Haley and Hanna Cavinder are going to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament. The Miami guards are perhaps the faces of the NIL movement in college athletics. They have a massive following on social media. What Miami coach Katie Meier says people don't understand about the twins is that they work as hard on basketball as they do anything else. Their work helped Miami get back to March Madness. The Cavinders are in the tournament for the first time after transferring from Fresno State. Miami upset No. 1 seed Indiana in the second round and plays No. 4 seed Villanova on Friday.

St. Francis College, one of the smallest NCAA Division I schools, announced that its board of trustees has approved a plan to eliminate its athletic program at the end of the spring semester. St. Francis sponsors 21 NCAA teams, including men’s and women’s basketball, and has been a member of the Northeast Conference for more than four decades. The move comes as part of larger restructuring of the private Catholic school located in Brooklyn. Enrollment at the school is about 2,300 undergraduate students.

An event that would have been unthinkable not even a decade ago is coming to Las Vegas this week. That's March Madness. The NCAA Tournament avoided the city for many years because sports betting is legal in it. The governing body for collegiate athletics even had a policy in place of not allowing its championship events to be played in Nevada. But now, with sports betting abound, the NCAA has no qualms about playing in the state. The West Region games to be held this week at T-Mobile Arena are among the many championship events the NCAA has awarded to the city.

Today in Sports March 21 - First women’s college basketball game.

March Madness isn’t just about filling out — and later trashing — brackets. There are more ways to bet the field in the NCAA Tournament, an event that will consume basketball fans until the first weekend of April. After a batch of first-round upsets, the favorites got shuffled a bit heading into the second round of the tournament. Houston and Alabama were the top favorites after fellow top seeds Purdue and Kansas lost during the opening weekend.

Today in Sports, March 20 - Tom Brady agrees to move to Buccaneers.

Marcus Sasser started for top-seeded Houston in the NCAA Tournament after being forced to the bench in the previous game by a groin injury. The All-American guard had declared a day earlier that his groin was fine and he was definitely playing in the second-round contest against No. 9 seed Auburn. But it was surely a relief to Houston fans when Sasser was announced as a starter. Especially after the Cougars struggled to beat 16th-seeded Northern Kentucky 63-52 in their opening game.

It’s no secret that bigger conferences are always looking at Gonzaga, and that Gonzaga has been known to field some of those phone calls. But the Zags are still in the West Coast Conference. Contrary to what some of the analytics and conventional wisdom might suggest, it has done nothing to hold them back. For the second straight year, Gonzaga’s toughest competition in the WCC is also in the second round at March Madness. That team is Saint Mary’s, which is a No. 5 seed for the second straight year. The Gaels play UConn and the Zags play TCU with trips to the Sweet 16 on the line.

Nijel Pack scored 21 points to rally No. 5 seed Miami past Drake 63-56 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Hurricanes scored the final 10 points in just barely getting out of the first round only a year after reaching the Elite Eight. Norchad Omier added 12 points and 14 rebounds for the Hurricanes, who won despite being held to a season low in points. Wooga Poplar had 15 points. Darnell Brodie had 20 points and nine rebounds to lead the Missouri Valley Conference tournament champions. The Bulldogs were scoreless over the final 3:24.

Slow-starting Gonzaga finally started playing like a title contender, then wore out Grand Canyon 82-70 behind 28 points and 10 rebounds from Julian Strawther in the NCAA Tournament. Zags senior Drew Timme brought his sweatband and his moustache back to March Madness. He finished with 21 points, six rebounds and three blocks for the third-seeded Bulldogs, who haven’t lost a first-round game in the tournament since 2008. Next up for Gonzaga is the winner of a later West Region contest between TCU and Arizona State.

Angel Reese had 34 points and 15 rebounds  — her 29th double-double this season — and third seeded LSU defeated No. 14 seed Hawaii 73-50 in the first round of the women’s NCAA Tournament. Flau’Jae Johnson scored 10 for LSU. The Tigers raced to a double-digit lead in the first quarter and maintained a comfortable lead most of the way. LSU advanced to a second-round match-up on Sunday with sixth-seeded Michigan, a 71-59 winner over 11 seed UNLV earlier Friday. Kallin Spiller and Daejah Phillips each scored 13 for Hawaii, which was held 10 points below its average scoring total for the season. Lily Wahinekapu scored 11 for the Rainbow Wahine.

