Police say use of racial slur clearly audible as they investigate racist incidents toward Utah team
Police investigating racist incidents directed toward the Utah womenโs basketball team when they were near their Idaho hotel while in town for the NCAA Tournament say theyโve found an audio recording in which the use of a racial slur was clearly audible.
Purdue remains No. 1 in AP Top 25, Gonzaga falls to No. 24 but runs poll streak to 142 weeks
Purdue remained atop the AP Top 25 menโs college basketball poll for the third straight week while Gonzaga dropped to No. 24 after a loss to San Diego State but managed to keep alive its streak of 142 consecutive weeks in the poll.
Final Four set, a question left: Can anybody beat Gonzaga?
(AP Photo/Darron Cummings)Itโs not easy to bury a team as good as USC, let alone in a half, no matter how easy Gonzaga made it look. He asked Few the day before their game against the high-flying Trojans whether his defense was getting lost in the shuffle. โObviously, I think heโs the best defender in the country,โ Baylor coach Scott Drew said. Then Baylorโs bout with the virus came late in the season, requiring a pause of three weeks plus. After everything else fans weathered throughout this wacky season, a few more days might finally deliver a national championship game worth the wait.
Gonzaga's bid for a perfect season moves on to Final Four
Gonzaga (30-0) has been an offensive juggernaut rarely seen in college basketball. AdโEveryone wants us to keep moving forward, but thatโs not how we roll,โ Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. That doesnโt lessen our desire to win this game, the next game or win two more games.โThe next one won't be easy. The Bears were embroiled in one of the darkest scandals in college basketball history, when Patrick Dennehy was murdered by teammate Carlton Dotson in 2003. They played in the Final Four.โ___More AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/College-basketball and http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25
Official collapses, wheeled off court on stretcher
(AP Photo/Michael Conroy)INDIANAPOLIS โ Official Bert Smith collapsed on the floor early in the Elite Eight game between Gonzaga and Southern California and had to be taken off the court on a stretcher. He stayed down for about five minutes, and then was able to stand up and move to a nearby stretcher. Additionally, Tony Chiazza โ the standby official for the UCLA-Michigan game later Tuesday โ would also serve as the standby official for the remainder of the USC-Gonzaga game, Worlock said. The matchup was the 70th game Smith has worked this season, according to kenpom.com. ___This story has been corrected to show the replacement official is Tony Henderson, not Williams.
What To Watch: Remaining Final Four spots up for grabs
โฆ Gonzaga is seeking to become the first team to make it to the Final Four unbeaten since Kentucky in 2015. 11 seed UCLA (21-9), East Region final, Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis. โฆ UCLA is back in a regional final for the first time since earning three straight Final Four berths from 2006-08. 6 seed Texas (21-9), Hemisfair Region final, Alamodome, San Antonio. โฆ Texas is in a regional final for the first time since 2016 and seeking its first Final Four appearance since 2003.
Unbeaten Zags keep rolling with 83-65 rout of Creighton
Nembhard had 17 points and eight assists, both season highs, to keep the NCAA Tournament's top overall seed rolling Sunday with a 83-65 rout of fifth-seeded Creighton in the West Region semifinals. Defensively, the Zags held Creighton to 40 points over the final 30 minutes as they methodically turned a 27-25 game into a blowout. โThey just play so fast, so efficient with everything they do," said Marcus Zegarowski, who led Creighton with 19 points. That just about finished off Creighton as the Zags moved within three wins of becoming the first undefeated national champion since Indiana in 1976. Gonzaga: The Zags have won their first three tournament games by a combined 77 points.
Basketball fans react to disappointing March Madness for Virginiaโs teams
ROANOKE, Va. โ Heartbroken fans are certainly not happy after a disappointing turn of events in the NCAA tournament. None of the five menโs basketball teams in the tournament made it to the Round of 32. Gonzaga beat Norfolk State on Saturday and defending national champions UVA lost to the Ohio Bobcats. โItโs a big year for upsets, which is really exciting for basketball in general, but kind of upsetting for Virginia teams,โ said UVA fan Sarah Doss. The fans also said theyโre still going to watch the rest of the tournament.
What some advanced stats may tell us about the NCAA field
(AP Photo/Young Kwak, File)Two years ago, before the start of the last NCAA Tournament, we presented a system that could help narrow down the bracket, using advanced stats from recent seasons. Virginia, one of six teams that passed all of our statistical tests, did in fact win the national championship. To review: This method uses six stats in which every champion since 2008 has ranked in the top half of Division I. All these stats are available at barttorvik.com โ and we'll use that information to pare down this year's contenders. Effective field goal percentage (eFG%) is a measure of field goal percentage in which 3-pointers are given extra weight.
