NCAABB

5:01 PM ET Auburn sophomore Walker Kessler will enter the 2022 NBA draft and forgo his remaining college eligibility by hiring an agent, he told ESPN on Sunday. “I am fully committed to the NBA draft,” Kessler said. “I am not planning on returning to college.” Kessler, ESPN’s No. 24 prospect, was awarded both Naismith

11:57 AM ET Thad Matta is back in coaching — and back at Butler. The Bulldogs announced Sunday they were hiring Matta as their next head coach. Matta, who spent the last year as an associate athletic director at Indiana, replaces LaVall Jordan, who was fired Friday after five seasons as Butler’s head coach. “The

8:00 AM ET The support group for 66 fan bases has returned. The Duke Blue Devils and Villanova Wildcats were the latest to join the March Madness list that will ultimately include every team but one, the group of NCAA tournament teams destined to end otherwise fine seasons with a loss. Either the Kansas Jayhawks

3:00 AM ET Pete ThamelESPN NEW ORLEANS — As Mike Krzyzewski limped off the Superdome court at 10:07 p.m. local time Saturday night, he clasped the left hand of his wife, Mickie, with his right hand. As they reached the threshold where the exit of the arena floor ends and the tunnel to the locker

1:38 AM ET NEW ORLEANS — After the last game of his 47-year career, Mike Krzyzewski walked to the podium in a makeshift media room at the Superdome and spoke after Duke’s 81-77 loss to North Carolina in the Final Four – exactly four weeks after the Tar Heels spoiled his last home game at

11:38 PM ET ESPN staff The storylines from Duke and North Carolina‘s first meeting in the Final Four were aplenty in one of the most anticipated matchups of the NCAA tournament. The first Final Four meeting between the Tobacco Road rivals lived up to the hype in UNC coach Hubert Davis’ first Final Four as

11:12 PM ET NEW ORLEANS — One could make the argument that no game in college basketball history featured the pregame hype of Saturday night’s Duke vs. North Carolina Final Four contest. Given the historic ramifications of the first NCAA tournament game in the sport’s greatest rivalry — a spot in the title game at

11:42 PM ET Pete ThamelESPN NEW ORLEANS — North Carolina star big man Armando Bacot injured his right ankle Saturday night in the second half of the Final Four matchup with Duke — but was able to return as the No. 8 Tar Heels squeezed past the rival Blue Devils 81-77 to secure a spot

11:47 PM ET Jeremy WillisESPN.com Coach K’s career is officially over. The Duke Blue Devils‘ season ended with a loss to the North Carolina Tar Heels in the Final Four of the 2022 NCAA tournament. With that, the legendary career of Mike Krzyzewski, who announced in June that he would retire following the season, comes

8:08 PM ET The Kansas Jayhawks won the first Final Four matchup to book a spot in Monday’s NCAA tournament national title game. KU beat the Villanova Wildcats, 81-65. With a couple of monster dunks, Kansas senior forward David McCormack had a career night with a season-high 25 points and 9 rebounds. Ochai Agbaji added

8:12 PM ET NEW ORLEANS — Despite his team’s arrival as the only No. 1 seed in the Final Four, Bill Self’s pursuit of his second national championship had been tucked into the corner of a national semifinals that had minimized the weekend’s opening act and any storylines attached to it. And even if the

8:15 PM ET NEW ORLEANS — The Kansas Jayhawks got the 2022 Final Four off to a smoking start on Saturday night, running out to a 10-0 lead and keeping the Villanova Wildcats at arm’s length the rest of the way in an 81-65 win at the Caesars Superdome. The victory puts KU in Monday

7:16 PM ET Associated Press ALBANY, N.Y. — Albany men’s basketball coach Dwayne Killings will serve a five-game suspension next season and pay a $25,000 fine for “inappropriate physical contact” with a player, the university announced Saturday. The university’s investigation concluded that it was an isolated incident. Killings admitted his mistake, apologized and will keep

6:33 PM ET Associated Press PITTSBURGH — Julius Pegues, the first Black basketball player at the University of Pittsburgh, has died after being treated for cancer. He was 86. The school said Pegues died this week at John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The 6-foot-3 forward joined Pitt in 1954 and played

Manu Ginobili, Tim Hardaway, Swin Cash, Lindsay Whalen among 13-member Hall of Fame class A star-studded 13-member Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2022 includes Manu Ginobili, Tim Hardaway, Swin Cash, Lindsay Whalen, Bob Huggins, George Karl and Marianne Stanley.

4:44 PM ET The calendar has turned to April, but we’ve reached the penultimate night of March Madness. Saturday’s tipoff of the 2022 Final Four in New Orleans features the bluest of blue-blood matchups and ticket prices to match. Between the Kansas Jayhawks, Villanova Wildcats, Duke Blue Devils and North Carolina Tar Heels, the schools

2:18 PM ET Andrew LopezESPN Four-time NBA champion Manu Ginobili, five-time NBA All-Star Tim Hardaway, three-time WNBA champion and two-time gold medalist Swin Cash, and five-time WNBA All-Star and three-time NBA champion Lindsay Whalen highlighted the 13-member Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2022 that was announced Saturday. Other honorees included two-time NCAA

7:00 AM ET The men’s version of the 2022 Final Four brings a heavy dose of the familiar, with just a touch of the unique. When the Duke Blue Devils, Kansas Jayhawks, North Carolina Tar Heels and Villanova Wildcats descend upon the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on Saturday, it will be a confluence of