No. 1 overall seed Duke survives 16-seed Siena
GREENVILLE, S.C. — For most of Thursday, Duke looked nothing like the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. Not with 16th-seeded Siena challenging the Blue Devils at every turn, determined to pull off the rarest of March Madness upsets. And Duke barely avoided exactly that. The Blue Devils...
NCAA Tournament East preview: No. 1 overall seed Duke motivated by last year’s Final Four loss
GREENVILLE, S.C. — Duke enters the NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 overall seed and looking to avenge last season’s missed opportunity. The Blue Devils (32-2) were bounced in the Final Four by Houston despite a team that included five future NBA players, including three lottery picks and two players...
NCAA Tournament West preview: Gonzaga still searching for elusive championship
PORTLAND, Ore. — In a season of highs and a few lows, Gonzaga is back in the NCAA Tournament and still looking for that elusive title game breakthrough. The Bulldogs (30-3) are riding 27 straight tournament appearances. They’ve twice made it to the national championship game — in 2017 and...
NCAA Tournament South preview: Houston fights the urge to look ahead to possible Florida rematch
OKLAHOMA CITY — Houston could eventually go back home for a rematch of last season’s national championship game it lost to Florida. The South regional final would be played at the Toyota Center in Houston, just a few miles from the Fertitta Center where the Cougars play their home games....
NCAA Tournament Midwest preview: Fresh off 1st NCAA Tournament win, Howard braces for No. 1 seed Michigan
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Howard coach Kenny Blakeney had a blast the last time he saw Michigan play. Following the Bison’s home win against North Carolina Central on Feb. 21, Blakeney and his family ventured over to Capital One Arena in Washington to catch Michigan’s highly anticipated showdown against Duke, which...
Prairie View A&M beats Lehigh in First Four for 1st March Madness win
DAYTON, Ohio — Dontae Horne scored 25 points, and Cory Wells had 19 points and 11 rebounds as Prairie View A&M earned its first NCAA Tournament victory 67-55 over Lehigh on Wednesday night in the First Four. Lance Williams added 10 points for the Panthers (19-17), making their third tournament...
Jeannette grad Ethan Berginc leads WPIAL contingent at NCAA wrestling championships
The start of March Madness officially gets underway at noon Thursday. But so does the NCAA Division I wrestling championships at Cleveland, and the WPIAL will be well represented. There are 50 wrestlers from Pennsylvania who are entered in the tournament, 21 from the WPIAL, including Jeannette grad Ethan Berginc....
Bryan Hodgson’s NCAA Tournament homecoming filled with painful, uplifting memories for South Florida coach
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Bryan Hodgson’s celebrated homecoming comes with both deeply painful and joyously uplifting reminders of South Florida’s full-circle journey in preparing to make his NCAA Tournament coaching debut not far from his Jamestown, N.Y., roots. There are the mental and physical scars — two burn marks on the...
Transfer portal means March Madness at multiple schools for some
Wisconsin guard Nick Boyd’s NCAA Tournament experiences have run the gamut at his previous schools. Boyd reached the Final Four with Florida Atlantic in 2023, endured an overtime loss in the round of 64 with the Owls a year later and then lost in the First Four with San Diego...
3-point attempts keep ticking up heading into March Madness
No team has made more 3-pointers, nor launched more, than Alabama in the past four seasons. And nothing will shake coach Nate Oats from believing they’re at the core of building a winner in modern basketball. Teams might struggle to match the Crimson Tide’s sheer volume heading into March Madness,...
Busting the Bracket: NCAA basketball analyst Mike DeCourcy helps you win your office pool
Sporting News columnist Mike DeCourcy joins me once a week to talk about the Steelers and the NFL on our “Friday Football” livestream. But during college basketball season, DeCourcy also does a lot of work for the Big Ten Network and Fox. He joins me annually on the “Breakfast With...
Howard gets its 1st March Madness win, holding off UMBC in First Four
DAYTON, Ohio — Bryce Harris had 19 points and 14 rebounds, and he sank a turnaround jumper with 13 seconds remaining that sent Howard to its first NCAA Tournament victory in program history, 86-83 over UMBC in the First Four on Tuesday night. Ose Okojie scored a career-high 23 points...
March of the freshmen: NCAA Tournament loaded with top NBA prospects
It was early in the final week before March Madness when BYU’s AJ Dybantsa opened his Big 12 Tournament run by scoring 40 points, breaking a freshman single-game record held by NBA great Kevin Durant. “I’m just trying to win games,” Dybantsa said afterward. By Selection Sunday, Darius Acuff Jr....
