Men's College Basketball

As ‘avalanche’ hits NCAA and paying players debate continues, change is coming

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With College Football Playoff expansion and NCAA men’s basketball tournament rights totaling $2.4 billion annually and women’s basketball’s most marketable player in history — Iowa’s Caitlin Clark — launching her sport to unprecedented television viewership, collegiate sports appear healthy, vibrant and lucrative. That goes for everyone except the participants. Questions are brewing from college officials … Read more

How Arkansas hooked John Calipari and why he was ready to leave Kentucky

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John Calipari sat in his hotel room in Phoenix on Friday when a close friend, John H. Tyson, reached out to discuss an important decision. People with knowledge of the conversation say Tyson, the billionaire chairman of Tyson Foods and a longtime major donor at the University of Arkansas, wanted to pick the Kentucky basketball … Read more

Inside the UConn defensive strategy that stopped Purdue and won a national title

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GLENDALE, Ariz. — Connecticut assistant coach Luke Murray went to sophomore center Donovan Clingan sometime in the middle of this season with a declaration. UConn was going to face Purdue in the national championship, and he’d better get familiar with Zach Edey. Murray and Clingan discussed how they would play the hypothetical matchup, and Clingan … Read more

Riding high with Purdue basketball after a cathartic win 44 years in the making

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DETROIT – Zach Edey unfolded a brown blanket across his legs in the first aisle seat on the right, and Lance Jones carefully tucked the Midwest Regional trophy into the seat beside him. The flight attendant congratulated Purdue on its 72-66 victory over Tennessee in the Elite Eight. The plane taxied, took off and, 52 … Read more

How DJ Burns Jr. and NC State became the darlings of March Madness

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DALLAS — DJ Burns Jr. had a rare moment when the lights and the cameras weren’t around on Saturday afternoon inside the America Airlines Center. NC State’s center was asked by reporters how he preferred to be defended: single-covered or doubled-teamed? “I prefer winning,” Burns said. “So however you come at me, I’m gonna do … Read more

NC State topples Duke, continues March run to advance to first Final Four since 1983

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DALLAS — The ACC will have a representative at the Final Four. It may not be one many expected to start the season. DJ Burns Jr. scored 29 points, including 21 in the second half, to carry 11th-seeded NC State to a 76-64 win over fourth-seeded Duke in Sunday’s South Regional final, punching the program’s … Read more

Purdue powers past Tennessee to advance to first Final Four since 1980; Zach Edey scores 40 points

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DETROIT – This one should have been in Arizona, but that’s how it goes sometimes — a team the quality of a No. 1 seed falters a bit late and falls to a No. 2, and that team finds its path to a Final Four much more difficult as a result. The Tennessee Volunteers can … Read more

Donovan Clingan’s ‘Bill Walton-esque’ dominance leads UConn back to Final Four

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BOSTON — Bill Clingan had just watched his son, Donovan, dominate an Elite Eight game in breathtaking fashion. His boy, now a 7-foot-2 man, had so thoroughly terrorized the second-ranked offense in college basketball that Illinois actually looked broken. As Donovan accepted the Most Outstanding Player award for the NCAA Tournament’s East Regional, having led … Read more

UConn powers past Illinois to advance to second consecutive Final Four

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BOSTON — Dan Hurley sauntered across midcourt with 3:33 to play, a final timeout amid another March dismantling providing him a moment to take in the scene. He faced the crowd opposite his bench and stuck his arms out wide, provoking the Huskies fans filling TD Garden to roar. “Our s—!” he shouted. Up by … Read more

How ‘unguardable’ DJ Burns became NC State’s March Madness hero

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The Athletic has live coverage of the March Madness Sweet 16 matchups. PITTSBURGH — DJ Burns Jr. is holding court again. NC State’s gregarious giant with the gap-toothed grin is swarmed by reporters near his locker the day before an improbable appearance in the second round of the NCAA Tournament against Oakland. He is marveling … Read more