Gonzaga completes season-long run at No. 1 in AP Top 25
1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, will try to become the first unbeaten national champion since Indiana in 1976. Two of the last three โ UNLV in 1990-91 and the 2015 Kentucky team โ carried unbeaten records into the NCAA Tournament but lost in the Final Four. 1 seeds for the NCAA Tournament. 13 after winning the program's first Big 12 Tournament title. AdCONFERENCE WATCHThe Big 12 had a national-best six teams in the poll, with No.
Picking the bracket: The Big Ten will feel right at home
Second round winners: Michigan, Florida State, Texas, Alabama. On to the upsets ...First round winners: Baylor, North Carolina, Winthrop, Purdue, Texas Tech, Colgate, Virginia Tech, Ohio State. AdFirst round winners: Gonzaga, Missouri, UCSB, Virginia, USC, Kansas, VCU, Iowa. Second round winners: Gonzaga, Virginia, USC, Iowa. The Big Ten tournament gets replaced by a Final Four in the heart of Big Ten country.
Gonzaga's bid for perfection begins with No. 1 overall seed
1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament bracket announced Sunday as they try to become the first team in 35 years to complete a perfect season. 4 seed Virginia 98-75 in late December. Grand Canyon lost to New Mexico State in the Western Athletic Conference Tournament title game for two straight years under previous coach Dan Majerle. Drew knows a little something about NCAA Tournament drama, hitting a game-winning 3-pointer for Valparaiso against Mississippi 23 years ago, so you never know. 5 Creighton had a 20-win season that included victories over NCAA Tournament teams Georgetown, Villanova and two over Connecticut.
Shirts or skins? Teams need only 5 to be eligible for NCAAs
(AP Photo/David Becker)All a team needs to play in this yearโs NCAA Tournament is five healthy players. AdPlayers will have their own rooms and teams will have their own floors at designated hotels throughout their stay in Indiana. But Gavitt acknowledged that as long as a team has five players, it can stick around for as long as it keeps winning. AdโWe decided if they had five players eligible and healthy," they could play, he said. โWe're looking at who's played games and missed games.
No. 1 Gonzaga rallies to beat BYU 88-78 in WCC title game
The NCAA Tournament is next. Kispert hit three early 3-pointers and scored 14 of his 17 points in the second half. AdโGonzaga responded in the second half,โ said BYU guard Alex Borcello, who had 15 points. KNELL'S NIGHTKnell entered the title game averaging 5.8 points per game, but got some open looks against Gonzaga's pressure. Itโs a heck of an accomplishment.โUP NEXTBYU should be a lock to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2015.
Gonzaga remains No. 1, Baylor back to No. 2 in AP Top 25
Gonzaga won 86-69. Gonzaga won its ninth consecutive West Coast Conference regular-season title after going 14-0 and is the lone remaining undefeated team in Division I. Win those two and Gonzaga will become the fifth team in the last 45 years to head into the NCAA Tournament undefeated. AdThe win over the Mountaineers gave Baylor its first Big 12 regular-season title and moved it back into the No. The Razorbacks entered the AP Top 25 on Feb. 15 and have made a quick climb, reaching No.
Perfect Zags: No. 1 Gonzaga stays unbeaten, tops LMU 86-69
1 Gonzaga remained the only unbeaten in the country with a 86-69 win over Loyola Marymount on Saturday night. The Bulldogs (24-0, 15-0 WCC) won their 51st straight home game to set a school record and finished off a perfect regular season. Gonzaga has won 28 straight games dating to last season and is the first team to finish the regular season unbeaten since Kentucky in 2014-15. Eli Scott had 20 points and 11 rebounds to lead Loyola Marymount (12-8, 7-5), and Mattias Markusson added 19 points and 10 rebounds. AdGonzaga: The Bulldogs won their 21st straight game by double-digits as the No.
The Latest: NHL down to a season-low 8 players on COVID list
The Chicago White Sox gave the Hall of Famer the opportunity to manage again despite a lengthy absence from the dugout and stuck with him after news of a drunken driving arrest broke shortly after his hiring. (AP Photo/Matt Marton, File)The Latest on the effects of the coronavirus outbreak on sports around the world:___The NHL is down to a season-low eight players on the COVID-19 list after play on Tuesday night, five of them on the Philadelphia Flyers. Thatโs a marked improvement in the 11 days since the league had a season-high 59 players on the list. The Flyers have moved into third among NHL teams, with players spending a combined total of 98 days on the list, one more than Buffalo. Abreu powered the White Sox back to the playoffs for the first time since 2008.
Unbeaten Gonzaga, Baylor remain atop AP Top 25 in quiet week
14 Texas 84-82 on Saturday to move up three spots in this weekโs poll. JAYHAWKS CLIMBKansas is climbing after seeing its record run in the AP Top 25 end two weeks ago. 17 in this weekโs poll. Kansas returned to the poll last week after dropping out on Feb. 8, ending a stretch of 231 consecutive weeks in the AP Top 25. 15 Virginia dropped eight spots after losses to Duke and Florida State last week.
