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...
Yaxel Lendeborg stars as top-seeded Michigan beats Alabama in Sweet 16
CHICAGO — Yaxel Lendeborg had 23 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists in a dazzling all-around performance, and Michigan beat Alabama, 90-77, on Friday night to advance to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in five years. Trey McKenney and Elliot Cadeau each scored 17...
Caleb Foster steadies Duke in return as Blue Devils beat St. John’s, advance to Elite Eight
WASHINGTON — Caleb Foster returned from a broken foot and rescued Duke’s national title hopes, helping the top-seeded Blue Devils rally from a 10-point second-half deficit to beat St. John’s, 80-75, on Friday night and advance to the Elite Eight. Playing less than three weeks after surgery on his left...
Beyond the Bylines: Pirates’ Opening Day dud, Penguins thriller, Aaron Rodgers intrigue, Bill Murray moviesVideo
In this week’s “Beyond the Bylines,” Tim Benz and Joe Starkey debate the Pittsburgh Pirates’ season-opening loss to the Mets. They also dive into the Sweet 16, the Penguins’ crucial victory in Ottawa, and they kick around the theory that Aaron Rodgers’ latest contract delay may be about money. Tim...
9th-seeded Iowa continues improbable March run, beating Nebraska to reach Elite 8
HOUSTON — Alvaro Folgueiras converted a critical three-point play when Nebraska only had four defenders on the floor, and ninth-seeded Iowa continued its unpredictable NCAA Tournament run under first-year coach Ben McCollum, beating Nebraska 77-71 in a South Region semifinal on Thursday night. Bennett Stirtz scored 20 points and Folgueiras...
Kaufman-Renn tips in game-winner to send No. 2 seed Purdue past 11th-seeded Texas in Sweet 16
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Trey Kaufman-Renn has heard coach Matt Painter remind the Boilermakers so many times during his four years at Purdue that it’s not always the first shot of a possession that matters most. “It’s those tip-ins at the end of the games,” Kaufman-Renn recalled of the message....
Longtime coaching friends Dusty May of Michigan and Nate Oats of Alabama to meet in Sweet 16
CHICAGO — Michigan coach Dusty May remembered when he was an assistant at Eastern Michigan watching 6 a.m. practices at Romulus High near Detroit. At the time, Nate Oats was coaching boys basketball and teaching physical education at the school. The two forged a friendship that’s going strong 20 years...
Sweet 16/Elite 8 breakdown: Could we see an all-Pittsburgh coaching matchup in the Elite 8?
One week into March Madness, and there isn’t as much chaos within people’s brackets as we normally see. The transfer portal, NIL and sprawling power conferences have a lot to do with that. The two biggest surprises still alive are an SEC school in 11th-seeded Texas and a Big Ten...