Kansas freshman star Gradey Dick can thank his mom for all the basketball talent he inherited. Dick leads the top-seeded Jayhawks into their NCAA Tournament second-round game against No. 8 Arkansas after recording his first career double-double against Howard. His mom is the former Carmen Jaspers. She played six-on-six girls basketball in Iowa in the 1980s and is considered one of the greatest in state history. She went on to become a 1,000-point scorer at Iowa State. No. 2 UCLA plays No. 7 Northwestern in Sacramento, California, in the other West game.

Penn State found out quickly in preseason workouts that newcomer Andrew Funk was a sharp shooter. Coach Micah Shrewsberry immediately instilled in the graduate transfer from Bucknell to be confident in his ability and range. The rest of the country got up to speed when Funk went 8 for 10 from 3-point range for a season-high 27 points to highlight Penn State’s one-sided victory over Texas A&M in the first round. The No. 10 seed Nittany Lions advanced to play No. 2 seed Texas in the Midwest Region in Des Moines, Iowa.

Mitchell Saxen had 17 points, seven rebounds and four blocks, and Saint Mary’s beat ailing VCU 63-51 in the NCAA Tournament. Alex Ducas also scored 17 points as the fifth-seeded Gaels advanced to the second round for the second straight year. Logan Johnson had 12 points and 10 rebounds, and reserve Augustas Marciulionis scored 13 points. Ace Baldwin led VCU with 13 points, but he hurt his Achilles tendon and groin after taking a jumper with just over 14 minutes left in regulation.

Most coaches know their team’s identity and have a rotation set by the time the NCAA Tournament rolls around. But there are still a lot of questions for Geno Auriemma and second-seeded UConn. Former starters Azzi Fudd and Caroline Ducharme only recently returned from injury to help the Huskies begin a run at a 12th national title and a 15th straight Final Four. Both are expected to play significant minutes when the second-seeded Huskies open their NCAA Tournament against No. 15 seed Vermont. The winner faces either No. 7 seed Baylor or No. 10 seed Alabama on Monday night.

Today in Sports, March18-Reggie Miller hits record 2,000th 3-pointer

Utah is hungry to take a historic season one step further. The No. 2 seed Utes have a powerful enough offense to make big things happen in March. Utah (25-4) will host No. 15 seed Gardner-Webb (29-4) on Friday. Seventh-seeded North Carolina State (20-11) faces no. 10 seed Princeton (23-5) in the other first-round game in Salt Lake City.

An independent law firm investigating a fatal shooting by a New Mexico State basketball player recommended the school enhance its weapons policy and “strengthen a culture that encourages student-athletes to adhere to the integrity and values of NMSU at all times.” The school released the report on the first full day of the NCAA Tournament, an event the Aggies were not eligible for after canceling their season in February. An executive summary of the report did not identify any NCAA violations or failure of the school to meet legal obligations. The summary said the report was restricted by the absence of several witnesses, “including multiple basketball coaches and players,” who refused to cooperate or were unavailable.

Notre Dame point guard Olivia Miles will miss the remainder of the season with an injury to her right knee. She suffered the injury in the regular-season finale against Louisville and sat out the ACC Tournament. She will undergo surgery next week. The second-team Associated Press All-American led Notre Dame to the ACC regular season title. She averaged 14.3 points, 7.2 rebounds, 6.9 assists and 2.1 steals per game. The Fighting Irish (25-5) are a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament and will host No. 14 Southern Utah (23-9) on Friday.

Arkansas survived some anxious moments in the second half against an Illinois team that wouldn’t go away and held on to beat the Illini 73-63 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Devo Davis and Ricky Council IV scored 16 points apiece to lead the eighth-seeded Razorbacks, who used relentless defense and rebounding to build big leads but couldn’t get comfortable until the final minute. Arkansas moves to a second-round game Saturday against top-seeded Kansas in the South Region. Terrence Shannon Jr. had 20 points for the Illini. They lost in the first round for the first time in five tournament appearances since 2011.

Providence's Bryce Hopkins and Pittsburgh's Blake Hinson are preparing for NCAA Tournament matchups against schools they left behind as transfers. The Friars meet Kentucky in the East Region. The Panthers will face Iowa State in the Midwest Region. Those games will be played back-to-back in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Friday. Hopkins spent one season with the Wildcats before transferring to become Providence's star player. Hinson never played for the Cyclones and left after a coaching change. Hopkins says he is excited to play against familiar faces in his matchup. Hinson wouldn't talk about his time with Iowa State.