Gonzaga, Baylor sit atop AP Top 25; Kansas returns at No. 23
2 Baylor remained atop Monday's latest AP Top 25, where they have been for all 13 polls this season. 8 in the AP poll to pull closer to the committee's seeding of seventh overall shortly before the Crimson Tide scored 115 points in a win over against Georgia. THE TOP TIERCoach Mark Fewโs Bulldogs received 59 of 64 first-place votes in the new AP Top 25, while Scott Drewโs Bears claimed the other five. The Jayhawks fell out of last weekโs poll for the first time in 12 years. Kansas was one of three new additions to this weekโs poll, joined by No.
Gonzaga, Baylor top AP Top 25, Sooners climb, Drake in
9 Alabama on Saturday, the Sooners became just the second team in 25 years to beat three straight top-10 opponents. The Sooners got off to shaky Big 12 start, opening 2-3 after losses to Baylor and Kansas. Oklahoma (11-4, 6-3 Big 12) has been on quite a run since then, taking down then-No. 17 West Virginia earlier this month, knocked off the Crimson Tide despite playing without Austin Reaves and starting guard Alondes Williams due to COVID-19 protocols. The Bears (16-0, 8-0 Big 12) received the other three first-place votes following wins over Kansas State and Auburn.
No. 18 Virginia routs No. 12 Clemson to stay perfect in ACC
CLEMSON, S.C. โ Sam Hauser and Tomas Woldetensae had 14 points and four 3-pointers apiece as No. 18 Virginia won its 11th straight over 12th-ranked Clemson with an 85-50 victory. The Cavaliers moved to 5-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference, their best start to league play since opening 12-0 in 2017-18. Virginia won its fifth straight since losing to No. โWeโre learning about our team, weโre growing, weโre becoming steadier,โ said Virginia head coach Tony Bennett.
No. 1 Gonzaga overcomes slow start, beats Saint Mary's 73-59
1 Gonzaga overcame a slow start with a surge to end the first half, pulling away late to beat rival Saint Mary's 73-59 on Saturday night for its 18th straight victory spanning the past two seasons. Joel Ayayi scored 16 points for the Bulldogs (14-0, 5-0 West Coast Conference). Saint Mary's pulled to 56-48 on Dan Fotu's layup with 9:01 to play before another decisive Gonzaga burst, this time 8-0. Saint Mary's: F Kyle Bowen fouled out with 4:01 left. Saint Maryโs: At Loyola Marymount on Thursday.
Gonzaga, Baylor remain atop AP Top 25; UConn in at No. 25
(AP Photo/Steve Dykes)Gonzaga and Baylor were the top two teams in The Associated Press preseason menโs college basketball poll. Villanova, Texas and Iowa rounded out a top 5 that remained the same from last week. Gonzaga and Baylor split most of the first-place votes in the preseason AP Top 25, but the Zags have become the clear-cut No. Gonzaga, which had five games canceled due to COVID-19 issues last month, has won 16 straight dating to last season. The Huskies won the national championship in 2014 but went to the NCAA Tournament only one more time before Hurley was lured from Rhode Island.
Gonzaga-Baylor remain 1-2 in AP Top 25; Texas rises to No. 4
The top-ranked Zags and second-ranked Bears remained 1-2 in Monday's latest Top 25 as they have all season. 25 Florida State had the week's biggest tumble, falling seven spots after losing at Clemson and then having its game against No. 6 Kansas fell three spots after the Texas loss, bringing the total of teams that fell from last week's rankings to 11. CONFERENCE WATCHThe Big Ten continues to have the biggest haul of ranked teams, though the Big 12 has a strong showing in the poll's top tier. But the Big 12 has three of the top six teams in Baylor, Texas and Kansas, and five teams overall.
Gonzaga, Big Ten continue to dominate Top 25; Wisconsin 6th
(AP Photo/Ron Jenkins)It's hard to decide who has been more dominant in men's college basketball this season: Gonzaga or the Big Ten Conference. The sixth-ranked Badgers began a run of Top 25 teams from the league, jumping three spots after wins over Nebraska and then-No. 12 Michigan State. The Hawkeyes dropped from fourth to 10th while surprising Rutgers began a run of four more Big Ten teams at No. Minnesota, whose lone loss came to Illinois and which was last ranked on Dec. 4, 2017, plays its next six against Top 25 teams: Michigan State, at Wisconsin, Ohio State, at Michigan, at Iowa and the Wolverines at home.