Alabama’s Aden Holloway, the Tide’s No. 2 scorer, arrested on a felony drug charge
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama guard Aden Holloway was arrested on a felony drug charge Monday, just days before the start of the NCAA Tournament, authorities said. Holloway, 21, was arrested after agents with the West Alabama Narcotics Task Force searched a residence near Alabama’s campus and “recovered more than a...
League tournaments can be a grind. That could impact which teams advance in March Madness
Purdue had just battled through the Big Ten Tournament, beating three straight NCAA Tournament teams — the last a No. 1 seed in Michigan — to claim a grinding championship in Chicago. “Obviously playing four games in four days is something we haven’t done before,” longtime coach Matt Painter said....
Minus any Pittsburgh teams, college basketball fans can still find local connections to NCAA Tournament
The 2026 NCAA Tournament field might be bereft of Pittsburgh teams, but the same couldn’t be said of connections to the city. Players and coaches with local roots, plus transfers from Pittsburgh-area teams, can be found all across the 68-team bracket, with First Four showdowns getting underway Tuesday and Wednesday....
Kennesaw State, Texas, NC State and Queens all notching firsts in the NCAA Tournament West Regon
Amir Abdur-Rahim will always hold a special place in Kennesaw State’s basketball history. Not only was he the first coach to lead the Owls to the NCAA Tournament, Abdur-Rahim set an example by the way he lived his life and coached his players. So when Kennesaw State reached the tournament...
Unbeaten UConn joined by UCLA, Texas and South Carolina as No. 1 seeds for women’s NCAA Tournament
UConn was awarded the No. 1 overall seed in the women’s NCAA Tournament on Sunday and enters March Madnes s needing six more victories to complete the seventh undefeated season in school history. The Huskies (34-0) are looking for their 13th national title and becoming the first team to repeat...
Tim Benz: VCU hoping to benefit from Pittsburgh pixie dust after A-10 Tournament winVideo
The coach from Philadelphia, whose team wears black and gold, beat the Flyers (with a guy named L’Etang) at PPG Paints Arena to win a basketball championship. A lot of that fails to compute, right? But there was no such confusion as to how coach Phil Martelli Jr. and his...
Duke, Arizona, Mich, Florida get top seeding for March Madness, Miami (Ohio) squeaks in as 11 seedVideo
Duke received the top overall seed for March Madness on Sunday, followed by Arizona, Michigan and Florida, each of whom would love a repeat of last season when all four No. 1s made it all the way to the Final Four. The top line was the most predictable thing to...
VCU silences Dayton supporters, wins Atlantic 10 tourney at PPG Paints Arena
As the confetti began to fly Sunday afternoon at PPG Paints Arena following No. 2 seed VCU’s triumphant 70-62 victory against No. 4 Dayton in the Atlantic 10 men’s basketball tournament championship game, a familiar figure silently thumped his chest. Phil Martelli Sr. is Saint Joseph’s former longtime coach with...
Duke edges Virginia for 2nd straight ACC Tournament title under Jon Scheyer
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Isaiah Evans scored 20 points, Cameron Boozer made two free throws with 3.9 seconds to seal the game and No. 1 Duke defeated No. 10 Virginia, 74-70, on Saturday night for its second straight ACC Tournament championship under coach Jon Scheyer and its third title in the...
Brayden Burries scores 21 as Arizona holds off Houston in Big 12 final rematch
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Arizona guard Jaden Bradley had just emerged from the locker room, his left wrist tightly taped after a collision left him holding it in pain. Koa Peat was mired in foul trouble, and Houston was making a big run in the Big 12 Tournament title game...
Zuby Ejiofor leads St. John’s to rout of UConn for 2nd straight Big East tourney title
NEW YORK — Zuby Ejiofor had seven blocks, nine rebounds and three steals to anchor a tenacious defensive performance that carried No. 13 St. John’s to its second straight Big East Tournament championship Saturday night with a 72-52 blowout of sixth-ranked UConn at Madison Square Garden. Ejiofor and Bryce Hopkins...
A-10 Tournament notebook: Duquesne’s Dru Joyce III hopes team gets NIT call
Duquesne is among a handful of teams the Atlantic 10 is pushing for inclusion into the National Invitation Tournament’s 32-team field, which will be revealed Sunday night. Coach Dru Joyce III welcomes the opportunity. “I haven’t talked to the players, but I spoke to each of our coaches, individually, and...