Today in Sports, March 17- Vonn sets record for World Cup  points

Today in Sports Week Ahead, March 17-23, Take 2

Two-time defending champion Virginia swept both relay titles at the NCAA women’s swimming and diving championships. Virginia leads the standings after the first night of competition with 80 points, followed by Texas with 64 and California with 56. Virginia set an NCAA record in the 200-yard relay to become the first repeat champion in the event since California in 2012. Gretchen Walsh, Alex Walsh, Lexi Cuomo and Kate Douglass finished in 1:31:51. Douglass anchored in 20.34 for the second fastest 50-relay split ever. Aimee Canny, Alex Walsh, Reilly Tiltmann and Ella Nelson won the 800-yard freestyle relay in 6:49.82, setting a Virginia and pool record.

Alabama has the No. 1 overall NCAA Tournament seed, one of the best players in college basketball and likely a couple of games in its own backyard. For a Crimson Tide team that’s been an easy target for opposing fans over the past two months, playing less than an hour from campus is no small matter. It means most of the taunts will be replaced by cheers in Birmingham, Alabama, especially for All-America freshman Brandon Miller. It will be an overwhelmingly crimson and white crowd at Thursday’s South Region game against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

This isn’t the type of NCAA Tournament that will give NBA fans an idea of what they can expect in the upcoming draft. The likely first two picks in the draft are Victor Wembanyama and Scoot Henderson. Neither is playing college basketball. But there are plenty of guys in this tournament who should have long NBA careers. The consensus pick as the top NBA prospect currently playing college basketball is Alabama forward and Southeastern Conference player of the year Brandon Miller.

Mississippi on Tuesday introduced new basketball coach Chris Beard, who repeatedly declined to discuss specifics regarding his December domestic violence arrest that led to his eventual firing at Texas. Beard’s two-year tenure at alma mater Texas ended abruptly in January, though felony domestic charges were ultimately dismissed on Feb. 15. A prosecutor said his office determined that the charge of assault by strangulation/suffocation-family violence could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

For the first time in more than a decade, NCAA and college sports leaders are committed to a serious and thorough examination of expanding March Madness. The tournament generates hundreds of millions in revenue annually for the NCAA and its 1,100 member schools. Making significant changes to the tournament in the near term will be difficult, if not impossible. There are logistical, financial and even political obstacles. A major factor is the role of broadcast partners. The current $8.8 billion contract with CBS and Warner Bros. Discovery runs through 2032.

Iowa 125-pounder Spencer Lee has a chance to win his fourth national title this weekend at the NCAA wrestling championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He would join an exclusive club with names that he can recite in just a few seconds. Lee has a 95-5 career record. Thirty-eight of those wins have ended in the first period and include 11 pins in the first minute. He is on a 55-match winning streak. Cornell 149-pounder Yianni Diakomihalis is also pursuing his fourth title. There would be six four-time Division I champions in NCAA history if both accomplish the feat.

Travce Jackson-Davis is the first Indiana player with 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds. He's the Hoosiers' career leader in blocks and rebounds. He's the program's No. 3 all-time scorer. Yet the popular 6-foot-9 star feels like there's more to do. At Indiana, legacies are measured in banners. And with Indiana set to face Mid-American Conference champion Kent State on Friday in the NCAA Tournament, Jackson-Davis begins his final quest to cement his legacy with a banner run.

Michael Henn is back in the NCAA Tournament with Penn State, and it was quite a journey to his March Madness return. The reserve forward played in the 2017 NCAA tourney with Cal Davis. After stints at California Baptist, Portland and Denver, along with a lingering issue with bone spurs in his ankle, Henn joined the Nittany Lions before this season. Henn comes from a basketball family. His great uncle, Jerry Vermillion, is the career leading rebounder at Gonzaga. Henn says playing in the NCAA tourney again "is really a beautiful thing.”

The women's NCAA Tournament will feature many international players. The NCAA, citing numbers provided by FIBA, says the number of players in Division I women's basketball grew to 731 in 2022, up nearly 350% from 212 in 2012. For some teams, that has translated to growing success on the court. Washington State won the Pac-12 Tournament with nine international players on the roster. USF won the American Athletic Conference regular-season title with eight foreign players. Coach Jose Fernandez says he's found that athletes willing to come to the U.S. from other countries tend to be more mature.

