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...
‘It will be done’: Pitt entrusts Robin Harmony with rebuilding women’s basketball program
The concept and process of building up a program is not unfamiliar to Robin Harmony. In 2007, at St. Thomas University in Florida, she was the inaugural coach of a newly founded women’s basketball program that didn’t even have its own gym for the first two seasons. Foundations then had...
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...
Pitt WR Deuce Spann raises NFL Draft stock with impressive pro day performance
Audible gasps followed Deuce Spann’s completion of the vertical jump Thursday at Pitt’s pro day at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex on the South Side. Spann’s former Panthers teammates had a similar reaction when the 6-foot-4 wideout ran an unofficial 4.37-second 40-yard dash. At the start of Pitt Pro Day, Spann,...
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...
‘1 last hurrah’: 15 former Pitt players hope pro day performances help plot a course to NFL
The eyes of scouts from every NFL team were fixated on 15 outgoing Pitt players Thursday as the Panthers hosted their annual pro day at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex on the South Side. Of those 15, only linebacker Kyle Louis is considered a lock to be selected at the upcoming...
Penn State getting early start to practice under new coach Matt Campbell
Penn State’s football program kicked off spring practice sessions earlier this week. The majority of the Nittany Lions’ players — those who did not spend time with Campbell at Iowa State — may need a few days to make a significant adjustment. They are now on Matt Campbell time, until...
Joe Starkey: 10 minutes with 2 WPIAL coaching legends — Danny Holzer and Tim McConnell
Tim McConnell couldn’t remember how many WPIAL titles he’d won on the grounds of Duquesne, back when they played the championship games at Palumbo Center. “I’m not sure, maybe four or five,” he said. That’s how much winning the man did. He couldn’t even peg the exact amount! And the...
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...
Houston embraces ‘home’ Sweet 16 game at Toyota Center as Illinois arrives unfazed
HOUSTON — Houston is in the Sweet 16 for a seventh straight season, and this trip might be its sweetest yet. The second-seeded Cougars meet No. 3 Illinois on Thursday night in the NCAA Tournament’s South Region semifinals at Toyota Center, the home of the Houston Rockets that sits just...
Elite freshmen in spotlight for Arizona-Arkansas Sweet 16 matchup in West Region
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Coach John Calipari has made a career of relying on freshman stars to make long NCAA Tournament runs so the fact that he’s doing it again at Arkansas with Darius Acuff and Meleek Thomas should come as little surprise. For Arizona, it’s been a bit of...
Back from injuries, LB Jeremiah Marcelin, RB Synkwan Smith hope to contribute for Pitt
Last August, Jeremiah Marcelin began Pitt’s fall camp looking to earn a larger role as a sophomore middle linebacker. Teammate Synkwan Smith, a freshman tailback, aimed to get on the field early. Unfortunately for both players, injuries ended their campaigns before things ever got underway, as Marcelin suffered a season-ending...
March Madness: Here’s one thing you need to know about each of the 16 teams remaining in men’s field
Florida isn’t around to defend its title anymore, but all the other top seeds in this year’s NCAA Tournament are still in contention. And many of them are winning convincingly. In the first week of the NCAA Tournament, games were decided by an average of 15.3 points. According to Sportradar,...
North Carolina parts ways with men’s basketball coach Hubert Davis after 5 seasons
North Carolina and men’s basketball coach Hubert Davis have parted ways after five seasons leading the tradition-rich program. The school announced the decision Tuesday night, saying it had made “a leadership change” to end Davis’ tenure as successor to retired Hall of Fame coach Roy Williams. That run featured featured...
NCAA Tournament has best opening week on record, averaging 10.1 million viewers
The NCAA Tournament had its best first week on record, averaging 10.1 million viewers through the second round across CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV. Tournament viewership is up 7% from last year, according to Nielsen. CBS and TNT began showing all of the games in 2011 after CBS had done...