No. 1 Gonzaga rolls over most recent champ Virginia, 98-75
Kispert scored a career-high 32 points and tied a school record with nine 3-pointers, leading the Zags to a 98-75 romp over 16th-ranked Virginia on Saturday. After the Zags' game against No. Gonzaga: The Zags didn't cool off at all in the second half after Kispert came out hitting 3-pointers almost from the start. Gonzaga shot 68% after halftime to beat Virginia for the third time in four meetings in the series. Gonzaga: Northern Arizona at home Monday in the last of four consecutive games added after the five-game coronavirus pause.
Gonzaga strengthens grip on No. 1 spot in AP poll
1 spot in The Associated Press men's college basketball poll after beating Iowa. The Zags received 61 of 64 first-place votes from a media panel in the poll released on Monday. 2 Baylor got the remaining three first-place votes and No. Gonzaga had 54 first-place votes last week. ___More AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25
Suggs leads top-ranked Gonzaga over No. 3 Iowa 99-88
Gonzaga guard Jalen Suggs (1) shoot a 3-pointer during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Iowa, Saturday, Dec. 19, 2020 in SIoux Falls, S.D. Suggs entered the game against Iowa averaging 13.3 points per game. We got into the double bonus relatively early in the second half, but then we miss 12 free throws, which is also very uncharacteristic of our team.โIowa seemed to have one last gasp midway through the second half. Entering the game, Gonzaga was just 16 for 55 from beyond the arc in its first three games. Iowa: The 99 points scored by Gonzaga is the most Iowa has given up this season.
Top-ranked Gonzaga returns to practice as No. 3 Iowa awaits
The Bulldogs finally got back on the court to practice this week following a two-week break due to COVID-19 cases within the program. It looked like the first practice of the year to the Gonzaga head coach. The matchup with Baylor was going to be the showcase event for the early portion of the college basketball schedule. The first full squad practice for Gonzaga since the day before the Baylor game was scheduled for Thursday. Their whole lives are about playing basketball.โWhile facing the Hawkeyes is a marquee opportunity for Gonzaga, there is still hope of facing Baylor.
Gonzaga, Baylor, Iowa remain atop AP Top 25; Duke tumbles
The second-ranked Bears had seven first-place votes to remain 1-2 with Gonzaga in each of the season's four polls so far. Yet the Zags haven't played since beating West Virginia on Dec. 2 due to COVID-19 protocols, with five straight games canceled or postponed, including a matchup with Baylor on Dec. 5. Houston, Villanova, West Virginia, Creighton and Tennessee rounded out the top 10, with the Mountaineers rising three spots and the Volunteers climbing two. 13 Illini dropped seven spots to fall out of the top 10 after losing to Missouri, while the No. CONFERENCE WATCHThe Big Ten has a national-best seven teams in the Top 25, with No.
Gonzaga, Baylor remain atop AP Top 25 after game scrapped
West Virginia and Gonzaga play during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2020, in Indianapolis. Gonzaga was scheduled to play Baylor but the game was cancelled due to COVID. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)Gonzaga and Baylor remained atop the AP Top 25 men's basketball poll Monday after their hotly anticipated weekend game in Indianapolis was called off about 90 minutes before tipoff because of positive COVID-19 tests and contact tracing within the Bulldogs' program. Wisconsin was tied with the Longhorns, followed by Virginia Tech, North Carolina, Texas Tech, Virginia, Richmond and Florida State. The final five were Rutgers, Ohio State, Arizona State, San Diego State and Louisville.
No. 1 Gonzaga vs No. 2 Baylor called off over virus tests
Gonzaga was scheduled to play Baylor but the game was cancelled due to COVID. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)INDIANAPOLIS โ Coaches Mark Few of Gonzaga and Scott Drew of Baylor scheduled Saturday's game for all the right seasons. "They (the Bears) are good, really, really good. Just really, really good." And whenever they do play, Drew knows one thing โ people will be watching.
Gonzaga and Baylor to face off in rare top-2 meeting
2 Baylor will play in Indianapolis on Saturday for the ninth meeting between the top two teams in AP Top 25 since 2005. 2 Kentucky met last season in the previous 1-vs.-2 meeting, a game won by the Wildcats 69-62. Playing in Las Vegas, Baylor opened with a 112-82 win over Louisiana-Lafayette and followed with an 96-52 thumping of Washington. Jay Wright's Wildcats opened the season in Bubbleville and opted to stay in Connecticut to face Hartford. Villanova won that game 87-53 to bounce back from its first loss of the season, 81-73 to No.
No. 1 Zags: Gonzaga begins season atop Top 25 for first time
FILE - Gonzaga players celebrate after defeating Saint Mary's in an NCAA college basketball game in the final of the West Coast Conference men's tournament in Las Vegas, in this Tuesday, March 10, 2020, file photo. Gonzaga will begin the college basketball season No. 1 for the first time after coach Mark Few's bunch earned 28 first-place votes in the preseason AP Top 25 poll released Monday, Nov. 9, 2020. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)