Mississippi has hired Chris Beard as its basketball coach just over two months after his firing from Texas following a domestic violence arrest. The Rebels will introduce him Tuesday in a public event at the SBJ Pavilion. Beard is a four-time conference coach of the year and was AP’s national coach of the year in 2019. But his two-year tenure at alma mater Texas ended abruptly in January, though felony domestic charges were ultimately dismissed on Feb. 15.

Alijah Martin scored 30 points and grabbed 11 rebounds and Florida Atlantic took control early and beat UAB 78-56 in the Conference USA Tournament championship game to clinch an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. After Jordan Walker’s 3-pointer brought UAB within 25-17 with 8:57 before the break, Florida Atlantic went to the half with an offensive flurry and outscored UAB 21-10 and led 46-27 at halftime. The Owls stayed up by double figures the rest of the way. Jordan Walker scored 18 points for UAB.

Daniss Jenkins scored 22 of his 27 points in the second half and Walter Clayton Jr. scored 17 points and Iona beat Marist 76-55 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament championship game and clinched an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. Patrick Gardner scored 23 points for Marist. The Gaels used a late 11-0 run to make it a 68-53 advantage to seal the win.

The lawyer for former Alabama basketball player Darius Miles says he and Michael Davis have been indicted by a grand jury on capital murder charges for the January shooting death of a 23-year-old woman near campus. AL.com reports that Tuscaloosa County District Attorney Hays Webb told the newspaper that the indictments were issued Wednesday. Both have been held without bond since their arrest. Miles and Davis are charged in the shooting death of 23-year-old Jamea Harris, who was sitting in a car when she was struck by a bullet. A police investigator testified last month that Miles provided the handgun that Davis allegedly used in the shooting.

Massachusetts sports fans raced to their cell phones Friday to begin placing bets as the state allowed online sports wagering just days ahead of tipoff of the NCAA Tournament next week. The move comes a little over a month since the state began allowing in-person sports betting at the state’s three casinos — Encore Boston Harbor in Boston, Plainridge Park Casino in Plainville, and MGM Springfield in Springfield. Lawmakers estimate sports betting could generate about $60 million in annual tax revenue and $70 million to $80 million in initial licensing fees, which must be renewed every five years.

Josh Pastner has been fired as Georgia Tech’s basketball coach, two seasons after he guided the Yellow Jackets to a surprising Atlantic Coast Conference tournament title. Pastner was dumped after seven seasons as coach of the Atlanta school, his fate sealed by a second straight losing season and few signs of progress in a program that was once a national powerhouse. The Yellow Jackets capped a 15-18 campaign with an 89-81 loss to Pittsburgh in the second round of the ACC Tournament. Pastner’s record at Georgia Tech was 109-114, including a 53-78 mark in the ACC.

More March Madness chaos in the women’s NCAA Tournament could be looming on the horizon if the past few months of upsets are any indication of what’s around the corner. Upsets haven't been a hallmark of the women's tournament but that could change this year with the parity in the women's game. There were 19 losses by top 10 teams to unranked schools during the regular season. That's the seventh most in a season since 2000, according to Stats Perform. But it wasn’t just the top teams in the poll that were being beaten. So far 10 regular season conference champions have lost in their postseason tournaments. With so many favorites falling, the NCAA Tournament selection committee faces some difficult decisions.

No. 13 Virginia dealt a damaging blow to North Carolina’s already shaky NCAA Tournament hopes, beating the Tar Heels 68-59 in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament quarterfinals. Jayden Gardner had 17 points and 10 rebounds and Reece Beekman added 15 points, five assists and five steals for the second-seeded Cavaliers. Virginia finally wrestled away control of the game with a 9-0 run in the final two minutes after the Tar Heels had cut a 10-point deficit to 57-55. R.J. Davis scored 24 points to lead the Tar Heels, who lost for the second time in three meetings with the Cavaliers.

Josh Pastner is facing an uncertain future at Georgia Tech after another losing season and few signs of progress in the Atlantic Coast Conference program. The Yellow Jackets capped a 15-18 campaign with an 89-81 loss to Pittsburgh in the second round of the ACC Tournament at Greensboro, North Carolina. Pastner says he loves Georgia Tech and hopes to be retained for an eighth season with the Atlanta school. In the end, Georgia Tech President Angel Cabrera and athletic director J Batt will make the call. Pastner's record at Georgia Tech is 109-113, including a 51-77 mark in the ACC.

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