2:11 PM ET Kelly CohenESPN Two NCAA tournament stalwarts will be missing from the Big Dance this year. For the first time since 1976, neither Duke nor Kentucky is part of the tournament. That’s a whopping 45 years. For context, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne founded Apple and released the first Apple computer
NCAABB
2:33 PM ET Sister Jean is headed back to March Madness. Loyola-Chicago confirmed Tuesday that Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, the 101-year-old chaplain for the school’s basketball team, will be in attendance Friday when the Ramblers open the NCAA tournament against Georgia Tech in Indianapolis. The Ramblers won the Missouri Valley Conference championship and are the
12:25 PM ET In 2003, the NCAA tournament selection committee erroneously scheduled BYU to potentially play a Sunday game in the second weekend, timing that violated the Mormon school’s policy that prohibits competition on Sundays. At the time, the message from the committee was that it would not happen again. On Sunday, however, the committee
12:34 PM ET Associated Press Gonzaga and Baylor spent almost the entire season holding down the top two spots in the Top 25, so it makes sense they’d hold down a bunch of spots on The Associated Press All-America teams. The Bulldogs’ Corey Kispert and the Bears’ Jared Butler led the way with first-team nods
11:23 AM ET Richard Pitino will be unemployed for less than one day. Pitino, who was fired by Minnesota on Monday night, is expected to be named the next head coach at New Mexico, sources told ESPN. An official announcement is expected soon. Pitino spent eight seasons at Minnesota, going to two NCAA tournaments. The
Mar 15, 2021 Tony Bennett’s five fellow NBA alumni coaching in the 2021 NCAA tournament can only hope Bennett has started a trend. When his Virginia Cavaliers became college basketball’s most recent national champions in April 2019, the ex-Charlotte Hornet Bennett became just the fifth person to both play minutes in a meaningful NBA game
10:25 PM ET Multiple referees have been sent home from the NCAA men’s basketball tournament’s controlled environment in Indianapolis due to a positive COVID-19 test and contact tracing, the NCAA said in a statement Monday night. Per the NCAA, one official tested positive on Monday and had interacted with five other officials. All six were
10:32 PM ET ESPN News Services MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota fired Richard Pitino on Monday after the men’s basketball coach compiled a 54-96 regular-season record over eight years in the Big Ten and had only three conference finishes higher than 10th place. The Golden Gophers went 14-15 this season, dropping 11 of their last 14 games.
9:52 PM ET Steve Prohm is out as Iowa State‘s men’s basketball coach, the school announced Monday. Prohm and athletic director Jamie Pollard met Monday night and the two sides agreed to “part ways,” the school said. Prohm just finished his sixth season in Ames, and it was his worst campaign since arriving. Iowa State
3:36 PM ET Associated Press INDIANAPOLIS — Butler guard Myles Tate will need offseason surgery after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during last week’s Big East tournament. Tate was injured in Thursday’s season-ending loss to No. 20 Creighton. The Bulldogs finished 10-15. Tate made 18 starts and averaged 6.7 points and
3:33 PM ET Associated Press MANHATTAN, Kan. — Kansas State forward Antonio Gordon has been released from his scholarship and will transfer for his junior season. The 6-foot-9 forward from Lawton, Oklahoma, started 21 games and appeared in 27 more during his first two seasons with the Wildcats. The former three-star prospect averaged 4.9 points
3:31 PM ET Associated Press IOWA CITY, Iowa — Hawkeyes coach Fran McCaffery signed a four-year contract extension through 2027-28 on Monday after leading the eighth-ranked Hawkeyes to the Big Ten Tournament semifinals and their highest NCAA tournament seeding since 1987. The Hawkeyes are 21-8 and finished third in the Big Ten regular season at
1:32 PM ET Boston College is expected to hire Charleston‘s Earl Grant as its next head basketball coach, sources confirmed to ESPN. Grant will replace Jim Christian, who was fired in mid-February during his seventh season in Chestnut Hill. Grant, 44, has been the head coach of Charleston for seven seasons, taking the Cougars to
1:55 PM ET DePaul is expected to fire head coach Dave Leitao, sources told ESPN. Leitao has been in charge of the program since 2015, his second stint as the head coach of the Blue Demons after three years as the head coach from 2002-05. DePaul has finished last in the Big East in each
12:05 PM ET Indiana has fired coach Archie Miller after the Hoosiers went 12-15 this season and missed the NCAA tournament, sources confirmed to ESPN. The news was first reported by Stadium. Miller went 67-58 in four seasons and didn’t lead the Hoosiers to any NCAA tournament appearances. He spent six seasons as Dayton’s coach
10:10 AM ET Indiana State is hiring Josh Schertz from NCAA Division II power Lincoln Memorial as its next head coach, sources told ESPN. An official announcement is expected later this week. At the Division II level, Schertz has led Lincoln Memorial to two Final Four appearances and an 83% winning percentage during his 13
12:40 PM ET Associated Press Gonzaga opened the season at No. 1. The Bulldogs never let go of that ranking. Now, after a start-to-finish run atop The Associated Press men’s college basketball poll, coach Mark Few’s Bulldogs are focused on trying to become the first unbeaten national champion in more than four decades. The Bulldogs
9:08 AM ET Undefeated Gonzaga is the clear-cut favorite to win the NCAA tournament, but sportsbooks are more concerned about another No. 1 seed: Michigan. Gonzaga is 2-1 to win the tournament at Caesars Sportsbook by William Hill, followed by Baylor at 5-1 and Illinois and Michigan, which are each 6-1. In early December, the