college volleyball doubleheader to highlight the Big Ten/SEC Volleyball Challenge Week in September. The conferences announced Monday that Nebraska will play Missouri, and Penn State will meet Kentucky at the home of the Chicago Cubs on Sept. 6. Matchups between Big Ten...
Women’s Final Four a repeat of last season, headlined by undefeated reigning national champion UConn
The women’s Final Four is on repeat. No. 1 seeds UConn, UCLA, Texas and South Carolina are in the Final Four for the second straight season, just the second time the same teams have reached the sport’s final weekend in consecutive years. Only the matchups and location will be different...
Mullins’ Miracle: How does his shot for UConn measure up to other famous ones in March Madness?
WASHINGTON — A couple of days ago, Braylon Mullins was a UConn freshman whose name carried weight mostly among the true diehards — college basketball junkies and Indiana high school hoops enthusiasts. Now he’s a part of NCAA Tournament lore. That’s what can happen at this time of year. “One...
Eyes of Texas on women’s Final Four again after Longhorns beat Michigan in regional final
FORT WORTH, Texas — Madison Booker had 19 points and seven rebounds, fifth-year senior guard Rori Harmon had 13 assists and Texas is going to the women’s Final Four for the second year in a row after a 77-41 rout over Michigan in the Fort Worth Regional 3 championship game...
Freshman Koa Peat helps carry Arizona into the Final Four of March Madness
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Koa Peat has been a winner throughout his basketball career. He won four state titles in high school in Arizona and became the first player to win four international gold medals at the junior level. So when Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd was trying to entice Peat...
March Madness: Here’s a storyline to watch about each of the Final Four teams in the men’s field
Arizona, Michigan and Duke had looked like a clear top tier in college basketball as conference play began. All three spent time atop the AP Top 25 and went on to claim a No. 1 seed in March Madness. Yet only the Wildcats and Wolverines have reached the sport’s biggest...
Another late collapse ends season for favored Duke
WASHINGTON — Cayden Boozer tried to make one more pass that would seal the win for Duke. It turned out to be a mistake that cost the Blue Devils their season. Boozer’s turnover in the final seconds led to Braylon Mullins’ 3-pointer that gave UConn a 73-72 win over the...
Illinois plays underdog at men’s Final Four
All that talent at Arizona and Michigan. All that momentum and good vibes at UConn. And somebody has to play the part of the unheralded “little guy.” At the Final Four next weekend, that role belongs, improbably, to Illinois. In a sign of the times, the Illini — a Big...
Mullins Madness! Freshman’s 35-footer gives UConn a 73-72 win over Duke and a Final Four spotVideo
WASHINGTON — Braylon Mullins retrieved a loose ball near midcourt and suddenly, improbably, UConn had a chance to win. As the frantic final seconds unfolded, Dan Hurley figured a timeout would do little good. “It just felt like the window where you’ve just got to let March Madness take over,”...
Michigan rolls past Tennessee, into Final Four
CHICAGO — Yaxel Lendeborg scored 27 points, Elliot Cadeau had 10 assists and Michigan rolled into the Final Four, overwhelming Tennessee for a 95-62 victory in the NCAA Tournament on Sunday. Morez Johnson Jr. added 12 points for top-seeded Michigan, which posted its 11th victory of at least 30 points...
Arizona reaches 1st Final Four in 25 years with win over Purdue
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Arizona is headed back to the Final Four for the first time in 25 years after the top-seeded Wildcats got 20 points from freshman Koa Peat to beat Purdue, 79-64, in the NCAA Tournament’s West Region final Saturday night. After years of disappointment in March, coach...
Illinois powers its way to its first Final Four in 21 years, beating Iowa
HOUSTON — Freshman Keaton Wagler scored 25 points, and Illinois ended Iowa’s underdog March Madness run by dominating in the frontcourt, beating the Hawkeyes, 71-59, on Saturday to advance to the Final Four for the first time since 2005. This will be the sixth trip to the Final Four for...
Buzzer sounds nonstop for about 7 minutes, causing delay in Iowa-Illinois March Madness game
HOUSTON — A buzzer malfunction caused a delay — a very loud, very unpleasant delay — of about 10 minutes in the first half of the NCAA Tournament’s South Region final between Iowa and Illinois on Saturday night. When the buzzer sounded out of a media timeout with 7:43 left...
